Nobody has any skin in the game. If these phony businesses could collapse and cost both groups their jobs, both the staff and managers would have an incentive to make sure it actually worked.
What is a C-ASDO beacon, and why would the absence of one prevent TPE from making additional stops at Ashton at times of disruption?
Anything longer than a single 185 would be too long for the platform and would require selective door opening.
Won't be seeing that for some time from Avanti.
It's not the staff or the middle managers who are the issue, it's central government.
It's the government's fault that TOCs don't roster enough staff to run their advertised services?
No....it's the government's fault that insufficient funding is released to enable the TOCs to recruit enough staff to avoid the necessity for overtime and rest day working to cover the advertised timetable. The TOCs can't roster enough staff if enough staff aren't there in the first place....and their rosters, terms and conditions make it more attractive for a substantial number of drivers - especially in the Sheffield area - to bale-out and take jobs with FOCs.
Yes? Obviously. Who else is responsible for running Northern? Nobody but the Secretary of State for Transport and, indeed, the Prime Minister.
I suspect any rail services on Christmas Day at the end of the 1970s must have been in Scotland, where Christmas was subsidiary to Hogmanay.
Maybe the motivation to do better would lie with putting Northern into the private sector and using profit as an incentive......
Already been tried and it didn't work. Which private company would want to take on such huge, rambling, unprofitable franchise in the current circumstances?
During franchise tendering the DfT have generally disincentivised bringing Sundays in the working week. Franchise lengths were too short for the TOC to recoup the investment in training new staff. In case you haven't noticed the government have also spent the last two years trying their utmost to destroy any goodwill on the part of the staff.
Theres also the fact that several staff have been unable to get back to there home depot by taxis not turning up as Northern refuse to pay extra on NYE so drivers refuse the jobs.
That's a valid point. I've been stitched up enough times over the years by taxi companies with rail company contracts failing to provide a car on time despite advance booking, as well as providing rubbish drivers and cars to the point that I will actively decline work that involves taxis unless I'm contractually obliged to undertake it.
Depends on your definition of recent. The end of the 1970s is nearly 45 years ago so just about the length of many a working career ie few people working now would have any memory of such working.
No surprise there. It's similar to the attitude towards buses.
Or perhaps its the fault of an industry struggling to come to terms that this is no longer the 1970s, and that customer demand has changed as has the economic climate? We've had successive governments to blame yet all the problems with the railway persist. Maybe the fault doesn't just lie in Westminster?
It is the TOCs who raised pay since 1995, such that Sunday working is no longer appealing, but didn't reform the contracts so that staff actually have to work on Sundays. The staff are rostered, but can simply decline the duty. It is fair to blame government for wasting 18 months in an industrial dispute, without forcing a resolution to this issue.
