Salary of tube and train drivers - why so high?

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I think OP is confused.

The drivers are on what most 'should' be on - its simply that capitalism and austerity have destroyed wages for the benefit of the rich few - they will pay as little as they can get away with to force labor.

Nurses, waste workers, fireman, anything essential to society should be on these wages also.

I wonder how far it will go until the people really stand up.
 
Dis86 said:
No business should be government funded. That is what they are at the end of the day. They are spending more than they are earning - cuts have to be made.

Also seeing as journeys on the underground and other TFL streams continue to increase could you explain exactly how people are finding fewer reasons to travel?
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42622891

The numbers, as we have mentioned before, are:

  • In 2017 there was a 5% drop in rail journeys
  • Bus passengers have dropped by 6% in three years
  • There was 13 million fewer journeys on the Tube (or 2%) in 2017, compared to 2016
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As the article suggests, things like food delivery apps, streaming content, and online shopping are all potential reasons why numbers are down.

'Businesses' (TfL isn't btw) that help your economy operate and grow should absolutely receive government support.
 
Combat squirrel said:
I think OP is confused.

The drivers are on what most 'should' be on - its simply that capitalism and austerity have destroyed wages for the benefit of the rich few - they will pay as little as they can get away with to force labor.

Nurses, waste workers, fireman, anything essential to society should be on these wages also.

I wonder how far it will go until the people really stand up.
Click to expand...

Lets suppose we introduce a new currency, lets make each new £ worth 1/3 of a current £... then the median salary can instantly become £66k instead of £22k and everyone is happy right?

They're just numbers... 60-70k is seen as high at the moment because it is significantly higher than relative to what others earn, if the average person earned 60-70k then you're not solving much, it simply wouldn't be a high salary anymore and would be akin to 22k or so now. There are still only so many houses being built, so many flats available in central London etc..

IF the average person was earning 60-70k then these tube drivers would want to be one more like 180k+
 
explicit4u said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42622891



As the article suggests, things like food delivery apps, streaming content, and online shopping are all potential reasons why numbers are down.

'Businesses' (TfL isn't btw) that help your economy operate and grow should absolutely receive government support.
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Try looking at a broader trend instead of 1 year. Passenger increases in the last 5 have been significant and yet the deficit is growing.
Also it fits the defined term of a business in that a service is exchanged for money. In this case clearly not enough money for the cost of providing the service. Time to cut costs and I imagine the insane wage bill would be a good start. 1.5bil fyi. They received above inflation pay rises last year...
 
Dis86 said:
No business should be government funded. That is what they are at the end of the day. They are spending more than they are earning - cuts have to be made
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It's critical infrastructure that is publicly owned and the Tube covers its operating costs: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/transport-for-london-budget-2018-19.pdf (page 31). If TfL was a business, the buses serving the suburbs would be the first thing to go, not Tube drivers.

Dis86 said:
Time to cut costs and I imagine the insane wage bill would be a good start. 1.5bil fyi. They received above inflation pay rises last year...
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That's about a quarter of its operating budget. Huge organisations have huge wage bills.
 
Firstly, London Underground train operators are not allowed to do overtime. Only time they would is if there were problems and they have to finish past their duty end time. Secondly employer contributions is the same for everyone at LU - Final Salary based. Thirdly train ops are on £55k, not £100k.

Lastly hopefully the RMT will get everyone in LU another nice pay increase on the next pay deal, due for next April.
 
With all this talk of autonomous vehicles, I would have thought train driving jobs would be one of the first to be fully automated. It would be much easier to do that than master the autonomous driving of road based vehicles especially as all the signal information/location of other trains could be fed in.

I worked with one ex-tube driver who thought it was a dead end job and retrained to IT to have a career. He didn't seem that bright to be honest, struggled in IT, was let go from his position too. £60k sounds quite a bit IMO, overvalued compared to other council/public sector posts.
 
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dowie said:
Lets suppose we introduce a new currency, lets make each new £ worth 1/3 of a current £... then the median salary can instantly become £66k instead of £22k and everyone is happy right?

They're just numbers... 60-70k is seen as high at the moment because it is significantly higher than relative to what others earn, if the average person earned 60-70k then you're not solving much, it simply wouldn't be a high salary anymore and would be akin to 22k or so now. There are still only so many houses being built, so many flats available in central London etc..

IF the average person was earning 60-70k then these tube drivers would want to be one more like 180k+
Click to expand...

Only the rich-poor gap shrinks.
 
Combat squirrel said:
I think OP is confused.

The drivers are on what most 'should' be on - its simply that capitalism and austerity have destroyed wages for the benefit of the rich few - they will pay as little as they can get away with to force labor.

Nurses, waste workers, fireman, anything essential to society should be on these wages also.

I wonder how far it will go until the people really stand up.
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Come the revolution,

Everybody will live in a mansion, drive a Rolls Royce and have £200,000 PA leisure spending money!

What is wrong with this picture??

:p
 
d_brennen said:
I dislike this salary envy the newspapers peddle. Think they get paid too much? Nope, most other workplace unions suck and exist for the subs they take, not worker be benefit
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They get paid too much because there's plenty of people willing and able to do their job for less money. Therefore they're not operating on the same supply and demand driven salary that everyone else is. This is generally always a problem with the public sector, they pay themselves too much and the tax payer, or service users, don't get value for money.
 
I think it's headline grabbing nonsense frankly and another example (if it were needed) of our media creating angst and anger to drive clicks and advertising revenues. Let's start uncovering the dealings, wages and back handers within our main media outlets if you want real shock value.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Not very well as TfL drivers get paid more than some airline pilots.

The whole network should have been automated years ago.
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And some bin men are paid more than some nurses, but most aren't. I think people need to start looking past the headlines then 3/4 of the threads in GD would be gone and we could all talk about baby pandas and fluffy bunnies.
 
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