Now is the summer of UK train drivers discontent (and nurses/junior doctors and others) – back to the bad old days of the 1970’s
A diversion from pandemic and climate change doom and gloom to UK strike action doom and gloom.
Train drivers In the UK are following up overtime bans with national strikes across the UK.
Details of London Underground and national overground strike action is here:
Strikes - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)
With some more detail on the national overground strike action here:
Industrial Action | National Rail
Here is what the train drivers have been offered:
Train operating companies release proposal for train driver pay increase (railadvent.co.uk)
“If accepted, the Rail Delivery Group says that the average driver wage would increase from £60,000 to almost £65,000 by the end of 2023.”
There are a few other changes around working conditions. Of note is this claim by the operating companies:
“According to Rail Delivery Group figures:
The mean average train driver salary across the network is £60,055 which compares with £44,985 ten years ago. This compares with:
Rail sector employee median salary: £44,000
Nurse median salary: £31,000
UK full-time worker median salary: £31,000
Care worker median salary: £21,000
The average driver salary has increased by more than a third – 34% – in the past decade.”
Interesting relativities – the average median salary for full time workers in the UK is the same as a nurses median salary and that is less than half of what has been offered train drivers.
I am sure this will interest UK nurses:
NURSE SALARY BY STATE IN 2023: WHICH US STATES & SPECIALTIES PAY THE BEST? - Nightingale College
Divide the numbers by 1.2 to concert from US$ to £. (£31,000 = US$37,200). No doubt US nurses are much more qualified and experienced than UK nurses in the same positions, or something.
As it happens, nurses and junior doctors, fully funded by UK tax payers, are also in the midst of strike action.
Back to the UK train drivers.
There are around 19,000 train drivers in the UK. Paying them all an extra 5,000 a year, works out at an additional 95 million quid, call it a 100 million.
From the Railadvent link above:
“With taxpayers still funding up to an extra £175 million a month to make up the shortfall in revenue post-covid, these changes are also vital for us to be able to fund the pay rise our people deserve.”
175 million a month = 2.1 billion pounds a year - that the UK government is fine using tax payer funds to pay the train operating companies - in other words, a fare rebate to full price fares the train operating companies would otherwise charge.
Compared to 100 million pounds extra to staff. Something looks off.
From here published February 2023 for the 2022 year:
“ Total government operational support provided to the rail industry was £31bn over the past 2 years.”
Hmm, looks like the books are a total mess.
Check out the table on the last page (6 of 6) here:
Rail factsheet 2021 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Maybe it’s me, but the total income for 2019/20 – mostly pre-covid - with 11.2 billion pounds of government support and 11.7 billion of passenger revenue totals 22.9 billion, yet the first year of covid saw 22 billion of government support and 2.5 billion of passenger revenue for a total of 24.5 billion pounds.
24.5 billion > 22.9 billion right?
The UK government could have just paid out sufficient to make up the passenger revenue loss, but seems to be locked in to providing 12 billion a year in tax payer funds?
Ask any rail traveller if UK train fares are cheap! Then compare subsidized UK train fares with other countries subsidized rail fares for what that actually could look like!
Rail fares across Europe: The countries with the most expensive train tickets | Euronews
Be smart, book in advance and travel off peak – which probably means you are retired, unemployed or not in the best of health.
Something is definitely off in the train industry – which usually means that there are middle-men(/women/its) making out like bandits because of government incompetence, or there are massive unfunded pension liabilities or something.
Onwards
Please upgrade to paid, or donate a coffee (I drink a lot of coffee) - “God Bless You!” if you can’t or don’t want to contribute. Coffee donations here: https://ko-fi.com/peterhalligan Buying just one Ko-Fi a week for $3 is 50 bucks more than an annual $100 subscription!
Something, that's for sure.