Rail strikes

[Francie 6,362]

An honest question for the folk that support the strikers,when you applied for the job why would yous take it if yous weren't happy with the money?

On the other hand,if its giving the gov aggro crack on lol

An would yous support a strike with say a person who pumps gas at the petrol station?

Or if anyone on here employs people,would you be happy about them striking wanting more money?

Edited June 22, 2022 by Francie

[Nicepix 5,650]

15 minutes ago, Born Hunter said:

Well put 

On that topic, imo, if we can’t automate rail by now we never will be able to. Network them, automate them and sack the driver. If cars can navigate the roads autonomously and planes can land and take off from moving ships autonomously then poxy f***ing trains should be a doddle.

Imagine buying a train set from the shop. Before you use it you find that you don't actually own anything. The trains and rolling stock are owned by leasing companies and you have to pay them if you want to put a train on your track which isn't actually yours and you also have to pay to use it. The maintenance of the track and signalling equipment is out of your hands too so you might find you can't run the train because of their problems. You can't extend the track or change where it is going either. Those decisions are made by somebody else. And you can't not use it. You are bound to run services that other people decide are important even though you are paying for it and getting no pleasure or profit from it. Just to complicate things other people also are in the same position and sometimes want to use the same bits of track as yourself and the pay and pension schemes of your staff is also governed by someone else. 

That is how our privatised railway network is run.

[jukel123 6,570]

51 minutes ago, VOON said:

Tory Bashing…..

Mick Lynch 15....sleazeball 0.

I would love to see Mick Lynch vs Boris Jonston. No contest I reckon. ML would wipe the floor with him.

Remember Bob Crow? He could always win a debate with these people. 

Joe Gormley too. I never rated Scargill. He was too up his own arse imo.

[Jonjon79 13,340]

31 minutes ago, Nicepix said:

Imagine buying a train set from the shop. Before you use it you find that you don't actually own anything. The trains and rolling stock are owned by leasing companies and you have to pay them if you want to put a train on your track which isn't actually yours and you also have to pay to use it. The maintenance of the track and signalling equipment is out of your hands too so you might find you can't run the train because of their problems. You can't extend the track or change where it is going either. Those decisions are made by somebody else. And you can't not use it. You are bound to run services that other people decide are important even though you are paying for it and getting no pleasure or profit from it. Just to complicate things other people also are in the same position and sometimes want to use the same bits of track as yourself and the pay and pension schemes of your staff is also governed by someone else. 

That is how our privatised railway network is run.

You spout on about things that you don't fully understand,  hoping that you'll look like you know what you're talking about to those that know even less than you do.

 

Go and have a nap you dick head.

[FLATTOP 3,667]

17 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

Mick Lynch 15....sleazeball 0.

I would love to see Mick Lynch vs Boris Jonston. No contest I reckon. ML would wipe the floor with him.

Remember Bob Crow? He could always win a debate with these people. 

Joe Gormley too. I never rated Scargill. He was too up his own arse imo.

Bob Crow RIP would have wiped the floor with these clowns, Mick is doing a good job on behalf of his members that he represents.

[FLATTOP 3,667]

45 minutes ago, Francie said:

An honest question for the folk that support the strikers,when you applied for the job why would yous take it if yous weren't happy with the money?

Francie with respect I joined the railway 22 years ago do you think I should be on the same money as way back then?  

[Nicepix 5,650]

 

 

Who really owns Britain’s trains? | Rail.co.uk

WWW.RAIL.CO.UK

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Published: 28th February 2015

 

 

Rail

Railway infrastructure—things like the tracks, signals, level crossings, bridges, and tunnels—is run by Network Rail, which describes itself as a “public company, answerable to Government”. Trains, most smaller stations, and routes are split into franchises run by different companies. Around a dozen of the franchise holders are linked to governments in other countries.

A German company, Deutsche Bahn, runs several UK rail franchises—Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Grand Central, and Northern. The German government is Deutsche Bahn’s majority shareholder.

Rail travel in France is run by a state-operated rail company, SNCF. SNCF is also the majority shareholder in a French private transport firm called Keolis which in turn jointly runs railway company Govia with the UK Go-Ahead Group. Govia operates UK franchises: Thameslink, Southern, South Eastern, Great Northern, and Gatwick Express.

Greater Anglia, Stansted Express and Scotrail are all operated by Abellio. Abellio is run by Netherlands Rail whose only shareholder is the Dutch government.

Abellio has partnerships with other businesses to run rail franchises. Along with the Japanese companies Mitsui & Co. and East Japan Railway it runs London Northwestern and West Midlands Rail. Abellio also runs Merseyrail with UK-based Serco.

The c2c franchise is operated by Trenitalia. Trenitalia is part of the FS Italiane Group which is owned by the Italian government.  

Other franchise holders are UK companies FirstGroup, Stagecoach, and Virgin Trains (which is in part run by the Virgin Group and partly by Stagecoach).

 

Trains on UK railways now almost entirely state-owned – by foreign countries

WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

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Extensive state-ownership exists among UK rail operators, it just doesn't involve the British state

 

For those not familiar with rail franchises...

 

The UK passenger rail network is split into long-term franchises for defined areas, which must be retendered from time to time. The franchise agreements define the services and the terms on which they are to be provided, and the bulk of their drafting has remained settled for some time. The bid process is a complex public procurement process starting with an invitation to tender and ending with a franchise agreement with the successful bidder.

As part of winning the franchise, the train operating company (TOC) must take responsibility for the pension liabilities of the employees of that franchise, via participation in a section of the Railways Pension Scheme.

 

For those not familiar with the Railways Pension Scheme...

 

The Railways Pension Scheme has its origins in the rail privatisation legislation and is an industry-wide scheme providing defined benefit pensions and defined contribution accounts. The defined benefit part is sub-divided into standalone sections for different TOCs, plus an omnibus section which has many different sponsoring employers. This briefing focuses on the standalone sections which effectively operate as individual pension schemes.

One unusual feature of the RPS standalone sections is that they are “shared cost sections”. In other words the total cost of contributions to fund the section is shared with employees. As a general rule contributions are payable 60:40 by the TOC and the employees, although an individual employer could choose to pay more. As a result, if the funding requirements for a section dictate an increase in contributions, employee contributions have to increase too.

 

Playing musical chairs with pension liabilities

 

Pre-privatisation, railway employees were given special pension protection on privatisation. As a result, franchise agreements require the TOC to become a “Designated Employer” (i.e. sponsoring employer) for the relevant section of the RPS. That means paying the employer's share of pension contributions. If the TOC's payments are up to date at the end of the franchise period, the franchise agreement releases the TOC from any further liability to the RPS. Similarly, the TOC is not entitled to benefit at the end of the contract if its contributions have generated a pension funding surplus.

As a result, the burden of funding any deficit falls on whichever TOC has the franchise when the deficit is identified. So it’s a game of musical chairs, but with a twist. The importance of the rail network to the UK means that the government is expected to step in to take on the liabilities of any TOC which goes under (the “operator of last resort”). We saw echoes of that this year with COVID-19, where the government stepped in to take on the risk of lower ticket revenues. So the government could find itself sitting in the last chair for pension liabilities instead.

This led to an assumption in the rail industry and by the RPS trustee that, despite the absence of a formal Crown Guarantee, the government would be standing behind the TOCs and the RPS. That allowed the pension scheme trustee to take a rosy view of the wider employer covenant backing each section, and to be much more relaxed about the rate at which individual TOCs were required to make up the funding deficit in their sections. Low and stable contributions are good news for TOCs and for pricing future tenders, but because of the shared cost structure, it was also good news for rail workers.

 

Where did it all go wrong?

 

In 2014, the Pensions Regulator wrote to the Department for Transport questioning whether it was reasonable to fund the RPS on the assumption of “very long-term Government support which will cover all downsides”. The DfT confirmed that there wasn’t a Crown guarantee and that the DfT did not underwrite the TOCs’ pension liabilities. That left the Pensions Regulator looking at the TOCs in their own right.

TOCs are typically relatively thinly capitalised special purpose vehicles established either by individual parent companies or consortiums. Their financial liabilities as franchisees (and those of their sponsoring parents) are limited to pre-determined levels of parent company support and bonds that are required as part of the overall agreement for the franchise. A TOC therefore represents a much lower level of financial backing to the pension scheme than a government guarantee.

Since then, the Pensions Regulator has been engaging with TOCs and the RPS trustee over its mounting concerns over covenant strength (weaker without the government guarantee), investment (overly risky and optimistic), funding (insufficiently prudent given the last two), and recovery periods (way too long). The Regulator has estimated the overall funding deficit as at December 2016 to be around £7.5 billion, although the spread across the individual sections is not uniform.

The Regulator got the Rail Delivery Group involved in 2016 to try to find an industry-wide solution. The RDG is a rail industry body which leads and co-ordinates various cross-industry initiatives, and all TOCs are members, as is Network Rail. In December 2017, a steering group was set up of the DfT, the Pensions Regulator, the RDG and the RPS scheme administrators. The rail unions also have an interest in these proceedings as increased contribution requirements will directly impact pay. So far, the RPS’ 2016 actuarial valuation has still not been approved and the Pensions Regulator has not accepted the only formal funding proposal put forward by the RDG.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Nicepix

[jukel123 6,570]

Breaking news.  UK journalists are to go on strike unless the threat of having to interview Mick Lynch is removed from their contracts.

I think the government will welcome public sector strikes as it will deflect attention away from themselves and the train wreck they' re making of the economy. No  pun intended. The tory press will demonise the public sector and blame them for rocketing inflation and the forthcoming recession.

Edited June 22, 2022 by jukel123

[JDHUNTING 1,817]

Rail networks pay plant pots like the one on here about £60k a year to shovel shit, I've no sympathy and no time for any unions who are just fundraisers for Labour. 

[Francie 6,362]

2 hours ago, FLATTOP said:

Francie with respect I joined the railway 22 years ago do you think I should be on the same money as way back then?  

You couldn't be on the same money as when you started flatop?probably would depend on how skilled you are imo.

Is it a goverment job,iv never really seen any other workplace being able to strike an not get sacked?

I'm just thinking out loud flatop don't mind me,f**k the gov lol

 

[DIDO.1 20,867]

FAR LEFT FANATICS: Labour MPs join protest honouring Communist DICTATORS who KILLED millions

WWW.POLITICALITE.COM

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LABOUR MPs led a fanatical far-left protest in Central London on Saturday that honoured...

 

[DIDO.1 20,867]

 

Trotskyite general secretary of the RMT union, Mike lynch, paid 124 grand a year

[VOON 1,313]

4 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

 

Trotskyite general secretary of the RMT union, Mike lynch, paid 124 grand a year

Should give him a million be on a 1/4 of the Tory wage….

 

was blacklisted as a spark for better pay and conditions.l..sparks on good wonga now….

Edited June 22, 2022 by VOON

[NEWKID 26,191]

4 hours ago, waltjnr said:

Nuno  bettencourt ? That's a blast from the past ! 

Wouldn't of known his name, good knowledge mate!, more than words reminds me of school.. 1990 maybe?

[tatsblisters 7,950]

47 minutes ago, JDHUNTING said:

Rail networks pay plant pots like the one on here about £60k a year to shovel shit, I've no sympathy and no time for any unions who are just fundraisers for Labour. 

RMT don't pay any of their members subscriptions to the Labour Party.