Scotrail Franchise - Abellio

[route:oxford]

All aboard! Oh, wait...

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politi...in-snp-s-handling-of-services-falls-1-4306023

Their transport minister clueless about trains...
Their finance minister a university drop-out with no finance qualifications whatsoever...

Nurses, GPs, Consultants, Train Drivers all being charged £000s more income tax than their English counterparts...

It's getting really bad up there.
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The Highland Council have replaced most of their streetlights with LED ones recently too, I miss the warm light of the old ones but the new ones are wonderfully bright.

I find the time it takes for my eyes to adjust to exiting the extreme brightness makes the space between streetlights even darker and gloomier than before.

Likewise with car headlights, some are now so intensely bright cyclists ahead of cars effectively disappear.

 

[Butts]

Their transport minister clueless about trains...
Their finance minister a university drop-out with no finance qualifications whatsoever...

Nurses, GPs, Consultants, Train Drivers all being charged £000s more income tax than their English counterparts...

It's getting really bad up there.

If you can pull your head out of your arse for a moment.....

Only Higher Rate Taxpayers are going to be affected by the changes proposed..you forgot to mention Council Tax rises in the Higher Bands as well

It certainly does not run into thousands. Personally I think everyone should be paying higher taxes but that's another matter !!

I think you are doing a bit to much dreaming down there amongst your cloistered spires

 

[dcsprior]

Nurses, GPs, Consultants, Train Drivers all being charged £000s more income tax than their English counterparts...

Leaving the rest of your post to one side, this comment is flat out wrong. As someone who works in England but is a Scottish taxpayer, I'm well aware of the impact of the differing income tax policies on the two sides of the border.


Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Nurses, GPs, Consultants, Train Drivers all being charged £000s more income tax than their English counterparts...

It's getting really bad up there.

Another clueless numpty posting absolute bollocks.

It's getting really bad down there.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Only nurses at the very highest end of the pay scale will earn enough to find themselves in the 40p tax band. Even if they do, they would only pay 40% tax on income above the threshold, versus 20% beforehand. As a consequence, the actual increase in their tax bill as a result of the bands being as they are is pretty much negligible. A £500 change in someone's yearly income when they're earning enough to be in the 40% band isn't particularly significant - it's just a £2 cup of coffee per work day.

Another factor so conveniently forgotten when considering tax bands is that the cost of living in Scotland is much lower. Pretty much no matter where you work, there's reasonably affordable accommodation available only a short drive or ride on public transport away. Taxing a London tube driver at a higher rate can be seen as unfair because they're being paid that much so that they can live close enough to London for their job to be feasible. For most people, their mortgage bill or rent makes much more a difference to their quality of life than what HMRC takes out of their pay. I think there are many in the medical profession who would rather pay a few hundred or thousands of pounds extra per year to live in a country where they don't feel that the health service is being run by people who don't care about it. For all the things you can criticise the SNP for, having a cabinet full of millionaires with private health insurance and possibly a financial interest in private healthcare companies isn't one of them.

 

[amcluesent]

live in a country where they don't feel that the health service is being run by people who don't care about it

That won't in Scotland then!

More than 53,000 patients have been forced to wait longer than 12 weeks for treatment on the NHS in Scotland.

The Scottish Government mandates that patients have the right to be treated within 12 weeks.

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the guarantee has been broken in 53,257 cases since the the Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities came into effect.

http://stv.tv/news/politics/1374472-nhs-treatment-time-guarantee-broken-in-more-than-53-000-cases/

 

[47271]

Scotland's not so bad. Living here we don't have Southern, or the DfT's control of them, to contend with. [emoji38]

 

[Starmill]

I'm sure confidence will rise once the new trains enter service and more of the infrastructure improvements are complete. The timetable will change to provide more journeys across most the entire country and where trains are not coming in new build they are being refurbished to arguably the best spec in Britain - see SR's refurbished 158s and compare it to the NT and GW ones.

In short the issues with ScotRail can be resolved with a bit of effort and much of that is already committed (new trains in build right now). This is in contrast to Southern where it increasingly looks like there might be 'no way out' of the hole for this franchise.

 

[Highland37]

Pretty much no matter where you work, there's reasonably affordable accommodation available only a short drive or ride on public transport away. them.

You are completely wrong about this. I find it hard to understand how you could come to such a bizarre conclusion. There is a huge housing shortage, particularly the the Highlands where there is loads of land but no one can use it as it's all held by land owners who release a tiny amount if ever.

I used to live in a caravan in Skye despite there been land with not a single house on it as far as the eye could see.

Go up to NW Sutherland and see how easy it is to get a house "a short drive away".

 

[route:oxford]

Only nurses at the very highest end of the pay scale will earn enough to find themselves in the 40p tax band. Even if they do, they would only pay 40% tax on income above the threshold, versus 20% beforehand. As a consequence, the actual increase in their tax bill as a result of the bands being as they are is pretty much negligible. A £500 change in someone's yearly income when they're earning enough to be in the 40% band isn't particularly significant - it's just a £2 cup of coffee per work day.

The lowest basic salary for a full-time Nurse in Scotland is £22,218. The maximum they can currently earn, if they just plod along and max out at spine-point 23 is £28.476 after 8 years service. They will probably be alright.

Start going up the grades though to a mid-range band 6 and add-in the unsocial hours enhancements and suddenly you are starting to push at the £43K levels.

For some people £2 a day makes a big difference. A couple of years back I stopped buying a daily newspaper - that's now a similar £500 a year saving, for me it's the difference between an average holiday and a great holiday.

Another factor so conveniently forgotten when considering tax bands is that the cost of living in Scotland is much lower.

Not a chance. Mate of mine from Edinburgh, has just taken on a contract in Bootle. He was planning on just renting but has bought a place near the centre for £33,000 - had it gutted inside and brought it right up to spec for an extra £9000. All for a fraction of the price of his place in Edinburgh.
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[ainsworth74]

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[clc]

It's worth pointing out that the vast majority of people in Scotland will be paying less income tax than they currently do, it's just that the tax cut here for Higher Rate tax payers will be smaller than in England. Only Additional Rate tax payers will pay more than they currently do and even then the amount is trivial, only £23 in 2017/18.

Mirroring RUk tax policy would have reduced tax revenues in Scotland by a total of £1.25 billion over the next 5 years. Hardly a sensible strategy given the pressure on public services.

This note sets out the figures: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00497813.pdf

 

[Dryce]

Mirroring RUk tax policy would have reduced tax revenues in Scotland by a total of £1.25 billion over the next 5 years. Hardly a sensible strategy given the pressure on public services.

This note sets out the figures: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00497813.pdf

The problem is that if you lose one higher rate tax payer as a result of these changes- you're not just losing the gain of 323 but also all the the tax they would have paid - which is substantially higher. The ratio is close to 30:1 at the threshold where this extra tax is paid.

Some of these people won't need to physically move - they'll change their tax domicile. And if the authorities choose to chase after them? That will cost too.

So this is going to be an interesting experiment.

 

[amcluesent]

Ra people demand no more profiteering by capitalists!

A new poll has shown...the Scottish electorate are growing unhappy with the nation’s train services and support for nationalisation of the railways has grown to 58%.

Transport secretary Humza Yousaf said improvements to the Scottish network would be more rigorously scrutinised before being approved, in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the runaway costs of current schemes.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...onalising-scotland-s-railways-rises-1-4305848

 

[kylemore]

Ra people demand no more profiteering by capitalists!


http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...onalising-scotland-s-railways-rises-1-4305848

Rather than all this "bad news" about Abellio and Scotrail being embarrassing for the SNP I believe it's just what they want.

The SNP want a "Calmac" set-up for Scotrail (whether that would be a good thing or not is questionable), and far from praying for Abellio to meet it's targets they want the opposite!

They can afford a period of "SNPBad" stuff on the media if it delivers a "Nationalised" Scotrail - something seen as a vote winner as above.

 

[clc]

Rather than all this "bad news" about Abellio and Scotrail being embarrassing for the SNP I believe it's just what they want.

The SNP want a "Calmac" set-up for Scotrail (whether that would be a good thing or not is questionable), and far from praying for Abellio to meet it's targets they want the opposite!

They can afford a period of "SNPBad" stuff on the media if it delivers a "Nationalised" Scotrail - something seen as a vote winner as above.

I'm not so sure about them wanting Scotrail nationalised. Being able to blame a private company when things go wrong does have it's advantages.

 

[kylemore]

I'm not so sure about them wanting Scotrail nationalised. Being able to blame a private company when things go wrong does have it's advantages.

Problem is the Scottish Media doesn't let them blame Abellio - it's 100 per cent the SNP's fault so they've nothing to lose really.

 

[Marklund]

I'm not so sure about them wanting Scotrail nationalised. Being able to blame a private company when things go wrong does have it's advantages.

Of course they don't want it nationalised! They had the chance to offer a contract for an exceptionally short duration before IndyRef. They didn't. They went with a long one.
If they had have won that referendum, Scotland would still be having a private operator, despite having full control.

The SNP aren't left wing. At best, they're centrist. They've a couple of MPs who stand out as left wing, and they're the ones the SNP push to be their face, to try and recruit more members.

Their traditional rural heartlands are very conservative (small c), and not left in the slightest.
Just look at the Brexit results. Even the former leaders area was much much closer to England's results than the rest of Scotland's.

Too much time in Scottish politics has been diverted away from actually running the country, and the ScotRail problems are a clear indication of what's gone wrong, along with the NHS, Social Care, Police Scotland.

But WestminsterBad, innit.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Of course they don't want it nationalised! They had the chance to offer a contract for an exceptionally short duration before IndyRef. They didn't. They went with a long one.
If they had have won that referendum, Scotland would still be having a private operator, despite having full control.

The SNP aren't left wing. At best, they're centrist. They've a couple of MPs who stand out as left wing, and they're the ones the SNP push to be their face, to try and recruit more members.

Their traditional rural heartlands are very conservative (small c), and not left in the slightest.
Just look at the Brexit results. Even the former leaders area was much much closer to England's results than the rest of Scotland's.

Too much time in Scottish politics has been diverted away from actually running the country, and the ScotRail problems are a clear indication of what's gone wrong, along with the NHS, Social Care, Police Scotland.

But WestminsterBad, innit.

They couldn't have offered a short contract for ScotRail, nor realistically extended the FirstGroup one more, because they had to get someone to order a new fleet of EMUs for the EGIP works. While a short franchise or an extension might be able to get a few extra trains of an existing type, or a refurbishment of those it already has, it's not at all practical to get a proper new fleet introduction done by an operator who's only there for a few months or years.

Now, if they had done a short contract, you would then be complaining that they had messed up because then ScotRail would have been worse just for the minute possibility that Scotland would have voted Yes. Anyway, that's even assuming that they would want to completely overhaul the rail network immediately when there are much more essential things for them to be working on, like building a tax or welfare system. As terrible as you may believe ScotRail's performance to be, the fact is that they're leaving most of the hard work to someone else who already knows how to run a railway - in concept.

 

[amcluesent]

Long-suffering pax have voted with their feet!

Borders Railway fails to meet expected first-year growth

The Edinburgh-Tweedbank route was plagued by disruption this summer caused by train conductors' strikes, trains breaking down and signalling faults.

The news will come as a setback to the Scottish Government

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...-to-meet-expected-first-year-growth-1-4307348

 

[jopsuk]

Long-suffering pax have voted with their feet!

Um, erm, that's not quite what the figures say.

 

[Chrism20]

Which services are being shortened to extend the borders ones?

 

[kylemore]

Long-suffering pax have voted with their feet!



http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...-to-meet-expected-first-year-growth-1-4307348

Another day another "Set back" for the Scottish Government - how many more can they take!

 

[Carntyne]

Long-suffering pax have voted with their feet!



http://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...-to-meet-expected-first-year-growth-1-4307348

"Long-suffering" is pushing it.

 

[68000]

Of course they don't want it nationalised! They had the chance to offer a contract for an exceptionally short duration before IndyRef. They didn't. They went with a long one.
If they had have won that referendum, Scotland would still be having a private operator, despite having full control.

The SNP aren't left wing. At best, they're centrist. They've a couple of MPs who stand out as left wing, and they're the ones the SNP push to be their face, to try and recruit more members.

Their traditional rural heartlands are very conservative (small c), and not left in the slightest.
Just look at the Brexit results. Even the former leaders area was much much closer to England's results than the rest of Scotland's.

Too much time in Scottish politics has been diverted away from actually running the country, and the ScotRail problems are a clear indication of what's gone wrong, along with the NHS, Social Care, Police Scotland.

But WestminsterBad, innit.

The ScotRail issue is manufactured to try and get a scalp, nothing more and nothing less. I am amazed that a rail forum user is blinded to the politics that is in play with regards to all this

 

[47271]

Which services are being shortened to extend the borders ones?

Maybe we should ask the minister, he seems to have been able to find the stock that Scotrail itself was carelessly unable to locate before he started helping operate the system on a day to day basis.

 

[amcluesent]

Scotrail slammed as new figures show that nearly half of East Kilbride trains are late

The latest figures for East Kilbride trains show that nearly half of the services are late.

Murray Community Council revealed the rail service in East Kilbride was causing “real concern” after they were inundated with complaints.

Holyrood transport minister Humza Yousaf has been criticised for his handling of the crisis on Scotland’s railways.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/scotrail-slammed-new-figures-show-9371492

Needless to say, there's no 1st class section or buffet trolley on the clattery old rolling stock

 

[47271]

Needless to say, there's no 1st class section or buffet trolley on the clattery old rolling stock

What's that got to do with anything?

 

[43096]

They couldn't have offered a short contract for ScotRail, nor realistically extended the FirstGroup one more, because they had to get someone to order a new fleet of EMUs for the EGIP works. While a short franchise or an extension might be able to get a few extra trains of an existing type, or a refurbishment of those it already has, it's not at all practical to get a proper new fleet introduction done by an operator who's only there for a few months or years.

Nonsense. If you structure a contract properly then of course it can be done.

Great Western is currently a short term contract of a few years, yet they are introducing three fleets of new trains (IEPs, AT300s and Electrostars).

 

[route101]

Scotrail slammed as new figures show that nearly half of East Kilbride trains are late


http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/scotrail-slammed-new-figures-show-9371492

Needless to say, there's no 1st class section or buffet trolley on the clattery old rolling stock

The East Kilbride line has seen no frequency improvements despite more people using the line . Only really the 0018 service on Friday nights .