No driver should be paying higher rate tax, they should be paying the maximum they can into BRASS or AVC's (additional pension contributions). On a month you do a lot of overtime you adjust your contributions to avoid it.
Employing drivers is fine but you won't seen the benefit of a mass recruitment drive for 14-16 months after initial appointment given the length of the training involved, and not every driver taken on manages to pass out as well. A small number don't always make the grade and have to be redeployed elsewhere. All it does it keeps ScotRails head above water because by the time these new drivers are passed out they will have lost other senior drivers to retirement or other positions within the company. It's a vicious circle in reality.
The problem is that's not how any rational customer would ever see it. Unfortunately it's a case of 'railway brain' - thinking you've done the customer a favour when in reality all you've done is annoy them.
Look at the other side of the coin where driver headcount have been agreed at Transport for Wales. The costs of recruitment, training and maintaining higher numbers, while a laudable aim and a highly professional approach to delivering for the general public in the area, has meant they're facing massive funding problems and slashing their service uplift as a result.
Any staff member that pulls a sickie to watch Southgate's negative bore draw tactics wants sent for a med screen immediately.
I personally would rather know 10 hours in advance as opposed to 10 minutes. 10 hours gives plenty time to at least try and make some alternative arrangements. Turning up on the day and finding out your service is caped pretty much leaves you up the proverbial without a paddle. I think ScotRail have done the right thing by giving as much notice as possible.
I have heard (3rd hand info from a mate of a mate as I'm not in the loop), 3 year deal. 2% from 1st Apr then 1% each Jan until 3 years expires. Thats not just for drivers though.
I'm not saying it isn't (slightly) better. I'm just saying that you're wrong to make the claim that it's "pretty good considering" and "not short notice" - that's not how any reasonable consumer with their own interests at heart would see it.
Sounds like the subject of any negotiations or offers so far are hearsay and conjecture to me. Perhaps the discussion would be more fruitful if some concrete numbers were forthcoming.
Those numbers are correct. I believe it started as a 1 year deal and has morphed into a 3 year deal.
Agreed, but much of their thinking these days is beyond me.
Nor was it applied last year at the pay negotiations. They initially came out with the public sector pay policy excuse but after that was swiftly rejected, several offers were forthcoming which were much greater than the pay policy. For me, they set the precedent last year, nothing has changed since then so why this year are they claiming this inability to offer a better offer. Talk about moving the goalposts!
This year looks to be tougher in terms of government finance both for SG and UK governments. The new UK chancellor has today stated they have inherited “the worst set of financial circumstances since ww2”.. Even allowing for some political rhetoric by not wanting to set “good” expectations, it’s clear both governments don’t have much in the kitty. Although I’m sure there will be the usual squeezing out of something better than the offer quoted above, above but not much. So disruption may well continue for many weeks unfortunately. SR may well accept that as “ok” during the school holidays already underway.
People can vote for and elect a new SG in 2026 standing on a ticket of lowering the higher tax and harmonising with the UK. But that means reduced spending which would likely mean no more free prescriptions, free tuition fees (9k a year uk equivalent), child poverty payment, lower council tax, no more no peak fares etc. Something would have to give. Any party that claimed otherwise would be disingenuous.
Surely you'd expect to be paying more in tax than currently? If you want public sector workers in Scotland (not just ScotRail) to get "decent" pay deals. Certainly in England there's a strong feeling Labour should be raising much more through tax from some parts of the party.
A new temporary timetable has been published, reductions on most routes:
Hopefully it provides more certainty over what will run. It appears to come into affect tomorrow, Wednesday, so we'll see how many cancellations occur tomorrow vs this new timetable.
A new temporary timetable has been published, reductions on most routes:
Probably until mid-late august when the schools go back, or early September
They haven't said how long, but given that they were operating the June timetable just about okay before now (there were some cancellations through the weeks but nowhere near as many), September would seem a fair estimation.
Smaller depots are probably disproportionately affected than large ones.
I'm assuming nothing, just that if it was going to improve in the short-term, September seemed the best bet.
So, on the Far North line, Northbound from Inverness at 0700, 1400 and 1831 (1041 cancelled) and Southbound from Wick at 0618 and 1234 (0802 and 1600 cancelled). Si, does that mean an ECS working at some random time of the day, or maybe a double length Southbound train?
There seem to be some errors in some times under certain routes, so I'm wondering if the Far North has an omission by mistake?
