Recent content by bystander

Blimey! If I could write as clearly as that, it's exactly what I would have set down. Word for word my motivations.

I try to walk five miles a day, by getting off a station early on my train in to work and by heading out even for a 15 minute brisk walk when I'm on my PNB. All the food I eat at work is either fruit, veg or protein - this is the only thing that's worked for me as I like my food. I kind of use...

Please stop misleading people. It is you that is wrong certainly in relation to the pension rights of TOC employees. This is a direct quote from my current "Guide for Members" (and it is the same as the Guide for Members that applied to the previous section of the scheme of which I was a...

Wrong, completely, at least for the sections I've been in although other sections may have other rules. You could have a medically protected salary if you can no longer drive but your pension is not protected if you reduce salary for another reason. It hits managers who go back to drive within...

The nuts and bolts depend on the section of the scheme you're in, but the clue is in the name. "Final Salary". The pension you receive (essentially) depends on your FINAL SALARY x years in the scheme / 60, irrespective of what you've put in to the scheme through higher or lower wages...

That's what I do, like most at my depot. It also tends to make for a more positive gang of drivers, since people have largely chosen to be there for the work or traction and as others have said rarely leave. Based on my previous experience, theres also a lot of negativity at metro depots...

No, I'd say that those basic building blocks of driver's route knowledge probably constitute between 5% and 10% of the effective route knowledge that I require to safely work a route, quite apart from all the many hundreds of "Driver" sections of the rule book. So you're quite right - 10%...

I've never sold anything down the river. While I appreciate that the railway has changed in the last 20 years (and I started in the industry in 1994, although haven't worked constantly in it for that time), in my opinion the outside world has changed an awful lot more. I choose not to despise...

Well that's one viewpoint. Mine is as follows. I drive cl43 HSTs (and another modern HST unit) every day unless I'm cover, and I genuinely love it. Good days and bad days happen, but I get to see the changing seasons, to drive half the length of the country every day at high speed day and...

If you can't deal with customer service as an absolutely fundamental part of the job (or indeed see that that is the case), you aren't a suitable candidate. Even with a train manager on board, as a driver I have multiple interactions with customers every time I leave the train - some easy, some...

I did a full rules exam day for both new TOCs (one mixed TOC and one intercity only TOC), as you'd expect, but that was before passing out to drive again once I'd done traction and roads and all that - not as part of getting the job

Er, nope. I've never had to do a rules test as part of the assessment process when moving TOC (which I have, twice). B

There's nothing "unfair" about it. The two strikes and you're out rule is to prevent people from learning how to pass tests which are solely designed to assess innate ability. The tests are not like car or PCV tests, in that they assess the candidate's attributes which are necessary to become...

There'll be no effect at all on you, in terms of the recruitment process and the availability of your job. Don't worry. The only effect on you if the franchise were to change hands, would be the colour of your uniform and what it says on your payslip! Well, mostly. In a perverse outcome, TOCs...

That's a very big surprise to me - as in, your being happy to drive a train out there with a fault on a critical safety system. I haven't, ever, done anything other than the minimum move to shift the cab off the grids before rectifying the TPWS. If I get a fault light I couldn't then clear then...