Recent content by OliverReed

No there isn’t. The specific information I suggested is not there. Bar amount of executives. So let’s assume all 14 TOC’s have 12-20 Board members each. Well that’s an incredibly amount of salaries the DfT is paying for non operational staff with no real decision making ability. As someone who...

It isn’t. This is a falsehood. Companies House doesn’t give such specifics. Have you never heard of the phrase ‘commercial confidentiality’? The ORR fact sheets would be a better place to start. But what I’ve described doesn’t exist. And I suspect you knew that already.

Do you have a link for any?

Well I’ve done 20+ years and the volume of managers and back office functions has only increased during that time. Look at Scotrail. Maybe you’re lucky to work for an efficient one. But that’s far from the reality I’ve seen. Also not all call centres are low skilled. Some pretty complex things...

The rail industry is insane. Look how other industries work. It would make more sense to have more frontline staff and then use technology to manage them. The Rail industry is totally backwards. Like 20 years plus behind. Walk into any fulfilment or call centre. Most are 24/7/365 these days...

I know a girl who works in the comms team at HS2. A decade ago she told me it was a ****ing ****show. So no suprises really.

I watched the first one and was bored.

The big inefficiency is this recruiting below headcount nonsense. I joined in 2003. Before that I worked for a Canadian company who outsourced call centres. Our rostering tools looked space age to the railways even 22 years ago. We managed to roster 2000 employees 24/7/365 with an office of five...

There’s been a massive increase in back office staff in recent years. Duplication of functions etc. it could all be slimmed down. The HR dept at my current franchise is three times the size of the HR dept of the franchise I started with in 2002. But we aren’t employing three times more frontline...

So I’m sickening for suggesting there’s too many marketing people sending crap through my door. To the point that I’m expected to take up a drop in living standards. Ha I’d start with the over bloated internal comms department. Sending a rainforest through my letterbox. Endless surveys, all...

My problem is waste. There’s plenty of money for a pay deal. The TOC I work for has sent an absolute rainforest of crap through my letterbox in the last month. Tons of glossy brochures and printed books. All stuff I could read as a PDF on my iPhone. If we are all nationalised why has every...

“A lady had YouTube on” What would you do with a drunken football fan who’s team have just lost? 1652277324 A lot of armchair tough guys on here. Last week a colleague asked a fare evader if he needed help with his ticket. He had the crap beaten out of him and it took six people to get the guy...

In 2017 I called out a drunken middle aged male passenger on a late night train for harassing a 15 year old girl. This culminated in me almost having near fisticuffs on the platform at Kettering in the dead of night. Part of getting this guy away from the girl was calling out his behaviour. But...

A mate of mine has just joined another TOC as a guard. He’s already safety critical. The process has taken over 7 months. Talking to some new starters it appears with talent pools etc. recruitment took close to 18 months. I have a family friend who is in the Foreign & commonwealth office as a...

I’ve heard only 15 people at one TOC got it. Despite dozens applying. Seems a bit of a damp squib.