Great Western Coffee Shop

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68650114

I find it hard to believe that drivers would only get £125 for working a rest day in any case as an 8hour shift would mean pay at £15! A 380% increase in that case is total nonsense. But this is the BBC reporting of course!

The Sunday Times, which the BBC cites, says it is a flat £600 in place of £125 plus an hourly rate, which they don't specify. That's not how the BBC put it; they say both are in addition to the driver's salary. But as an extra day, it would be - wouldn't it?

Unless they mean, but neither exactly says, that the day is paid an additional standard day's salary (i.e just time), and this bonus is on top. The Sunday Times does quote £67,000 for four days per week - which for 48 weeks is 67,000/192 or £350 per day. So £600 flat is up from £475 average, if that's what it means, and it probably does as it is plausible. £950 average would up up much more!

The £125 is a rest day working premium paid on top of a minimum 8 hours pay at their normal rate (or whatever the length of shift is if over 8 hours).  That worked out at a minimum of £421.

Many of us have (or had in our younger days) all that's needed to be a train driver, yet we don't apply to be one.  I think that says a lot about a decent rate of pay being needed to attract enough staff.

As has been said many times here and elsewhere, driving trains, especially fast ones, is a very responsible, high-pressure job, which takes a lot of training and there's not many that make the grade, never mind the shift work, especially if you're driving freight.

Much of the railway can replace humans with technology, down-skill or short-staff from time to time, but without drivers the job literally stops, so not surprising the ToCs will get their cheque books out to acquire and retain. One of the perks of a fragmented railway if you're a driver I suppose.

From time to time it pops up in the media, but for many, there's long been a realisation that you you can get far better rewarded and enjoy better job security in a highly skilled "blue-collar" job than many "white-collar" professions, especially now that AI is automating so many tasks. I'd certainly have no problem with my kids being train drivers.

THis is how I've seen it described by a driver on social media.