Network Rail industrial action 2015.

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32748029

...........it just gets better and better! 

[grahame]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32748029

...........it just gets better and better! 

Network Rail workers are to stage a 24-hour strike from 5pm on bank holiday Monday in a row over pay.
The UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-wide action will see signallers, maintenance staff and station workers, walk out from 25 May on the busy holiday weekend.

General feedback on the page isn't sympathetic to the strikers or rail industry - 4 separate quotes here of the latest comments as I read the page

A full-time track maintenance engineer can earn up to ^75K and gets at least 28 days holiday. That's currently on offer in Basingstoke. Most people in the private sector start on 22 days holiday. maybe rising to 25 after 5 years and 28 after 10 but get nowhere near that sort of money. Yes, there are jobs paying considerably less, but there are in the private sector.

Only 5% of workers commute by train. The other 95% of taxpayers who subsidise rail travel can rarely use it due to ever ongoing maintenance. Go on strike. Lose your pay. Not many people will really notice or bother.

my trains are late too and from work more than once a week due to signal failures. I think its and outrage that these people can strike when the railways they look after are in such a state.

Agenda driven smoke and mirrors from you yet again, do you agree that the Conservatives got a higher proportion of votes, seats and percentage than any other individual Party. One thing is certain if Labour had won, even come second in a hung parliament and formed coalition, there would not be a peep out of you and your ridiculous logic. The moss is drying underneath your home, hurry back.

[IndustryInsider]

We'll see if it happens.  I reckon well over 50% of national rail strikes called get cancelled when late agreement is reached.

[JayMac]

Have there been any ballots for a national strike in the last decade or so? The last time there was an actual national strike in the rail industry was 1994 I believe.

The Government's response:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-secretary-responds-to-rail-strike-action

[Tim]

any idea what impact the strike would have if it goes ahead?  Will it likely be no trains at all, or will it be severe delays?

[ChrisB]

No trains, surely? Signalmen would be out

[Fourbee]

The TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about) ballot outcome is due later today. I expect that would have a bearing on the overall service provision on those 2 days.

I'd assume on the Monday, services could still run in the morning, but many would need to be wound down earlier than 5pm.

No mention of ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) members being balloted?

[Fourbee]

Also noticed on twitter that thetrainline are offering "full refunds". I wonder if that includes their booking fee.

[insider]

The TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about) ballot outcome is due later today. I expect that would have a bearing on the overall service provision on those 2 days.

I'd assume on the Monday, services could still run in the morning, but many would need to be wound down earlier than 5pm.

No mention of ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) members being balloted?

ASLEF is a drivers union and TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s drivers are not affected.

[Tim]

The TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about) ballot outcome is due later today. I expect that would have a bearing on the overall service provision on those 2 days.

I'd assume on the Monday, services could still run in the morning, but many would need to be wound down earlier than 5pm.

No mention of ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) members being balloted?

that is useful.

I really would like to be in London on 26th to attend an event with Sir David Attenborough and Prof Alice Roberts (respectively a hero and crush of mine), and wondered if I should be booking a coach today.

- amended.  I have booked a ^8 national Express fare just in case.

[ChrisB]

The NR^» (Network Rail - home page) members of RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) are the signallers. If they're out, it doesn't matter what the TSSA^» (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association - about) (or the drivers unions, for that matter) vote. There wouldn't be any trains if no signallers

[John R]

There wouldn't be any trains if no signallers

 A surprising number of trains ran during the last national signallers strike, and with the centralisation of boxes in the intervening years I would imagine even more so would run this time around.  If I recall on each successive day more and more ran as BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) got increasingly confident about who would turn up, and the level of service that could be run.  Managers were used to man the key centres - it will be interesting to see whether the privatised railway has remembered to keep them trained to do so. That could be a stumbling block.

[eightf48544]

No mention of ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) members being balloted?

ASLEF don't need to call a National Strike to be effective. With the break up of the railway drivers are now tied  to one TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), its specific traction and routes. Gone are teh days of local sheds with spare links of drivers and fireman.

Therefore, they can play one TOC off against another by threating local disrution. The affected TOC would be unable to call on drivers from other comapanies because there wouldn't be enough spare to cover, they wouldn't know the traction or the routes. Gone are the days of local sheds with spare links of drivers and fireman.

The government didnn't see that coming they thought by breaking up the railways they'd dimish ASLEF in particualr power.

[Rapidash]

My main peeve with this, is that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) don't believe in bank holidays, but Stagecoach do and as such, the buses run a sunday service. The number of X46 runs on that day can be counted on a blind butchers hand.

I don't hold anyone to blame for it, though. People are angry, and will lawfully express it, one way or another.

[Ollie]

My main peeve with this, is that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) don't believe in bank holidays,

I don't get what you mean by this comment?