No Comments about the sriking tube workers?

pinkteapot

I hate Bob Crow for being among the ignorant masses that refer to "the bankers" as anyone who works in the financial sector. I hate him for many other reasons as well of course.

Shame about the site it's posted on, but here's a song about it:
http://www.backingblair.co.uk/london_underground/
(not worksafe due to language)

blueboy43

Clearly Bob "the dinosaur" Crow is doing something right for his members if thats the pay they are getting.

ILW

blueboy43 wrote: »

Clearly Bob "the dinosaur" Crow is doing something right for his members if thats the pay they are getting.

Agreed, the trouble is, the more they are allowed to get away with it, the more they will keep doing it.

drc

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Expensive? Certainly. I don't agree with the rest of your description, though.

In my experience, London buses are slow, very dirty (always full of rubbish, especially at the back of the bus, stuff smeared on seats, windows scratched and dirty, smelling of half eaten food etc). I wonder how often buses get cleaned. They are slow (had to wait 25 minutes for a bus today and then two of the same number came together), expensive - for what you get they are extremely expensive. There are so often problems on the tubes. When I used to use the tube to commute to work and back, there would be delays 4/5 times, to the extent that if I claimed via the forms they have at each station, I would get half my monthly travelcard back every month. They were almost always packed so no chance of a seat and the seats are horrendously dirty.

In comparison, try using transport in places like Berlin or Paris. Transport costs are relatively similar but the trams and trains (especially in Berlin) are clean, timely and an experience fit for a Western European country, unlike our (in my opinion) archaic and overrated system. It really takes the biscuit when the best things about London Transport are the iconography - the routemaster buses (defunct) and the London Underground map.

neverdespairgirl

bendix wrote: »

About a million a day. 750,000 on the Skytrain system, and 250,000 on the MRT underground.

The figures are rising annually though, largely because the Skytrain is constantly being expanded (there are currently only two lines) and extended out to the suburbs.

MRT is only 3-4 years old.

Small beer, compared to London. The tube has about 3.5 million trips a day made on it, DLR about 250,000, and all the overground lines on top.

neverdespairgirl

drc wrote: »

In my experience, London buses are slow, very dirty (always full of rubbish, especially at the back of the bus, stuff smeared on seats, windows scratched and dirty, smelling of half eaten food etc). I wonder how often buses get cleaned. They are slow (had to wait 25 minutes for a bus today and then two of the same number came together), expensive - for what you get they are extremely expensive.

I use buses a lot in central London, say, from Holborn to Waterloo, Londn Bridge, or Islington. they are generally clean and tidy, and very frequent.

olly300

Chris2685 wrote: »

What is the average wage for an underground driver?

Around 40K

Train drivers are paid a lot now to, thanks to the privatisation of BR where the privatised train companies stopped training drivers. Before BR was privatised they only earned about £5,000 more than the guards simply because it's a job that everyone wants to do.

Now the companies have gone back to training them but there is still a short fall plus a massive waiting list.

Very few people say they want to be a tube driver though particularly on the Northern and Victorian lines. A tube drivers job is apparently really boring. Plus they drug and alcohol test you regularly.

olly300

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I use buses a lot in central London, say, from Holborn to Waterloo, Londn Bridge, or Islington. they are generally clean and tidy, and very frequent.

To be fair London buses are generally cleaner in zone 1 then further out apart from some parts of zone 6. That's because people don't stay on them long enough to muck the bus up. In parts of zone 6 the buses are cleaner because of the type of people using them.

marklv

ILW wrote: »

Just wondered why not, unless I have missed them.

I worked from home, like any sensible person should.

olly300

drc wrote: »

In comparison, try using transport in places like Berlin or Paris. Transport costs are relatively similar but the trams and trains (especially in Berlin) are clean, timely and an experience fit for a Western European country, unlike our (in my opinion) archaic and overrated system. It really takes the biscuit when the best things about London Transport are the iconography - the routemaster buses (defunct) and the London Underground map.

I presume you have been on the Trams in London then?

Generally due to their popularity particularly to get to and from Ikea for that one/two small item they are generally packed. They also aren't dirty either.

I've also been subject to train delays in Paris and Belgium. In Berlin I didn't go far enough. I personally don't think their transport systems are any cleaner than London.