Boxing day tube strikes

dacouch

Livingthedream wrote: »

Average Salary for 2010 = £37,800

But according to this 2009 'The Times newspaper statement' starting salary is more than £40000

Basic salary is £42424 according the Aslef http://www.aslef.org.uk/information/102222/102225/103142/london_underground/

[Deleted User]

Damm, i've not fulfilled my goal. I've got a BSc, MSc, 5 years experience in IT, i work 40 hours a week, get 5 weeks holiday, have to work the occasional weekend or evening without extra pay (and time in lieu is at your managed discretion). My record shift for a 'working day' is 25 hours (which stopped a major NHS contract being delayed... i got a 75 quid bonus for that). I make just under the starting tube drivers salary.

Blimey, are they recruiting for tube drivers? It's quite tempting

[Deleted User]

Don't forget the free underground travel for drivers... that costs me about 2 grand a year. Nice perk if you can get it

Livingthedream

dacouch wrote: »

Basic salary is £42424 according the Aslef http://www.aslef.org.uk/information/102222/102225/103142/london_underground/

That's a quality website, it tells you what all the other train drivers get;

London Underground = £42,424
Virgin Trains = £46,812
East Midlands = £39,003
First Scotrail = £35,901

Ops, pressed the delete button

Rossy.

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Don't forget the free underground travel for drivers... that costs me about 2 grand a year. Nice perk if you can get it

Actually i'm guilty of free travel working for London Busses. I get a staff oyster which allows me free travel on

Bus
tubes
DLR
(some) mainline trains

alastairq

Rossy. wrote: »

you usually talk alot of sense but you've failed with this comment

An airline pilot training course lasts for usually 5 or so years. you need degree's etc to fly a plane.

Anybody with an arm can drive a train

It's fixed to 2 blinking rails. They've only go to start and stop it/slow down for signals etc. It's not in slightest bit difficult is it

And yes i know.

sense? Really? I seem to be reading an awful lot of 'nonsense' on this thread, so why should someone as humble as I change what seems to be an acceptable trend?

But really.....5 years??? for a pilot? Check out next time you fly, exactly how many years of training and skill it takes to get a modern passenger aircraft off the ground, to its destination [or..near enough],and landed again?

Most, if not all, is done by technology..the object being, to reduce the amount of human input to as near as acceptable, zero.

As for degrees?

Well, having a degree these days is like having an O level when I was young....simply defines a'level' of education, and has absolutely zero input as far as professional knowledge and skill is concerned.....[it's called, 'ticking the boxes'.....as a working nation we're in love with box-ticking!]

that comes later.

50 years or more ago, engine drivers in France had to undergo as stringent a training regime as what you imagine airline pilots go through.

In contrast, in this country, a budding engine driver simply spent several years 'shadowing' an experienced driver, learning 'on the job' as it were.

Unlike their French counterparts, a British engine driver was not required to have an in-depth knowledge of the machine in their care...


Many years ago, I underwent a Navigating Apprenticeship, subsequently being made up to Third Officer, [having, eventually, a 2nd Mate's Certificate of Competency]in our Merchant Navy.

At the age of [19!] I was literally 'in charge'..ie driving, a supertanker!


that was 5 years worth of hard struggle.

THAT was professional training!

Nowadays, the training time is a lot less, but degrees are involved.....not too sure what sort of quality has been achieved?


Incidentally...a colleague pointed out a fact to me the other week.....in that, within the Civil Service, our job is probably the only one which requires, by law, certain qualifications.

Not too many jobs or professions out there actually have a legal requirement for certain qualifications....most are just 'governed' by 'professional' bodies.

My best mate works on the Northern line from Morden as a tube driver and he says it's the easiest thing he's ever done

yup..this is a, if not THE, typical comment from someone who is obviously, on top of his profession...usually by dint of experience.

Do not be confused by it.....it is the mark of a supremely confidant and competent person...at the job concerned.

I hear it all the time where I work........about how our job is a 'walk in the park'..a doddle.....much rather do this than go back to what went before, etc......even though the pay is modest in the extreme.

[The fact that, on average [when we were allowed to recruit]....of every 20 applicants, only 3 to 5 actually made the grade and were offered jobs! Difficult when we are, and always have been , grossly under-staffed!]


so, I say this...don't denigrate the skills needed for another's job......until you've tried it yourselves

[Deleted User]

Do my several years of pulling the controls on my scalextrics set count as adequate experience and training?

Rossy.

^^
you still can't compare the level of training between a train driver and pilot..... Commercial aircraft are as you say fully automated but they need human input to be programmed i.e navigation course etc. When the carp hit's the fan and the computers fail it's all human input and their training comes into play. Look at the pilot who landed the 737 in the Hudson river... That is pure skill

A tube/train driver sticks to 2 rails unless they are ragging it and de-rail the thing.

Livingthedream

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Do my several years of pulling the controls on my scalextrics set count as adequate experience and training?

Overqualified, sorry :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

What about those Quantas pilots that managed to land the new Airbus A380 when the engines disintegrated? You need a heck of a lot of skills and experience to be an airline pilot.