Tube Drivers get £50k Deal.

crazyguy

chewmylegoff wrote: »

except that there are plenty of driverless trains already in operation successfully on underground/metro networks elsewhere around the world, and in london of course on the DLR, and it doesn't seem to have resulted in everyone dying.

so your assertion that "you cannot have these unmanned" isn't actually true, is it?

No I just made it up off the top of my head, dummy

You are talking about the tube drivers, yes there are computer and electric, you would need to pay out billions to change the system that is in place to have the same one that the Dockland light Railway use this is not feesable compared to paying drivers up to 50k.

If you think you know better then I suggest you ring London Underground and ask as they will verify what I have said.

chewmylegoff

crazyguy wrote: »

Know I just made it up off the top of my head, dummy

You are talking about the tube drivers, yes there are computer and electric, you would need to pay out billions to change the system that is in place to have the same one that the Dockland light Railway use this is not feesable compared to paying drivers up to 50k.

If you think you know better then I suggest you ring London Underground and ask as they will verify what I have said.

i imagine what they will actually say is that they just spent ages working on the jubilee line upgrade, the purpose of which is to automate the operation of trains on the on the line. the drivers just work the doors these days...

you can also have a look at the link posted above, which demonstrates that they were able to convert the oldest line in paris to run driverless trains.

of course it will cost money to change the system. it will also cost quite a lot of money to pay thousands of tube drivers more and more each year (and of course to have them accrue higher and higher pension entitlements based on the wages that are rising out of line with reality).

i think i, as a passenger who pays for the service, would rather have the money used to convert the line to automatic trains, not only because it would ensure i don't have to put up with walking from canary wharf to waterloo whenever the RMT decide to strike, but also because it will increase the frequency of trains and therefore improve the service that i am paying for.

ILW

crazyguy wrote: »

No I just made it up off the top of my head, dummy

You are talking about the tube drivers, yes there are computer and electric, you would need to pay out billions to change the system that is in place to have the same one that the Dockland light Railway use this is not feesable compared to paying drivers up to 50k.

If you think you know better then I suggest you ring London Underground and ask as they will verify what I have said.

Please correct me if wrong, but I believe there are around 2000 tube drivers. All on £50k pa would equate to £100 million per year in wages alone. If you then build in pensions etc, the cost of automating the system would not take that long to pay off.

Dan:_4

CLAPTON wrote: »

the victoria line was build in the 60s and was designed to run without drivers
50 years later there are still drivers in the cabs with no function

no technolgy problems; only political ones

The Victroia Line has got 'Automatic Train Operation' installed so all the drivers have to do working on that line is press 'start' and the train drives itself and stops automatically at the next station.

chewmylegoff

ILW wrote: »

Please correct me if wrong, but I believe there are around 2000 tube drivers. All on £50k pa would equate to £100 million per year in wages alone. If you then build in pensions etc, the cost of automating the system would not take that long to pay off.

3,200 according to this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8804338/Tube-drivers-set-to-net-50000-a-year.html

pimento

Running_Horse wrote: »

Does London lack immigrants willing and able to work for less?

I don't understand the question.

If you mean our employers should have the right to sack us all and bring in desperate unemployed people on mimimum wage to do our jobs, then no, I don't think it's right.

I understand that some of the big supermarkets are getting free labour from unemployed people who are more or less told they have to do a "work trial" for their dole money for a few weeks in the (often vain) hope there will be a job stacking shelves at the end of the "trial".
Why would the supermarkets pay someone the proper wage when they have the government supplying their labour buck shee?

More power to the tube drivers' elbows, if you ask me, and I'm a commuter who has to walk the last six miles to work if they strike.

ILW

chewmylegoff wrote: »

3,200 according to this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8804338/Tube-drivers-set-to-net-50000-a-year.html

So a wage bill close to 200 million, wonder what it is if pension conributions are taken into account?

RenovationMan

ILW wrote: »

It may be a step closer to driverless trains. The investment will pay for itself quicker as wages go up.

They are already investing in the infrastructure that will facilitate a move to driverless tube trains, following the example of the DLR. I was in Bermondsey tube stop and they had closing doors on the platform, sealing off the tunnels until the tube arrives and its doors line up with the platform doors. You can easily imagine an automated train lining up with the platform doors, with motion detectors keeping doors open until everyone has exited or boarded.

Once I saw a lady with a pram trying to get onto the tube. The driver closed the doors when she had gotten on the train while she was pulling the pram up and into the carriage. Myself and another bloke forced open the doors to allow her to pull the pram inside the carriage. We then received some sarcastic abuse from the tube driver along the lines of "Once again, someone doesn't understand the concept of 'mind the doors'". What a charmer.

I would happily pay extra on the tube if it meant that it was all automated and free from the whims of the strikers.

heathcote123

crazyguy wrote: »

For the Olympic trains the applications that went in to become train drivers were approx 20.000 or so and that list got dwindled down to just 20 through the work involved to actualy become a train driver it involves a lot of concentration.

19980 people dropped out of 50k because they needed to do a bit of concentration?

More like the unions have an interest in keeping the driver numbers as low as possible.

pimento

I seem to recall back when the Victoria Line opened [/oldlady], that drivers were put on the trains because the public would have felt less escure without a driver. It was all a bit newfangled.

Not sure if this was true (at the time).