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Old 1st May 2020, 10:39
  #44 (permalink)  
Chris the Robot
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: UK
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Originally Posted by 5000psi
Its amazing 2 transport related industries, both post privatisation, both limited operators. Both obviously desirable careers judging by the numbers that apply for the railways.

One funds all of the new enterent training, 4 day weeks and everyone happy.

The other, £100k plus to train, self funded, work max hours, treated like ..., etc etc.

How did we end up here? Genuinely interested. Some will say the unions, but that cant be it.
One of the most important aspects of this is the fact that would be drivers cannot pay for their own training. This means that there is never a surplus of newly qualified people desperate for their first job. Occasionally there are redundancies, recently these have been in the freight sector due to the closure of coal-fired power stations. ASLEF worked with various TOCs I believe to make sure that the drivers who wanted to stay in the industry had opportunities available. With regard to T&Cs, the union acts as a backstop to prevent TOCs from imposing things we don't want in our contracts.

The absence of large driver surpluses mean that companies have to compete for drivers, it's cheaper to take someone who's qualified elsewhere than someone who needs a full training course. If one company has a large retirement bulge coming up, the company next door might make their pay deal a bit better to avoid having their drivers poached. The appearance of Crossrail and the massive expansion of London Overground and Thameslink has done quite a lot for driver salaries at most of the London commuter TOCs because many were at risk of losing drivers. Ultimately, it comes down to supply and demand, if pilots want to restore terms and conditions, the unions have to put an end to the oversupply of 200-hour airline ready people. As I've said before, look at what the 1500 hour rule did for conditions in the US.

Another important thing is the paradigm, airlines are used to being able to get their way with pilots since the degradation of T&Cs has been going on for so long, so they demand a lot more than they otherwise would. On the railway, it's the opposite way round, there have even been a couple of occasions recently where unions have totally brass-necked it and the company has just said "yes" to the union's amazement. That said, union strength varies from company to company.

As for train drivers on a pilot forums, I have seen pilot threads on a railway forum, in fact one was created by the moderators on a rail forum to enable the railway crowd to discuss their various flying ambitions. I do know of at least one newly qualified pilot who came to the railway, he was on a zero-hours contract at a low-cost airline and it didn't pay the training loan.

When it comes to the railway, if a pilot could present a convincing case that the airline industry was not going to recover to it's pre-virus peak then that would no doubt help with recruitment. Also, since age is no-barrier to train driver training, someone who's taken an early retirement in aviation could enjoy a 10 year career on the railway. Trainees in their mid-fifties are a common sight.
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