Tube Strikes

what is it with train drivers why do they always strike

Lazy and greedy. Basically. I've no doubt it'll be dressed up in some safety guise - but it always boils down to more money. Staggering how much they get for leaning on a lever for a few hours a day.

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London Underground workers voted to go on strike in protest at plans to close ticket offices and axe 750 jobs.

Transport for London wants to close all ticket offices and have staff on platforms instead to save £50m a year

TfL employs about 3,500 drivers. The basic salary of these lever-pushers is £55k. I think it's clear where it would be easy to save £50m - maybe the lever-pushers could survive on £40k a year basic.

However, not even half (about 1,500) of the drivers belong to the RMT. Less than half (about 35%) of the RMT membership bothered to vote at all and the vote to strike passed with 77% support.

So, from what I can tell (all info from BBC), in basic terms 3,500 drivers are going on strike because just over 400 of them think it's a good idea. So don't start chucking bricks at them just yet, but it does appear most of them just fancy a couple of days off - I guess they can afford it.

Could they not get a computer to drive it for them? They have a couple of people who are in the tube and can make sure nothing goes wrong?

If its a 24 hour strike that started the day before then it's unlikely to affect a game that will start at 7:45

The only people who use ticket offices these days are tourists and oaps... Anyone saying they don't care about them should remember, from now on you'll be waiting behind them in the queue

comment by Fabtastic - Get well soon Theo! (U6685)
posted 1 hour, 30 minutes ago
Could they not get a computer to drive it for them? They have a couple of people who are in the tube and can make sure nothing goes wrong?
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That's exactly what they want to do, hence the protest.

As Henry's cat says, if you reduced it from £55k to £40k (I doubt it's £55k but it wouldn't surprise me) that's £15,000 times 3,500 = £52.5m saved.

They strike every year to get a pay rise and then wonder why they want the system automated

But I think there should be lots of staff on trains/in stations for safety. That part I do agree with. I use the DLR once or twice a month when I'm visiting family in east london and it's driverless and is usually working great.

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