Southern Rail strikes are finally over as drivers accept deal

Seems union concerns over our safety are assuaged by a 28.5% payrise. Surprise!

Until next time.

“We are pleased with a resolution which, we believe, works for the staff, and the company, and we now look forward to working with Southern Rail to restore good industrial relations and deliver the service passengers in the region deserve.”

How abhorrently hypocritical. Their action either until now or from today is indefensible regardless of whether you believed what they said about public safety or not.

From the coverage I read earlier, the train drivers’ union has accepted the deal, taking more money for more responsibility. The RMT which represents the people whose jobs are disappearing, is still fighting.

Can’t help but think the drivers’ union is falling for a bit of divide and conquer…

Well I just hope Thaneslink don’t pull the same stunt as they fail everyday to either run a good service. They are either late or cancelled! My poor daughter has been late for work twice in the last fortnight because of cancellations. There were cancellations morning & evening Wednesday!
I can’t remember the last time such a big pay rise was paid out , so guess the fairs will be hiked up considerably come January.

Why should the drivers care about train managers / glorified door closers?

Well obviously they don’t now ha ha!

I did laugh today. Radio talk show where someone said the reason the train drivers were on strike was over safety and they couldn’t be expected to open and close doors as well. Well it seems a 28% increase in salary means they can. So it is apparently still unsafe but they can now open and close doors.

So will all Southern trains be driver operated only. No other staff on board?

I cannot see how 1 guard makes a big difference in a massive accident really, the guard might get injured too and it’s a bit like flight attendants are there for your safety, nice theory but if the worse comes to worse it probably makes no difference sadly

Does that mean we are all at risk when we take sourthern metro services, or Overground for that matter, as none of our trains have guards or on board supervisors?

What about trains being rolled out even though fir whatever reason the guard hasn’t turned up…or the usual excuse that a train is delayed or not running because there is no guard.
I have had this argument with my husband many times, as in why can’t the rail companies have ‘bank’ staff , so these problems don’t occur. My husband says that doesn’t make sense, hence our disagreements

By bank staff that’s what I meant!
How is it then that trains still don’t run because of lack of guard (no longer an issue) or driver? Are they all used on other jobs?

I suppose that is fair enough.