To think this spineless government will give in to grabby train drivers

[LupaMoonhowl]

I live in London and wasn’t aware of this till I saw in mentioned in passing on another thread.
It is utterly scandalous that they can hold the city to ransom like this! How can they cut off key transport for 5 days! And no doubt they’re confident that the spineless, incompetent and public sector/vote buying government and cynical chancer Kahn will give into what they demand.
Back to the 70s 😔😔
Tube and DLR strikes - September 2025
Strikes are planned on the Tube and DLR.

• From Sunday 7 to Thursday 11 September 2025, Tube services will be severely disrupted, with little to no service expected
• Any services that do run between Monday 8 and Friday 12 September will start later than usual with no service before 08:00
• On Tuesday 8 and Thursday 11 September 2025, there will also be no service on the DLR

Ah I agree with Key workers being paid more. Teachers , nurses, police, firefighters, etc. Tube drivers are not key workers.

Road layout in the US is much more straightforward than in the UK because towns were designed with driving in mind. I'm not sure I'd pick the US as a model of safe driving, in any case.

really? so if they all walked out for a week? Londoners would have absolute hissy fits (at the least) and the key workers like teachers and nurses would get to their jobs... on foot?

I agree with you on driverless cars and lorries etc.; but when a method of transport can only move on a fixed set of rails, which no other transport (and the general public) can/will use alongside them, it's a doddle in comparison.

All you need are sensors/cameras/other safety equipment to monitor and make sure that nothing/nobody has got on to the rails that shouldn't be there and that the rails aren't broken - in which case all approaching trains could be automatically stopped plenty in advance until the obstacle/issue has been resolved.

The point is the tube can work without drivers. The newer trains all have driverless capability.

As the wife of a train driver who had to completely change career path due to the pay freeze/strikes of 2022 yabu for calling them "grabby"!!!! I could write a huge rant sticking up for train drivers but I've tried before, I get really fucking angry arguing with people who haven't a fucking clue

Damn, imagine thinking the people that keep the city running are “grabby” for wanting to be paid fairly

so do it then.

there is a reason there are drivers and a lot of that is to do with safety.

You must have an incredibly short memory if you can't remember the strikes that happened under the last government.

So the DLR is unsafe?

Funny how they managed to be during Covid to get hospital workers and other key workers to their workplace. How would they get there otherwise? Pretty key id say

Totally agree with you on this (and not a train driver or married to one!). If anyone is interested, there are lots of driver training videos available on YouTube. It is far from an easy job; and drivers also have to adhere to strict rules around drinking alcohol, like airline pilots - their responsibilities don't begin and end with their shift.

the idea that TFL would keep on expensive unionised drivers if they didn’t need them is insane 😂 that alone tells you how much they’re needed

Some technical clarifications:

the DLR is not driverless in the sense that people mean. They cannot operate without a train captain, and although the captain can give the start command from any location on the train, the train will not depart without him confirming the depart. This could probably be automated, however the system that the DLR uses is called Transmission Based Train Control (TBTC) signalling. This works by the the train continually communicating with the signalling system.

While for all normal operations this could be automated, the moment the train fails to communicate with the system (for a variety of reasons) it goes “non-communicating”. This can only be resolved by the -driver- sorry train captain on board manually taking over control of the train movements and moving outside of signalled protection (this is a potentially dangerous procedure and has strict protocols to protect it).

The Northern Line, the Jubilee Line, the Met line, the Hammersmith and City and the District line all use this same signalling system.

The Victoria line uses a variation called “Distance to Go-Radio”. It has differences but the fundamental similarity is the same. In the event the train stops communicating with the signalling system, it cannot be moved without manual control.

The DLR is not “unsafe” because it’s driverless. It has a driver. They’re just called a train captain instead.

theres a lot more to it than that

you sound very rude though

Exactly this!

come on Op….explain how these drivers are ‘grabby’?

We also have the technology in schools that means we no longer need a teacher in the classroom. Just like with the tube, it doesn’t mean its a good idea.

You really should try DRIVING a train, there's so much more to it than pushing a button! As for 'no skill required' you are totally wrong.

It absolutely is not, in all new trains. There are certain lines like Northern city and thameslink that support ECTS. But we are no where near ATO for most of the network. Even in Europe where ECTS has been around a lot longer do not have ATO in use other than metro’s and in Czech where they never really had a railway so they got huge funding to build a digital railway. And their driverless trains only
launched in certain areas this year.

DLR is purpose built but still has a driver on it!

But how many people are fatigued by a 35 hour week?

No one moans about the city workers raking in millions for themselves do they. Why are they seen as more deserving than the train drivers who get them to their jobs every morning. Pay everyone a decent wage.

I have an ex who is ( still is ) a train driver. He used to boast how much money he was earning , how much power they had.
Yes they can work anti social hours but my goodness he knew every scam going, whole shifts off for a single GP appointment , paid days off for everyday stress like having a plumber round, not working a minute extra if it meant he wasn’t back at his ‘ signing on ‘ depot on the dot or before his shift finished. Spending hours relaxing in the rest quarters when on spare ( on reserve) and then leaving early as soon as it became apparent he couldn’t be asked to drive as again it would take him over his shift. I came to know a lot of his colleagues too and they were mostly the same.
Obviously my views have been influenced by what he used to tell me . And I’m sure equally that is not true of most train drivers.
But it did leave me with a bad impression that they were a spoilt militant bunch.