ChatterBank18 mins ago
Could You Drive A Train For £75K
Not bad money considering trains could run perfectly well without a driver. Aeroplanes manage it, driverless cars are on the way, boats and ships can navigate the globe without a helmsman, and space ships traverse the universe without human guidance. But Aslef know better.
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In listing modes of transport which already run without drivers, you seem to have forgotten the obvious one: Trains! (Or perhaps you've not travelled on the Docklands Light Railway?)
Having worked on the railways, I know that many (most?) train drivers think of themselves as gods and expect to be treated as such. (However, as any other rail worker will tell you, God actually sits in the signal box!).
Train drivers do have to undergo lengthy training (typically of around 14 months) in order to do the job but they're generally not the brightest buttons in the box. (Indeed, they have to pass a test to prove that their thoughts are not easily distracted, which people of higher intelligence usually fail. So being very bright isn't seen as a good quality in a potential train driver!)
Train drivers' pay is clearly out of line with the rest of the rail industry, with drivers earning two or three times what a station manager or supervisor does and yet I had plenty of train drivers tell me "I could never do your job" when I was sorting out all of their shunting movements for the evening at the same time as dealing with irate customers, finding taxis for customers who'd been delayed, booking rail replacement buses, handling lost property enquiries and attempting to dispatch trains to within two seconds of their booked times, while answering three phones simultaneously, handling continuous radio calls and monitoring train movements via two different computer systems. (To be honest though, I could never do a train driver's job; I'd die of boredom!)
Having worked on the railways, I know that many (most?) train drivers think of themselves as gods and expect to be treated as such. (However, as any other rail worker will tell you, God actually sits in the signal box!).
Train drivers do have to undergo lengthy training (typically of around 14 months) in order to do the job but they're generally not the brightest buttons in the box. (Indeed, they have to pass a test to prove that their thoughts are not easily distracted, which people of higher intelligence usually fail. So being very bright isn't seen as a good quality in a potential train driver!)
Train drivers' pay is clearly out of line with the rest of the rail industry, with drivers earning two or three times what a station manager or supervisor does and yet I had plenty of train drivers tell me "I could never do your job" when I was sorting out all of their shunting movements for the evening at the same time as dealing with irate customers, finding taxis for customers who'd been delayed, booking rail replacement buses, handling lost property enquiries and attempting to dispatch trains to within two seconds of their booked times, while answering three phones simultaneously, handling continuous radio calls and monitoring train movements via two different computer systems. (To be honest though, I could never do a train driver's job; I'd die of boredom!)
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