On Dec 14, 5:23*pm, Robin9 wrote:
Paul;125188 Wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16174789

The company is currently offering no additional payments for working
on Boxing Day. The union says its members may need ‘substantial
incentives’ to volunteer.

I've just heard someone from London Underground management counter this
assertion with the following: the terms of employment and payment were
substantially renegotiated a few years ago to incorporate all the
bonuses, overtime payments etc. into a hugely increased basic salary.
That is why tube drivers now earn so much.

--
Robin9

Tube drivers get roughly the same as other main line train drivers (in
London) who incidentally don't have to work boxing day. They were also
told that only a skeleton service crewed by volunteers would run in
boxing day. Now LUL wants a full Saturday service.

As for training up volunteers : do you mean actually putting them
through the whole drivers selection and procedure (which 90% fail) and
a full drivers course complete with exams on everything to do with the
railway including how to fix broken down trains, what to do in
degraded situations, how the signalling and power supply works etc etc
or (training a driver costs around 100k) or... Shall we just bung a
few volunteers with a tube driver and let em take the controls after a
few stations?