Scottish Politics / Independence - Vol 11
Discussion
Another on the nail blog.
http://ianssmart.blogspot.com/2022/05/not-making-t...
"It was announced in December 2019 that Abelio were to lose the Scotrail franchise in March 2022. It takes nine to twelve months to train a train driver, months before that to recruit, so it was surely have been patently obvious that Abelio had no incentive at all to do that from at least January 2021 onwards? In March 2021 it was announced that Scotrail was to be taken into direct public ownership, so, at that point at the latest, checking where we were on this became the specific reponsibility of the Scottish Government. Did anybody do that? (Very) apparently not. So when the railways passed in to the hands of the Scottish Government on 1st April 2022 (that was the date, really), only then did it become clear that, although we had enough trains, we did not have enough drivers. And this is not a computer game. Having realised your error, you can't go back to an earlier saved version and start again. So we are stuck with this situation for, it appears, at least a year.
Now there are three things I want to conclude from this. The first, in some ways, is not a directly political one. The senior management of Scotrail are one and the same from those in place before nationalisation. Somebody there must surely have had responsibilty for recruitment and training and been aware, that in the field of train drivers at least, no such activity was being undertaken? Yet what? Did they decide for some bizarre reason to keep their in counsel on what was going on? Did they perhaps tell somebody higher up who failed to act and then forget all about it when the latter did so? It would be inconceivable that you turn up a Tesco to be told you couldn't actually buy anything because they didn't have enough check out operators. Why is that apparently acceptable on the Railways? Why, frankly, has nobody been sacked?"
http://ianssmart.blogspot.com/2022/05/not-making-t...
"It was announced in December 2019 that Abelio were to lose the Scotrail franchise in March 2022. It takes nine to twelve months to train a train driver, months before that to recruit, so it was surely have been patently obvious that Abelio had no incentive at all to do that from at least January 2021 onwards? In March 2021 it was announced that Scotrail was to be taken into direct public ownership, so, at that point at the latest, checking where we were on this became the specific reponsibility of the Scottish Government. Did anybody do that? (Very) apparently not. So when the railways passed in to the hands of the Scottish Government on 1st April 2022 (that was the date, really), only then did it become clear that, although we had enough trains, we did not have enough drivers. And this is not a computer game. Having realised your error, you can't go back to an earlier saved version and start again. So we are stuck with this situation for, it appears, at least a year.
Now there are three things I want to conclude from this. The first, in some ways, is not a directly political one. The senior management of Scotrail are one and the same from those in place before nationalisation. Somebody there must surely have had responsibilty for recruitment and training and been aware, that in the field of train drivers at least, no such activity was being undertaken? Yet what? Did they decide for some bizarre reason to keep their in counsel on what was going on? Did they perhaps tell somebody higher up who failed to act and then forget all about it when the latter did so? It would be inconceivable that you turn up a Tesco to be told you couldn't actually buy anything because they didn't have enough check out operators. Why is that apparently acceptable on the Railways? Why, frankly, has nobody been sacked?"
Here comes the SNP blame bus.
Lets throw Dereck Mackay under it.
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politi...
Lets throw Dereck Mackay under it.
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politi...
irc said:
Another on the nail blog.
http://ianssmart.blogspot.com/2022/05/not-making-t...
"It was announced in December 2019 that Abelio were to lose the Scotrail franchise in March 2022. It takes nine to twelve months to train a train driver, months before that to recruit, so it was surely have been patently obvious that Abelio had no incentive at all to do that from at least January 2021 onwards? In March 2021 it was announced that Scotrail was to be taken into direct public ownership, so, at that point at the latest, checking where we were on this became the specific reponsibility of the Scottish Government. Did anybody do that? (Very) apparently not. So when the railways passed in to the hands of the Scottish Government on 1st April 2022 (that was the date, really), only then did it become clear that, although we had enough trains, we did not have enough drivers. And this is not a computer game. Having realised your error, you can't go back to an earlier saved version and start again. So we are stuck with this situation for, it appears, at least a year.
Now there are three things I want to conclude from this. The first, in some ways, is not a directly political one. The senior management of Scotrail are one and the same from those in place before nationalisation. Somebody there must surely have had responsibilty for recruitment and training and been aware, that in the field of train drivers at least, no such activity was being undertaken? Yet what? Did they decide for some bizarre reason to keep their in counsel on what was going on? Did they perhaps tell somebody higher up who failed to act and then forget all about it when the latter did so? It would be inconceivable that you turn up a Tesco to be told you couldn't actually buy anything because they didn't have enough check out operators. Why is that apparently acceptable on the Railways? Why, frankly, has nobody been sacked?"
I think that's an unhelpfully poor analysis.http://ianssmart.blogspot.com/2022/05/not-making-t...
"It was announced in December 2019 that Abelio were to lose the Scotrail franchise in March 2022. It takes nine to twelve months to train a train driver, months before that to recruit, so it was surely have been patently obvious that Abelio had no incentive at all to do that from at least January 2021 onwards? In March 2021 it was announced that Scotrail was to be taken into direct public ownership, so, at that point at the latest, checking where we were on this became the specific reponsibility of the Scottish Government. Did anybody do that? (Very) apparently not. So when the railways passed in to the hands of the Scottish Government on 1st April 2022 (that was the date, really), only then did it become clear that, although we had enough trains, we did not have enough drivers. And this is not a computer game. Having realised your error, you can't go back to an earlier saved version and start again. So we are stuck with this situation for, it appears, at least a year.
Now there are three things I want to conclude from this. The first, in some ways, is not a directly political one. The senior management of Scotrail are one and the same from those in place before nationalisation. Somebody there must surely have had responsibilty for recruitment and training and been aware, that in the field of train drivers at least, no such activity was being undertaken? Yet what? Did they decide for some bizarre reason to keep their in counsel on what was going on? Did they perhaps tell somebody higher up who failed to act and then forget all about it when the latter did so? It would be inconceivable that you turn up a Tesco to be told you couldn't actually buy anything because they didn't have enough check out operators. Why is that apparently acceptable on the Railways? Why, frankly, has nobody been sacked?"
Driver training was badly hit by the pandemic:
- they couldn't train in classes with a corridor connection as the small cabs didn't permit any sort of social distancing whatsoever. This restricted routes and trains covered.
- driver instructors are a volunteer role for drivers. Quite a few declined to take trainees with them due to the perceived risk of sharing a cab
- those that did continue training formed a bubble with their trainee. Lose one to self isolation and no training happens.
- the reduced timetable for most of the last two years meant a lot less route miles covered, especially night driving and signing diversionary routes.
- there was the dispute last year which reduced bother driver instructor numbers and the timetable.
So it wasn't really a case of Abellio giving up.
More importantly the analysis is that it completely underplays just how involved Transport Scotland were on the running of Abellio Scotrail even before the pandemic (even the DfT effectively switched the railways down south to a concession model with the pandemic funding package). This wasn't a surprise on 1 April 2022 or something that Abellio failed to tell them about.
It was Transport Scotland policy to rely on rest day working rather properly staffing a 7 day working week.
The biggest issue with the nationalisation of Scotrail though is that public sector pay policies are being applied. This means limited inflationary pay raises ,especially for higher paid public sector workers. Train drivers of course are especially caught by the latter as policy. If the Scottish Government concede to the railway demands they'll soon have the rest of the public sector demanding the same. Bear in mind that the Scottish Government have a hard budget constraint without borrowing powers.
The SNP have trapped themselves between a rock and a hard place of their own making. They used to be able to direct blame for their own policies towards Abellio. Now they're badly exposed with no easy way out.
It's a major political blunder by Sturgeon and co.
Hill92 said:
I think that's an unhelpfully poor analysis.
Driver training was badly hit by the pandemic:
- they couldn't train in classes with a corridor connection as the small cabs didn't permit any sort of social distancing whatsoever. This restricted routes and trains covered.
- driver instructors are a volunteer role for drivers. Quite a few declined to take trainees with them due to the perceived risk of sharing a cab
- those that did continue training formed a bubble with their trainee. Lose one to self isolation and no training happens.
- the reduced timetable for most of the last two years meant a lot less route miles covered, especially night driving and signing diversionary routes.
- there was the dispute last year which reduced bother driver instructor numbers and the timetable.
I'm not convinced by this argument. During the entire pandemic I shared a car every working day with a different member of staff. A social distance of 18". I managed to avoid getting Covid unlessit was symptom free before wide testing. Driver training was badly hit by the pandemic:
- they couldn't train in classes with a corridor connection as the small cabs didn't permit any sort of social distancing whatsoever. This restricted routes and trains covered.
- driver instructors are a volunteer role for drivers. Quite a few declined to take trainees with them due to the perceived risk of sharing a cab
- those that did continue training formed a bubble with their trainee. Lose one to self isolation and no training happens.
- the reduced timetable for most of the last two years meant a lot less route miles covered, especially night driving and signing diversionary routes.
- there was the dispute last year which reduced bother driver instructor numbers and the timetable.
I saw care staff sharing cars. Police sharing cars. Private hire drivers still working. Ambulance crews sharing vehicles.
I would argue training drivers was essential and should have continued especially once vaccines were available but I guess getting that past the union would be the problem.
I agree relying on rest day working is a big part of the problem. Is that Transport SCotland though? Any link?
I would have thought staff rosters were down to the train operator?
Was getting Sundays to be part of a normal roster acceptable to the union?
Edited by irc on Thursday 26th May 20:01
irc said:
I'm not convinced by this argument. During the entire pandemic I shared a car every working day with a different member of staff. A social distance of 18". I managed to avoid getting Covid unlessit was symptom free before wide testing.
I saw care staff sharing cars. Police sharing cars. Private hire drivers still working. Ambulance crews sharing vehicles.
I would argue training drivers was essential and should have continued especially once vaccines were available but I guess getting that past the union would be the problem.
I agree relying on rest day working is a big part of the problem. Is that Transport SCotland though? Any link?
I would have thought staff rosters were down to the train operator?
Was getting Sundays to be part of a normal roster acceptable to the union?
Yeah, getting it past the Union was the problem part. Compare a Class 158 or 385 cab with a HST or Class 170. The latter are closer to the car share scenario whereas the former are small cupboards really. So it had an impact early in the pandemic. But the reduced timetables have had a huge effect when you need to complete a certain amount of supervised driving.I saw care staff sharing cars. Police sharing cars. Private hire drivers still working. Ambulance crews sharing vehicles.
I would argue training drivers was essential and should have continued especially once vaccines were available but I guess getting that past the union would be the problem.
I agree relying on rest day working is a big part of the problem. Is that Transport SCotland though? Any link?
I would have thought staff rosters were down to the train operator?
Was getting Sundays to be part of a normal roster acceptable to the union?
Edited by irc on Thursday 26th May 20:01
Transport Scotland set the cost envelope that Abellio had to operate within, especially through the provision of emergency funding as railway revenue evaporated during lockdown and then still a long way off recovering due to the Scottish Government's WFH policies. They were in no rush to resolve last years dispute until COP26 neared.
ScotRail won't bring Sundays inside the working week as it's cheaper to reply on rest day working rather properly staff a 7 day week. Unions would apparently support it: although some individual members who do lots of overtime and RDW would lose out, the Union benefits form having more members.
As far as Transport Scotland are concerned the post pandemic railway remains in managed decline.
The HSTs are looking like a waste of money. Barely running with a lot of intercity services falling back on the s
tty suburban trains with no where near capacity for normal operation, let alone cramming several services into one on the current reduced timetable.
He makes a good point that the system is designed to prevent fptp style large majorities on a minority of the vote. So deals are inevitable. No point whinging.
Spend 5 years comparing tories to the devil and just maybe they won't vote with you.
As for Humzas whinge about a progressive alliance. What does progressive actually mean? In the case of the SNP it seems to mean incompetence and cover up.
Why would anyone want to join with them?
Spend 5 years comparing tories to the devil and just maybe they won't vote with you.
As for Humzas whinge about a progressive alliance. What does progressive actually mean? In the case of the SNP it seems to mean incompetence and cover up.
Why would anyone want to join with them?
irc said:
Hilarious. Change a few of the words there - Humza Yousless said:
SNP handing paid jobs to Scottish Greens to run the Holyrood Government as opposed to governing as a minority administration, I thought the SNP couldn't sink any lower, but they've found the bottom of the barrel.
Couldn't mark their brass neck with a blowtorch.SNP want 'open door policy' for unemployed migrants with no job offer in Scotland. So basically everybody who doesn't want to work can come to Scotland and not work, Is this the intelligent way to boost the Scottish economy with a plan that nobody up until now ever had the cognitive prowess
to come up with, or is it because the SNP know the game is up and the tide is now firmly against them so they will do anything to try and gets votes and hang on to power?
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politi...
to come up with, or is it because the SNP know the game is up and the tide is now firmly against them so they will do anything to try and gets votes and hang on to power?
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politi...
Rick_1138 said:
A.J.M said:
That is delightful. 
The best thing that can happen now is for the years of SNP induced decline in Edinburgh to be halted and the city cleaned up, and for it to show all those that voted for SNP led councils that it’s not WM or the pandemic that's turning your area into a fly-tipped rat infested pot-hole ridden dump, it’s the SNP just not giving a f
k about it.This could be fun
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after £3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by £640 per person, economists have said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after £3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by £640 per person, economists have said.
Pastor Of Muppets said:
So the SNP and their supporters are enraged at Labour doing a grubby back room deal with the Toareeees because the Toareees wouldn't accept a grubby back room deal with them, how pathetically undemocratic can you get.
The best thing that can happen now is for the years of SNP induced decline in Edinburgh to be halted and the city cleaned up, and for it to show all those that voted for SNP led councils that it’s not WM or the pandemic that's turning your area into a fly-tipped rat infested pot-hole ridden dump, it’s the SNP just not giving a fk about it.
I feel changes ahead. The SNP will lower the voting age to 5.The best thing that can happen now is for the years of SNP induced decline in Edinburgh to be halted and the city cleaned up, and for it to show all those that voted for SNP led councils that it’s not WM or the pandemic that's turning your area into a fly-tipped rat infested pot-hole ridden dump, it’s the SNP just not giving a f
k about it.Jenny Tailor said:
This could be fun
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
Who knew? Give away endless "free" stuff while making the business environment unfriendly through endless indy risk and you fhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
k your budget.irc said:
Jenny Tailor said:
This could be fun
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
Who knew? Give away endless "free" stuff while making the business environment unfriendly through endless indy risk and you fhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
k your budget.rider73 said:
irc said:
Jenny Tailor said:
This could be fun
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
Who knew? Give away endless "free" stuff while making the business environment unfriendly through endless indy risk and you fhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/27/ni...
Nicola Sturgeon faces begging Whitehall for extra funds after 3.5bn overspend
SNP will have to get support, cut benefits or raise taxes, says IFS
Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to beg Whitehall for further funding after the SNP pledged to overspend in Scotland by 640 per person, economists have said.
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