Comments by "TJ Marx" (@tjmarx) on "TransPennine Express to be brought under government control" video.

  1. Nationalisation of this line won't improve anything. The same disputes will exist. They won't magically get more rail stock or staff. The drivers won't suddenly get a pay deal.
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  2. You're acting as if the problem has been solved with the sweep of a pen and a press announcement. But it hasn't. The same problems still exist and government isn't going to magically solve them whilst keeping the line in the black. They were privatised in the first place because they weren't profitable. Just a burden on the balance sheet.
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  3.  @pragueuprising560  Nope. Salaries are fine as they are. The union need to get their act together.
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  4.  @PsychedelicGoo  lol. Privatisation occurred between 1994 - 1997. The line in question privatised in 1996. There would be a problem if ticket prices hadn't increased significantly in the last 28 years 🤣 That has nothing to do with privatisation. You want something that can't exist in the area. You're asking for everyone to be happy and pay no attention to how much that costs. If you want the union workers to be paid what they want with the conditions they want you can't have a good service or reasonably priced tickets. You're living in a fantasy land. The problem on this line is the union whom believe they should get paid ridiculous wages and have to do little to no work for them. As the rules currently sit with this union a train driver or security guard can decide they don't want to work a shift they're rostered for and still receive full pay for the shift. That's a major source of the cancellations, because if one decides not to work the other can't either and the service is cancelled. Reasonable people would see that as absurd. The government tried to fix it during pay negotiations, offering the union the pay increase they were asking for in return for taking that rule off the books. The union refused. The problem is unionists, as usual.
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  5.  @pragueuprising560  Because I already have a job. Why don't you come out from behind your pseudonym?
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  6.  @pragueuprising560  Crikey, you don't even understand how that stuff works. No one can steal your identity just by having your name in your profile. You're hiding behind a pseudonym and using it to say stupid things.
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  7.  @PsychedelicGoo  No. You'll see over the coming weeks that the union disputes will worsen. They weren't functioning before the franchise system and weren't profitable. Some lines have become functional and profitable under the franchise system, they mention one in this very video. The problem is some lines have to deal with particularly ridiculous unions, whilst others do not. That's the issue. The government have already tried to resolve the issue with this union back in February. It failed completely and the union dug in, thus bringing us to the government reclaiming this line.
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  8.  @PsychedelicGoo  They haven't increased substantially above inflation. Wages haven't kept up but that has nothing to do with the railway, and is the same across the economy.
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  9.  @PsychedelicGoo  They're not charging you specifically more. Prices are where they'd be regardless of franchise or not.
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  10.  @PsychedelicGoo No, not really. All companies, including ones run by government, seek to make profit. Royal Mail. Post Office Ltd, BBC, CH4 (who we're commenting on right now), NNL, etc are all state owned companies and they all seek to make a profit. The government already own and operate many of the existing rail lines, and they do so for profit. Being state owned doesn't mean an entity is non-profit at all. So that first premise is nonsense. Profit isn't made by cutting services, making things worse or jacking up prices. That's not at all competitive and no commercial entity operates that way hoping to make profit. You make profit by remaining competitive on prices and improving the efficiency of services. Competitive on prices doesn't mean they stay at the same level for 28 years though. Prices go up. Yes, they have competition because they aren't just competing against trains. They're competing against all methods of transport between the points on the line. Buses, taxis, ubers, private vehicles, whatever else. They have to be price competitive with these to keep customers choosing the rail service or they'll go elsewhere. Clearly they do choose the rail network and find it priced competitively, otherwise they'd be taking other means of commuting. In terms of your final premise it really depends on what "treat staff well" means. This same company that's just lost it's franchise on the northern line also run GWR and are doing exceptionally well. None of these service problems because it's a different union. The staff are happy with what they have, because it's a different union and thus different perspective. Both sets of staff are paid the same, just the GWR set don't have unreasonable demands and want to work with the railway to make the line function. The northern line folks don't. So again, the problem is the union. If you took away this union and got workers back to working properly instead of taking the mick things would operate significantly better. But the union can't be magicked away, and the employees are being unreasonable.
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