[Sir Trev]

Public transport. Just got back from my annual visit to London to meet up with my old uni friends and the trains were a joke. Half the services cancelled so everything that did run was dangerously overcrowded. If the drivers were underpaid I could understand, but I don't think they are. Flame me all you like but other people are in charge of: telling them when to start and stop, what route they use, what time they need to keep to, keeping other traffic away from them... They make the train go and bring it to a stop, hell they don't even have to steer! Yes they have a lot of people/freight in their hands but the route knowledge they need to learn and putting up with shifts on their four day week does not justify the salary some news outlets claim they earn. And they're holding the country to ransom claiming they deserve more? Bus and truck drivers have to be way more adaptive and think for themselves more, but get paid way less.

Unions have a valid place and do good work to make sure people are not exploited. On the whole. Some however are clearly out to make political trouble, which is not in their mandate. Nobody on my trains today said anything in support of the continuing action and I am now going to avoid using trains again for the foreseeable future. The public are now hacked off with this dispute and I'm not the only one that thinks it's gone too far. I quite agree that the train operating companies do not employ enough drivers and expect the ones they have to do overtime sometimes, but there are plenty of YouTube videos about made by drivers who show just how little driving they do and how much sitting around there is in their already well paid jobs.

I need a very stiff drink.