Re: conditions as train operators

["John Kerley" <deaftech@ozemail.com.au>]

Exnarc <gwrly@netspace.net.au> wrote in message
82ncri$2uq9$1@otis.netspace.net.au">news:82ncri$2uq9$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>
> > I'm not going to argue that Drivers are not paid enough, (I agree),
however
> to compare the wages of a London Underground Driver to an Australian
Driver
> purely on the basis of Rates of Currency Exchange is being a little bit
> dishonest don't you think?
>
> Employees in London are paid a "London Allowance" in addition to their
base
> rate, plus (using your exchange rates) the cost of living in the UK (not
> just London) is enormous compared to Australia, (even Sydney). Take a
train
> journey from London to Birmingham (Virgin Trains), 114 miles First Class
> Rail Fare, 42 Pounds one-way (1997 prices), what is the 1st class fare
from
> say Melbourne to Bendigo??? simular distance (although not in time). I bet
> its nowhere near $107.70 (at .39P) You would get there and back and back
to
> Bendigo again for that much.
>
> Hotels in London, (average dog kennel sized room in Paddington or Central
> London) ranged from 75 to 125 pounds a night, (won't bother doing the
> conversion), in Melbourne you can get better (motel) type accommodation in
> the CBD from $85 to $100 per night, I 'm not trying to start an argument
on
> this issue but I believe you have to consider all the facts before making
> such comparisons. The holiday leave probably includes accrued Public
> Holidays?? Hence the 2 weeks more.
>
> Bob.
>
I mentioned London Allowance and cost of housing in my post on this thread
on 8/12 plus my belief that the real rate of exchange in terms  of
purchasing power is about GBP1 = AUD2 i.e the LUG driver's pay of GBP26,000
for 35 hours would be equivalent to about AUD52,000 in terms of buying
power.   My conclusion  that Aussie workers are about 30% worse off than
their British counterparts comes from quite a lot of self interested
research, including the effects of the different tax rates. i.e. I have been
examining the  cost  benefit of returning to England. So far I am having
difficulty on putting a value of Australia's undoubted better weather!

On the question of holidays, there is a tendancy in GB for longer annual
leave the longer you are with one employer, a bit like our long service
leave except you mightn't have to wait ten years!  In the case of LUG I do
not know whether all drivers receive the seven weeks or only after a certain
amount of service.  Maybe "minitel" (little Terry?) could advise.

The provision of public holidays in GB is similar to us i.e. towards the
bottom of the international league table.

Your point about fares in GB is interesting.  On the the face of it, they do
look expensive, until you realise that they usually only apply to a couple
of trains a day at peak periods and are designed to slug the business
traveller of which in GB there are a lot.  Their range of discount fares is
quite amazing and then on top of that most people, except unaccompanied
normal adults, can get further discounts on most discounted fares by the use
of rail cards such as student cards, seniors cards, family cards etc.

Virgin have a fare calculator at  www.virgintrains.co.uk  (click on bookings
icon to get into fare calculator) which applies for
the
whole "National Railway" network, which the estwhile British Rail seems to
be called these days.  As well as fares it provides train times.  Rail Track
also has a station to station timetable which appears to be programmed
differently, often giving different routes than the Virgin one, even though
based on the same timetable.  One can have hours of fun seeing the different
routes thrown up!

The fares for a return London - Birmingham trip (standard class) can vary
from GBP76.50 for a fully flexible no advance purchase ticket, to GBP37.70
for a Saver which is basically a no advance purchase ticket for any train
except a few at peak times, to GBP21.00 for a one day advance purchase
ticket, to GBP15.00 for a seven day advance purchase ticket.
London (Euston) - Birmingham (New Street) is 115.25 rail miles one way.  The
closest distance wise in Victoria is Melbourne - Shepparton which is 113
miles one way.  According to the V/Line web site,  the normal economy return
fare is $46.60, with the mid-week Saver fare being $32.60.

Hence the cheapest GB ticket is similar to our cheapest, when taking the
purchasing power ratio of 1GBP to 2 AUD (the Big Mac test as someone else
has called it).

In fact for longer distances, GB fares are actually cheaper than ours.  For
example the 7 day advance purchase London - Liverpool return (standard
class) is GBP20.00 for a round trip of 386 miles.   A Melbourne - Albury
Saver return (economy class) is $54.40 for a round trip of 381 miles.  i.e
even for an Aussie tourist having to pay in our devalued dollars it is
cheaper in GB for trips of this length.

Cheers,

John Kerley