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I’m curious as to the criteria there. A train driver must, surely, be more stressed than a software engineer? They’re in charge of a moving vehicle that carries hundreds of people. And yet software engineers will still often make more than train drivers do.
(Median total reward for TOC train drivers is £66,043) https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/review-of...
I don't necessarily know what the right salary is but it's shift work (and you don't get to choose your hours), you're in charge of a lot of people's safety, there's a non zero chance you'll watch someone die in front of you (if they jump on the tracks). It's... not nothing. And if we're looking at how much economic benefit a given job provides a country a train driver is surely a large multiplier.
Just to clarify a point. My main complaint isn't even that they are overpaid. If their bosses want to fleece everyone, why can't they? It's more the absolute selfishness of their actions that bothers me.
?!? You're saying they're bad people because they take a salary offered to them? Is a software engineer that takes a higher salary a bad person too?
Thatcher was probably right about needing a reform of the Unions, but unfortunately for Britain she identified the wrong solution to for the right problem.
That is exactly why people despise trade unions. Doctors and nurses won't strike on busy season. The trains need to run either way. Strike during off season if you have to. Don't maximise misery for political gain.
on a more serious note, why is it always (ok, not every time, but too many times) a software developer (or adjacent) looking down on categorically more stressful and lower paid jobs? Must be some "huh they deserve it for not knowing bubblesort" type of mentality
Ignoring the tremendous amount of route training, rules, regulations, etc. — plus if they're delayed (generally through no fault of their own), they're worrying about the per-minute fines levied for delays to the service, and whether they can make the time up. That aside,
— try reporting that comment to any driver who has suffered a fatality... someone appearing on the tracks in front of them and there is no way whatsoever for them to stop in time.
Many drivers end up having to give up their careers after experiencing a "one-under", and don't get back into the cab.
It can be a lot more stressful than you think.
Well, that's the point of going on strike. Don't blame the drivers, blame the rail company.
> It's not a stressful job
It actually is, there aren't that many jobs where you are literally responsible for hundreds if not nearly a thousand (ICE-4 has 918 seats alone plus probably 100-200 standing people) lives behind your seat. Even your A380 has only half of that as capacity. The only comparable job is being captain of a cruise liner ship.
> I am increasingly convinced that the second part of making rails great again, after putting rail companies in their place is driverless trains.
Driverless trains in practice only work on a closed system with no at-grade crossings of any kind. There's a reason we only see them in "peoplemover" style systems or in subways that usually have full-height doors preventing unauthorized access.
The only actual full-size railway running ATO is the Rio Tinto ore train in Australia... with large sections of the 800 km long drive having the advantage of being in the utter desert with no one and no thing besides kangaroos posing any sort of danger to the train.