Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Perhaps predictably, services taking a bit of a hammering with cancellations and short runs today due to staff shortage - very short in some cases!

South West seems worst affected but by no means exclusively.

[JayMac]

A new strain of Covid perhaps.

Holidayweekendicron.

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Taunton and Reading

Due to a shortage of train crew between Taunton and Reading fewer trains are able to run on the line towards Reading.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 18:00 17/04

[Timmer]

Perhaps predictably, services taking a bit of a hammering with cancellations and short runs today due to staff shortage - very short in some cases!

South West seems worst affected but by no means exclusively.

Was to be expected sadly. With tomorrow being a bank holiday, hopefully not so many are making the trek back to London from the South West as they usually would on a Sunday.

[1st fan]

On a train back from Moreton In Marsh today it was originally booked as a 9 car and people had reserved seats etc. It wasn’t a 9 car it was a five and therefore no reservations were happening and to boot the train was fairly full before we got to Oxford. The nice Train Manager having sold me a weekend 1st upgrade then came back and told me after Oxford that as there was now serious overcrowding on the train he was declassifying my carriage. He apologised and I was told best thing to do was move into the other smaller 1st carriage as there were still seats in there. He apologised over the tannoy for the lack of a 9 car train, reservations and the overcrowding onboard. Said he thought the engineering works north of Moreton were the reason for the short form. He said he was declassifying coach D and that there were seats there if you held a standard class ticket.

Weirdly though when we left Reading another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) bloke came through checking tickets again. That’s despite the original train manager still being on the train. Seemed a bit odd to have two train managers on one train and a tad wasteful given the alleged shortages elsewhere.

[IndustryInsider]

Weirdly though when we left Reading another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) bloke came through checking tickets again. That’s despite the original train manager still being on the train. Seemed a bit odd to have two train managers on one train and a tad wasteful given the alleged shortages elsewhere.

RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context))'s do ticket checks on trains as well.  Could this bloke have been an RPI?  Not too unusual to have more than one TM^‡(resolve) on board for sections of the journey though - that's just the nature of rostering sometimes.

[1st fan]

Weirdly though when we left Reading another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) bloke came through checking tickets again. That’s despite the original train manager still being on the train. Seemed a bit odd to have two train managers on one train and a tad wasteful given the alleged shortages elsewhere.

RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context))'s do ticket checks on trains as well.  Could this bloke have been an RPI?  Not too unusual to have more than one TM^‡(resolve) on board for sections of the journey though - that's just the nature of rostering sometimes.

Yeah I did think it might not be a TM but he said he was a TM when another passenger asked. I’ll bow to your superior knowledge on rostering.

[TaplowGreen]

Doesn't bode well for the summer does it?

All cancelled - there are a load of short runs listed too - worth bearing in mind that many of these are the very tourist routes to which the railway desperately needs reliability to attract leisure travellers.

08:51 Exeter St Davids to Penzance due 11:59
08:54 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach due 09:31
09:55 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 12:29
11:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 12:35
11:02 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton due 11:55
11:23 Plymouth to Newquay due 12:56
12:36 London Paddington to Paignton due 15:46
12:50 Penzance to Plymouth due 14:47
13:20 Plymouth to Gunnislake due 14:06
13:40 Plymouth to Penzance due 15:36
14:11 Gunnislake to Plymouth due 14:56
14:56 Plymouth to London Paddington due 18:36
15:30 London Paddington to Taunton due 18:04
15:40 Plymouth to Penzance due 17:36
15:50 Penzance to Plymouth due 17:39
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 21:06
16:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 18:08
16:52 Paignton to London Paddington due 20:05
17:35 Par to Newquay due 18:29
17:44 Plymouth to Gunnislake due 18:30
18:15 Penzance to Plymouth due 20:09
18:34 Newquay to Par due 19:23
18:35 Gunnislake to Plymouth due 19:20
18:58 Taunton to London Paddington due 21:36
19:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 22:14
19:24 Swansea to London Paddington due 22:14
19:31 Par to Newquay due 20:23
19:35 Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:20
19:35 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids due 20:40
19:55 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 20:19
20:01 Plymouth to Gunnislake due 20:47
20:17 Taunton to Bristol Temple Meads due 21:17
20:21 Falmouth Docks to Truro due 20:46
20:27 Newquay to Par due 21:12
20:52 Gunnislake to Plymouth due 21:37
21:18 Exeter St Davids to Okehampton due 21:55
21:26 Plymouth to Exeter St Davids due 22:32
21:36 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids due 22:50
22:01 Okehampton to Exeter St Davids due 22:37
22:05 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 22:29
22:33 Falmouth Docks to Truro due 22:59

[RichardB]

Let's hope that a few of those turns can still be covered, even with so little time left to do so.

[bobm]

Worth noting that among that list are both the Summer only direct trains to London from Newquay.  That leaves a six and a half hour gap from North Cornwall.  If you are heading to London the last connection (ahead of the sleeper) means you'd need to leave on the 11:56 unless you want to rely on the road transport that is in the process of being arranged.

[TaplowGreen]

Worth noting that among that list are both the Summer only direct trains to London from Newquay.  That leaves a six and a half hour gap from North Cornwall.  If you are heading to London the last connection (ahead of the sleeper) means you'd need to leave on the 11:56 unless you want to rely on the road transport that is in the process of being arranged.

Frankly that's appalling - once again the message is you can't rely on the railway to get you there.

This just noted;

Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to a shortage of train crew disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.

Additional Information
Owing to a shortage of train crew services on the Newquay line have been suspended.

[Timmer]

Not a great start to the new Summer timetable sadly 

Heading to London from Bristol TM^‡(resolve), Bath and Chippenham later this afternoon into the early evening isn’t looking great with the 1630, 1700 and 1900 off Bristol all canned.

I would suggest the 1730 and 2000 services are best avoided. At least they are both 10 car services.

[Mark A]

Met a friend off the slightly late Weymouth train at Bath. A lot of people travelling. The 16:13 to Paddington looked to be fullish as it came in, with a very busy platform of people joining it too.

Mark

[TaplowGreen]

So as the half term holiday begins, services to/from Penzance, Paignton, Newquay etc are cancelled or foreshortened due to staff shortage - once again, great message to send to leisure travellers.

[Electric train]

So as the half term holiday begins, services to/from Penzance, Paignton, Newquay etc are cancelled or foreshortened due to staff shortage - once again, great message to send to leisure travellers.

I do not know the exact reason for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff shortages, I do know there is a large amount of pent-up leave from the Covid period, many rail staff have leave carried over from 2020 and 2021 which has to be used by the end of 2022.  They will want to go away on holiday with their families which means school holidays in many cases.

Also, with there being a high risk of industrial action booking leave and having in granted during that industrial action can be a problem, therefore railstaff may be taking a holiday now.

There are also vacancies in some key rolls in the industry, add this to the demand for leave it all adds up to cancellations.

Yes managers will endeavour to ensure there is sufficient cover however they are also acutely aware of the mental health and wellbeing of their staff