Chiltern Crew Shortage Cancellations - August 2018

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Split from http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18624.0 - grahamE - mainly because the subject line was a bit confusing!

After a few cancellations yesterday, there's a huge raft of cancellations on Chiltern Railways today due to crew shortages:

09:43 London Marylebone to Banbury due 11:02
11:43 Banbury to London Marylebone due 13:07
14:57 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 16:03
15:32 Leamington Spa to Stratford-Upon-Avon due 16:08
16:13 Aylesbury Vale Parkway to London Marylebone due 17:20
16:29 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 17:36
16:41 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa due 17:17
16:48 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 17:50
18:06 London Marylebone to Oxford due 19:10
18:35 London Marylebone to Oxford due 19:38
18:43 London Marylebone to Banbury due 20:04
18:48 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 19:50
19:06 London Marylebone to Oxford due 20:10
19:32 Leamington Spa to Stratford-Upon-Avon due 20:10
19:42 Oxford to London Marylebone due 20:48
19:46 London Marylebone to Gerrards Cross due 20:19
20:11 Oxford to London Marylebone due 21:18
20:13 London Marylebone to Aylesbury due 21:21
20:35 London Marylebone to Oxford due 21:39
20:42 Oxford to London Marylebone due 21:47
20:42 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa due 21:17
20:45 Banbury to London Marylebone due 22:07
20:49 Gerrards Cross to London Marylebone due 21:32
21:29 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 22:36
21:32 Leamington Spa to Stratford-Upon-Avon due 22:10
21:57 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 23:03
22:06 London Marylebone to Oxford due 23:09
22:09 Oxford to London Marylebone due 23:28
22:15 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Banbury due 23:02
22:27 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 23:33
22:57 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 00:03
23:10 London Marylebone to Oxford due 00:18
23:18 Oxford to Bicester Village due 23:36

Worse than most GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) weekend meltdowns if you consider how many trains they operate when compared with GWR.

[didcotdean]

Chiltern have had a fairly wretched week. Not all of it their fault, due to heat and passenger action, but they were also cancelling services last night through lack of staff. They have the Community Shield at Wembley to deal with tomorrow.

[ChrisB]

I'm not sure you can count a suicide as 'passenger action'.....they may not have ever been intending to travel.

They seem to have trouble in covering annual leave, in the summer & at Christmas time. Some of these are last trains too, and there are several examples of 3 consecutive services going under. THe Passenger Board will discuss better communications around these (alternative options being noted - taxis/buses to cover last trains for example, and comms in their canx notices to advise of these - there's nowt at the moment & customers rightly concerned about getting home)

Waiting for the next train when it's two hours-plus away (3 consecutive cancellations) is frankly unacceptable. And not informing customers of *how* they will transport those unable to travel earlier than last train.....I note that they have delayed the last train to Banbury from 2345 to 0010 to ensure all displaced customers can now travel tonight, albeit 25 minutes later. By cancelling the 2345 & instating an extra train means they avoid paying compensation though.....hmm

[didcotdean]

I'm not sure you can count a suicide as 'passenger action'.....they may not have ever been intending to travel.

It is an old fashioned euphemism, but one I prefer to continue use. I also have in my mind that there was an incident earlier in the week that would qualify for it that was not a fatality but can't recall what that was in detail.

There was a degree of changing of stopping patterns to try to cover at least some of the long holes last night.

[SandTEngineer]

Mods - Think the topic title needs amending (unless we are forcasting way ahead!)

[grahame]

Mods - Think the topic title needs amending (unless we are forcasting way ahead!)

It could do with at title change ... it's a follow up from problems almost a year ago (2017).  Dashing out the door; will see about retitling later (other mods welcome to do so)

[IndustryInsider]

23 cancellations currently being listed today as well.  Looks like even Chiltern are now succumbing to the general malaise within the railway industry at the moment.

08:55 Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone due 10:41
09:48 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 10:50
10:44 Banbury to London Marylebone due 12:11
11:05 London Marylebone to Oxford due 12:09
11:10 London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street due 12:56
11:25 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 12:32
12:42 Oxford to London Marylebone due 13:52
12:57 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 14:03
13:00 London Marylebone to Wembley Stadium due 13:14
13:12 Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone due 15:15
13:41 Birmingham Moor Street to Leamington Spa due 14:17
14:00 London Marylebone to Wembley Stadium due 14:14
14:32 Leamington Spa to Birmingham Moor Street due 15:13
14:57 London Marylebone to Aylesbury due 15:56
15:41 Birmingham Moor Street to Leamington Spa due 16:17
16:32 Leamington Spa to Birmingham Moor Street due 17:13
17:41 Birmingham Moor Street to Leamington Spa due 18:17
18:00 London Marylebone to Kidderminster due 20:36
18:06 London Marylebone to Aylesbury due 19:21
18:32 Leamington Spa to Birmingham Moor Street due 19:13
19:29 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 20:36
21:35 London Marylebone to Oxford due 22:39
22:49 Oxford to Bicester Village due 23:08

[ChrisB]

I think therevwere originally 25 when I looked at around 0800 this morning, although I can't remember the two missing from this list.

Sunday working is voluntary with Chiltern as with otherTOCs, so alaays a priblem on summer hot days...but yesterday's cancellations are harder to understand

[Timmer]

23 cancellations currently being listed today as well.  Looks like even Chiltern are now succumbing to the general malaise within the railway industry at the moment.

You know it’s bad when one of the original ‘model’ franchises performs as bad as the current crop of Dft controlled recent franchises/Direct awards.

[grahame]

Mods - Think the topic title needs amending (unless we are forcasting way ahead!)

It could do with at title change ... it's a follow up from problems almost a year ago (2017).  Dashing out the door; will see about retitling later (other mods welcome to do so)

I have split off the 2018 reports from the 2017 ones which can be found at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18624.0 - and retitled the new thread.

[didcotdean]

Another 22 cancellations today

08:21 London Marylebone to High Wycombe due 09:02
09:00 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa due 0937
09:10 London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill due 11:01
09:17 High Wycombe to London Marylebone due 09:55
09:40 Leamington Spa to Stratford-Upon-Avon due 10:17
10:27 London Marylebone to Aylesbury due 11:29
10:37 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa due 11:14
11:12 Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone due 13:09
11:48 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 12:50
13:32 Leamington Spa to Stratford-Upon-Avon due 14:12
14:37 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa due 15:16
15:48 Aylesbury to London Marylebone due 16:50
16:00 London Marylebone to Oxford due 17:10
16:42 London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway due 17:48
16:56 London Marylebone to Gerrards Cross due 17:29
17:00 London Marylebone to High Wycombe due 17:39
17:23 Oxford to London Marylebone due 18:35
17:52 High Wycombe to London Marylebone due 18:33
18:06 Aylesbury Vale Parkway to Aylesbury due 18:11
18:28 London Marylebone to West Ruislip due 18:57
19:53 London Marylebone to High Wycombe due 20:30
20:13 London Marylebone to Aylesbury due 21:23

[grahame]

Another 22 cancellations today

As someone who's not familiar with Chiltern, what proposition of services is this?   I'm looking to read in context.

For example, I note 10 cancellation out or Marylebone.  Is that 10 out of 50 (20%), 10 out of 100 (10%), or ten out of 200 (5%)?   And how long is the maximum wait for an alternative service?

[ChrisB]

Off peak, there are 10 trains/hour. More in the peak obviously.

Combination of ongoing Oxford driver training combined with no longer allowing holiday roll-over into following year, meaning drivers all booking full annual leave within the holiday year.

Most stations get at least  a 30min service except the very minor stations, main heartland stations like Wycombe get more. Extra  Stops being placed in other services to try & maintain services to the very minor ones.

[didcotdean]

One not very frequent service on that list of cancellations is Stratford-Upon-Avon to Leamington Spa; the direct service is roughly two-hourly although there is usually a connecting service via Dorridge at some time in the alternate hour.

Some of the later cancellations have now gone from journey check - maybe crew have been found for them.

[didcotdean]

The Oxford Mail has woken up to this, seemingly after a tweet the manager session:

'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' - anger at trains being cancelled at short notice 'due to lack of staff'
During the past fortnight there have been a series of cancellations - many at short notice - and Chiltern bosses pledged the situation would be addressed. "We have had a higher level of cancellations recently and are completely focused on returning our service levels to the industry-leading position we are proud to have a reputation for. This is our number one priority at present and are completely focused on improving this area. We share passengers’ frustrations about recent short-notice alterations to our timetable which have been caused by issues including hot-weather-related infrastructure maintenance, external factors beyond our control and also driver availability, an issue which doesn’t normally affect our services. We are keen to maintain passengers’ confidence in the service we offer which is why we are investing in more drivers as well as improving trains and stations across our network."