Great Western Coffee Shop

...on a temporary basis at least from next Monday due to the Union being in dispute.

Might well result in a few more cancellations that normal as it won't be as easy to cover all the shifts, though overtime isn't going to be withdrawn so it might not have a huge effect.

Oh Great............what's this week's dispute about?  ::)

To be honest.... I don't exactly know!!!!! 

At a guess, I know we've got A LOT of new drivers who have recently been passed and a 150 to be recruited next year out but the newly passed out drivers are not actually in a roster (or link as we call it) and I think this goes against ASLEF agreements with the company because if they are not regularly driving there's the risk of skill and knowledge fade.
We are currently overstaffed at a few of our depots on LTV so the unions want to know exactly what are staffing numbers should be so I think there is a disagreement over that as well.
They're still in discussions though.  They've threatened to remove the rest day working agreement before and things have been resolved.  I don't think you'll notice a difference because we're managing to cover most of our work with overtime as it is.

If depots are overstaffed, why a need for rest-day working?

I was about to ask the same question.

This is why I don't think it will have much of an effect although I'm not sure about all depots across FGW.  On LTV they're upto around trainee driver group 50, maybe higher than that with 6 trainee drivers in each group. 

The Rest Day Working agreement, from the companies point of view, doesn't cost anything.  Its there as a backup.  All that will happen is the company will only guarantee the bare minimum number of drivers their request for leave.  Currently, those on the 'leave waiting list' generally get it accepted where I'm based and the job is covered by someone working overtime.

Having said that, they need to release for drivers for training on the new Reading Station layout which happens at Christimas.  I'm guessing they might need the Rest Day agreement to allow them to do this.

There's also quite a backlog of route and traction knowledge amongst more senior drivers who've moved up a link and need to learn, for example, HST's or the Cotswold Line.  So, if 'Bob' can't do any of his booked shift because he doesn't sign the traction, and the spare cover driver 'Jack' doesn't either then the only way to cover it is with a rest day or overtime - the former being far easier to organise.

Taking Oxford's roster for today, there are three rest days being worked and two uncovered turns.  There are also seven standby drivers but they're all on in the morning - there often seems an imbalance at Oxford when it comes to morning/afternoon cover.  Had those three rest days not been allocated that would have meant five shifts being covered by overtime or from other depots.  Two is fairly easy to cover for, but five would be a lot harder, especially given one of the rest days is to cover the night shift.

FGW have only got themselves to blame for letting route and traction knowledge slip to levels where that becomes an issue, but it is.  However, this would have been far more of an issue if it had happened over summer when more drivers are taking holidays, so I would expect the damage to be limited, though December could get interesting if it carries on that long.

As usual IndustryInsider hits the nail on the head. The only thing I'd add is that the way FGW arrange their rosters means that often the only way to provide the time learn new traction/routes is to use Rest Day Working, as opposed to it being 'built-in'. So all the time there is an rest day ban, not only will duties become uncovered, but there won't be any scope to cover the bachlog of training - so a double blow.

The rest day working ban is related to a complaint ASLEF raised with FGW two years ago.

Some may wonder why do depot establishments matter?

The establishment at each depot is the total number of drivers that are based at that depot.

The establishment figure is used to calculate the number of vacancies, spread of work and annual leave available. The negatives to a train driver of an over established depot are that they are unable to take annual leave (even if there are enough spare drivers to cover the work). New drivers are unable to plan their lives because they don't belong to a 'link', so don't have a meaningful shift pattern. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, drivers can only transfer to other depots that have vacancies, if a depot is always over established with new drivers, there will never be any vacancies for transferees.

In theory if a depot is over-established then drivers at that depot can apply for a free transfer to another depot (without the usual transfer restrictions), however FGW aren't currently allowing that.

There are negatives to the company from over establishment.

The major one is that it creates a knowledge vacuum. The spread of routes and types of train driven at each depot is based on that depot's establishment. If a driver doesn't drive a type of train or route for six months they need to be retrained in it. When you have the Cotswold line, and it's relatively quiet service, along with the fact it's driven by drivers from Paddington, Oxford and Bristol you can see how there is a risk it may not be driven enough. There's another risk with the class 180s. Although nearly all Oxford and Paddington LTV drivers now sign them, more drivers, but less rostered work means there is a risk that soon we might see drivers losing their competence.

A Rest Day Working ban may not have much impact at big depots, but it might have an impact at smaller depots like Plymouth, Par and Fratton.

Overtime is still being worked at the moment, but the average driver shift is around 8h45. With a maximum working day of 12 hours, and no driving beyond the 11th hour unless due to exceptional circumstances, there isn't that much extra that can be done in a shift through overtime.

My personal view is that by the end of next week, Rest Day Working will be reinstated.

Just had a message from someone who works in Control....likely to be quite a few amended services / cancelled trains tomorrow and possibly Thursday, as drivers are coming up short across the network...

But who knows....could just be another day on the crazy railway

Drivers at XC have not had a rest day agreement since mid July, hence the regular cancellation of service at the 'fringe' of the network: Bristol - Cardiff, Penzance - Plymouth, Guildford - Reading, Paignton - Bristol. It's not so much of a problem through September as less drivers are on holiday but holiday quotas will be up as of next week.

The number of XC cancellations at weekends has been very high for months now.  I'm surprised more hasn't been made of it.

Thing is with XC weekend cancellations they can usually disguise them behind engineering works.

 :o

Agreement has been reached over the Rest Day Working agreement and it has now been reinstated from the end of this week.

Rest day working was reinstated with effect from yesterday.

It however has only been reinstated on an interim basis until the 17th October pending further progress.