Great Western Coffee Shop

9 cancellations and 11 service changes this morning - with most of them described as "shortage of train crew".  Any yet there's buses running Bath to Bristol, so less crew should be needed.  Did I hear about overtime / rest day working being withdrawn as industrial action by one of the rail unions?  Is that what it's about?

Much the same story last weekend with the Liskeard Branch especially.

It's surprised me to be honest, when it comes to drivers a lot of our depots are massively overstaffed.  I've heard overstaffed by 200 drivers across the business with some suggestions that its more than that.  I don't know the staffing situation with guards and train managers though.

From a month ago in my messages ...

and I wondered if we're seeing the effect?

A handful of the previously cancelled or curtailed services have now been re-instated.

Yes, I think we are.  Holidays are now starting to be taken which can remove an additional dozen or so drivers from each depot on what was the case when the rest day working ban started.

Should it not be resolved soon, the weekend situation will only get worse.  Even if there is over staffing at some depots.

.....it's made the Press in the Southwest;

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Lack-train-crew-blamed-cancellations/story-29038936-detail/story.html

Considering the overtime ban coincides with the school holidays, to lose 4 services goes someway to show how well staffed the depots are.

Greater Anglia cancelled 19 services yesterday which was caused by "staff sickness".  They also have a overtime ban in place.
http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2016-04-02/trains-cancelled-after-illness-strikes-rail-crew/ (http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2016-04-02/trains-cancelled-after-illness-strikes-rail-crew/)

..............Wow, must have been a great party on Friday night!  ;)

Yes, they're certainly in a much better position than they have been over the last couple of years, not just in numbers but also in keeping up with route and traction knowledge.  I predict there will still be problems in the summer though when there are Sunday shifts that drivers (at depots where they can) can legitimately say they're not turning up.

Where an overtime ban exists is that set in stone or can a driver decide on their own accord to still take on overtime?

Surely it's up to the individual?

Unless peer pressure (of whatever nature) discourages those who might otherwise be inclined to disregard the action.

There's not officially any kind of overtime ban - the union can't just impose that - though there is a ban on the voluntary working on days off, known as Rest Day Working.

However, many drivers realise that in order to get the problems resolved that led to the rest day ban in the first place (nothing to do with salary in this instance) as quickly as possible, it makes sense to not be available for overtime as that negates the impact on the company of not having drivers working their rest days.  In other words, GWR will be forced to listen quicker if more trains are cancelled.

Problems continuing today.  As well as one cancellation on the TransWilts (07:18 Swindon to Westbury) there is replacement road transport between Liskeard and Looe and between Truro and Falmouth due to crew shortages.

No problems on what remains of the rail service from BRI so far today.

Overrunning engineering works knocked out nearly all peak services from Burnham and Taplow this morning - if memory serves, the 0538, 0600, 0624, 0632, 0657 & 0727 from Taplow eastbound were cancelled, and the 0623 and 0654 westbound as well.............by that stage I had given up and got the Mrs to drive me to Slough.

Communication from GWR was useless and inconsistent - we were told at 0630 that the 0632 would be stopping - it sailed through on the fast line, repeatedly trains appeared as "on time" only to be cancelled about 2 mins before arrival. There were people at Taplow who had been waiting since 0530..........needless to say GWR refused to pay for taxis to either Maidenhead or Slough - they did advise that local buses would accept tickets, however this was pretty useless with all the short notice cancellations.

To cap it all, the ticket office opened late and the TVM was out of order, by the time I gave up (0700 ish) the queue was bigger than anything I've ever seen at Taplow.

From GWR Twitter there was a jammed points issue as well as overrunning engineering works, or maybe the points jammed was the engineering work

Yes, the points were damaged by a track machine running through them around midnight and stretcher bars were damaged and had to be replaced.

From what I heard the points got damaged during engineering work. 

The problem with Taplow is that although it has 4 platforms, the main lines have been ballasted  too high in relation to the platforms. Thus it is deemed dangerous to stop trains and get people to climb on board hence the trains sail through. Most frustrating.

I can claim Grandfather rights to boarding HSTs as  a few years back before central doorlocking there was a spate of failures of the ignal at teh end of Platform 2 Up Main. Quicjk nip over bridge and a fast run to Padd. 

Who runs the Tampers these days?

The other problem is to many trains, with the problems over the past few days trains have not been stopping at Maidenhead either with the stoppers crossing over at Ruscombe, going as quickly as possible along the main lines, and then crossing back at Slough so as to not interfere (too much) with the HSTs. It's not just the fellows of Taplow who are missing out

......well after this morning's farce it gets worse for this "fellow" from Taplow who is stuck at Paddington with God knows how many others thanks to a signal failure at Southall.....nothing in or out.....what a basket case of a railway we have.

Back on topic of cancellations due to non-availability of traincrew, seem to be ongoing this evening round Cheltenham/Swindon/Westbury routes.

  They're probably all stuck at Paddington!

This may have something to do with the major signal failure in the Southall area!

No.  They were published before the Signal failure.

A number of cancellations/alterations again this morning due to a "shortage of train drivers", looks like it's starting to bite.

Amongst today's cancellations was the 0710 Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington sevice due to "shortage of train drivers". The third day running this service has not run along the Cotswold Line.

Whilst this might be an easy fix on paper, the problem is that this is an eight coach HST and, when it is cancelled, the following two coach turbo train has to pick up the displaced passengers. It's not been so bad this week due to school holidays but it can be a grim experience on such occasions.

The 0630 from Oxford was also a casualty....

Yes, this service which should have started at Worcester SH instead started at Oxford and was a 3-car Turbo instead of an HST (which did not please MAI commuters seeing as the preceding service at 0702 was a 3-car Turbo vice 6. :( )

Could well be the same tomorrow.  This train (as far as Oxford) is covered by a night shift driver from Oxford. This is currently uncovered again tonight - usually if there's nobody available it is a prime Rest Day Work shift - but that option is currently unavailable to the rostering team.

Yes, Maidenhead was not a pleasant place to be boarding this morning.  Many were left on the platforms as a result of the 7.02 and 7.08 shortform - the two busiest services of the morning.  They both arrived simultaneously which didn't help any 'overflow' between them.  Also the automatic platform announcements were still expecting an HST with 'first class to the front' etc.  Very very messy.

I assume that what has been done is to split the 7.02 in to 2 services??  This is allowing GWR to refute 'cancellation' refunds on twitter this morning, despite the fact that the 7.08 was cancelled and the 7.02 just arrived on two platforms.

08/04 - My usual hop-on train for RDG->PAD morning commute was cancelled due to a shortage of drivers, according to the SMS I received.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C50604/2016/04/08/advanced (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C50604/2016/04/08/advanced)  cites an 'issue with the train crew' having run from Worcester to Gloucester

According to GWR Twitter feed, "the traincrew shortage is due to Annual Leave over the Easter period", so sounds like bad planning, however that would suggest that all will return to normal over the next week or so!  ;)

Not 'bad planning' as such, but it was no doubt due to Annual Leave over the Easter period.  At that time the maximum, or near maximum, number of drivers allowed by their depots agreements would have taken holiday.  The vacant shifts would then usually be covered by drivers willing to work Rest Days who are currently prevented from doing so.

The situation should improve a little over the next few weeks as there won't be quite as many drivers wanting to take leave, but as soon as we hit the summer period then the same thing will happen again if this Rest Day ban is still in force.  That's a big 'if' though as I would expect the situation to have been resolved by then.

That's one perspective, but allowing the maximum numbers of drivers to take Annual Leave, knowing that shifts will be left uncovered and services will be cancelled as a result, is bad planning.

Nothing is "preventing" drivers from working rest days, it's their own decision.

I would certainly agree that you could say it's bad planning in so much as the railway industry as a whole (not just GWR) has relied on Rest Day Working, for as long as I've been involved in it, to cover shifts.  There would be no way of reducing the total number of drivers allowed to take annual leave because of the time of year or the fact there's as Rest Day Work ban because they are agreements with the union and the company.  Currently, because of the dispute drivers are being prevented from working rest days whether they'd like to or not.

It might help if I explain how annual leave works for drivers within GWR:

All drivers have four block weeks allocated to them per year.  They are split between one between Jan-Apr, two weeks together between May and September, and one further week between October and December.  Each depot has a maximum number of people that can be allocated a particular week, but as long as that maximum is not exceeded drivers can swap between their allocated weeks.  Especially if you have children it is not surprising that you would want to swap your week in February to the Easter week, so you often end up with a couple of drivers on leave for a February week and the full quota off for Easter week - the same applies in the school summer holidays.  That maximum number is defined as a percentage of the total number of drivers at each depot.

On top of that you then have 'ad hoc' leave where drivers use up their remaining annual leave for days off of their choosing.  Again there is a maximum quota of people that can be off at the same time on either an early or late shift depending on the size of the depot.  That number can be exceeded, but only if there is cover available on the day.  If there isn't they get refused.

In an ideal world, all shifts should be covered by the additional 'spare' capacity at the depot - there's usually about a third of drivers at any one time who are 'spare' and get moved to cover the shift nearest to them that is uncovered on a given day, but at times of peak demand (such as Easter) there is traditionally a reliance on drivers working additional shifts.  With that currently being prevented there's no surprises that there's a shortfall.

I think the dispute arose *after* the holiday was booked. So you're accusing the union of bad (err, good in their opinion, more disruption ensues) planning. The TOC can hardly cancel holiday already booked!

As I tried to explain in my last post, the TOC can't 'cancel' any holiday whether booked before or after the dispute.  As long as an application for a day off doesn't exceed the maximum quota at the depot, a driver will be guaranteed it off - they are the agreements with the union and company.

Industryinsider is correct. There is a thing called the National Rostering Principles, the industry wide and agreed system for the making of rosters, rostering and the taking of annual leave. It is a hang back to BR days, and has never been superseded, although they are being rewritten at the moment.

As II says leave is taken as one week Spring, 2 weeks Summer, 1 week Autumn in line with the NRP. They also deal with the hours off between shifts (12), no shift before 32 hours of if there is a day off involved, and 52 if there are two days off. It is to avoid fatigue which then brings the Fatigue Index into play. Each set of rosters is put through the Fatigue Index to ensure that duty days between days off do not exceed a certain figure, and if they do are deemed to be not acceptable and must be revamped.

As for staffing, cutting it to the bone is not unusual in the industry now. We have a new roster (NRP compliant) that actually leaves two days each week where we have no spare man, so if somebody wants a day off on one of those a colleague has to agree to work a day off to cover him. No volunteers the day off is refused, although that does not happen because we are a close knit group who work together.

I am afraid the cover is subject to a certain amount of goodwill, which seems to have disappeared here.

Sorry to labour the point, but define "prevented" in this context? A Union can advise or request its members to take a particular course of action, but it can't, to the best of my knowledge, oblige them to do so...........unless they are being intimidated of course?

Happy to try, TG - the world of industrial relations is difficult enough for the likes of myself to understand!

The rest day working agreement is an agreement with the union and the TOC.  At any time the union can withdraw that agreement if they believe it is not being properly followed.  If they do that then no driver can work a rest day, whether they make themselves available or not.  That is the current situation - no driver is being 'booked out' on their rest day.

They can still do overtime at the end of the shift, or come in earlier/later than their rostered shift (though not many are doing that), but no driver is currently working on a rest day.

To brand the present Rest Day working ban as some kind of gratuitously bolshy action by ASLEF is, I think, somewhat wide of the mark.  From what I know I think it^s more to do with management not always being aware of, or willing to abide by, existing agreements relating to rostering.

.

They're only 'prevented' by the threat if being called a scab. Legally, the driver could choose still to work a rest day, there is nothing legally that 'prevents' them

ChrisB, GWR are not rostering any drivers to work their rest days, because the rest day agreement between the company and the union is currently in dispute.  If a driver is on a rest day, they have no legal right to work it if they wish, though when the rest day agreement is in force they will be given the opportunity to work by abiding by the details of that rest day agreement.  Nothing to do with being a 'scab' - that is when a union has called for industrial action, i.e. a strike, and a member of that union chooses to come in and work their shift.

So, to repeat, no driver is currently able to work a rest day whether they want to or not, because there is currently no rest day agreement in force.

I now understand the agreement is berween union & GWR, and hence GWR are mot rostering, hence no choice for drivers.

Hence your use of prevented.

Shouldn't GWR fess up in which case as they're the ones (deliberately) nolonger having enough crew to man their services on a day to day basis.

That's a difficult one to answer.  GWR are arguably in the best position regarding driver availability then they have been in years - had this rest day ban been in place two years ago it would have caused absolute turmoil in my opinion.  That being said, GWR are about to embark on one of the most comprehensive traction training programmes ever, so they do need to be in a good position to be able to release drivers to learn the new SET's and Class 387s, which will be swiftly followed by Class 365s, not to mention all of the 'West' drivers who will need to learn Turbo's. Even with a full establishment or even an over establishment of drivers, they'll be looking for rest day working volunteers to ensure that can happen effectively and still crew the timetabled services.   

The unions realise all this, and even though it's not directly related to the specific rostering issues that caused the rest ray ban, it is all part of a wider bargaining position they will be keen to exploit.  Let's not forget that the RMT is still in dispute regarding the method of despatch that the Hitachi trains will undertake, and ASLEF are, I think, prepared to stand by them with that.  Then you have other outstanding issues such as the agreement to learn to new trains, and the use of tablets and other technology, and the 'holy grail' of harmonisation of terms and conditions for drivers, and it soon becomes clear that there's an awful lot of issues to resolve.

I guess it's comforting to those who like nostalgia to know that in one sector at least, it will always be 1975 as far as industrial relations are concerned.......if you listen carefully and the wind's blowing in the right direction, you can probably hear the sound of chests being beaten.

Yes, I'm certainly not going to defend some parts of the union movement which are frankly ridiculous in this day and age - though they do an awful lot of 'good' as well.

Ah if only it was so simple. Like the old westerns when you could tell the goodies from the badies by the colour of their hats. 

There are many drivers who are very keen on working rest days, and a few of those will be finding it hard to cope without the extra income they've got used to!

Lack of drivers is apparently an 'outrageous excuse'...
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/caversham-commuter-slams-gwrs-outrageous-11152553 (http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/caversham-commuter-slams-gwrs-outrageous-11152553)

I can't disagree with the complaint - the reason given was an over-simplification. But the actual reason is unacceptable too. They ought to employ enough drivers to not require rest day working. Maybe something to write in to franchise requirements?

Take on more drivers to fully cover all duties?
Can only speak from my time with First bus, but yes and no.  First will never pay drivers to sit around as spare. It is very rare to have spare drivers.  Locally we have minimum staffing in winter, but need a considerable increase for the summer duties.  Early in the new year, recruitment takes place and new drivers are trained up and drip fed into depots to ensure there are more for the summer.  However, pay and duties ensure several of the newbies leave before long.  So generally a shortage in summer and overtime rules.  I think the last few years staffing improved for the summer (but still a lot of overtime).  Going into the winter with leave and sickness, there was still some overtime.  Plus use of casual drivers throughout the year when not enough staff to cover all the duties.
Neither are there 'spare' busses.  If a bus goes down, then something is pulled from another route to cover, or the next run is cancelled.  First are then fined by the Council for loss of a service!
School holiday time helps as additional vehicles can be available.

It might mean rearranging leave days etc, but yes, across each depot, it ought to be possible to cover all duties without very many/any spare on at least a regular basis.

The railways can't rely on casual labour given the time it takes to train (one year minimum) and cost of each train driver.  I think the only way to do it would be to severely restrict the amount of drivers who can be off on holiday at any one time, and of course for the company to ensure all vacancies are always filled and all traction and route knowledge are fully up-to-date, you might need to extend route and traction knowledge to give added flexibility.  And you'd need Sunday's brought into the working week, and probably need to enforce a ruling where spare drivers can be moved to any open shift provided they don't break Hidden regulations.  None of those are particularly easy nuts to crack - either costing a lot of money or needing to negotiate significant T&C's with the unions. 

In summary, that is why all TOC's struggle on occasions.

In which case, aren't they beholden (at least to season ticket holders) to explain this in reasonable detail?

Because there isn't a simple explanation without getting into the minutae of how it all works.

I always pitied the roster clerks when they put there efforts up on the walls only to see it become the wailing wall with drivers stood there, diaries in hand, tearing it all to pieces.

Any spaces had to be covered by the duty Traincrew  Supervisor, another job I had a go at when they were short too. I seem to remember that came about because 'somebody' decided they didn't need them anymore because they had bought a computer which could do it all. Made them all redundant, and it all fell to pieces on the first day and required five of us to learn the job on the hoof at Reading, find three at Oxford and another three at Paddington. It was pandemonium for a while.             

A thankless, pressure job where you were trying to paper over the holes by getting Drivers to stay on late, come in early, or work a day off at short notice. None of those? - train gets cancelled. I don't suppose it has changed for a minute.

Unless you have been in this sort of public service job then it is difficult to explain how it all works. GBM summed it up quite nicely. Very, very similar in many ways except you just can't recruit like that and put them out on a train as you can with a bus. A week learning routes and off you go.

"ahem" 'clears throat'.  Two weeks route learning and even then many routes are a mystery as to where the stops are and where to go! Generally (but not officially) it's more "you'll be all right, left here; right there; look for the pub/Church & turn left", etc. Officially you don't run a route unless you know it.  If you don't you ask for a pilot.  Mostly no spare drivers available, hence the 'get on with it, we've all done it'

Cornwall has gone well and truly tits up this morning, broken down engineer train at st Germans with a hydraulic fault apparently, I caught the 0950 from liskeard at 1150ish! I had turned up for the 1133 service, the XC service terminated at Plymouth and immediately became a Plymouth to Manchester service that should have departed 30 mins before we arrived. Not sure what happened to the Glasgow service the 0950 should of been.
The broken train was moved at 10mph into Plymouth before us, and line should be getting back to normal albeit with a lot of displaced trains and staff.
The 1016, and 1133 were both showing as delayed behind the 0950,

In the circumstances, richwarwicker, I rather think that was a masterpiece of restrained language.  :o ::) ;D

I deleted my original choice of wording before posting! I was in a foul mood as my car had already broke down early this morning and my youngest daughter is currently in derriford hospital, Realtime trains shows as 120 late into Plymouth. The XC train manager promoted the use of delay repay, if I'm not mistaken this is something xc offer but not GWR?
All members of staff encountered were a credit to their employers, both gwr and xc, a gwr manager was also present at liskeard, and there was 2 members of staff plus the manager present on the platform answering as many queries as possible, although they had very little information being supplied to them. They made phone calls to presumingly control to get answers to questions fielded to them they couldn't answer. One received a phone call and was able to immediately share with the waiting passengers that the train had just left Bodmin. The CIS boards just said 'delayed' with no estimated times.

Casuals down this way are mostly retired full time drivers who want a bit of work to keep their hand in (and pocket money).  A few are casual because driving full time conflicts with family reasons or medical problems that precludes full time work. 
Hence they have route knowledge and their CPC's are still valid.  First are very good at keeping CPC's up to date, even for casuals. 
Winter time maybe a shift or two a week; summer uplift-as much as you want (but within legal limits of course)!

I turned my licence in when I decided to come back onto the railway for a couple of years. Nice to get back to something that is properly organised (despite it not appearing to be sometimes). It also stopped the phone calls from people asking if 'I want to do a bit.' (coaching jargon for a fifteen hour day on rail replacement).

I shall be seventy in September and I am going to retire a week before that, and go and do something else on a part-time basis, well away from road transport. Tooo stressful.

'Signalling problems' has caused Cornwall to go wrong again this morning. Can only assume it is a depot based issue at long rock, as the 0600 to Cardiff is on time, the 0520 ish is 45 late starting from st Erth and the 0700ish to London is starting from Plymouth.
The Xc service to Glasgow only a few minutes late.

I find it incredible how rude some people of a certain generation are to station staff, I don't like to stereotype but all the people I've seen being rude to staff in recent disruption have been grey haired! Of course not all grey haired people are rude!

There are those, I'm afraid, who get oldies a very bad name.  I have a theory that as we get older, we get more extreme ... and at times that's extremely intolerant and inconsiderate. 

Community Rail's mandate doesn't extend to specific operational events with individual customers; it requires a certain (trained?) mindset and robustness to deal with the issues, and a certain authority to answer with backup and consistency.  But having said that, in the role of service support I'm now in, I/we do come across the odd person who feels that disruptions and procedures that don't take do 100% what they want, to the exclusion and expense of others aren't acceptable. And who feel that front line staff they meet have intentionally and maliciously plotted a failure of service to deny them what they want ...

Was a problem with a set of points so struggling to get stock off the depot, and reduction of available platforms at the station, as for your second comment unfortunately there seems to be a core of people who belive that not being told exactly what you want to hear is poor customer service .... After all rail staff are just servents apparently .....

The 0600 departure to Cardiff would,no doubt, have been stabled in the station.

All the staff I've encountered in disruption have been great, can't fault them.

Nor can I.  I have been travelling with most of them on and off for the past 30 years.  Usually they only struggle when Swindon Control fails to keep them up to date.

One situation in which my lack of hair is a benefit!

Given the chance, I gently point out to someone that the person they are shouting at is almost certainly not the problem, and may even be the solution. Why do people (usually older than me, although these days not by much) rage at the bus driver because the previous bus didn't show? He did, for pity's sake! I was once subjected, with about a dozen others, to a rant by a senior law lecturer about the dismal attendance at his lecture. When, eventually, he paused for breath, I pointed out quietly that we weren't the ones who were absent. Out like a lamb.