CrossCountry cancellations

[whole diary]

[vacman]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) also bailed SWT^▸ (South West Trains) out the sh1t two or three times last week by stopping at Ivybridge vice the canned Waterloo service which was canned three times in 4 days!

[swlines]

Remove SWT^▸ (South West Trains)! Pillage Farmer Palmers house! etc etc etc

[eightf48544]

You are totally missing what my point is Conner.

They will probably have a limited number of staff in a link who sign Penzance - and all of those may have jobs at the time in question. Besides, in order for the 0830 to run don't the crew have to go down on that 06xx to Penzance? If that doesn't run (remember, booking on time can be 15 to 30 mins, not enough time to call someone else to come in at very short notice) then obviously the 0830 can't run.

Ooops pressed post too soon.

It just goes to show the absurdity of the current way of running the railways. In BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days the spare link man at Penzance shed would have taken the train. But now the drivers all work for different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and so aren't even trained to drive each others trains so even if there was a spare  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) driver they probably couldn't drive a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) voyager.

Further more the "bean counters" have decreed that spare links are not economic. It's cheaper to pay the cancellation fee. 

[FarWestJohn]

Last Saturday 7th June the Cornish Riviera [0848 PNZ] ran empty stock from PNZ to Truro as 'no conductor'. It waited at Truro for 10 -15 minutes before leaving on time at 0929. On my way down to Penzance I expected to see lots of grumpy people on the platforms but everywhere was eerily deserted. Very strange for a summer Saturday morning.

The down train a 150/153 was very busy with hordes getting off at St.Erth for St.Ives. An extra slow calling on approach to the platform at PNZ as it was already occupied by a spare 153.