Class 387 coming to Thames Valley - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[grahame]

More mass cancellations this morning due to staff shortages. Has there been an outbreak of plague in the crew room or just incompetent rostering?

With the co-incidence of Valentine's, Half Term, Pancake Day, and the excitement of the Winter Olympics all in the same week this year, at a time of year when there will be a higher incidence of illness, and the last full week for working out responses to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) consultation too, this is the most difficult week of the year - perhaps the most difficult week for a number of years - for service industries to keep staffed.

Modelling of requirements is probably done using an expected spread of none-availabiity, with most attention given to times within one or two standard deviations of the median.   I suspect this week may be 3 standard deviations from the norm -  that's one week in 350.

[TaplowGreen]

More mass cancellations this morning due to staff shortages. Has there been an outbreak of plague in the crew room or just incompetent rostering?

Incompetence.

Bragging about thousands more seats when you don't have enough staff to make them available on a day to day basis.

In 30 years of working in service industries, a better example of over promising and under delivering, failing to meet expectations which GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) themselves set I have yet to see.

All those promises about a "Brave New World" come the start of 2018 seem a long, long time ago. The service has deteriorated ever since the new timetable came in.

Every Business has to cope with holidays, I have yet to see one fold so spectacularly or regularly as GWR every time one comes around.

..................ah but then again I didn't take Shrove Tuesday into account! 

[a-driver]

School holidays etc are no different for staff availability than any other. All leave is rostered so effectively the same number of staff are off every week all year round. Ad-hoc Leave is only granted to a maximum number of staff every week. This is based on the size of the depot.
The problem isn’t crew shortage but a shortage of crew who are trained on the traction. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could only train a handful of drivers at any one time because the overhead power lines were only available from Paddington to Hayes to begin with so you’re only limited to a handful of trains per day.
The Turbo’s has to go West because the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has already promised West units to other franchises plus Turbos and West Units were all due for major maintenance  exams. If those Turbos were not required in the West region they would have stayed longer in the Thames Valley until they had trained enough drivers on the 387’s which would then allowed a gradual introduction.

[Sixty3Closure]

The frustration for me apart from all the cancellations is how short notice many of the changes. In between leaving work and getting to Paddington which is about 30 mins I've found trains being cancelled. Is it not possible to look at the resources you have the day before or even in the morning and then plan your timetable and communication accordingly?

[ellendune]

School holidays etc are no different for staff availability than any other. All leave is rostered so effectively the same number of staff are off every week all year round. Ad-hoc Leave is only granted to a maximum number of staff every week. This is based on the size of the depot.
The problem isn’t crew shortage but a shortage of crew who are trained on the traction. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could only train a handful of drivers at any one time because the overhead power lines were only available from Paddington to Hayes to begin with so you’re only limited to a handful of trains per day.
The Turbo’s has to go West because the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has already promised West units to other franchises plus Turbos and West Units were all due for major maintenance  exams. If those Turbos were not required in the West region they would have stayed longer in the Thames Valley until they had trained enough drivers on the 387’s which would then allowed a gradual introduction.

Thanks that answers most of the questions I have been asking from a LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) point of view.   

So it appears the reason is not the CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer)'s personal incompetence then or even the incompetence of GWR in not providing enough drivers.  It is the consequence of delays to the electrification and rolling stock.   

[Timmer]

Thanks that answers most of the questions I have been asking from a LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) point of view.   

So it appears the reason is not the CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer)'s personal incompetence then or even the incompetence of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in not providing enough drivers.  It is the consequence of delays to the electrification and rolling stock.   

It’s GWR’s/First’s names on the trains and stations so that’s who the travelling public will look to and who they will blame for the failures of all parties concerned. That comes with the privilege of making the money that First do from running the GW^▸ (Great Western) franchise.

[TaplowGreen]

School holidays etc are no different for staff availability than any other. All leave is rostered so effectively the same number of staff are off every week all year round. Ad-hoc Leave is only granted to a maximum number of staff every week. This is based on the size of the depot.
The problem isn’t crew shortage but a shortage of crew who are trained on the traction. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could only train a handful of drivers at any one time because the overhead power lines were only available from Paddington to Hayes to begin with so you’re only limited to a handful of trains per day.
The Turbo’s has to go West because the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has already promised West units to other franchises plus Turbos and West Units were all due for major maintenance  exams. If those Turbos were not required in the West region they would have stayed longer in the Thames Valley until they had trained enough drivers on the 387’s which would then allowed a gradual introduction.

Check out @FabFrosty’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/FabFrosty/status/964258693029261313?s=09

You'll find GWRHelp's response to this tweet  enlightening

[Timmer]

Yes I saw that twitter conversation last night. So GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are in denial that they have a staffing problem?

They just need to ask their long suffering passengers...they will tell them.

[Sixty3Closure]

Thanks that answers most of the questions I have been asking from a LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) point of view.   

So it appears the reason is not the CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer)'s personal incompetence then or even the incompetence of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in not providing enough drivers.  It is the consequence of delays to the electrification and rolling stock.   

It’s GWR’s/First’s names on the trains and stations so that’s who the travelling public will look to and who they will blame for the failures of all parties concerned. That comes with the privilege of making the money that First do from running the GW^▸ (Great Western) franchise.

Even accepting that the problems are not all of GWRs making as discussed on the other thread the challenges have hardly crept up on them. Being generous and assuming they've done what they can I still think there's more they could do:

Stop advertising and promoting all the thousands of extra seats and new trains as a start?
Maybe a statement from senior management acknowledging the problem?
A gesture towards season tickets holders as they're the ones who can't claim refunds and will probably just get the usual 5% when they renew?
Hire extra customer service staff to deal with queries and provide information? Twitter is quite reactive from what I've seen.

[devonexpress]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s recruitment process along with a lot of other companies is too fussy, from what I've heard, you could be an absolute saint, but if your image doesn't fit, they won't take you on.

It also doesn't help that a lot of the drivers and dispatchers/guards where near retirement, and decided to leave early rather than learn a new train and drive/operate it for 2 or 3 years then retire.

[ITGuy]

According to a tannoy announcement this morning, the 0733 Maidenhead to Paddington will be 12 cars when the new timetable starts in a few weeks. Could be fun getting 200 people through 1 set of doors if the space is only in the rear 4, but at least it's an attempt to make things better.

[IndustryInsider]

According to a tannoy announcement this morning, the 0733 Maidenhead to Paddington will be 12 cars when the new timetable starts in a few weeks. Could be fun getting 200 people through 1 set of doors if the space is only in the rear 4, but at least it's an attempt to make things better.

Three more daily services are going over to 12-car operation from Monday, presumably using the two units released from Hayes to Paddington services which are going over to TfL^» (Transport for London - about) Rail Class 345s.

They are:
1P08, 06:52 Didcot Parkway to Paddington
1P11, 07:53 Twyford to Paddington
1R05, 18:42 Paddington to Reading

[ITGuy]

Do you know how 1P08 is formed up? Does it run 8 from Didcot and then pick up 4 at Reading or is it 12 all the way? There wasn't any noticeable extra space in car 4 this morning at Maidenhead. Will have to try the rear tomorrow.

[didcotdean]

According to a tweet from GWRhelp today in response to someone asking this question, 12-carriage sets are not being run beyond Reading presently. Can't verify this personally.

[IndustryInsider]

Do you know how 1P08 is formed up? Does it run 8 from Didcot and then pick up 4 at Reading or is it 12 all the way? There wasn't any noticeable extra space in car 4 this morning at Maidenhead. Will have to try the rear tomorrow.

Supposed to be 12-car all the way, having run empty from Reading TCD as 3P08.