Travel disruption over Christmas 2014

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

There has been some lively discussion in other topics on the Coffee Shop forum about various public transport disruption over the Christmas period, but here is a good summary of the overall situation - from the Guardian:

Christmas travel in UK^▸ (United Kingdom) hit by road and rail chaos

Little festive cheer on Britain^s roads and railways as planned engineering work coincides with car crashes and signal failures

Road crashes and rail disruption have delayed people heading off for Christmas.

On Britain^s busiest motorway, the M25, a multi-vehicle accident closed two lanes between junction five near Otford in Kent and junction six near Oxted in Surrey. There were also hold-ups for drivers after a broken-down lorry led to a lane closure on junction 12, south of Heathrow airport.

In North Yorkshire the A64 was closed in both directions between the B1249 (Staxton) and the B1248 (Norton) due to an accident at West Knapton, with the Highways Agency advising drivers to consider alternative routes.

Those heading for cross-Channel services from Kent were delayed by heavy traffic on the M20 near Folkestone.

For rail passengers making their way to Heathrow there were delays caused by a signal failure at Southall, which slowed services run by First Great Western, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect.

The Southern train company was unable to run any services between Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes Central amid staff shortages.

There were delays to Virgin Trains^ services between Shotton in North Wales and Chester in Cheshire after a vehicle struck a bridge near Shotton.

Up to 4 million Britons are heading overseas over the period from 19 December to 3 January. Popular winter sun destinations for include the Canary Islands, Tunisia and Morocco, while top long-haul destinations include Dubai, Mexico, Cuba and Egypt.

British Airways^ schedules include 267 flights on Christmas Day, on which 37,000 turkey dinners will be served. Top BA^» (British Airways - about) destinations over the festive period are Dubai, Barbados, New York, Australia and Barcelona.

Ryanair is carrying more than 3.5 million customers between 20 December and 6 January ^ an increase of 500,000 customers over the 2013-14 holiday period.

EasyJet has had to cancel some Boxing Day flights due to a strike by French cabin crew. However, none of the affected services depart from or arrive in the UK.

Rail travellers are having to contend with disruption caused by a ^200m engineering programme over the holiday period.

Although a lot of the work, being carried out by about 11,000 engineers, is being undertaken on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, there will be major disruption on the West Coast mainline due to work at Watford in Hertfordshire and between Stafford and Crewe.

The West Coast line will be shut between Euston station in London and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire after the last trains on Wednesday until 29 December. It will also be closed between Stafford and Crewe after the last trains on Christmas Eve until 28 December.

Also, work at Reading in Berkshire will restrict services in and out of Paddington station in London until 5 January.

A 16-day part-closure of London Bridge station for work involving the ^6.5bn Thameslink programme started on Saturday. From 20 December to 4 January Southern and Thameslink trains will not stop at London Bridge.

Other work that will extend beyond Boxing Day is at a spot just outside King^s Cross in London. This will restrict services on December 27 and 28.

[phile]

And masses of rail cancellations due to traincrew shortage, including FGW^▸ (First Great Western)

[Timmer]

And masses of rail cancellations due to traincrew shortage, including FGW^▸ (First Great Western)

Not unusual over the festive season.

[ChrisB]

Cos crews are taling leave at Christmas proving staff do want time off over the festive period

[JayMac]

"Cos crews"?

Lettuce pray for them.

"Taling"?

Enjoying the sherry, ChrisB? 

[TaplowGreen]

Cos crews are taling leave at Christmas proving staff do want time off over the festive period

No-one doubts that pretty much everyone wants time off over Christmas, but that doesn't alter the fact that its incumbent on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to ensure that there are sufficient staff available on duty to cover all eventualities, if it's the case that they've given too many people leave, that's crap management.....if people are ill, that's unfortunate, if it's festive sickies/hangovers, that's unprofessional and unforgiveable.......far be it from me of course to speculate which it might be.....suspect a combination of all three! 

[IndustryInsider]

Enjoying the sherry, ChrisB? 

Makes a change from his Officer Crabtree impressions.

[ellendune]

Cos crews are taling leave at Christmas proving staff do want time off over the festive period

No-one doubts that pretty much everyone wants time off over Christmas, but that doesn't alter the fact that its incumbent on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to ensure that there are sufficient staff available on duty to cover all eventualities, if it's the case that they've given too many people leave, that's crap management.....if people are ill, that's unfortunate, if it's festive sickies/hangovers, that's unprofessional and unforgiveable.......far be it from me of course to speculate which it might be.....suspect a combination of all three! 

This links to the Boxing Day services debate in another place http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15079.0

As I understand it, at present the industry relies heavily on rest day working particularly for bank holidays. If people do not want to volunteer to work on a rest day they do not have to. Where does that leave management?

[TaplowGreen]

Cos crews are taling leave at Christmas proving staff do want time off over the festive period

No-one doubts that pretty much everyone wants time off over Christmas, but that doesn't alter the fact that its incumbent on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to ensure that there are sufficient staff available on duty to cover all eventualities, if it's the case that they've given too many people leave, that's crap management.....if people are ill, that's unfortunate, if it's festive sickies/hangovers, that's unprofessional and unforgiveable.......far be it from me of course to speculate which it might be.....suspect a combination of all three! 

This links to the Boxing Day services debate in another place http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15079.0

As I understand it, at present the industry relies heavily on rest day working particularly for bank holidays. If people do not want to volunteer to work on a rest day they do not have to. Where does that leave management?

I'm thinking this referred to services either side of Christmas, not the bank holidays themselves.....Xmas Day/Boxing Day railway staff can rejoice in not being obliged to work in any case? Since the Christmas period comes around at the same time every year for all employers, rostering sufficient staff should hardly come as a surprise requirement?

[ChrisB]

Depends on the staff contracts surely?

Collective Bargaining doesn't always make these issues solvable easily

[IndustryInsider]

Drivers are required to take Xmas Day and Boxing Day off.  If that was their rostered day off then they have the day(s) off*, If they were due to work then they are obliged to use a day from their annual holiday entitlement.

Other days surrounding these follow the normal procedures, as in a certain number are guaranteed the day off and above that number they can only take the day off if cover is available.

* apart from a tiny number of HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) staff who can volunteer to work.

[johoare]

From journeycheck just now:

Alterations to services between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington Due to over-running engineering works between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington all lines are closed.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 60 mins or revised. Disruption is expected until 11:30 27/12.
Customer Advice:
At present we are unable to operate any train service between London Paddington & Greenford or the local service between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington. First Great Western ticket holders may use their tickets on London Underground and / or local TfL^» (Transport for London - about) bus services in the area.
In addition, long distance services to / from London Paddington are also affected by this problem and will be subject to alteration.
South West Trains will pass First Great Western ticket holders between London Paddington and Reading.
CrossCountry will pass First Great Western ticket holders on their services west of Bristol.

[grahame]

Network Rail Responds To Train Travel Disruption

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUIClBovF8&feature=youtu.be

Slightly puzzled at his "lots went right and just these two went badly wrong" - what happened between Fareham and Southampton, for example?

[old original]

Just for your perusal, people

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/desperately-need-accountability-railways-says-MEP/story-25800890-detail/story.html

[ellendune]

Lets face it the bits of the railway that DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) seem to be micromanaging at the moment seem to be an unholy mess that makes even NR^» (Network Rail - home page) efforts at Kings Cross and Paddington over Christmas look very good. 

As I understand it at the moment they currently manage:

• rolling stock allocation (though they deny it)
• some rolling stock procurement (IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.), Thameslink and Crossrail)
• franchising

How well did they manage allowing Chiltern to grab badly needed trains from the north?
How late and over budget is the IEP procurement programme?
How late is the Thameslink rolling stock?
When will we even know when we will get electric commuter trains to run on the Thames Valley?
How late is the franchising programme? 

At least NR seems to have delivered many other improvement projects successfully on time over Christmas. 

Please no further control by DfT - at least not until they have shown they can do the jobs they have already.