Mass London/Bristol/Cheltenham cancellations 21/6/15

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Not sure of any specific reason for yesterday's shortages, though in general we've been teetering on the edge regarding driver availability for some time now.  Many Sundays (and indeed Saturdays and weekdays) rely on drivers working additional shifts, which they are not obliged to do, or deviating from their rostered turn of duty to start earlier or later, again which they are not obliged to do.  Some depots have an agreement where they can 'throw in' their Sunday with no penalty as long as they give five days notice, and to balance the books there has to be an equal number of drivers who are willing to work an additional Sunday for the generous payment that offers.  There usually is, but something like Fathers Day could well tip the balance quite quickly so that there aren't enough drivers to go round.  A couple of 'sickies' on the day would then compound the problem.

Additionally, in previous years, depots such as Oxford helped cover shortages by working the trains the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) depots cover over their shared routes thus allowing the HSS drivers to be released to cover for non-shared routes, but a general shortage of drivers at the other depots mean that they're struggling badly to cover their own work.  Believe me, we are not a million miles away from a similar crisis to the one that London Midland found themselves in a few years back.

Bringing Sunday shifts into the rostered week would largely resolve the issue, as would having depots that have no vacancies and drivers that are fully up-to-date with the routes and traction they are supposed to sign.  I can't see either happening any time soon though, so prepare for some more weekend (and weekday) cancellations as a result of driver shortages.

[BerkshireBugsy]

II your reply was very useful, thanks

Are there any limits on length of shifts and time between shifts?

Dave

[IndustryInsider]

Hidden rules (after the Clapham disaster) require all TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s to follow these rules:

• No more than 12 hours shifts
• No less than 12 hours between booking off and on
• No more than 72 hours worked in a week
• No more than 13 consecutive shifts without a day off

In addition there are various rules around breaks and continuous driving which depend on the length of shift and vary with each TOC.