"Shortage of train crew" 28th August

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

If existing staff are not required to work on Sundays, then IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) it would be unreasonable to retrospectively enforce this. A voluntary agreement is no doubt possible in theory but might be hugely expensive.

However in my view, all newly engaged staff should be required to work say alternate Sundays. There is nothing unreasonable in this provided that the requirement for Sunday working is made clear from the beginning.

The trades unions would hate this as they are strongly opposed to change in itself, and even more strongly opposed to different terms for new and existing staff.

[Billhere]

There is a thing called 'harmonisation' that has been going on since GW^▸ (Great Western) took over Thames and Wales and West in 2004, and as far as I know remains unresolved, despite years of meetings.

The difference is that GW Drivers have a working week that includes Sundays, neither of the others do. And there is the nub of the matter. If you joined a company where Sundays are not part of the week then that is that. You lose out by some thousands on your basic salary because of it, but you can make it up by working some.

Rostering was mentioned earlier on and you will find that Drivers with no Sundays are actually rostered to work on some, perhaps one in four, and at a premium rate. They have the option of working it, or turning it in and hoping some of the 'gobblers' at the depot will snap it up. If they don't then they have to work. It is an anomaly going back to the dawn of the railways and I have never been able to fathom out why Sundays is 'a special day' within the industry unless it was because of religious grounds back in the days of yore.

The idea that you can just change it may be ok, but what do you change it to? You have three old companies still arguing about who has the best deal, and at the moment, as I understand it from a local union rep who is a Driver for the former Thames Trains company they have the best, and the others want it as well, and that does not include Sundays as part of the working week.

I am open to correction here but as I understand it original GW drivers, known as HST^▸ (High Speed Train) links, have a basic salary of around £8k a year more than the others because of the included Sundays, and funnily enough some want to give that up to go for the non-Sunday working conditions.

Where do you go based on that? Years ago family life, and quality time off (a much vaunted phrase in the industry) were not quite so important as they are now. Ask any industry that involves shift work and see how they are getting on, todays generation don't want it, especially weekends.

[IndustryInsider]

As for Reading festival, the vast majority return home tomorrow morning apart from those just going for the evening who tend to be making shorter journeys which aren't really affected today.  Likewise the majority of the carnival traffic is local journeys.  Looking at the reservations lists (a good indication of how busy a train is going to be), the 10:21, 11:21 and 12:21 Swansea to Paddington trains all have only around 100 seats reserved today.  They'll be far from empty, but that's exceptionally quiet for a Sunday!

Looking at the reservation numbers on the equivalent trains today and they are well into the 200's per train.  No cancellations on the Swindon to Gloucester route today though thankfully, but a blown fuse affected the signalling equipment in both directions between Kemble and Stroud caused a few delays late morning.  That's getting back to normal now though, so shouldn't cause too many problems when it get really busy later.

[grahame]

Looking at the reservation numbers on the equivalent trains today and they are well into the 200's per train.  No cancellations on the Swindon to Gloucester route today though thankfully, but a blown fuse affected the signalling equipment in both directions between Kemble and Stroud caused a few delays late morning.  That's getting back to normal now though, so shouldn't cause too many problems when it get really busy later.

There was an awful lot of trains headed up from Swindon via Kemble this morning - a Swansea, 10 minutes later a Cheltenham, and 10 minutes after than an Edinburgh.    Swindon to Edinbugh is a logical service - from Wessex to the midlands and north has always seemed slow in the past and this was a great run to Birmingham. Now than Kemble's doubled, can we have that as a daily service please!

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, as you perhaps remember, Virgin Trains had plans back in around 2000 to run 2+5 HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s hourly from Paddington to Birmingham via Swindon (though whether it would have survived with the scarcity of paths out of Paddington, I don't know), but it would certainly have been a useful link to and from Swindon from the north.

[ChrisB]

Swindon to Edinbugh is a logical service - from Wessex to the midlands and north has always seemed slow in the past and this was a great run to Birmingham. Now than Kemble's doubled, can we have that as a daily service please!

Now Reading has been upgraded to provide additional platforms, you might lobby the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) at the next XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) franchise bidding for say, an extra Birmingham - Reading via Stroud hourly service? Alternatively, the Birmingham - Reading via Oxford could come that way instead?

[IndustryInsider]

Or lobby the DfT for the next Greater Western franchise to extend the hourly Paddington to Cheltenham Bi-Mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) services to Birmingham New Street.  That would remove the need for that clumsy shunt at Cheltenham Spa and be an ideal service to stop at the new Worcestershire Parkway station.

[insider]

There is a thing called 'harmonisation' that has been going on since GW^▸ (Great Western) took over Thames and Wales and West in 2004, and as far as I know remains unresolved, despite years of meetings.

The difference is that GW Drivers have a working week that includes Sundays, neither of the others do. And there is the nub of the matter. If you joined a company where Sundays are not part of the week then that is that. You lose out by some thousands on your basic salary because of it, but you can make it up by working some.

Rostering was mentioned earlier on and you will find that Drivers with no Sundays are actually rostered to work on some, perhaps one in four, and at a premium rate. They have the option of working it, or turning it in and hoping some of the 'gobblers' at the depot will snap it up. If they don't then they have to work. It is an anomaly going back to the dawn of the railways and I have never been able to fathom out why Sundays is 'a special day' within the industry unless it was because of religious grounds back in the days of yore.

The idea that you can just change it may be ok, but what do you change it to? You have three old companies still arguing about who has the best deal, and at the moment, as I understand it from a local union rep who is a Driver for the former Thames Trains company they have the best, and the others want it as well, and that does not include Sundays as part of the working week.

I am open to correction here but as I understand it original GW drivers, known as HST^▸ (High Speed Train) links, have a basic salary of around £8k a year more than the others because of the included Sundays, and funnily enough some want to give that up to go for the non-Sunday working conditions.

Where do you go based on that? Years ago family life, and quality time off (a much vaunted phrase in the industry) were not quite so important as they are now. Ask any industry that involves shift work and see how they are getting on, todays generation don't want it, especially weekends.

No GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Drivers have Sundays included in their basic pay in any sector (WEST, LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) or HSS^▸ (High Speed Services)). Just different local conditions regarding how they can get it covered if they don't wish to work.

[grahame]

Or lobby the DfT for the next Greater Western franchise to extend the hourly Paddington to Cheltenham Bi-Mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) services to Birmingham New Street.  That would remove the need for that clumsy shunt at Cheltenham Spa and be an ideal service to stop at the new Worcestershire Parkway station.

That would make sense from many angles!

[ChrisB]

Or lobby the DfT for the next Greater Western franchise to extend the hourly Paddington to Cheltenham Bi-Mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) services to Birmingham New Street.  That would remove the need for that clumsy shunt at Cheltenham Spa and be an ideal service to stop at the new Worcestershire Parkway station.

I think there are restraints on the throat into New Street in the peaks, and possible platforming issues too

[IndustryInsider]

As well as an hourly service north from Swindon, if timed right it would also provide a half-hourly service from Gloucester to Birmingham (as well as from Worcestershire Parkway) mixing in with the Cardiff-Nottingham XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service, and a third train per hour from Cheltenham to Birmingham.  Perhaps stop it at Bromsgrove as well to connect in with the new electric services from there next year and provide that station with a better southbound service (currently just the hourly service to Hereford via Worcester for most of the day).  Not sure if New Street's platforms are IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) friendly though, and as ChrisB says it's not got much capacity - though the Gateway platform refurbishment project would be finished by then, which has meant one platform constantly out of use for years now.  You could always run them via the Camp Hill route into New Street rather than through the busy section via University and Selly Oak if that proved easier to path.

Food for thought...

[Adelante_CCT]

Alternatively, the Birmingham - Reading via Oxford could come that way instead?

The 2tph between Reading and Birmingham are busy enough as it is, no chance of removing one of those.

Now Reading has been upgraded to provide additional platforms, you might lobby the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) at the next XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) franchise bidding for say, an extra Birmingham - Reading via Stroud hourly service?

Reading station may be larger now but still only has minimum space for additional terminating services, certainly once crossrail has started and possibly East-West as well. Continuing through Reading on to say Gatwick or Heathrow (via WRATH) could be an option.

Or lobby the DfT for the next Greater Western franchise to extend the hourly Paddington to Cheltenham Bi-Mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) services to Birmingham New Street.  That would remove the need for that clumsy shunt at Cheltenham Spa and be an ideal service to stop at the new Worcestershire Parkway station.

Yes, certainly the best idea with regards to utilising the existing (or currently being built) infrastructure

[grahame]

Or lobby the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for the next Greater Western franchise to extend the hourly Paddington to Cheltenham Bi-Mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) services to Birmingham New Street.  That would remove the need for that clumsy shunt at Cheltenham Spa and be an ideal service to stop at the new Worcestershire Parkway station.

Yes, certainly the best idea with regards to utilising the existing (or currently being built) infrastructure

Cheltenham to Birmingham is (?) busiest part of the NE / NW to SW route.  Local trains through Five Ways every 10 minutes (so 6 an hour) but only 3 of the intervals have an express in them. So - platforms and conflicting movements allowing looks like there might be capacity (amateur guess!).   Potential stops between Cheltenham Spa and Birmingham include Worcester Parkway, Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, Bromsgrove and University.  University of Birmingham has some 34,000 students ... with Heathrow Western Link, the overseas ones have an easy route to Heathrow ...

[ChrisB]

But you would need at least two? additional IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) trains for this, and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) might complain of extraction from Cheltenham-Birmingham

[IndustryInsider]

It was just a suggestion, and no doubt there would be a few hurdles to overcome, ChrisB - there always is.  Though I agree with Adelante_CCT in that it's much more likely than your suggestion of lobbying to reduce the Birmingham-Leamington-Banbury-Oxford service down to one train an hour.