Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

Regarding post #402, linked to above, I find the statement that I quote below,

 "The levels of staffing is specified by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).  The level of staffing has been met.  The DfT/TFL^▸ (Transport for London) paid for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to recruit and train a specified number of drivers.  This was also met."

To be very surprising indeed, as I was not aware that the DfT specified staffing levels. If the O/P is correct in this, then does that mean that GWR are in fact doing OK by DfT standards and that we should accept the present level of cancellations as being the "new normal" ?

[Timmer]

Yes there is it is as a-driver says further up this thread http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18719.msg231525#msg231525

I suggest you go tell those whose journeys have been messed up this past half term and this weekend and long before under the stewardship of Firstgroup. People are tired of excuses, they just want to get what they pay good money for.

Delays and cancellations happen in any form of transportation but this is about a failure to provide an adequate resource in the form of providing enough staff to run the advertised service. This has been going on for years yet the fares go up every year along with promises that things will get better for you handing over even more money.

I respect your unwavering defence of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ellendune but there are some high up management in GWR who are paid a lot of money to preside over a service that lets passengers down time and time again. Where’s the accountability from these managers?

[ellendune]

Yes there is it is as a-driver says further up this thread http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18719.msg231525#msg231525

I suggest you go tell those whose journeys have been messed up this past half term and this weekend and long before under the stewardship of Firstgroup. People are tired of excuses, they just want to get what they pay good money for.

Delays and cancellations happen in any form of transportation but this is about a failure to provide an adequate resource in the form of providing enough staff to run the advertised service. This has been going on for years yet the fares go up every year along with promises that things will get better for you handing over even more money.

I respect your unwavering defence of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ellendune but there are some high up management in GWR who are paid a lot of money to preside over a service that lets passengers down time and time again. Where’s the accountability from these managers?

IMO^▸ (in my opinion) GWR are being paid to take the flak for the failure of DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page).  What is worse they can do absolutely nothing about it!  So who's stewardship is it?

You can criticise them for not providing enough information and for their appalling response times to letters of complaint or any of those other things, but the one thing they can do nothing about at the moment is provide a more reliable train service until:

a) The new trains ordered by DfT work reliably.
b) they are given enough time with enough new infrastructure to retrain their existing drivers to work the new trains.

DfT knew this was going to be bad - that is why GWR were given a direct award. 

Of course GWR could launch a PR^▸ (Public Relations) campaign to explain exactly what the problem is and why it will take time to solve, but that might be seen as a career limiting manoeuvre by those people at Great Minster House.  Though I suspect they can't be that choosy or they will run out of anyone willing to bid. 

[bradshaw]

I find it curious that SWR^» (South Western Railway - about), with four days of strike action taking place, can run a full service with fewer cancellations than GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on a ‘normal’ day.

[broadgage]

"until the new trains ordered by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) work reliably"

Do I surmise from the above quote that the new trains are NOT working reliably ? I thought that the general view was that they are splendid and that only a few naysayers and old dinosaurs like me dared to express doubts about reliability.

[JayMac]

Did you express doubts about reliability prior to introduction?

I thought it was the subjective issues of seat comfort/alignment and catering that were your bête noire.

[broadgage]

Yes, I did.
Can not find the post in order to quote it, but I said something like "Diesel engines and electric drives are mature technologies and should hopefully work reasonably reliably. The problems IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) are likely to be with computers and software. Unlike mechanical components, software is NEVER a mature technology, "if it works it must be obsolete"
The new DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) are likely to contain a large number of computer systems, all of which have to work together, first time every time"

In other posts I also expressed doubts as to electrification being completed on time, and about the reliability of the electrification equipment. I specifically forecast that a single pigeon could cause widespread disruption.

[a-driver]

Hitachi as proven software on the Cl. 395’s but the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) didn’t want that. They wanted a different unproven system, and guess what?!

[mjones]

There can be no defence for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) having to cancel so many IC^▸ (Inter City) services today particularly to/from South Wales where the service is just hourly coupled with those travelling from Swansea and Cardiff having to get a bus to Newport owing to engineering work.

..

Especially when those buses fail to meet the timetabled connecting service, and the following one is cancelled, as I've just experienced.

The bus operation seemed quite disorganised, with slow loading at Cardiff, and then being dropped off on a busy road outside Newport station with no proper signposting, so a lot of passengers were confused about which direction to head in, and nowhere safe to cross the road.
..

[TonyK]

Hitachi as proven software on the Cl. 395’s but the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) didn’t want that. They wanted a different unproven system, and guess what?!

That proves it!

[stuving]

Hitachi as proven software on the Cl. 395’s but the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) didn’t want that. They wanted a different unproven system, and guess what?!

It's a very different train, so it needs quite different software. A bit like the driver for a bit of PC hardware, and not one where there's a standard interface/protocol.

Within that, there should be a lot of reuse of software components, especially of the same team were involved. I would expect (and hope) that the software is now the responsibility of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-based team, in which case it would have been transferred at some stage. That can be tricky...

[TaplowGreen]

Yes there is it is as a-driver says further up this thread http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18719.msg231525#msg231525

I suggest you go tell those whose journeys have been messed up this past half term and this weekend and long before under the stewardship of Firstgroup. People are tired of excuses, they just want to get what they pay good money for.

Delays and cancellations happen in any form of transportation but this is about a failure to provide an adequate resource in the form of providing enough staff to run the advertised service. This has been going on for years yet the fares go up every year along with promises that things will get better for you handing over even more money.

I respect your unwavering defence of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ellendune but there are some high up management in GWR who are paid a lot of money to preside over a service that lets passengers down time and time again. Where’s the accountability from these managers?

IMO^▸ (in my opinion) GWR are being paid to take the flak for the failure of DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page).  What is worse they can do absolutely nothing about it!  So who's stewardship is it?

You can criticise them for not providing enough information and for their appalling response times to letters of complaint or any of those other things, but the one thing they can do nothing about at the moment is provide a more reliable train service until:

a) The new trains ordered by DfT work reliably.
b) they are given enough time with enough new infrastructure to retrain their existing drivers to work the new trains.

DfT knew this was going to be bad - that is why GWR were given a direct award. 

Of course GWR could launch a PR^▸ (Public Relations) campaign to explain exactly what the problem is and why it will take time to solve, but that might be seen as a career limiting manoeuvre by those people at Great Minster House.  Though I suspect they can't be that choosy or they will run out of anyone willing to bid. 

[ellendune]

You clearly weren't a passenger on Virgin WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority)) when they were being criticised during the rebuilding of the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line)  Or perhaps you were putting forward the same blame the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) for everything view. This is just history repeating itself. 

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are far from perfect in many ways but blaming them for things outside their control is not going to help anyone.  If you think any other operator (private or - dare I say it - public) would be able to run any better service in these circumstances then you are mistaken.

This continued criticism further demoralises staff so that they are less likely to turn out when they do not need to and strengthening the power of the most militant in the unions. II makes an interesting point about the intervention of the Unions to stop some incentives to work additional hours. But GWR are also trying to negotiate with the same unions on use of the new stock.  et that wrong and you could be having to find other ways to travel like they did in Southern. 

With the benefit of hindsight GWR should have refused a franchise extension and left DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) to take it on themselves.  The train service would be no better but DfT would have nowhere to hide.  Our railways are run by real people not robots. 

If you have ever been in a position where you were being blamed for not being able do something that is totally outside your control then you should understand the effect of your criticism. 

[eXPassenger]

You clearly weren't a passenger on Virgin WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority)) when they were being criticised during the rebuilding of the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line)  Or perhaps you were putting forward the same blame the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) for everything view. This is just history repeating itself. 

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are far from perfect in many ways but blaming them for things outside their control is not going to help anyone.  If you think any other operator (private or - dare I say it - public) would be able to run any better service in these circumstances then you are mistaken.

This continued criticism further demoralises staff so that they are less likely to turn out when they do not need to and strengthening the power of the most militant in the unions. II makes an interesting point about the intervention of the Unions to stop some incentives to work additional hours. But GWR are also trying to negotiate with the same unions on use of the new stock.  et that wrong and you could be having to find other ways to travel like they did in Southern. 

With the benefit of hindsight GWR should have refused a franchise extension and left DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) to take it on themselves.  The train service would be no better but DfT would have nowhere to hide.  Our railways are run by real people not robots. 

If you have ever been in a position where you were being blamed for not being able do something that is totally outside your control then you should understand the effect of your criticism. 

Sorry.  I understand where you are coming from but if you are aware that things will go pear shaped you should do the following in advance:

- Beef up your customer service team and make them highly responsive
- Do not launch a major advertising campaign when you know you will have problems delivering the expectations you have raised
- Set up contingency plans.  In this case planned contracted road transport that can quickly slot into place.
- Agree with your sponsor that you will explain the problems, apologise for them and make OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website) payments in compensation

If you have done this then you can genuinely claim that you foresaw the problem and planned to mitigate the issues.

[JayMac]

eXPassenger, well said.

It beggars belief that some are trying to defend the indefensible.