Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

................today's collection (so far) - all cancelled - to pick just one, cancelling the 1722 from Cardiff back to London is particularly moronic as it would be one of the first to be available for those leaving the Millennium stadium after today's Wales v Italy match.


08:00 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 10:54
08:27 London Paddington to Cardiff Central due 10:57
09:30 London Paddington to Swansea due 12:48
09:54 Swindon to Cheltenham Spa due 10:54
11:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Portsmouth Harbour due 13:52
11:14 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 14:07
11:18 Cheltenham Spa to Swindon due 12:23
12:28 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 14:45
12:37 London Paddington to Swansea due 15:57
14:42 London Paddington to Hereford due 17:56
15:46 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 18:01
16:30 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 18:46
16:51 Swansea to London Paddington due 20:12
17:05 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 18:58
17:22 Cardiff Central to London Paddington due 20:00
17:28 Cardiff Central to Swansea due 18:24
17:30 Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:38
18:30 Hereford to London Paddington due 22:13
19:05 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 20:57
19:37 London Paddington to Swansea due 22:55
19:42 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 22:26
19:45 Cardiff Central to Swansea due 20:41
19:46 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 22:00
20:03 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare due 22:28
20:27 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 22:40
22:03 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 00:06
22:33 London Paddington to Bristol Parkway due 00:17
22:49 Weston-Super-Mare to Bristol Temple Meads due 23:06
23:03 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 01:03

[bobm]

Cancellations to services on all routes

Due to a shortage of train crew between London Paddington and Swansea:
Train services running across the whole Great Western Railway network may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Due to a train crew shortage today, some Great Western Railway High Speed Services between London Paddington-Penzance/Bristol/Swansea/Cheltenham/Worcester/Hereford are subject to alteration or cancellation.

A majority of the additional trains that were due to operate today in conjunction with the rugby match at Cardiff are cancelled today along with many other alterations. Individual train alterations can be found on journey check, https://www.journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway/ .

Please allow more time for your journey.

If you have been delayed you may be entitled to compensation, please visit https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/delay-compensation for more details.

Last Updated:11/03/2018 08:45

[Timmer]

Another day of service excellence from Rail Business of the Year 

Now up to 31 services cancelled. Last weekend GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could hide behind the poor weather cancelling services...not today.

It’s abundantly clear train crew don’t want to work on Sundays as is their right and they are excercising that right. Shows what they think about the company they work for.

If you are travelling to/from South Wales, Cheltenham and the Cotswolds it’s another day of cancellations and overcrowded trains.

As for travelling out of London mid to late evening the IC^▸ (Inter City) service is decimated. Unacceptable.

[chuffed]

No doubt the Hopwood helicopter and/or chauffeur driven limousine are available to whisk him to wherever he wants ( wants, not needs) to go, in some comfort and style ! I don't think even ChrisB has a leg to stand on, with this one !

[TaplowGreen]

No doubt the Hopwood helicopter and/or chauffeur driven limousine are available to whisk him to wherever he wants ( wants, not needs) to go, in some comfort and style ! I don't think even ChrisB has a leg to stand on, with this one !

Hey of course, that champagne won't drink itself!!!

..................but seriously, what a bloody disgrace. The time is long overdue for Hopwood to stand up and publicly account for his Company's appalling performance.

[Timmer]

Well someone needs to stand up and take responsibility for this shambles of a franchise but that would mean more than one person and going back years and years. What we see on the GW^▸ (Great Western) mainline today has been years in the making.

I have no problem with people or organisations being recognised for good service but it was way premature to be awarding GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) such an award until things have greatly improved. Cancelling 31 trains is not an improvement.

[martyjon]

Todays 08:27 Paddington - Cardiff cancellation is 1Z30, a planned Rugby special
Todays 17:22 Cardiff - Paddington cancellation is 1Z50, return of above.
Todays 17:28 Cardiff - Bristol Temple Meads cancellation is 1Z60 return of 1Z20 rugby special NOT reported as cancelled YET.

With the above and one other cancellation on PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) to CDF^» (Cardiff - next trains) route the sardines are going to be really cosy on their sports supporting journeys today.

[a-driver]

Discussions have been ongoing between GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)/the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and the unions for sometime to get Sunday’s included in the working week for both drivers and guards/train managers. I think train managers were or are on and enhanced rate as an incentive to work Sunday’s. Once the train is completed there will be more than enough drivers (I don’t know about other grades) to bring Sunday’s within the working week so it will happen.

I, for one, don’t work Sunday’s and never have done. It had nothing to do with what I thought about GWR but it was the one day I could guarantee to have with my family. My wife works Mon to Fri. I signed a contract of employment which stipulated this and no financial incentive would have changed my mind. This are T&C’s bought over the days of BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)).

If another company took over the franchise our terms and conditions would not change. You would still be in a situation where Sunday’s are not in the working week.

[TaplowGreen]

Discussions have been ongoing between GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)/the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and the unions for sometime to get Sunday’s included in the working week for both drivers and guards/train managers. I think train managers were or are on and enhanced rate as an incentive to work Sunday’s. Once the train is completed there will be more than enough drivers (I don’t know about other grades) to bring Sunday’s within the working week so it will happen.

I, for one, don’t work Sunday’s and never have done. It had nothing to do with what I thought about GWR but it was the one day I could guarantee to have with my family. My wife works Mon to Fri. I signed a contract of employment which stipulated this and no financial incentive would have changed my mind. This are T&C’s bought over the days of BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)).

If another company took over the franchise our terms and conditions would not change. You would still be in a situation where Sunday’s are not in the working week.

You're currently fortunate enough to enjoy those terms and conditions and no-one can blame you for taking advantage of them, it's not the fault of individual employees however the world has moved on in the decades since BR and most people get used to variations in their working practices (even the Civil Service!).

It's incumbent upon (primarily) your senior managers to work with the Unions in order that the 7 day service to which the railway is committed can be fulfilled - that will probably mean both sides having to move towards each other and give a little, as generally happens in the real world when negotiations take place. The days of folding arms, jutting out chins and taking am immovable position are thankfully virtually over.

Endless talking seems to be producing little in terms of results, and the situation is getting worse, not better. Today really is the icing on the cake.

If I was an employee, or more especially a manager of an organisation that was repeatedly failing on all levels to deliver, I'd be thoroughly ashamed.............in fact in pretty much every sector I've worked in, if I was towards the top of the tree, I'd probably be looking for another job if performance was this poor.

GWR is not currently serving the public in anything approaching an acceptable level in this context.As others have indicated, pictures of Hopwood glugging champagne at mutual backslapping sessions does not help the mood........remember a chap who fiddled whilst Rome burned?

[Richard Fairhurst]

It's a great shame that no senior manager within GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has the courage or integrity to come out and publicly explain the reason for this ongoing farce, preferring instead to leave the grunts on the frontline (digital or otherwise) to take the stick and trot out standard non answers (which no doubt they have been briefed to offer), it is the very nadir of Leadership and the culture clearly comes from the very top down.

The reason given by Jane Jones (GWR Head of Public Affairs) at the public meeting in Charlbury a few weeks ago was that the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) driver shortage is Network Rail's fault. Because the electrification was running late, drivers weren't able to be trained on bimode IETs due to the lack of a "long enough" electrified section to learn on. The Network Rail person (sorry, forgot his name) sitting at the same table didn't contradict this.

I have to admit I'm not entirely convinced this is a good reason. Sure, electrification was late. So run the IETs on diesel only for a while and refuel them more often: there should be plenty of fuel in the tank for a Worcester-Paddington out and back.

And electrification running late shouldn't have been a shock to GWR - there was plenty of time to rejig diagrams so that a couple more Turbos stayed in the Thames Valley to run always-cancelled services like the 16.22. It does smack a bit of waking up on 1st January with a hangover and saying "ngggh, I can't remember what I did last night - did I really send all the 180s up north?".

[rogerw]

I am sure that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would have liked to keep more turbos in the Thames valley.  However they were contractually required to release 150s to Northern and the turbos were required to replace them.  In theory there should have been enough IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) to cover the Cotswold turns but this has not proved to be the case

[a-driver]

I think everyone accepts the world has moved on, everyone accepts Sunday's will eventually be in the working week and trains will operate on Boxing Day.  When you say both sides need to move towards each other and give a little from a staff point of view, you're either committed to working Sunday's or not.  There isn't much room for us to move. It's going to take a large basic pay rise or a reduction in the working week to tempt enough staff to accept.  They've had enhanced rates of pay on Sunday to tempt drivers in to work and even that doesn't work, proof that throwing money at a problem doesn't always fix it.

The current poor performance can easily be justified, and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) knows the reasons why and this is shown in the fact the DfT keep extending First's contract to operate the franchise without competition.  The DfT know full well they won't be able to attract the money through the franchise bids until the infrastructure work has been completed and the new trains have been fully introduced.  If the DfT were unhappy with the number of cancellations and delays and thought that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) were fully responsible they would have intervened by now.  
 
GWR have kept there end of the contract, for example, in the West Country the driver depots in those regions have had, for some time now, the driver numbers in place to commence training on the new IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)'s.  The first one isn't suppose to run in passenger service until June/July.  

[martyjon]

.... and to add to the woes of the rugby fans, the 08:30 Paddington - Swansea was also a LATE cancellation due to a problem under investigation. Probably fans booked on the cancelled 08:27 Paddington - Cardiff special trying to board the 08:30 instead.

[a-driver]

I have to admit I'm not entirely convinced this is a good reason. Sure, electrification was late. So run the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on diesel only for a while and refuel them more often: there should be plenty of fuel in the tank for a Worcester-Paddington out and back.

The delay in electrification lead to delays in manufacturing, this is turn delayed Hitachi commencing testing the IET's and subsequently handing over units to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to commence training.  Don't forget, the 9-car IET's have had to be modified from a fully electric unit to a bi-mode.  
Rumor had it, that Hitachi stated the trains weren't ready for passenger traffic but GWR had been left with no choice but to use them.

[grahame]

Whilst passenger journey numbers have rocketed over the past 20 years - since privatisation - the division of responsibility in that current system makes for an environment where buck passing thrives.

All the passenger wants is a train (s)he can rely on to run more or less to time, at a time (s)he wants,  with enough capacity for comfort (which means seated for medium and longer time journeys), safe and at a sensible price.

When something's not right, the passenger looks at a failure of the rail industry - and whether that's the train operator, the infrastructure provider, the specifier / controller of services, the previous or current government, the rail unions, the train manufacturers / servicer or the RoSCos is of minimal consequence.   At least we all knew it was "British Railways" to point the finger at in the [good/bad] old days.