Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

Has the experience been documented anywhere else other than this forum?

Don't know.
It is however known that at Paddington that the train was announced as terminating short.
It is also known that it did indeed terminate short.

It would however be interesting to know more details.

[TaplowGreen]

Whilst I would not support violence, had I been present, I might have been tempted to try a bit of passive resistance ! Simply sit in the waiting area and decline to move. It would take several policemen to carry me out, and since the police are often a lot more reasonable than "the railway" One might hope that the police might enquire as to what was going on.

I suspect that the Police, given their greater predisposition to common sense and the wellbeing of the public would have suggested politely but firmly that the waiting area should remain open for customers rather than dumping them outside in the cold/dark to await the arrival of the West Bromwich cavalry and would have escalated the situation rapidly up the chain of command in order to catalyse the removal of the collective GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) thumb from the orifice.

There simply has to be an on call senior manager within GWR to handle this type of scenario or other serious OOH problems to whom staff on the ground can refer to...........hasn't there??? 

[Timmer]

Well GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) managed to run three Paddington to Bath services and return this afternoon/evening presumably operated by London based train crew. The other London services to/from Bath and the Swindon-Bath shuttles all canned.

A pretty much full Bath to Westbury also ran so Bath wasn’t totally bereft of train services today.

Next weekend we have South Wales and Bristol services diverted via the Berks and Hants to look forward to because of engineering work at Swindon. Wonder what mischief to the planned timetable because of traincrew issues we’ll see then?

I’ll try and be optimistic and say hopefully not a lot.

[grahame]

And trouble getting to Cardiff again ...

Cancellations to services between Newport South Wales and Cardiff Central
Due to theft of signalling cables between Newport (South Wales) and Cardiff Central all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed by up to 120 minutes. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice

Due to a cable theft the signalling system cannot be used between Newport and Cardiff Central. Trains are currently unable to operate and no trains are running between Wales and the Bristol area.

Network Rail will be deploying staff to allow a degraded method of working to operate between Newport and Cardiff. This will take some time to implement, and trains will be subject to severe delay and alteration in the meantime.

Attempts are being made to source Replacement Road Transport to operate between Bristol Parkway, Newport and Cardiff Central.

[TaplowGreen]

And trouble getting to Cardiff again ...

Cancellations to services between Newport South Wales and Cardiff Central
Due to theft of signalling cables between Newport (South Wales) and Cardiff Central all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed by up to 120 minutes. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice

Due to a cable theft the signalling system cannot be used between Newport and Cardiff Central. Trains are currently unable to operate and no trains are running between Wales and the Bristol area.

Network Rail will be deploying staff to allow a degraded method of working to operate between Newport and Cardiff. This will take some time to implement, and trains will be subject to severe delay and alteration in the meantime.

Attempts are being made to source Replacement Road Transport to operate between Bristol Parkway, Newport and Cardiff Central.

.........across the West Midlands bus drivers are starting their engines........

[TaplowGreen]

.......cancellations so far today.........good luck if you're aiming to travel London - Bristol this morning!

05:29 Swansea to London Paddington due 08:30
07:59 Swansea to London Paddington due 11:01
08:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 09:41
08:15 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 10:22
08:43 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 11:29
09:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 10:39
10:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 11:40
10:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:39
11:00 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 13:07
11:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 13:14
12:15 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 14:22
12:22 London Paddington to Moreton-In-Marsh due 14:00
14:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 15:41
14:50 Moreton-In-Marsh to London Paddington due 16:29
15:00 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 17:07

[Timmer]

  after a good weekend last week it doesn’t look good for this weekend.

[TaplowGreen]

More cancellations being added.............

15:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 16:38
16:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:38
18:29 Swansea to London Paddington due 21:28
18:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 20:14
19:45 London Paddington to Swansea due 22:44
20:04 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 22:29

[Timmer]

Interesting to see the 1145 Pad-Swansea is being diverted between Swindon and Bristol Parkway to call at Chippenham and Bath Spa This is due to a shortage of train drivers. Overcrowding due to earlier Bristol services being cancelled?

[grahame]

Interesting to see the 1145 Pad-Swansea is being diverted between Swindon and Bristol Parkway to call at Chippenham and Bath Spa This is due to a shortage of train drivers. Overcrowding due to earlier Bristol services being cancelled?

There is some logic in that - provided the trains will have the capacity. 

Reductio ad absurdum ...  2 an hour Bristol to London + 1 an hour Swansea to London and 1 an hour Cheltenham Spa to London (4 trains) reduces to 2 trains - one from Swansea and 1 from Bristol, with connections at Bath Spa for London to give a second option in each hour from Bristol, and at Swindon with an extra local from Cheltenham Spa.

Of course once you also need to serve Malmesbury Road ...

[bobm]

after a good weekend last week it doesn’t look good for this weekend.

Sunnier weather?

[Timmer]

Interesting to see the 1145 Pad-Swansea is being diverted between Swindon and Bristol Parkway to call at Chippenham and Bath Spa This is due to a shortage of train drivers. Overcrowding due to earlier Bristol services being cancelled?

There is some logic in that - provided the trains will have the capacity. 

Reductio ad absurdum ...  2 an hour Bristol to London + 1 an hour Swansea to London and 1 an hour Cheltenham Spa to London (4 trains) reduces to 2 trains - one from Swansea and 1 from Bristol, with connections at Bath Spa for London to give a second option in each hour from Bristol, and at Swindon with an extra local from Cheltenham Spa.

Of course once you also need to serve Malmesbury Road ...

Try 0 an hour between Pad-Bristol:
1130, 1200 and 1230 all canned hence the decision to divert the Swansea train. Bet it’s cosy on board.

[grahame]

after a good weekend last week it doesn’t look good for this weekend.

Sunnier weather?

Well - last weekend there were an awful lot of pre-planned early cancellations because Swindon was shut.   Is the difference today is that they're just being implemented on the day?

[didcotdean]

And the headline message on the website?

"There is generally a good service on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) network."

[Timmer]

Try 0 an hour between Pad-Bristol:
1130, 1200 and 1230 all canned hence the decision to divert the Swansea train. Bet it’s cosy on board.

As the saying well sort of goes...what doesn’t go down on the ‘down main’ won’t come back up on the ‘up main’.
1400, 1430 and 1500 Bristol-Pad all canned. Shortage of London based crew day?