Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

UNBELIEVABLE! NO actually it’s not. Shocking and quite frankly poor. I thought there was a problem with RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) when I looked up trains today between Bath and London and most had disappeared as they originate from South Wales, then I came here.

So yesterday we had Mark Hopwood having a go at Network Rail for not finalising trains until last Wednesday only for his company to come along and do this. Hmmmmm.

Could be some serious issues at Swindon and Reading today.

[martyjon]

Had planned to go to Didcot today with trainer leaving Temple Meads at 0940. The two following trains at 1040 and 1140 are cancelled. Don't fancy sharing a rammed train with pi55ed and pi55ed off rugby fans going to Twickenham who have had an early morning scramble for the ONLY train that will get them to the match in time. The 1642 return from Didcot is also cancelled. Leaving there at 1542 cuts the day short, while 1742 is rather a long time to wait after the 2 minutes of joy and discovery that is the rest of Didcot.

See how it looks on Monday.

So how will the rugby fans with tickets for the match fare when they get to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and find there is no train that will get them to the match in time for kick-off.

[Timmer]

This really is a new low on the GW^▸ (Great Western) mainline and Grayling needs to get a grip. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and Network Rail Western region aren’t fit for purpose.

My sympathies with anyone travelling to/from London or Twickenham today.

[chuffed]

So how will the rugby fans with tickets for the match fare when they get to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and find there is no train that will get them to the match in time for kick-off ?

Given how tanked up, some of them will be, I hope BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) have got horses and riot shields on standby. A few water cannon ( apply to Boris Johnson) might be useful too.

[didcotdean]

Chiltern have apparently provided 18,754 extra seats between Oxford and Marylebone this weekend ... difficulty might be getting to Oxford. Also have Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley today.

[TaplowGreen]

So how will the rugby fans with tickets for the match fare when they get to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and find there is no train that will get them to the match in time for kick-off ?

Given how tanked up, some of them will be, I hope BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) have got horses and riot shields on standby. A few water cannon ( apply to Boris Johnson) might be useful too.

I suspect that there will be a number of very wealthy taxi drivers by the end of the day, with receipts and compensation claim forms landing on GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) desks early next week.

There'll be no need for horses or riot shields, these are rugby folks remember, many of whom will be current/ex servicemen to boot, not football morons.

There's also all the Exeter Chiefs fans travelling to the Stoop for their match with Quins too of course.

Now if it was Swansea v Chelsea today.......it may have got interesting.

[broadgage]

So how will the rugby fans with tickets for the match fare when they get to BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and find there is no train that will get them to the match in time for kick-off ?

Given how tanked up, some of them will be, I hope BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) have got horses and riot shields on standby. A few water cannon ( apply to Boris Johnson) might be useful too.

As others have posted, rugby fans are less liable to bad behaviour than are football fans, in general.
However I do perceive some risk of disorder even from rugby fans if provoked to the extent that looks likely.
It would seem that fans will get as far as Bristol, but then find no effective service to Reading.

In my view, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) should be held liable for consequential losses in this case, such as a refund of the money paid for rugby tickets, and the costs of taxis.
GWR and other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) are very keen to extract penalty fares from passengers who have "made a mistake", perhaps this should work both ways ? Since GWR have "made a mistake" by not running an effective service, they should consider a flat rate penalty payment of say £80 to each passenger affected. This should be in addition to refunding wasted tickets to matches and useless railway tickets. Just as a penalty fare is in addition to payment of the fare evaded.

[bobm]

I’m on the 07:27 from London Paddington to Plymouth.  We stopped at Oxford to change crew and am
Now approaching Swindon.

It’s busy but by no means overcrowded.  However suspect later services will be different.

Apparently yesterday around 400 travelled to Penzance for the Gig racing festival on the Isles of Scilly.  I wonder how their travel was.

[ellendune]

UNBELIEVABLE! NO actually it’s not. Shocking and quite frankly poor. I thought there was a problem with RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) when I looked up trains today between Bath and London and most had disappeared as they originate from South Wales, then I came here.

So yesterday we had Mark Hopwood having a go at Network Rail for not finalising trains until last Wednesday only for his company to come along and do this. Hmmmmm.

Could be some serious issues at Swindon and Reading today.

Presumably they could not do a crew roster until there was some sort of timetable, which might have been another reason for Mr Hopwood's letter. 

[phile]

UNBELIEVABLE! NO actually it’s not. Shocking and quite frankly poor. I thought there was a problem with RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) when I looked up trains today between Bath and London and most had disappeared as they originate from South Wales, then I came here.

So yesterday we had Mark Hopwood having a go at Network Rail for not finalising trains until last Wednesday only for his company to come along and do this. Hmmmmm.

Could be some serious issues at Swindon and Reading today.

Have read elsewhere that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) didn't receive the Timetable for today from Network Rail until 1700 last night.    How can GWR be expected to plan accordingly.

Presumably they could not do a crew roster until there was some sort of timetable, which might have been another reason for Mr Hopwood's letter. 

[IndustryInsider]

There'll be no need for horses or riot shields, these are rugby folks remember, many of whom will be current/ex servicemen to boot, not football morons.

As others have posted, rugby fans are less liable to bad behaviour than are football fans, in general.
However I do perceive some risk of disorder even from rugby fans if provoked to the extent that looks likely.

Rugby fans apparently are more of a nuisance to the British Transport Police than football fans.

[Timmer]

Presumably they could not do a crew roster until there was some sort of timetable, which might have been another reason for Mr Hopwood's letter. 

But surely they knew they were going to run an hourly service to/from South Wales using a similar timetable to times previous when services have operated via Oxford? It’s been on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) for a few weeks just with big gaps in the timetable.

[broadgage]

UNBELIEVABLE! NO actually it’s not. Shocking and quite frankly poor. I thought there was a problem with RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) when I looked up trains today between Bath and London and most had disappeared as they originate from South Wales, then I came here.

So yesterday we had Mark Hopwood having a go at Network Rail for not finalising trains until last Wednesday only for his company to come along and do this. Hmmmmm.

Could be some serious issues at Swindon and Reading today.

Presumably they could not do a crew roster until there was some sort of timetable, which might have been another reason for Mr Hopwood's letter. 

I disagree. Shortage of train crew is a serious and ongoing problem. It would therefore have made sense to roster ALL AVIALABLE train crew, even if the exact duties required of each worker were not known.

I hope that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have not been so incompetent as leave otherwise available crew sitting at home, whilst cancelling numerous trains.

[ellendune]

Presumably they could not do a crew roster until there was some sort of timetable, which might have been another reason for Mr Hopwood's letter. 

Twitter message from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) supports this view.

[SandTEngineer]

Lets hope the Transport Select Committee gets hold of this and drags in all of the responsible NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) managers and gives them all a good spanking....