Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I certainly wouldn't rule out suspension of UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-France travel as well in the near future, but at the moment in terms of Brittany Ferries, all Portsmouth-Caen, Portsmouth-St Malo, and Poole-Cherbourg services are running normally in both directions.

Portsmouth-Cherbourg services are currently slated to resume on April 30, 2020. All Portsmouth-Le Havre services are cancelled until April 8.

Seven Plymouth-Roscoff services have been cancelled between now and April 9.

BF^▸ (Brake First (carriage)) have already made some further cancellations, complete for some (only some?) of the Spanish and "to consolidate some of our services" for others. They may be just returning people from Spain - and for all routes they (and others) must be expected to run down service levels even more.

[grahame]

Greetings from Callac in Brittany, where cafes, restaurants, the cinema and non-food shops are indeed shuting down, although a couple of restaurants have interpreted this as being able to remain open for takeaways only. Food shops, the chemist, banks, our tabac (with bar area closed off) petrol stations and vets will remain open, along with the town hall and post office. .... [snip]

Greeting, Lee ... with many thanks for that update. Although you're now located some distance away, there's a curious kickback in the current virus crisis that brings us closer.    Look after yourselves - see you much more (please ;-) ) on the forum ...

Updates "from my area" probably a good idea all around the Coffee Shop ...

[TaplowGreen]

Only one cancellation today (so far) due to crew shortage - the weekend "self isolation" seems to have done the trick! 

[Lee]

Greetings from Callac in Brittany, where cafes, restaurants, the cinema and non-food shops are indeed shuting down, although a couple of restaurants have interpreted this as being able to remain open for takeaways only. Food shops, the chemist, banks, our tabac (with bar area closed off) petrol stations and vets will remain open, along with the town hall and post office. .... [snip]

Greeting, Lee ... with many thanks for that update. Although you're now located some distance away, there's a curious kickback in the current virus crisis that brings us closer.    Look after yourselves - see you much more (please ;-) ) on the forum ...

Updates "from my area" probably a good idea all around the Coffee Shop ...

Now under actual lockdown for at least 15 days - Oh joy!

I certainly wouldn't rule out suspension of UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-France travel as well in the near future, but at the moment in terms of Brittany Ferries, all Portsmouth-Caen, Portsmouth-St Malo, and Poole-Cherbourg services are running normally in both directions.

Portsmouth-Cherbourg services are currently slated to resume on April 30, 2020. All Portsmouth-Le Havre services are cancelled until April 8.

Seven Plymouth-Roscoff services have been cancelled between now and April 9.

BF^▸ (Brake First (carriage)) have already made some further cancellations, complete for some (only some?) of the Spanish and "to consolidate some of our services" for others. They may be just returning people from Spain - and for all routes they (and others) must be expected to run down service levels even more.

Spot on stuving predictions there. All UK-France Brittany Ferries except Portsmouth-Caen to be withdrawn over next couple of days, and Spanish services indeed only operating to return people from Spain.

[stuving]

Spot on stuving predictions there. All UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-France Brittany Ferries except Portsmouth-Caen to be withdrawn over next couple of days, and Spanish services indeed only operating to return people from Spain.
[/quote]

And yesterday, a full shutdown of passenger services:

Following advice given by governments in all countries to which we sail, we have been forced to temporarily suspend passenger services connecting the UK, Ireland, France and Spain. We apologise sincerely to all those affected.

All passenger sailings between the UK and France, Ireland and France and Ireland-Spain have ceased operating for the time-being. The final passenger repatriation service leaving Spain for the UK this weekend is full.

A small number of ships in our fleet will continue to operate with limited crew as a lifeline freight-only service. During this period of uncertainty we must do all we can to ensure that essential goods continue to flow freely.

[GBM]

Slowly coming back to the weekend cancellation normal
Journeycheck today
Other Train Service Updates
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18 will be started from Bourne End.
It will no longer call at Marlow.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster and Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[bobm]

Slowly coming back to the weekend cancellation normal
Journeycheck today
Other Train Service Updates
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18 will be started from Bourne End.
It will no longer call at Marlow.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster and Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Note one of these amendments was due to a lack of platform staff rather than on board crew - slightly unusual.

[TaplowGreen]

Slowly coming back to the weekend cancellation normal
Journeycheck today
Other Train Service Updates
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18 will be started from Bourne End.
It will no longer call at Marlow.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47
09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:47 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster and Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Note one of these amendments was due to a lack of platform staff rather than on board crew - slightly unusual.

and yesterday we were back to some 5 vice 9 shortforms too - wonderful that normal service is gradually being restored!!! 

[Marlburian]

...
08:55 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:18 will be started from Bourne End.
It will no longer call at Marlow.
This is due to a shortage of station staff...

As I won't be travelling by train for some time, I haven't bothered much with this thread, but my eye was caught by this excerpt. My first thought was that the reason was to make up time for connections at Maidenhead (though I suspect that at whatever time the train arrived at the town there would have been winners and losers, depending on whether one was heading east or west). But why did a shortage of station staff, presumably at Marlow, cause the problem? Are they now deemed essential to implement social distancing? I have a vague idea that any pre-Lockdown staffing at Marlow was quite limited.

In ignorance ...

[eightf48544]

Marlow is unmanned so a puzzle. Bourne End and Cookham are manned weekday mornings as I believe should Furze Platt.

Maybe they meam a guard to do the token at Bourne End.

The other thing with not serving Marlow is that there is no bus service from Bourne End to Marlow you have to go via  High Wycombe on two separate buses.

[stuving]

Marlow is unmanned so a puzzle. Bourne End and Cookham are manned weekday mornings as I believe should Furze Platt.

Maybe they meam a guard to do the token at Bourne End.

The other thing with not serving Marlow is that there is no bus service from Bourne End to Marlow you have to go via  High Wycombe on two separate buses.

That is the first train from Marlow, using a unit that went there last night - or didn't apparently, though RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows no excusereason. This morning's first leg from Marlow shows as cancelled "due to a planning error (TI)". So something a bit more complicated was going on here, and may have happened last night.

[bobm]

Not shown on the original post but the 08:29 from Maidenhead to Marlow was also cancelled for the same reason.

I know there are some platforms where trains cannot be self despatched - perhaps platform 5 at Maidenhead is one of them?   Train could though have departed empty to make its return working, but with a delay so could only reach Bourne End in time.   Well that's my Sunday speculation done for the day.   

[Adelante_CCT]

Service terminated at Bourne End last night at 00:19 as planned from Marlow, unit was due to run empty to Maidenhead this morning to form the 08:29 but didn't.

[old original]

Welcome back to an old favourite!

First few Liskeard - Looe cancelled this morning and an Exeter-Penzance starting short.

B-B-Q anyone? 😁😁

[GBM]

It's far too early to be short of crews, surely?
Thought it was from tomorrow that the full timetable was due to run.
Oddly, at our work place, we have 3 train driver wannabees who are all waiting for the driver manager interview; they were told before lockdown that this would be delayed as there was a backlog of trainee drivers to be assessed and regular training to be done before their interviews were scheduled.