Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

I suspect the only people who actually use Journeycheck reside on this forum 

After all, where would this now 115 page thread be without it?

[TaplowGreen]

Let's hope journeycheck is wrong today......otherwise;

Cancellations to services between Swindon and Cheltenham Spa

Due to a shortage of train crew between Swindon and Cheltenham Spa fewer trains are able to run on all lines.

Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 14:00 28/08.

[Timmer]

Not only Cheltenham services. Trains between Bath and Swindon reduced to every two hours this morning. Not great if traveling to/from London from either Bath or Chippenham.

I can only assume they aren’t running direct services between Bath and London this weekend to cover running extra trains for the Reading Festival.

[Timmer]

Trains between Bath and Swindon reduced to every two hours this morning. Not great if traveling to/from London from either Bath or Chippenham.

UPDATE:
Bath - Swindon shuttles now reduced to every 2 even 3 hours  for the rest of the day.

[Timmer]

UPDATE:
Bath - Swindon shuttles now reduced to every 2 even 3 hours  for the rest of the day.

UPDATE 2:

Now NONE

Alterations to services between Swindon and Bath Spa

Due to a shortage of train crew between Swindon and Bath Spa:
Train services running through these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day to Bath.

Chippenham passengers can use the Transwilts services.

Customer Advice

We are unable to operate trains between Swindon and Bath Spa due to train crew unavailability.

Limited replacement road transport is available between Swindon and Bath Spa, calling at Chippenham. The buses will be busy in both directions and you may not be able to board the next bus, with long waiting times at the stations expected.

You are advised not to travel between Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa today as you may not be able to complete your journey.

Replacement road transport services are conveying passengers between Swindon and Bath Spa in both directions until further notice.

So GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have no crew to not even be able to run this shuttle service? Which is in effect part an Intercity service between London and Bath. Well it was.

I think the best bet is to take the train to Bristol Parkway and change there for a Cardiff-Portsmouth or Gloucester-Westbury/Weymouth service.

Chippenham passengers can use the Transwilts.

[IndustryInsider]

At least Bath isn't a particularly popular place to visit over the summer! 

[Timmer]

Well, some better news from the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter feed. We have trains again!

From 1635 we are able to reinstate a 2 hourly service between Swindon & Bath Spa

✅1635 SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) to Bath is running

❌1747 SWI to Bath is cancelled

✅1835 SWI to Bath is running

❌1953 SWI to Bath is cancelled

✅2034 SWI to Bath is running

✅2102 Paddington to Bath is running

From 1748 we're able to reinstate some services between Bath and Swindon

❌1648 Bath to SWI is cancelled

✅17:48 Bath to SWI is running

❌1848 Bath to SWI is cancelled

✅1948 Bath to SWI is running

❌2048 Bath to SWI is cancelled

✅2208 Bath to SWI is running

[froome]

How much advance notice of a cancellation do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have to give to avoid paying compensation through Delay Repay?

[grahame]

How much advance notice of a cancellation do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have to give to avoid paying compensation through Delay Repay?

I believe it's a couple of days.  You set me thinking

0. First there's the timetable
1. Then it get changed well in advance (12 weeks, haha) for scheduled engineering and special events
2. Then it gets revised a few days ahead for late planned (has to be done next weekend) engineering
3. Then it gets changed for ongoing operational issues (e.g. cracked trains that will take a while to fix)
4. Then it gets changed in the early hours when it turn out there are not enough drivers / trains
5. Then it gets changed during the day as other shortages occur, or more staff volunteer on rest days
6. Then it gets last minute changed when the points stick, a freight sits down on the single line, or someone goes off sick

I believe the "Delay/Repay" applies to class 4, class 5 and class 6 cancellations.

[Timmer]

How much advance notice of a cancellation do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have to give to avoid paying compensation through Delay Repay?

I got caught up in this when GWR cancelled our train three days before we were due to travel.

So we travelled on the nearest available train but it wasn’t a direct one. The guard gave us the third degree because he couldn’t see the cancelled train on his PDA, which of course he wouldn’t have done because it was removed off the system.

He should have known that many trains had been cancelled that December weekend owing to staff Christmas parties and I let him know that. In the end he backed down but I was annoyed enough to write to GWR to complain, something I never like to do about any member of staff for any company.

Then it came to making a claim online, again problems there because our original train had been deleted from the system. When it comes to the online claim system, when it works it’s great. When it doesn’t, such as in this case, it’s flippin’ useless.

So the claim was rejected so I went to the top, again something I don’t like to do. I prefer to resolve things through the normal channels provided, but when that doesn’t work what else can you do?

In the end, received a letter of apology, delay repay and a gesture of goodwill for the trouble caused but I had to fight for it.

To conclude, for claiming on delay repay, it’s better for the customer that their train is cancelled at very short notice so it’s still in the system as being cancelled, not a few days before where the train magically disappears.

[ChrisB]

If the cancellation reaches the online timetabke checker such that the service is removed, then no delay/repay is how I understand it.

Of course, if your booking is no longer in the ststem, how can you be expected to travel on it? Hence always worth retaining your booking confirmation showing it was available as a service when you booked.

I believe the rules indicate you can travel close to your original timings if your train suffers this fate. If you want to travel a different route, then approval ought to be sought from booking office or social media/contact form/booking office etc

[grahame]

An exchange from a Facebook group I'm on ...

"To their credit C2c running extra 12 car trains every 30 mins sun/mon for bank holiday , when other companies can’t find enough drivers to run normal services"

"It's a case that driver's and train crew often don't want to work weekends. Also it's still not part of their contracts. Hence why services during the week are often not disrupted"

I have bolded the word "still" ... surely it would be in the interests of everyone "railway" to sort this out ... after ... how many years?  Failure to do so, providing packed / limited / unreliable services at the weekend, even when more trains and carriages can be seen to be running during the week, does not look good - especially for an industry that's going to be much more dependent on leisure journeys in the future than it has been in the past.

[a-driver]

I have bolded the word "still" ... surely it would be in the interests of everyone "railway" to sort this out ... after ... how many years?  Failure to do so, providing packed / limited / unreliable services at the weekend, even when more trains and carriages can be seen to be running during the week, does not look good - especially for an industry that's going to be much more dependent on leisure journeys in the future than it has been in the past.

The TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) want to sort it out….. and they could soon get there way at a fraction of the price the unions wanted a few years ago.
Several TOCs are considering cutting a number of services, especially peak time commuter services. This will leave them with too many train crew. So, potentially the unions may be in a position where it’s either accept Sundays into the working week or face redundancies.

[ChrisB]

Check out that new DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) working group taking place rigt now as part of the ‘back to rail’ DfT document reported elsewhere on this board….part if that is revising out-of-date contracts to include 7day shifts

[TaplowGreen]

After a better week or so, we're back to the South West (particularly far South West) having numerous cancellations due to crew shortage at the weekend.

Unless it's weekend only COVID, I assume it's workforce management issues.

All cancelled.

05:40 Penzance to Exeter St Davids due 08:52
06:40 Plymouth to London Paddington due 10:29
06:45 Plymouth to Penzance due 08:50
07:00 London Paddington to Penzance due 12:17
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:29
07:22 Liskeard to Looe due 07:53
07:55 Looe to Liskeard due 08:23
07:59 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 09:59
09:04 Plymouth to Paignton due 10:09
09:12 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:29
09:27 Exeter St Davids to Penzance due 12:34
10:22 Swansea to London Paddington due 13:12
10:56 Paignton to London Paddington due 14:09
11:28 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 13:28
12:04 London Paddington to Penzance due 17:09
12:15 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 12:39
12:22 Swansea to London Paddington due 15:13
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare due 14:34
12:45 Falmouth Docks to Truro due 13:13
13:15 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 13:39
13:45 Falmouth Docks to Truro due 14:13
13:59 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 15:59
14:24 Plymouth to Gunnislake due 15:10
14:36 London Paddington to Plymouth due 18:01
14:48 London Paddington to Swansea due 17:33
15:14 Gunnislake to Plymouth due 16:00
16:48 London Paddington to Swansea due 19:33