Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Journeycheck looking more like it’s the weekend not a weekday. Ah yes, England are playing.

Rather than only considering our own, selfish perspectives as paying customers, our thoughts should be with the unfortunate GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff who have clearly been struck down by a sudden, totally unexpected epidemic today, although interestingly Scotland seems to be totally unaffected.

Thankfully all other sectors seem to be coping so essential supplies (medicine, beer, burgers, pizza) should be available to those afflicted.

Early medical opinion is suggesting that this is a short term virus, which should have resolved by tomorrow, but may well recur at the weekend - it has been observed previously, as recently as Sunday 16th June.

Customers are warned that if football is coming home, best to warn friends and family that you probably won't be if you're relying on a train to get you there.

.............lovely day for a BBQ.

[a-driver]

Journeycheck looking more like it’s the weekend not a weekday. Ah yes, England are playing.

Doesn’t appear to be that bad.

[Worcester_Passenger]

As of 10:00, JourneyCheck has 41 cancellations listed. Of these, 14 depart before 18:00, 27 afterwards.

[a-driver]

As of 10:00, JourneyCheck has 41 cancellations listed. Of these, 14 depart before 18:00, 27 afterwards.

What relevance is ‘27 cancellations after 18:00’

[TaplowGreen]

As of 10:00, JourneyCheck has 41 cancellations listed. Of these, 14 depart before 18:00, 27 afterwards.

What relevance is ‘27 cancellations after 18:00’

8pm kick off.

As of 1100 (including part cancellations) we're now moving towards 100.

[a-driver]

As of 10:00, JourneyCheck has 41 cancellations listed. Of these, 14 depart before 18:00, 27 afterwards.

What relevance is ‘27 cancellations after 18:00’

8pm kick off.

As of 1100 (including part cancellations) we're now moving towards 100.

And the part cancellations are owing to a bridge strike between Paddington and Reading and a points failure at Cardiff.

The idea that staff go sick en masse to watch the football is total nonsense! 

[grahame]

Journeycheck looking more like it’s the weekend not a weekday. Ah yes, England are playing.

Doesn’t appear to be that bad.

Melksham today ... 2 out of 18 cancellled - that's 11% cancellation and over 5 times the bare minimum standard of 98% of trains to run.

"Doesn’t appear to be that bad" shows what an abysmally low standard you're measuring against.  Failure to provide the advertised service within the accepted bounds of reliabiity has become the norm.   For drivers and train managers who are re-assigned to another service, it doesn't really matter.  For members of the public with a 2 hour wait for the next train, it does.

[a-driver]

Melksham today ... 2 out of 18 cancellled - that's 11% cancellation and over 5 times the bare minimum standard of 98% of trains to run.

"Doesn’t appear to be that bad" shows what an abysmally low standard you're measuring against.  Failure to provide the advertised service within the accepted bounds of reliabiity has become the norm.   For drivers and train managers who are re-assigned to another service, it doesn't really matter.  For members of the public with a 2 hour wait for the next train, it does.

I don’t know where you get your information from but those two aren’t showing as cancelled.

[TaplowGreen]

Melksham today ... 2 out of 18 cancellled - that's 11% cancellation and over 5 times the bare minimum standard of 98% of trains to run.

"Doesn’t appear to be that bad" shows what an abysmally low standard you're measuring against.  Failure to provide the advertised service within the accepted bounds of reliabiity has become the norm.   For drivers and train managers who are re-assigned to another service, it doesn't really matter.  For members of the public with a 2 hour wait for the next train, it does.

I don’t know where you get your information from but those two aren’t showing as cancelled.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journeycheck

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[a-driver]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journeycheck

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

All other systems and sources of information are showing these two services are running. I suppose time will tell! 

[grahame]

Melksham today ... 2 out of 18 cancellled - that's 11% cancellation and over 5 times the bare minimum standard of 98% of trains to run.

"Doesn’t appear to be that bad" shows what an abysmally low standard you're measuring against.  Failure to provide the advertised service within the accepted bounds of reliabiity has become the norm.   For drivers and train managers who are re-assigned to another service, it doesn't really matter.  For members of the public with a 2 hour wait for the next train, it does.

I don’t know where you get your information from but those two aren’t showing as cancelled.

JourneyCheck, which is the site the public are pointed at ... as per TaplowGreen.   Not much good if the internal industry systems show them as running if you're turning passengers - who you urge to check on the day - away.

[grahame]

Melksham today ... 2 out of 18 cancellled - that's 11% cancellation and over 5 times the bare minimum standard of 98% of trains to run.

"Doesn’t appear to be that bad" shows what an abysmally low standard you're measuring against.  Failure to provide the advertised service within the accepted bounds of reliabiity has become the norm.   For drivers and train managers who are re-assigned to another service, it doesn't really matter.  For members of the public with a 2 hour wait for the next train, it does.

I don’t know where you get your information from but those two aren’t showing as cancelled.

JourneyCheck, which is the site the public are pointed at ... as per TaplowGreen.   Not much good if the internal industry systems show them as running if you're turning passengers - who you urge to check on the day - away.

Looks like it's a moving target today which really shows the nightmare for customers.   I was at Melksham Station dropping someone off for the 12:33 to Swindon but it showed "Delayed". Open Train Times showed the train waiting in the platform at Westbury and it eventually left there about 20 minutes late - just after the delayed arrival of a train from London and I strongly suspect that the delay was because there was no crew available at Westbury.     No information at Melksham Station for quite a long time as to how long the delay would be, and no information at any point as to why.

The 18:37 Westbury to Swindon has shown as cancelled for much of the day, and that left a gap from 16:39 to 20:06 in the service .... now the 20:06 has been cancelled as far as Swindon and the 18:37 re-instated.   So after 18:37 the next train is 21:16.   Let's summarise that.  The 16:39 has been in shown as running all the time on JourneyCheck.  The next service shown as running all the time has been 21:16.

"Does it matter?".  Yes, it does - passenger revenue need to pay at least a goodly proportion of the railway's costs, and having incidents like the one at lunch time where 15 people were waiting at Melksham for what's just about the quietest train of the day puts off all but the most hardly.  For goodness sake, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and staff, please run a service that we can rely on, even if it's not as frequent as would be appropriate for the line.

[a-driver]

"Does it matter?".  Yes, it does - passenger revenue need to pay at least a goodly proportion of the railway's costs, and having incidents like the one at lunch time where 15 people were waiting at Melksham for what's just about the quietest train of the day puts off all but the most hardly.  For goodness sake, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and staff, please run a service that we can rely on, even if it's not as frequent as would be appropriate for the line.

Nothing to do with the staff or GWR.  If you want a reliable service you need a government who is pro-rail and not one that insists on running everything on a shoe string.  Everyday for GWR and a lot of other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) is a juggling act
The ongoing dispute doesn’t help staffing levels either where you have other TOCs operating in GWR areas who have settled their pay claims and are now paying staff in the region of £15k a year more.

[TaplowGreen]

"Does it matter?".  Yes, it does - passenger revenue need to pay at least a goodly proportion of the railway's costs, and having incidents like the one at lunch time where 15 people were waiting at Melksham for what's just about the quietest train of the day puts off all but the most hardly.  For goodness sake, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and staff, please run a service that we can rely on, even if it's not as frequent as would be appropriate for the line.

Nothing to do with the staff or GWR.  If you want a reliable service you need a government who is pro-rail and not one that insists on running everything on a shoe string.  Everyday for GWR and a lot of other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) is a juggling act
The ongoing dispute doesn’t help staffing levels either where you have other TOCs operating in GWR areas who have settled their pay claims and are now paying staff in the region of £15k a year more.

So, nothing to do with poor basic workforce management allowing too many people to have leave because they want to watch a football match, or is it just a coincidence?

[a-driver]

So, nothing to do with poor basic workforce management allowing too many people to have leave because they want to watch a football match, or is it just a coincidence?

Nothing at all.  There’s agreements on how many train crew can be granted leave per day and that depends obviously on the size of the depot. These leave arrangements are built into the depot establishments.  This is why nearly all our annual leave is actually rostered over a year in advance.

What you’ll probably find is that crew who are rostered today off will be less likely to volunteer to work overtime.