Rail travel too unreliable to commute to work?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Edinburgh News

An Edinburgh businessman has vowed to never employ another rail commuter because a key member of his staff has been repeatedly delayed by ScotRail disruption.

[snip]

The timetable, launched yesterday,[SUN] has 100 extra daily services including a new half-hourly link between Edinburgh and Glasgow via Cumbernauld. John McKee, director of Hanover Healthfoods, relies on senior employee Rachel Bell to open the shop at 9:30am every day, which also acts as a parcel drop-off point.

However, she said her train service from Aberdour in Fife had been so unreliable that he regularly had to draft in colleagues at short notice or come in himself when she was late. Mrs Bell, 40, said: “I have gone from driving 40,000 miles a year to commuting by train and have been quite shocked with what people have to put up with. My boss hired me so he could depend on me but I’m having to let him down on a weekly basis."

[Oxonhutch]

From RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), I see that there are six services from Aberdour to Edinburgh that arrive before 09:00 (plus one that arrives at 09:27!).
I wonder which one she regularly catches, and does she 'insure' her journey by always aiming for an earlier service than one actually required according to the  timetable? Even if she were to drive, I am sure that she would aim to arrive some time before the 09:30 opening time.

[TaplowGreen]

From RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), I see that there are six services from Aberdour to Edinburgh that arrive before 09:00 (plus one that arrives at 09:27!).
I wonder which one she regularly catches, and does she 'insure' her journey by always aiming for an earlier service than one actually required according to the  timetable? Even if she were to drive, I am sure that she would aim to arrive some time before the 09:30 opening time.

Surely the point of having a timetable is that it enables you to identify the train you need to catch to be at work on time, not one that's half an hour  (or whatever) earlier? Not everyone can work flexibly, and a lot of people have domestic commitments which have to be fulfilled too.

Once again in this forum there's indignance and a suggestion that a customer is the author of their own misfortune, where it's quite clearly an issue of the railway not delivering the advertised service.

[ChrisB]

Unless she's catching that arrival at 0927.....then zero sympathy!

[Red Squirrel]

09:27 is the departure time from Aberdour...

There is a train that arrives in Edinburgh at 09:17 though, and it's a 9-minute walk from the station to the shop - but given that she is responsible for opening up, that doesn't sound like enough time to me. If she catches the earlier train (arrives 08:45) then she has every right to be annoyed...

[Adelante_CCT]

There is no 09:27 arrival at Edinburgh, the one pre-09:30 from todays timetable change is 09:17, or up until last week was 09:19. This service being cancelled last Monday and Tuesday (which has probably instigated this), prior to that it arrives most days within 5 minutes of expected arrival time though there was the odd exception.

According to Google Maps it is an 8 minute walk from Edinburgh station to the shop. Personally I would not aim to arrive at my destination station 11 minutes (and therefore at the shop just 3 minutes) before being required to open a store.

The previous arrival (08:44 at Edinburgh) does quite often arrive 10 or so minutes late, but would not have failed anyone in the past 6 weeks aiming to arrive Edinburgh before 09:30.


(Edit - was typing at the same time as Red Squirrel)

[ChrisB]

From RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), I see that there are six services from Aberdour to Edinburgh that arrive before 09:00 (plus one that arrives at 09:27!).

Ok, I based my post on the above.

[Celestial]

Once again in this forum there's indignance and a suggestion that a customer is the author of their own misfortune, where it's quite clearly an issue of the railway not delivering the advertised service.

Isn't it a case of personal responsibility, allowing for all the uncertain factors that we live in in the real world, not the utopian world where trains always run on time, and rush hour traffic is never worse than usual.  She can either allow some leeway for delays, and be a reliable worker who her boss can depend on to open the shop on time, or cut it fine and accept that she is going to let them down on occasions. In making that choice it might depend on how important it is that she is on time, and her boss's attitude to lateness. I'm guessing from the publicity that her boss does think it is important.

[Oxonhutch]

Yes, my mistake - mis-reading RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) in a hurry.

Personally, with her responsible job, I would aim to arrive on the one before the last one 2L52 d. 0810 to arrive 0845.  If my role was less mission-critical I would be happy to chance the 2K02 d. 0838 arriving at 0916.

[broadgage]

In a perfect world, one SHOULD be able to catch the train that gets one to work on time.

But in the real world, I feel that taking an earlier train and thereby allowing a margin would be prudent, especially if punctuality is of special importance as in the case of opening a shop on time.

In some cases there might be no earlier suitable service, but in the situation referred to in the O/P it seems that an earlier service is available and that it runs with reasonable reliability.

If I was the employee I would take the earlier service.
If I was the employer I would accept the employee to do all they REASONABLY could to arrive on time, including taking an earlier train.

Planning on the earlier train also has the merit of giving a bit more time to advise ones employer by telephone if some c0ck up means there are no trains.

Drifting a little O/T I once had a very junior position in a large catering company that required an early morning start.
I was rapidly promoted to a senior position, Due I believe not to any particular skills or experience, but simply because I could RELIABLY  arrive on time. And thereby avoid the head office being troubled by the frequent complaints about late opening.
Other employees no doubt had excellent excuses for being late, including trains, buses, car breakdowns, traffic congestion, sick children, bad weather, and many others, but I arrived on time.

[ChrisB]

Not to mention the traffic delays into Edinburgh if she went back to driving....

[old original]

....and no worse or better than using buses..
I could get up at 6am and, all being well,  on paper, get in to work with 3 mins to spare, but I choose to get up at 5am and get there with 30 mins to spare. Time for a relaxing cuppa and ease into the day gently....
Personal choice but a lot less stressful...

[martyjon]

Simple solution, why doesn't she simply move into the flat over the shop. 

[grahame]

John McKee, director of Hanover Healthfoods ...

An interesting decision by Mr McKee to go to the press ... to widely expose concerns which should be between him and his team member if she (for any reason) is failing to deliver what's needed in the job. Either she's in on it (I wonder if they need publicity to help keep the shop in business, for example, and have come up with a way to get it) or she's not (in which case she could be pretty upset with him.

Drifting a little O/T I once had a very junior position in a large catering company that required an early morning start.

I was rapidly promoted to a senior position, Due I believe not to any particular skills or experience, but simply because I could RELIABLY  arrive on time. And thereby avoid the head office being troubled by the frequent complaints about late opening.

Other employees no doubt had excellent excuses for being late, including trains, buses, car breakdowns, traffic congestion, sick children, bad weather, and many others, but I arrived on time.

When we offered accommodation, we had post that required a reliable 06:30 start.  And the busiest time of day - and for things that had to be done in that early time - started within minutes of the staff member arriving.  And all bar one were fabulous timekeepers - the one who wasn't lasted only a very short time, though to be fair she it was a different straw that broke the camel's back, with the panics to staff on a no-show simply "taking into consideration" as for the first (and only time, I hope) I asked a member of staff to leave permanently.

You are right on "not troubling head office".  Excellent staff are low maintenance ones.

[Red Squirrel]

Either she's in on it...

Well here's a picture of her at Aberdour. To me, she doesn't look cross with the Edinburgh News photographer...



Picture: Edinburgh News

Mind you, she's either very late of went home early, by the clock...

It would be interesting to know what motivated this story, but I doubt we'll ever know. Trains from Aberdour to Edinburgh run at irregular intervals varying between 16 and 33 minutes in the morning peak, which is not ideal; perhaps they'd like more?