Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2016

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Closed for just over an hour in the end, though the ramifications will be felt for hours.  Certainly not a first, but the first time I can remember it happening at the TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) at Didcot.  Very surprised adequate 'spare' staff weren't available as I thought that was one of the great advantages of these new signalling centres over traditional boxes scattered far and wide?

[grahame]

Noting just how long it takes for the repercussions to finish; astonished that there wasn't robustness to cover what was apparently one person not being available in a major signalling centre.

13:19 Newquay to London Paddington due 18:21
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to signalling staff being taken ill earlier on this train's journey.

[dviner]

This is purely supposition on my part, but how about this - the person that they would normally have used to cover this sort of occurrence was on leave, or covering another position? Don't forget, it is still "holiday season", and signallers are allowed to go on holiday.

Of course, you could ramp up the staffing levels to ensure that there will always be cover under every circumstance, but ensuring that the competence levels were kept up to standard would be a nightmare, and there would be an outcry over signallers being paid to sit around "just in case".

[TaplowGreen]

This is purely supposition on my part, but how about this - the person that they would normally have used to cover this sort of occurrence was on leave, or covering another position? Don't forget, it is still "holiday season", and signallers are allowed to go on holiday.

Of course, you could ramp up the staffing levels to ensure that there will always be cover under every circumstance, but ensuring that the competence levels were kept up to standard would be a nightmare, and there would be an outcry over signallers being paid to sit around "just in case".

If you are responsible for a business critical function, and you are any sort of manager, then you ensure that this function is covered, for all contingencies, and you factor annual leave, "holiday seasons" sickness etc into that calculation. To even attempt to use this as an excuse is frankly pathetic.

I am sure that the amount of compensation which will have to be paid out today far outweighs any additional callout allowance, to say nothing of the inconvenience caused to thousands of customers. To have a situation where the failure of one person to arrive at work paralyses an entire area for hours due to a lack of a robust contingency plan is simple incompetence.

[IndustryInsider]

Agree with TG.  I'm sure there will be some serious questions asked of NR^» (Network Rail - home page) by the train operators as a result of this - even if it was 'only' for just over an hour.

[broadgage]

Yes, they really should have better plans than this.
Simply unacceptable for single employee falling sick to have such consequences.
 Spare staff suitably trained should be available for critical roles like this. I see no problem in maintaining competency since it would seem a simple matter to rotate the "working" and the "spare" signaller at frequent intervals.

The cost should be less than the cost of all the delays, especially if some other productive but not time critical work could be found for the spare signaller.

[NickB]

It's a pedantic point but 'being taken ill' sounds much more alarming and, crucially in my view, sounds like the illness developed 'on the job'. It sounds like a more accurate description would be 'absent due to illness'??

[bobm]

In fact it could be a whole variety of reasons. Signaller's car could have broken down, he could have been involved in an accident or even, due to a rostering error, not actually exist.

I remember a case when a West Country signaller was phoned on his mobile to be asked why he hadn't shown up and his reply was "I'm on leave, it's 3am and I'm in Texas!"

[Electric train]

Spare staff suitably trained should be available for critical roles like this. I see no problem in maintaining competency since it would seem a simple matter to rotate the "working" and the "spare" signaller at frequent intervals.

It sounds to me in this incident the signaller going off shift reached his legal permitted hours, in addition if he / she runs substantially over the end of their shift there is also the minimum hours break between shifts which can have knock effect to the following day because they need to 12 hours between shifts.  This is made even more complex if the signaller was moved to Didcot under transfer and redundancy terms as they will have travelling time built into the conditions of transfer. Like all business there is a balance of cost against risk, would be great to have a 125% manning levels with standby staff sitting in the mess room ready for action, the travelling public just cannot afford this level of staff.


However there is a critical shortage of skilled staff in many rolls on the railways especially within NR^» (Network Rail - home page) because of the imposed pay restraint by HMG, which makes recruitment and retention difficult especially as these rolls are shift work and in an area of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) where there is not a high level of unemployment.

[Billhere]

Spare staff are available, but they have meal relief duties during their twelve hour shift and it could well be they were involved with one of those and could not step over quickly.

Each desk in TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) is of a different grade, the busier it is the higher the grade, the longer the training, and a higher salary to boot. Padd is of the top grade which reflects the busy position it is. Not everybody is passed out to work it.

I can't say what happened, but I endorse Electric trains comment that Signallers are in short supply. In fact there is one man still at TVSC who has a job elsewhere who has been waiting to be released for several months now but he cannot be done without so can't go.

Very much the same all over the country. In the recent closures at Banbury the staff there were being asked to go elsewhere to fill in the holes that exist at other boxes, but seven took the money and left the company.

However that doesn't forgive the situation that occurred.

 

[ChrisB]

Talking last weekend to one who did take the money & retire, he's heard from some who did transfer from a Banbury box to a West Mids screen & they hate it - just not the same job at all, which I can fully understand.

Apparently, there's not a window to be seen in the West Mids signalling centre, while you couldn't have more windows in the Banbury boxes if you'd wanted them!

[IndustryInsider]

No indeed, it's a completely different type of job.  Some might well get used to it after a time, but I expect most would take up the chance to swap back in a heartbeat.

[Billhere]

West Midlands Signalling Centre is known as the Bunker as it was built to withstand a nuclear attack if you believe the rumours, TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) is known as the Stalag, horrible places to go and so far away from the traditional role where, even in an NX panel, the Signaller actually had some input into what was going on.

ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting) was described to me as being like a very small child, it had to be watched all the time to try and stop it doing something stupid. The only ones who don't seem to mind are new entrants and they know no different. It certainly takes the initiative away from the operator.

At least one Signaller has quit TVSC to go back to more traditional style of operation, and another is waiting to go.

Off the subject I know but it does have a bearing on the manpower available.

[Adelante_CCT]

ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting) was described to me as being like a very small child, it had to be watched all the time to try and stop it doing something stupid. .... It certainly takes the initiative away from the operator.

Talking of this, I do wish more manual control was taken in certain situations. eg: During lunchtime the two northbound XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services at Reading use P12 instead of P3/P7 for some reason (not sure why, there isn't really any need, but it does, and when running smoothly it's fine) except a couple of weeks ago there was (yet another) signalling failure at Basingstoke delaying services by a few minutes, meaning both the 12:15 and 12:45 were arriving approximately 5 minutes after departure time, both could have been routed into P3/P7 like any other given hour but no, they were still routed into P12 therefore delaying the 12:23/12:53 Oxford stoppers by up to 10 minutes. Another example a few weeks ago of a class 800 training run to Reading and back suppose to be reversing in P10, but due to delays to Paddington bound services this platform was full but they just held the 800 outside the station blocking P7/P8/P9 forcing fast Bristol/Oxford trains onto the down relief and P12, which of course blocked the up main even more. After about 15 minutes they decided to finally route the 800 into P9, which they should have just done from the beginning.

I would love to be a (traditional) signaller, but by the sounds of it its not as fun as it used to be.

[Billhere]

The workload rate is high at some locations and actually requires ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting) to help out, the idea being that it frees up the Signaller to deal with other matters.

Get involved with something else and the ARS will route the train as per the programme and a more obvious move gets overlooked.

For some of the reasons mentioned by  Electric train staff are difficult to come by, the natural progression from smaller boxes is quickly disappearing, and in some cases existing Signallers don't want to work in these places so won't apply for any vacancies and would rather sit down the ladder a bit but in more agreeable surroundings.

Staff are now recruited from 'off the street' into quite busy positions lacking the skills and railway knowledge to make the job go well. They may well be proficient and rules trained, and deemed competent but the Signallers art comes in when it starts going wrong and I am afraid that lack of knowledge shows sometimes.

There is a well known 'overlap trap' at the West end of Newbury Station where, if you let a train down one signal too far the safety features stop the job for two minutes by locking up the routes and signals. All perfectly safe, and doing what it is supposed to, but the inexperience shows when it happens, normally at about 1700 hrs in the evening as I used to see day after day. It was there when I worked Reading Panel years ago, it hasn't changed, and you can tell when the less experienced are on duty because all of a sudden everything stops. The B and H was a bore to work as an NX panel where everything had to be route set, just because it wasn't that busy. Now it is an operator looking at a screen with the ARS running the show. It must be mind destroying. The Crossing Keepers at Colthrop and Kintbury are far, far busier overall, but don't get paid for it!