Cross Country Destruction of service

[whole diary]

[readytostart]

...for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Sunday does not count as annual leave unless in the middle of two weeks off, the Sunday can be requested off but not guaranteed.

RTS - pardon my ignorance here, but could you expand on what all of this means?

The way holiday is rostered, at least from my experience is three single weeks of annual leave and one fortnight. The holiday week runs Monday to Saturday. As Sunday is out side of the working week it does not count towards hours as far as annual leave entitlements are concerned. If the Sunday before your weeks annual leave is a normal 'booked' Sunday you can request to have the day off it can be covered by another crew member, however when drivers aren't working any additional rest days there will be noone available to cover. An exception to this is the two week block of leave where the Sunday in-between is guaranteed off.

[readytostart]

This leaves Bournemouth depot the task of driving each train between Poole (for some turnarounds)

That would explain why I saw a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Voyager in the sidings at Poole last year. If they send some trains down to Poole to turnaround, it's a shame they don't run them as through passenger services teminating at Poole rather than Bournemouth.

Unfortunately the usual turnround time of a 10-15 minutes past the hour arrival and 45 mins past the hour departure Mondays to Saturday is prohibitive and therefore the middle sidings at Bournemouth are the prefered option, though late services can be turned on the platform.
Back when the Voyagers were introduced there was a sporadic Poole service which fell foul of the axe when the shortcomings of the timetable became clear.
There's certainly options for an early morning Poole departure and a later evening Poole arrival when empty sets would otherwise be lying idle. For instance the 0630 and 0730 departures from Bournemouth currently arrive from Eastleigh as a double set, detatch in the middle sidings and exit to form their respective services. This has the potential for one unit to continue to Poole to serve an 0715 departure and times as booked from Bomo.
The same could be applied to evening arrivals, whereby the 1910 arrival fors the 1945 final service to Birmingham. Subsequent arrivals wait in the sidings to double-up and then go ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) to Eastleigh, so there is a potential for the 2010 arrival to continue to Poole and then travel ECS back to Bomo to attach to the 2110 arrival.

The reason for the current trips to Poole on a Sunday is the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) stopping service, which instead of overtaking it at Brockenhurst, XC have to follow to Bounremouth giving and approximate arrival of half past the hour, that set will then for the xx45 departure the following hour.

Sorry folks if I've gone on for a bit as I know this isn't FGWland, maybe following the introduction of the Bath Spa service (ORCATS^▸ (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) raid or valuable thru service is discussed elsewhere) XC are opening up to the idea of reinstating a few lost direct connections.

[IndustryInsider]

Sorry folks if I've gone on for a bit as I know this isn't FGWland, maybe following the introduction of the Bath Spa service (ORCATS^▸ (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) raid or valuable thru service is discussed elsewhere) XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are opening up to the idea of reinstating a few lost direct connections.

Thanks for the insight into the ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) workings, and don't worry about going slightly off of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)-land, as we're doing that all the time. 

I know Poole was always an operations destination in the days of Loco & Coach workings, but it is a large settlement in its own right (140000 compared with Bournemouth's 165000 - though I gather those figures are based on districts which are not all particularly accessible to the area the railway station is in?), so I would have thought it might still make sense to serve on an occasional basis? 

The relatively recent phenomenon of Cross Country trains extending through to Weymouth over the summer weekends (via Poole and Dorchester) also seems to have been deemed not worth the effort, too.

[Timmer]

Sorry folks if I've gone on for a bit as I know this isn't FGWland, maybe following the introduction of the Bath Spa service (ORCATS^▸ (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) raid or valuable thru service is discussed elsewhere) XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are opening up to the idea of reinstating a few lost direct connections.

No need to apologise. I appreciate you explaining about why Voyagers make their way to Poole. And yes, it was a Sunday where I saw one in the sidings at Poole.

[readytostart]

I know Poole was always an operations destination in the days of Loco & Coach workings, but it is a large settlement in its own right (140000 compared with Bournemouth's 165000 - though I gather those figures are based on districts which are not all particularly accessible to the area the railway station is in?), so I would have thought it might still make sense to serve on an occasional basis? 

The relatively recent phenomenon of Cross Country trains extending through to Weymouth over the summer weekends (via Poole and Dorchester) also seems to have been deemed not worth the effort, too.

Back in the days of 47s and MkIIs it was easier to run round at Poole off the running lines than it was at Bomo where valuable platform space would be taken up, HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) on the other had could simply stable in the middle sidings.
There has been rmour of XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) extending some services down to Weymouth for the Olympics though whether this will come to anything I don't know.

[Timmer]

There has been rumour of XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) extending some services down to Weymouth for the Olympics though whether this will come to anything I don't know.

It will be interesting to see what SWT^▸ (South West Trains) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do with regards to running extra services for the Olympic sailing events in Weymouth but thats another topic for another day.

[chrisoates]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) 8:28 ex Penzance failed to run 'again' today.

Haven't found out what their plan is - does it arrive at PNZ and have no return crew or is it terminated and restarted at Plymouth.
Annoyingly it's not shown as a cancelled service on 'tinternet and also the Station Manager has to make an ad hoc announcement.
 

[FarWestJohn]

I was surprised too last Saturday to find the 0630 PNZ - EDP cancelled especially when there were no flights. I don't feel you can rely on XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) leaving Cornwall any more.

[readytostart]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) 8:28 ex Penzance failed to run 'again' today.

Haven't found out what their plan is - does it arrive at PNZ and have no return crew or is it terminated and restarted at Plymouth.
Annoyingly it's not shown as a cancelled service on 'tinternet and also the Station Manager has to make an ad hoc announcement.
 

Crew for 1S43 are taxied from Plymouth as the set stables at Long Rock overnight, train started right time at Plymouth, reason for cancellation west thereof was no driver available.

[brompton rail]

According to NRE^‡(resolve) the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) 08.28 ex PZ ran as booked with a few minor delays at some Cornish stations. Currently somewhere around Newcastle with an on time ETA at Glasgow Central.
Having used XC's 06:00 ex Leeds this morning, as far as BHM (HST^▸ (High Speed Train) to PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)) I was suprised and please to check they cancellations page before 6 to see NO cancellations! Interested to see East Midlands Train departure displays at Sheffield describe it as "Cross Country HST", probably to forewarn platform staff. Comfortable refurbishment makes these HSTs a million times more desireable than a Voyager. Mind fit in a trip down to Exeter one day soon!

[eightf48544]

Crew for 1S43 are taxied from Plymouth as the set stables at Long Rock overnight, train started right time at Plymouth, reason for cancellation west thereof was no driver available.

The amount of taxi-ing crews is absolutely amazing and probably costly.

Now the drivers all work for differnet TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) you don't have sheds with links anymore so whereas in BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days Penzance men would do all the all the early morning start ups, now I presumme if there any drivers still left at Penzance they are all FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

Just another one of the efficiency savings bought in by privatisation.

[readytostart]

According to NRE^‡(resolve) the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) 08.28 ex PZ ran as booked with a few minor delays at some Cornish stations. Currently somewhere around Newcastle with an on time ETA at Glasgow Central.

I see Chris' original post was made just after midnight, so I'm guessing he meant for the day before! Seems to be running ok today as well, must be a blip with regards drivers not working their rest days.

[brompton rail]

Sorry, my fault for not checking the time,

Mind you a number of cancellations again today, so Tuesday was maybe a "good day"!

[readytostart]

Sorry, my fault for not checking the time,

Mind you a number of cancellations again today, so Tuesday was maybe a "good day"!

I've deliberately stayed away from my work BlackBerry today, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the problems witha lack of drivers and the far reaches of the network suffer more as the company try to cover the core route. Several services North / West of Edinburgh, West of Plymouth and West of Southampton are the usual victims of cancellation.

[JayMac]

Perhaps you should have a go up the pointy end RTS?