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SWR: Guards/RMT Industrial Action. Next strike dates: 30/31 August, 1/2 September 2019

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northwichcat

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Industrial action is pretty much the only time when an operator cannot run a train and doesn't have to organise a replacement bus. Could the issue be not enough buses available for hire to be able to cope with anticipated passenger numbers? Some of the buses used to operate services on behalf of SWT during engineering works had come from operators based as far away as Warrington.
 
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infobleep

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jcollins said:
Industrial action is pretty much the only time when an operator cannot run a train and doesn't have to organise a replacement bus. Could the issue be not enough buses available for hire to be able to cope with anticipated passenger numbers? Some of the buses used to operate services on behalf of SWT during engineering works had come from operators based as far away as Warrington.
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Which begs the question, would they have been able to organise the buses if they had been given more time?

Saying that some engineering works are very last minute, so how do they cope then? Have they taken the decision not to run buses? They are running them elsewhere though.
 
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infobleep

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theironroad said:
Wow!

Saturday July 28 2018

No trains Bournemouth to Weymouth
Previously inputted Bus replacement service removed from journey planners.
Advice to use LOCAL bus service
No ticket acceptance.
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I take it all those stations have a train service provided by other operators?

Further up they state that there is no SWR service:
  • Between Surbiton and Guildford via Cobham - local buses may be available but your SWR ticket will not be valid on these services. Please use Traveline to plan your journey.
However their is in fact a K3 bus service that runs past Claygate Station and Hinchley Wood. So are they saying you ticket is valid on TfL nuses between Surbiton and Hampton Court and from Berrylands but not Claygate and Hinchley Wood? I have asked South Western Railway what the situation is. The K3 is a single decker bus but no different to the K2 which services Berrylands. I don't know what type of bus is used to run the 411 from Kingston to Hampton Court.

I think this is the first Saturday strikes have occurred. Given the level of disruption, in hindsight should the RMT have held some of the previous strikes on a Saturday? Or is the disruption only due to the fact it's the summer holidays and outside of it, South Western Railway wouldn't have a problem running services.
 
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infobleep

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I noticed the following on the London Waterloo to Salisbury and Exeter timetable PDF:
A limited service will run between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction.
Further details will be advertised once this has been finalised.

There will be no South Western Railway service between
Yeovil Junction and Exeter today.
Click to expand...
https://www.southwesternrailway.com...on-waterloo-to-salisbury-and-exeter.pdf?la=en

Perhaps the timetable planning department are under a lot of pressure because both are in very large text and appear on the same page, one above the other. You can't fail to miss it. However if one was under intense pressure, who knows what might happen.

Also one timetable PDF has a filename that includes Dorking and Guildford but when you open it, Guildford or Dorking are no where to be found. Someone forgot to update the file name prior to uploading.
 
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swt_passenger

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infobleep said:
I take it all those stations have a train service provided by other operators?
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Not really - GWR run between Dorchester west and Weymouth, but that’s not much use as an alternative for people on the Dorchester to Bournemouth line of route via Poole...
 
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James H

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Interestingly Beaulieu Road has more trains tomorrow than in the usual Saturday timetable.
 
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theironroad said:
Wow!

Saturday July 28 2018

No trains Bournemouth to Weymouth
Previously inputted Bus replacement service removed from journey planners.
Advice to use LOCAL bus service
No ticket acceptance.
Click to expand...
This list contradicts the PDF timetable for Saturday on the same page.
 
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northwichcat

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infobleep said:
Which begs the question, would they have been able to organise the buses if they had been given more time?

Saying that some engineering works are very last minute, so how do they cope then? Have they taken the decision not to run buses? They are running them elsewhere though.
Click to expand...

Last minute engineering works are unlikely to disrupt 100% of the SWR network in the way a strike does.
 
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infobleep

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swt_passenger said:
Not really - GWR run between Dorchester west and Weymouth, but that’s not much use as an alternative for people on the Dorchester to Bournemouth line of route via Poole...
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OK so that bag the question, why mention stations in the lost between Bournemouth and not stations between Guildford and Surbtion.

I've also had it confirmed via Twitter that tickets are not valid on the K3. This being from Claygate and Hinchley Wood. I've now asked why, given other TfL buses are valid elsewhere for stations that are closed.

The silly thing about this is that I imagine the K3 is valid between Surbtion and Kingston for those wishing to reach the 411 service to Hampton. Court.
 
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infobleep

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From reading the travel information for tomorrow I was lead to believe Berrylands Stations [sic] were closed.
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/rmt-industrial-action

However National Rail Enquiries and Real Time Trains have two services an hour in both directions stopping there. It usually has that.

In fact in the evening it's actually getting an enhence service from Waterloo. Between 22:00 and 23:00 there is usually just one train. Tomorrow there is two.

In the opposite direction it's also the case that it has an extra service. It does however lose it's 0:14 service to Waterloo. Still overall it is one extra service in the evening. It also gets a slightly earlier direct service from Waterloo in the morning but a slightly later one towards Waterloo.
 
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infobleep

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theironroad said:
The planning and execution of these timetables has become farcical.

Hopefully the train timetable announced this afternoon to replace the no option option will survive the night.
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I'd like to think it's due to them being under pressure.

I had it confirmed that Berrylands will get a train service. They apologised for the confusion.

No answer though as to why ticket acceptance is only in place for part of the K3 bus route.

If someone boards a K3 bus in Kingston it's free travel to Surbtion but once there they must go to the front of the bus and tap in with a contactless payment card or Oyster to continue towards Claygate.
 
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On the naughty step again.
Bookd said:
The RMT press release refers to SWT plans not to have a safety critical guard across this franchise. From all that I have seen they have declared no such intention, but if RMT refuse to believe what they are told then the strikes will go on indefinitely.
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35 years of driver only operation on the Bedford - Farringdon route. The entire LUL network. What is safety critical about a Guard?
 
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theironroad

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James H said:
This list contradicts the PDF timetable for Saturday on the same page.
Click to expand...

As I'm sure you know now, the 'plan' has been a moveable feast and trains are back on, hence the website update and pdf TT available.
 
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Warwick said:
35 years of driver only operation on the Bedford - Farringdon route. The entire LUL network. What is safety critical about a Guard?
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Depends where you are and what happens doesn't it. I'd go as far as to say my train load of passengers and driver would have been stuffed without me the other day following an incident and I've had every grade of manager up the chain tell me so since. Maybe not physically damaged stuffed but certainly in a fairly bad place given how long it took external assistance to arrive.
 
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Warwick said:
35 years of driver only operation on the Bedford - Farringdon route. The entire LUL network. What is safety critical about a Guard?
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Exactly. If there was hard evidence that trains without a guard really were less safe you can bet the RMT would be telling us all about it.

There are individual instances where having a second crew member on board during a problem can be very useful, see post #318, but that's a different issue from wanting to have someone who opens and shuts the doors on every train and without whom a train isn't allowed to operate.

It's very interesting to see some who sympathise with the RMT griping because SWR's timetablers are having problems and their train ticket won't be accepted on some buses. There are tens of thousands of ordinary passengers being disrupted just that way.
 
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3141 said:
Exactly. If there was hard evidence that trains without a guard really were less safe you can bet the RMT would be telling us all about it.

There are individual instances where having a second crew member on board during a problem can be very useful, see post #318, but that's a different issue from wanting to have someone who opens and shuts the doors on every train and without whom a train isn't allowed to operate.

It's very interesting to see some who sympathise with the RMT griping because SWR's timetablers are having problems and their train ticket won't be accepted on some buses. There are tens of thousands of ordinary passengers being disrupted just that way.
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There poster at the station said tickets will be accepted on buses where possible. I'd like to know the reasons why it wasn't possible on the routes that have no acceptance? What steps did they try to get acceptance and the reasons why it didn't work out.

I'm perticularly interested in why it wasn't possible to get acceptance between Claygate and Hinchley Wood on the K3 bus route but it was possible on the very same K3 between Surbtion and Kingston. It's only £1.50 but it's only £1.50 between Surbtion and Kingston.
 
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infobleep said:
There poster at the station said tickets will be accepted on buses where possible. I'd like to know the reasons why it wasn't possible on the routes that have no acceptance? What steps did they try to get acceptance and the reasons why it didn't work out.

I'm perticularly interested in why it wasn't possible to get acceptance between Claygate and Hinchley Wood on the K3 bus route but it was possible on the very same K3 between Surbtion and Kingston. It's only £1.50 but it's only £1.50 between Surbtion and Kingston.
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Perhaps because TfL only agreed ticket acceptance on services operated for them within the Greater London boundary
 
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On a 12-car into Waterloo now, wish every Saturday was like this. Nice and quiet and fast.

Does anyone know the turnout for this dispute and yes percentage
 
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infobleep

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Goldfish62 said:
Good point. TfL get next to no funding for their cross boundary services.
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Why do they run them then? Why not cancel then all.

Besidss aren't the government meeting the short fall in revenue so surely it won't cost TfL anything or are TfL providing the bus services for free?
 
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infobleep said:
Why do they run them then? Why not cancel then all.

Besidss aren't the government meeting the short fall in revenue so surely it won't cost TfL anything or are TfL providing the bus services for free?
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Because TfL has a legal duty to run them.
 
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