“Scotlands best ever railway”

[Deltic1961]

Quite a lot of cancellations the last few days due to lack of staff. Can understand why because I wouldn't want to work for them.

 

[68000]

Quite a lot of cancellations the last few days due to lack of staff. Can understand why because I wouldn't want to work for them.

Does that mean the trains are being cancelled because the staff do not want to work for Abellio?

 

[Deltic1961]

Seems they're telling the media that the cancellations are them preparing for the timetable changes. Other sources say it's an overtime ban.

Lots and lots of unhappy customers the last few days.

 

[Mingulay]

Seems they're telling the media that the cancellations are them preparing for the timetable changes. Other sources say it's an overtime ban.

Lots and lots of unhappy customers the last few days.

I'm never sure what to believe now to be frank. I have lost faith in Scotrail , it seems the Dunblane service is always the one to take the hit as well , there is a public meeting tomorrow in Dunblane and B of A with Scotrail and some politicians. Will see what they have to say for themselves . Add to that the fares increase in the U.K. I think we all feel a sense of frustration .

 

[Esker-pades]

Seems they're telling the media that the cancellations are them preparing for the timetable changes. Other sources say it's an overtime ban.

Lots and lots of unhappy customers the last few days.

A combination of both. Staff cannot be trained in their overtime because of the ban, so they have to be trained within hours. In order to get this training done, they have to pull some staff from their rostered services to train them.

 

[380101]

Righto. It’s easy to sort everything out from an armchair, isn’t it!

He's right though. I assume you sit on the other side of the Alliance and work for Network Rail. Currently in Abellio ScotRail the operational staff numbers a well below what they require to run the current timetable. Add in the fact that staff no longer feel they are appreciated by management for giving up their rostered and legally entitled days off to prop up a failing franchise. When the new timetable commences in a few days time Scotland is going to see the same chaos as England and Wales experienced in May. We don't have enough staff, let alone trained staff to implement it and we also do not have the correct amount of rolling stock.

I feel for the passengers who face disruption, but I 100% back the staff who legitimately decide not to offer their services on their days off. Abellio ScotRail management have made a massive mistake in the way they deal with frontline staff and as such morale is no existent and its a very hostile work environment for certain on train grades.

 

[Esker-pades]

He's right though. I assume you sit on the other side of the Alliance and work for Network Rail. Currently in Abellio ScotRail the operational staff numbers a well below what they require to run the current timetable. Add in the fact that staff no longer feel they are appreciated by management for giving up their rostered and legally entitled days off to prop up a failing franchise. When the new timetable commences in a few days time Scotland is going to see the same chaos as England and Wales experienced in May. We don't have enough staff, let alone trained staff to implement it and we also do not have the correct amount of rolling stock.

I feel for the passengers who face disruption, but I 100% back the staff who legitimately decide not to offer their services on their days off. Abellio ScotRail management have made a massive mistake in the way they deal with frontline staff and as such morale is no existent and its a very hostile work environment for certain on train grades.

You appear to be very knowledgeable about ScotRail's staffing situation, so I wonder if you could check over something I wrote about a possible December Timetable Meltdown last week. Link here.

Firstly, this article is speculative. It outlines concerns that I have, as somebody who knows a reasonable amount about the railway industry but not to anywhere near the level that people inside know it. However, there are some things which display to me that something is noticeably off.

As part of the capacity improvements in Scotland, ScotRail are getting two new fleets of trains. These are the High Speed Train (HST) or InterCity 125 (IC125) but with refurbished coaches, and the new-build class 385 EMU. Both of these trains are well behind schedule.

It was originally planned that most, if not all of ScotRail's new HSTs would be refurbished (in order to comply with upcoming accessibility legislation) and in service by the December 2018 timetable change. However, as of today, only one set has been refurbished. There is news that a second set is nearing completion, but this has not been confirmed. Even assuming that this second HST is up and running by the timetable change, that will leave 8 diagrams (a diagram being the services a single train is suppose to operate) per day unfilled. Of course, these trains will need maintenance, so of the 69 diagrams a week (9 on a Sunday plus a spare set) that are scheduled to be HSTs, at least 57 will be unfilled.

There are two possible solutions to this. The first is that diagrams are “phased in”. IE: The current rolling stock operates the diagrams and, as more HSTs are refurbished and brought into service, they are slowly put on the diagrams they were originally meant to be on. The problem here is that the current rolling stock is either due to go off-lease and be moved to increase capacity on routes in the North of England, or be used to increase capacity on other routes in Scotland. Either, ScotRail retains these trains for a longer period of time, and scuppers the timetable and capacity improvements for Northern, or they go off-lease when they are supposed to, and leave ScotRail without enough trains.

The second is that HSTs are used in their unrefurbished state. This can only be a temporary solution because the accessibility legislation that I mentioned earlier is due to come into force in 2020, legislation which means unrefurbished HSTs cannot operate in passenger service. However, this also has problems. Conductors have to be trained on every class of rolling stock separately. This is because the procedures for operation vary. The difference between refurbished and unrefurbished HSTs is significant enough to mean that they count as different trains from the perspective of conductor training. Therefore, conductors will have to be trained on both refurbished and unrefurbished HSTs. This doubles an already high workload. It must be noted that ScotRail has been training guards on both types of HST for a while now. But, this progress is slower than expected. I will explain the reason for this later, but firstly I will explain the situation with the other new train, the class 385.

The class 385 has become somewhat of a joke. The first sets were delivered nearly a year late. Then, whilst undergoing driver training, drivers refused to drive them in passenger service because the shape of the windscreen meant that they could not read the signals and other lineside lights properly. The trains were then taken out of training altogether whilst a solution was found. A solution was found, but this meant trains finally entering service 18 months late. Their introduction has been slow and painful, with a fleet-wide recall earlier in the year.

Because of the huge delay in the delivery of the 385, ScotRail leased some old electric trains, the class 365, as a stop-gap for the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High line (the main line between Edinburgh and Glasgow) from June 2018. Of course, that meant another round of training for drivers and conductors on the stop-gap rolling stock.

From the December timetable change, more routes will get electric services for the first time. These are Glasgow and Edinburgh to Dunblane and Falkirk Grahamston to Glasgow Queen Street via Stepps. That means another round of driver and conductor training, possibly doubled because of the continued need for 365s to cover for missing 385s. I am worried that training is very behind for these newly electrified routes. There have been very few, if any driver training runs on the lines mentioned above. Some services have only appeared for starting on the 26th of November, giving a 2 week window to train all the drivers and conductors. I do not see how this can happen.

The solution is, again, to continue to run the current rolling stock and phase-in the electric rolling stock as more drivers and conductors become trained. However, this presents its own problems. The current rolling stock simply cannot keep up with the new trains, as the newer rolling stock accelerates faster, and has a higher maximum speed in some cases. Even on a short run, such as Falkirk Grahamston to Glasgow Queen Street via Stepps, the current rolling stock looses up to 5 minutes compared to the new trains. Furthermore, that service will be extended to Edinburgh Waverley from Falkirk Grahamston in December, running via the very congested areas around Winchburgh and Newbridge Junctions. When trains arrive into these areas late, the knock-on effects to a lot of other services are significant, especially when one takes into account the massive bottleneck that is the Haymarket to Waverley section of line in Edinburgh.

The other problem with this is that some of the current rolling stock is due to go off-lease or be moved to other parts of Scotland to help capacity problems there. I have already explained why this is a problem in the previous section about HSTs.

I mentioned earlier that training, especially for conductors, is currently behind schedule and progressing very slowly. The reason for this, other than rolling stock being delivered late and there not being enough of it to provide a service and train conductors, is that ScotRail conductors are currently on an overtime ban in a dispute over pay and terms and conditions. The RMT union want conductors to have the same additional wages for overtime and additional work as ScotRail drivers currently do. As ScotRail have refused to do this, RMT has called all its conductors to join an overtime ban. Given that a lot of training has to take place as additional hours (for already working conductors), you can see the problem.

A number of factors mean that delivering this timetable change looks like it will be a serious challenge. Late starting and slow training, delays in delivering the new rolling stock, additional training for stop-gap rolling stock and an overtime ban mean that I would be surprised if there were not some significant problems, especially during the first weeks of the timetable. I should point out that it is very unlikely to be on the same scale as the disruption faced (and still facing) Northern and Thameslink, because the timetable hasn't changed as drastically, and it doesn't effect the whole network in the same way. I should also point out that I do not have insider knowledge on this. I understand that some ScotRail staff are raising concerns that the upcoming deadline of December the 9th (the date of the timetable change) is going to be missed, but there are still a lot of things I do not know. This article represents a list of problems that I, as a semi-well-informed outsider, have with the current situation. Only the date of the timetable change will reveal how these problems manifest themselves.

 

[Journeyman]

Cancellations for shortage of crew have spread to the E&G, which normally never happens and is an indication that there's a lot wrong somewhere.

 

[chuff chuff]

Desperate measures to get training done for new timetable,I would have thought that they must have got the nod from transport scotland to do this.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Cancellations for shortage of crew have spread to the E&G, which normally never happens and is an indication that there's a lot wrong somewhere.

There's quite a lot of crew shortages up and down Scotland today according to staff I know who work at Queen Street. I've previously been told that drivers who are on their rest days or not on duty are refusing to come in if they aren't getting anything extra for working the Sunday. Read into that what you want...

 

[380101]

You appear to be very knowledgeable about ScotRail's staffing situation, so I wonder if you could check over something I wrote about a possible December Timetable Meltdown last week. Link here.

I can only speak from my observations as a frontline member of staff. However, what you mention in your short appraisal of the situation is broadly correct.

A lack of foresight by senior management has led to the situation where they are introducing slam door HST sets without enough staff trained on them. Now, it has been widely known across the rail industry and indeed this forum that the HST refurb programme has been a shambles and that ScotRail would not have the required number available for December 2018. They've also had slam door HST sets sitting in depots for months now, and its only in the last few weeks they've decided to train conductors on them. Someone, somewhere in the senior management team has to take responsibility for the major failure in not having enough trained staff. I know there is an overtime ban in place (100% supported by me) but the HST issue was known about months before this came into effect.

 

[380101]

There's quite a lot of crew shortages up and down Scotland today according to staff I know who work at Queen Street. I've previously been told that drivers who are on their rest days or not on duty are refusing to come in if they aren't getting anything extra for working the Sunday. Read into that what you want...

Driver's like all staff who work a Sunday receive a booking on payment ontop of payment for the actual hours worked. But, like I've mentioned before, staff are entitled to have their days off work just like any other industry and the company should cease to expect staff to go the extra mile to cover up for serious management failures that have existed for decades within the railway ie; never having the correct amount of staff to cover the booked work at all times. Employ the correct number of staff, pay them a fair amount for giving up their legally entitled rest days and they'll avoid repeated crew shortages.

 

[Deltic1961]

You can see why customers are increasingly frustrated with the fare increases every year for a supposedly better service. Can't deny there has been investment in infrastructure however you also need sufficient staff to run it, and that requires good terms and conditions and fair pay.

I thought first did a reasonable job when they were franchisee and was warned that Abellio try and run their franchises on the minimum amount of staff to increase profits. I never thought it would be this bad.

A demoralised workforce spells the beginning of the end. Bad management once again.

 

[Chrism20]

Doesn't sound good on the staffing front thats for sure. If we are indeed in this situation after the Northern and GTR issues earlier in the year it's staggering.

 

[snookertam]

If they keep relying on staff to give up rest days to keep the service running, eventually those staff will become exhausted.

Asking people to work overtime should be a short term where there's some sickness around or some short term patching up. Relying on OT to run the service in the long term is a recipe for trouble.

If the cancellations are anything to do with the new timetable I'd be amazed. That just sounds like a desperate story put out there to detract from their own failings - even if it was true it wouldn't look good anyway.

 

[InOban]

I wasn't aware that there was an overtime ban at the moment. What's the dispute?

Am I right that in Scotrail Sunday rosters are all overtime.

 

[Deltic1961]

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-confirms-industrial-action-goes-ahead-on-scotrail/

 

[scotraildriver]

I wasn't aware that there was an overtime ban at the moment. What's the dispute?

Am I right that in Scotrail Sunday rosters are all overtime.

No, people have booked Sundays which are part of your contract and must be worked. But all Sundays are paid as overtime. So you must work them but you are paid extra. It's not optional. This issue always creates confusion as all Sundays are overtime in terms of pay, but not in terms of shifts which have to be worked.

 

[InOban]

I thought that had been settled, or at least suspended.

 

[380101]

No, people have booked Sundays which are part of your contract and must be worked. But all Sundays are paid as overtime. So you must work them but you are paid extra. It's not optional. This issue always creates confusion as all Sundays are overtime in terms of pay, but not in terms of shifts which have to be worked.

Its an archaic way of doing things and is easily got round by going sick. You don't get sick pay for a Sunday so they can't stick us on a stage for it.

It could be solved, but in doing so would cost the company alot of money to do so and it is fairly evident to all that Abellio dont have the money to do so, despite it being part of the franchise commitment.

 

[380101]

I thought that had been settled, or at least suspended.

it was suspended Whilst a very poor offer was crazily reccommended by the RMT head honchos to be accepted and it went to a referendum. It was overwhelmingly rejected by the staff, so industrial action re started on the 28/11. A further, even poorer deal has been offered by the company but was rejected straight away, and rightly so. The contempt Abellio have for frontline staff is unreal, and senior management only have themselves to blame for the situation they currently have within ScotRail.

 

[InOban]

That explains it.

 

[Mingulay]

To come back to my original point on the Scotlands' best ever railway slogan. If next Monday under the new timetable does not go like clockwork the media will have a fielday seizing on the irony of it all.

The brexit vote is a few days later so the media won't be distracted on a bigger story. But who knows it's a turbulent world we live in.

 

[DuncanS]

...not the best of times for Scotrail to announce that "Kids go Free" is ending and a £1 fare is being introduced instead. A lot of media Scrooge mentions on the go this morning.

 

[380101]

...not the best of times for Scotrail to announce that "Kids go Free" is ending and a £1 fare is being introduced instead. A lot of media Scrooge mentions on the go this morning.

Kids go free was good, but restrictive in that it only allowed 2 kids per adult. This obviously worked for some and not others. It wouldn't have been of any use to my mother if she'd taken all 3 of us out on her own.

But the timing of the announcement will only add to the pressure ScotRail are under at the moment and its only going to get worse from next week!

 

[Deltic1961]

A few people asking for a statement from Michael Matheson. He's been terribly quiet both on Scotrail's performance and the opening date for the AWPR.

 

[Stopper]

Edinburgh-Alloa evening service seems to have disappeared until the timetable change. Not only does that reduce Edinburgh-Alloa to 0tpd, it also reduces Edinburgh-Linlithgow/Polmont to 3tph in the evening peak aswell as Edinburgh-Grahamston/Camelon to 1tph. The latter is not a huge issue but the former is. The 17:15 E-G shuttle was also cancelled tonight which meant ScotRail had to stop the 17:30 at Linlithgow and Polmont. Services cancelled all over the place, chaos.

 

[mcmad]

I noticed on twitter that the official Scotrail excuse has changed from train crew shortages to being due to the final push to deliver the Dec timetable improvements which has gone down like a lead ballon. Struggling to see how the minister can avoid making a statement as its unlikely that Scotrail took that decision without putting it past TS first. At least they seem to have drop the 'best ever railway line for the moment at least. Interestingly they also tweeted that more "upgraded" HST's will be in service from Sunday but I didn't get a reply to my query if that meant refurbished or not.

 

[Deltic1961]

I get the impression their Twitter account is very carefully managed. Too carefully in fact .......

 

[Stopper]

I get the impression their Twitter account is very carefully managed. Too carefully in fact .......

I do feel for the people that have to run that account but there’s clear memos given out to avoid replying to/mentioning anything to do with certain topics. It’s so obvious.