D1009
Established Member
Don't post too soon!So far so good today - 0 HSS cancellations and on a bank holiday Saturday as well.
Don't post too soon!So far so good today - 0 HSS cancellations and on a bank holiday Saturday as well.
The Shortage of Train Crews are back!
31 by 9am and 13 this evening, although some of those were published this morning and also quite a few part cancellations. I hope that this isn’t the start of another summer of misery on GWR.
Last year the football World Cup and training on the IET’s were cited as the main reasons. What will it be this year?
Brand new trains has nothing to do with no catering staffYep - there must have been like 4 IET services to and from Penzance that also ran without catering too! The 08:58 from Didcot Parkway to Liskeard I caught this morning. Twice that's happened (last time being on the 30/09/18), only this time, there was no information at Didcot to say this. In fact, the train manager told us regarding no catering - just after we left Swindon.
Luckily I had breakfast - I had my lunch around 13:30 / 13:45 with a pot of tea.
I mean C'mon - these are brand new trains.
Brand new trains has nothing to do with no catering staff
That was one of GWR’s better efforts: cancelling trains because France were playing Croatia.The Shortage of Train Crews are back!
31 by 9am and 13 this evening, although some of those were published this morning and also quite a few part cancellations. I hope that this isn’t the start of another summer of misery on GWR.
Last year the football World Cup and training on the IET’s were cited as the main reasons. What will it be this year?
Last year the football World Cup and training on the IET’s were cited as the main reasons. What will it be this year?
Sunday 2/06: (cancellations attributed to No Driver or Shortage of Train Crew)
HSS: 2 part cancellations & 3 full cancellations.
LTV: Nil
West: 15 full or part cancellations, 8 of which were trips on the Liskard - Looe Branch.
Whilst it’s not good, it’s hardly the mass cancellations that we saw last summer so no need to get hysterical yet!
16 cancellations and 4 part cancellations already today, presumably because of Fathers Day. As usual the Paddington to Cheltenham service has been decimated.
'This train has been cancelled due to more than the expected number of staff choosing to spend the day with their fathers or children'
Where is the customer in all this - you know the person who pays the wages.
Customer doesn’t matter in these archaic contracts. Contract that doesn’t put staff first is king of the railWhere is the customer in all this - you know the person who pays the wages.
There will be on XC soon...What is it about GWR that means they have such problems covering Sundays?
There are no cancellations today on TfW Rail, Cross Country or LNER due to a shortage of train crew, for example.
There will be on XC soon...
The fact the RMT are in dispute..Source?
What is it about GWR that means they have such problems covering Sundays?
There are no cancellations today on TfW Rail, Cross Country or LNER due to a shortage of train crew, for example.
It might have had something to do with the closure of the line between Newport, Cardiff and Bridgend yesterday, with Swansea crews perhaps not rushing to volunteer to work a Sunday and then spend large parts of their day riding in taxis along the M4 in South Wales.
By the look of it not enough staff at Bristol and Paddington then volunteered to cover what was still running to Newport, plus the Bristol/Weston and Cheltenham services.
Either way its not really a satisfactory state of affairs for the fare paying customer is it? GWR have had a year to sort this out and we appear to be no further forward.
Either way its not really a satisfactory state of affairs for the fare paying customer is it? GWR have had a year to sort this out and we appear to be no further forward.
“Will you accept a change to your terms and conditions to bring Sundays into the working week”
“No”
“What if we pay you X”
“No”
I’m not sure what else could have been done...
It's not a satisfactory state of affairs, no. However I think we are further forward in that Father's Day in 2018 saw around 70 GWR cancellations, whereas this Father's Day saw about 15. That's quite a reduction, and hopefully indicates that whilst there will be shortages this year, it won't be as bad as last year.
No proposals to bring Sunday's into the working week have been put to the vote as yet, with the target date set at January 2021 for some time now, in order to allow time to train the additional drivers that will be required. Talks are not exactly proceeding quickly though, so that date is starting to look less and less likely to happen. Until then, a significant percentage of drivers can still opt out of any Sunday they wish not to work with no requirement for cover to be found.
Sorry I was being perhaps overly flippant.
As II says there’s evidence of much improvement - Father’s Day is traditionally a poor day for crew availability; looking at other weekends GW were in the 50-60 cancellations bracket almost every weekend last summer; and while Fathers Day hasn’t been amazing, it has been the first time this year with widespread cancellations on a Sunday for crew shortages.