Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
34815 was only in Cheltenham for maintenance work.
Does anyone know if stagecoach service 10,11,12,13 will be running tomorrow or not? And will Gloucester services be running tomorrow?
Over 380 bus drivers employed by Stagecoach West and based throughout Gloucestershire and Wiltshire have announced a month long strike in a dispute over chronic low pay.
www.unitetheunion.org
Over 380 bus drivers employed by Stagecoach West and based throughout Gloucestershire and Wiltshire have announced a month long strike in a dispute over chronic low pay.
Cheltenham Festival
Strike action, which was backed overwhelmingly by the drivers who are members of Unite the union, will begin on Thursday 10 March and continue until Saturday 9 April coinciding with the Cheltenham Festival. The strike is set to cause considerable disruption to the event as Stagecoach has the contract to take festival goers to and from the racecourse.
With many drivers paid under £11 per hour, Unite has been pressing for an increase in line with real inflation, currently at 7.8 per cent. However, Stagecoach has tabled offers that are in effect pay cuts.
It is the first time ever that the drivers have voted for industrial action.
Significant pay rise
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite has given Stagecoach West every opportunity to make a fair pay offer to avoid strike action but it has failed to do so.
“Our members at Stagecoach West have made it very clear that they will accept nothing less than a significant pay rise and they have Unite’s full support in this fight.
“Stagecoach has to get real – it’s time to table a serious offer.”
Depots affected
The strike action will affect all of Stagecoach West’s service operating from the Bristol, Cheltenham, Coalway, Gloucester, Stroud, and Swindon depots.
Stagecoach West’s parent company is extremely profitable. Notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, its accounts reveal that the group made a profit of £58.4 million and it has £875 million of available liquidity.
Strike action is last resort
Unite regional officer Shevaun Hunt said: “Our members are taking strike action as a last resort because Stagecoach has refused to listen. Industrial action will inevitably cause severe disruption to passengers throughout Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and especially during the Cheltenham Festival.
“Even now strike action could be avoided if Stagecoach West was prepared to return to the negotiating table and make an offer which meets the drivers’ expectations.”
Over 380 bus drivers employed by Stagecoach West and based throughout Gloucestershire and Wiltshire have announced a month long strike in a dispute over chronic low pay.
About time Stagecoach paid it's drivers properly and offered decent working conditions. Weasel words about being 'heroes' ring hollow when they treat their staff so poorly. It's not always about 'pay' but a lot can be done about the conditions which stem from the attitude they have towards their staff.
About time Stagecoach paid it's drivers properly and offered decent working conditions. Weasel words about being 'heroes' ring hollow when they treat their staff so poorly. It's not always about 'pay' but a lot can be done about the conditions which stem from the attitude they have towards their staff.
I think that‘s a bit of a generalisation. Every subsidiary in all the groups is different both in reality and in perceptions. I’m not sure there is any real evidence that ‘Stagecoach’ overall is worse than any of the other groups or other operators. And I’m not aware of any studies which suggest this to be so?
I'd be surprised given the strike action was against all West depots incl Bristol and it wouldn't make sense logistically - much closer to Gloucester than Exeter.
Stagecoach West has pitched a new pay offer to see off a strike by bus drivers during Cheltenham Festival. The Unite union says it will ballot members on the offer this week.
Stagecoach West says a two-year pay deal, which would run through to October 2023, would provide employees with increases of up to 12 per cent. The deal would cover around 380 employees, including the 40 per cent of staff who are not members of Unite.
The union is to carry out a consultation with its members from this Thursday, with a result expected on Friday (March 4). But a Unite spokesperson said: "At this time the proposed industrial action due to begin on Thursday, March 10, remains in place."
Hardly surprised if I'm being honest. One driver said his union rep suggested doing the strike during the Races was going to be the most effective way of getting the desired pay deal due to the high revenue that the Races shuttles bring...
Sometimes 34815 tracks correctly or doesn’t track at all, it sometimes tracks but shows up as 37011 in person. Also 37011 is shown as in Bristol on bustimes and it also sometimes doesn’t track entirely. It’s still at stroud though
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
It was actually out of service so it was only the driver
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Sometimes 34815 tracks correctly or doesn’t track at all, it sometimes tracks but shows up as 37011 in person. Also 37011 is shown as in Bristol on bustimes and it also sometimes doesn’t track entirely. It’s still at stroud though. Forgot to mention 36771 correctly tracks now as well
As most will be aware this coming week is race week. West will be loaned 48 deckers. Internally 3 Bristol scanias, 3 Swindon MMCs and 4 Gloucester tridents will run with Gloucester allocating an additional bus on a daily basis for the races.
As most will be aware this coming week is race week. West will be loaned 48 deckers. Internally 3 Bristol scanias, 3 Swindon MMCs and 4 Gloucester tridents will run with Gloucester allocating an additional bus on a daily basis for the races.
What would the Gloucester, Bristol and Swindon buses be doing if they weren’t at the races? Presumably these aren’t just lying around as spare, so does that mean local services are impacted?
What would the Gloucester, Bristol and Swindon buses be doing if they weren’t at the races? Presumably these aren’t just lying around as spare, so does that mean local services are impacted?
Seen at Cheltenham Railway Station ready for the Races 17.45 14-03-22
I think this is where they are from
Andover 10698 Portsmouth 10941 Aldershot 10764 Chichester 15986 Leamington Spa 11225
Barking 10319 Bow 11366 Leyton 19869 West Ham 11020 Romford 10347
Swindon 10894 Cheltenham 15977 15981
Stockport 11519 11523 11526 11529 11539 11547 11551 11552
Cwmbran 15613 15754 15838 15965
What would the Gloucester, Bristol and Swindon buses be doing if they weren’t at the races? Presumably these aren’t just lying around as spare, so does that mean local services are impacted?
Where I’ve been involved with the planning of other similar major events, adjusting the planned maintenance schedule was often part of the mix, so the buses that would normally be receiving routine maintenance or annual test would be done before/after the event week. It also had the advantage that it could free up engineers either to drive (if they had the right licence) or to provide more of an emergency response squad should any problems arise with event buses.
At a medium sized depot you could easily have 5/6 buses per day scheduled for maintenance.
Local Media is reporting lots of bus cancellations in Cheltenham and Gloucester area due to ’sudden driver illness’
Stagecoach West has announced a plethora of cancellations to services across the region today (Tuesday, March 15).
The cancellations affect areas including Stroud, Cheltenham and Gloucester, with some of the cut services being attributed to "sudden driver illness".
Must've been a outbreak last night as they were fine yesterday. In no world could it be to do with the 50+ double decker transport operation for the races
What would the Gloucester, Bristol and Swindon buses be doing if they weren’t at the races? Presumably these aren’t just lying around as spare, so does that mean local services are impacted?
Bristol have spares at the moment since losing the Amazon contract. Swindon and Gloucester have a few more deckers than they probably need, and both seem to be coping just fine. MMCs in Gloucester are doing school work in place of tridents. Looking at the age of the tridents, and the fact that eventually MMCs will go more free roam and PVRs are likely reduced long-term, a wind down of the tridents is probably likely within a year
Must've been a outbreak last night as they were fine yesterday. In no world could it be to do with the 50+ double decker transport operation for the races
The races is often used as a way of transfering buses between companies however it's likely that staff will be the resouce that will be most needed this year; 7 buses from Newcastle means seven (at least) more driver).
Without knowing the actual resourcing process there may be some reallocation of resource that means the local services are less reliable than they would be (and Cheltenham's service often goes to pot during the races anyway because of the traffic) however they'll also be aware of the much greater PR failure if there's hundreds of people left on Cheltenham station including some national journalists! As somebody said on this thread the threat of a strike duing the races was enough to bring the negotiations to a swift conclusion!
however they'll also be aware of the much greater PR failure if there's hundreds of people left on Cheltenham station including some national journalists!
And what makes a national journalist reporting on an a sporting event more important (and more deserving of a bus service) than care workers, supermarket workers or council workers? Nothing.
As for the PR failure, they seem to be managing a fine job of that without the races. The bus industry as a whole seems to be falling apart at the moment. The real PR failure ought to be that the above professions, and many others, are currently unable to rely on their chosen (or in most cases, their only) method of getting to their place of work. I know, COVID, COVID, COVID, it’s all down to COVID! But it isn’t is it?
It’s frustrating to see Stagecoach suddenly muster 11 spare vehicles and presumably the same number of staff from Glouc and Chelt, plus several more from Swindon, when the reality is they can’t (or say they can’t) provide the services that really do matter to people.
Just look at Stagecoach West’s Twitter feed for the past few months. Some of the posts might look like they are just a small number of cancellations, but remember some of those services are hourly and when you need to get to work, a 2 hour gap just makes the bus a non starter.
They seem happier to provide a service to people who wouldn’t think twice about using any bus services for the remaining 364 days of the year, but we can’t have them wait more than 3 minutes at Cheltenham station can we. Meanwhile there are people waiting at bus stops for hours trying to get to or from work.
I know, it’s all about the money, you don’t need to tell me! I’d be interested to hear anybody’s best guess at how much Stagecoach take in race shuttle fares?
Shameless
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
RailUK was launched on 6th June 2005 - so we've hit 20 years being the UK's most popular railway community! Read more and celebrate this milestone with us in this thread!
www.unitetheunion.org
www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk
