Scotrail RMT strike action and possible temporary service cuts to a third of services

[Deltic1961]

Think I'm just going to avoid Scotrail from now on, certainly until this dispute is resolved .... although they do seem to happen quite frequently these days.

Stagecoach bus stops outside my house. Takes a bit longer and is 30p more expensive for a return but I don't see why I shou;d support Scotrail when they have put no effort in to protecting night services. It's very poor indeed.

 

[GordonT]

There's a 2015 express to Glasgow Queen Street, 2052 to Helensburgh Central via Glasgow Queen Street (Low Level) and a 2215 express to Glasgow Queen Street. So OK for that direction, but you're well out of luck for pretty much all other directions except for Tweedbank. It's still pretty rubbish that the last trains couldn't be protected.

A conspiracy theorist might suggest that it was deliberate ploy to avoid the hassle of having to get multiple folk to their ultimate destination by road at a late hour in the event of a normally timed last train being cancelled due to no driver the emergency timetable notwithstanding.

 

[Jordan1296]

Precisely the reason I avoid services to/from Inverness as much as possible. The 1727 today is just three carriages (usually needs five).

 

[320320]

Aslef are meeting scotrail, informally, tomorrow and will then hold formal negotiations on Thursday.
Possibly some red lines being laid down before, hopefully thrashing out a deal this week.

 

[PaulMc7]

A conspiracy theorist might suggest that it was deliberate ploy to avoid the hassle of having to get multiple folk to their ultimate destination by road at a late hour in the event of a normally timed last train being cancelled due to no driver the emergency timetable notwithstanding.

To be fair with a bus driver shortage and a lack of taxi drivers they don't exactly have it easy to organise alternative transportation these days. They've probably done it the way they have in order to keep drivers onside by giving them earlier finishes to the day and later starts in a lot of areas.

 

[muz379]

To be fair with a bus driver shortage and a lack of taxi drivers they don't exactly have it easy to organise alternative transportation these days. They've probably done it the way they have in order to keep drivers onside by giving them earlier finishes to the day and later starts in a lot of areas.

I suspect it's more to do with creating turns that they have multiple spares they can move to and less to do with keeping the drivers onside .

At the extreme end of the scale on jobs (earliest and latest book on) there are generally less spares in the roster that can catch it and thus more chance they'll be uncovered normally you'll have a standby to cover the first and last book on as well but with such chronic shortages it isn't guaranteed that won't be uncovered either. Coupled with the difficulty recruiting road transport if it is uncovered and you soon have a lot of passengers stranded only takes it to be a Friday or Saturday night and inebriated tempers could soon fray .

 

[Tomp94]

If there are going to be strikes I hope there are none on 13th June or 16th June..
.got a 7 hour trek to make to penzance and back!

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Aslef are meeting scotrail, informally, tomorrow and will then hold formal negotiations on Thursday.
Possibly some red lines being laid down before, hopefully thrashing out a deal this week.

Potential indicator that the SNP want to avoid collateral damage from this so have put a few more quid in the kitty

 

[320320]

Potential indicator that the SNP want to avoid collateral damage from this so have put a few more quid in the kitty

Possibly, although I wouldn’t bank on it. There were 3 or 4 rounds of meetings without an offer being made until they came up with the first one of 2.2%.

 

[mcmad]

Yes - interesting that although they’re significantly short forming the majority of Aberdeen intercity services today, they only have two short-form alerts on the website and claim all others are running normally. I expect omitting vital information they hope keeps the press away from the issues

the 1748 from Dundee to Glasgow (no idea its start time in Aberdeen) was a 5 car HST today and the 1738 Dundee to Edinburgh was a 6 car 170 so clearly there are services out there. The HST was maybe 30% loaded from Dundee with a fair group of St Johnstone fans heading to the game, wonder how they're getting back.

 

[Davester50]

Potential indicator that the SNP want to avoid collateral damage from this so have put a few more quid in the kitty

Other public sector pay discussions are scheduled very shortly. Doubtful.
The news also saying the Government want to leave it to ScotRail and not to get involved, but as I understand they're calling the public sector pay rise figure.

 

[dk1]

Aslef are meeting scotrail, informally, tomorrow and will then hold formal negotiations on Thursday.
Possibly some red lines being laid down before, hopefully thrashing out a deal this week.

Let’s hope it goes well & a realistic deal is offered to the membership for consideration.

 

[Christmas]

I'm told from a very reliable source that there were twelve spare drivers at Ayr depot this morning on the early shift alone. For those who don't quite understand what that means, it's drivers who are physically present at work but are all sitting doing nothing. Meanwhile some passengers are expected to wait an hour or more for trains that would normally run up to five times per hour. This demonstrates that the emergency timetables have been overkill say the least. ScotRail perhaps want to get their 'customers' used to virtually no train service whilst continually putting out the message that it's owing to a shortage of train drivers.
Personally I believe ScotRail are now in this for the long haul, capitulation is not an option. Tartar Tories for certain. I hope that the drivers return a ballot for action. Let's remember that officially no industrial action has been called, just that many drivers are simply not going to work on their days off!

 

[320320]

I'm told from a very reliable source that there were twelve spare drivers at Ayr depot this morning on the early shift alone. For those who don't quite understand what that means, it's drivers who are physically present at work but are all sitting doing nothing. Meanwhile some passengers are expected to wait an hour or more for trains that would normally run up to five times per hour. This demonstrates that the emergency timetables have been overkill say the least. ScotRail perhaps want to get their 'customers' used to virtually no train service whilst continually putting out the message that it's owing to a shortage of train drivers.
Personally I believe ScotRail are now in this for the long haul, capitulation is not an option. Tartar Tories for certain. I hope that the drivers return a ballot for action. Let's remember that officially no industrial action has been called, just that many drivers are simply not going to work on their days off!

It will be true. My depot got our diagrams last week and on the back shift we’re back in the depot between 20.30 and 22.30 but we’re still booked on until between 00.30 and 0100.

There was no reason to butcher so many late trains.

 

[Deltic1961]

It's going to absolutely kill revenue and some passengers won't return.

A lot of people are used to a certain train running and may move to alternative modes of transport.

Fair enough if the working drivers were being thrashed but this is actually worse and yet again proves how bad Scotrail are at planning, although they keep bigging up the planning team on Twitter.

 

[43066]

It's going to absolutely kill revenue and some passengers won't return.

Fair enough if the working drivers were being thrashed but this is actually worse and yet again proves how bad Scotrail are at planning, although they keep bigging up the planning team on Twitter.

Worth pointing out the drivers will have no choice in the matter - if you’re spare, you’re spare!

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

I'm told from a very reliable source that there were twelve spare drivers at Ayr depot this morning on the early shift alone. For those who don't quite understand what that means, it's drivers who are physically present at work but are all sitting doing nothing. Meanwhile some passengers are expected to wait an hour or more for trains that would normally run up to five times per hour. This demonstrates that the emergency timetables have been overkill say the least. ScotRail perhaps want to get their 'customers' used to virtually no train service whilst continually putting out the message that it's owing to a shortage of train drivers.
Personally I believe ScotRail are now in this for the long haul, capitulation is not an option. Tartar Tories for certain. I hope that the drivers return a ballot for action. Let's remember that officially no industrial action has been called, just that many drivers are simply not going to work on their days off!

No doubt there won't be twelve drivers spare everyday so ScotRail have culled the service so that whats published is deliverable everyday. I also suspect the crew planners were given no time to properly implement a contingency plan so go for overkill. What Gilruth should be doing is directing ScotRail to maximise what they can deliver with base resources on normal working although I suspect she will think that nothing can be changed until first wave of new drivers appear. Management and NR Sc will be happy with less trains and be gloating about high PPM is.

 

[Christmas]

Worth pointing out the drivers will have no choice in the matter - if you’re spare, you’re spare!

My apologies, I wasn't suggesting that they were doing nothing or being lazy. Many drivers are really frustrated by the actions of their employer. In fact drivers who would normally travel to and from work by train are now having to use their cars! Well done ScotRail!

On another note, I'm also tired of reading comparisons between nurses and train drivers, as NHS nurses on comparable hours won't earn anywhere near what a train driver earns. A more realistic comparison should be that of the junior doctor.

No doubt there won't be twelve drivers spare everyday so ScotRail have culled the service so that whats published is deliverable everyday. I also suspect the crew planners were given no time to properly implement a contingency plan so go for overkill. What Gilruth should be doing is directing ScotRail to maximise what they can deliver with base resources on normal working although I suspect she will think that nothing can be changed until first wave of new drivers appear. Management and NR Sc will be happy with less trains and be gloating about high PPM is.

Gilruth should have ensured that very first and last services of the May timetable change actually ran, there's no reason for them not to with drivers working their 'bare' week. The new emergency timetables are clearly not deliverable either, with multiple cancellations today alone.
You may have missed my earlier comments on trainees... It's all dependent on their instructors, who are also ASLEF members who may, or may not be instructors this time next week.

 

[Dryce]

Potential indicator that the SNP want to avoid collateral damage from this so have put a few more quid in the kitty

The SNP will want to hold the public's money money in the kitty to give away at a time of their own choosing on ther own terms to buy support if they go ahead with another referendum.

So they have an interesting conundrum. Normally they don't seem to hold their ground when the going gets tough - so this will be interesting to watch.

 

[Deltic1961]

This article is pretty interesting (if you can read it behind the paywall).

It's from the Press and Journal in Aberdeen and they have been asking commuters what they think of Scotrail and the current disruption. Sums it up pretty well.

Link to article: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...speak-out-about-unreliable-scotrail-services/

‘It’s not a modern, customer service railway’: Commuters at Aberdeen station speak out about ‘unreliable’ ScotRail services​

Passengers travelling through Aberdeen train station have spoken out about "unreliable" ScotRail services and how the recent changes are affecting their commute.

 

[lachlan]

This article is pretty interesting (if you can read it behind the paywall).

It's from the Press and Journal in Aberdeen and they have been asking commuters what they think of Scotrail and the current disruption. Sums it up pretty well.

Link to article: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...speak-out-about-unreliable-scotrail-services/

‘It’s not a modern, customer service railway’: Commuters at Aberdeen station speak out about ‘unreliable’ ScotRail services​

Passengers travelling through Aberdeen train station have spoken out about "unreliable" ScotRail services and how the recent changes are affecting their commute.

Use 12ft.io to bypass the paywall

 

[LoogaBarooga]

Moaning Aiberdonians? Ach awa.

 

[Walter Whigham]

There is also an interesting article in today's Aberdeen Press and Journal. The essence of this is that whilst so far the SNP has been pretty teflon-like in surviving the issues of drug death rates, delayed ferries, new ferries over-budget, ferry documents mysteriously going missing, under-performing schools et al, the Scotrail issue may be the one to do the party irreparable damage.

IMHO the Scottish Government's public persona is pretty low, not helped by Jenny Gilruth not having command of her brief and waffling when she appears in the media. Yesterday morning, I had problems understanding her on BBC Radio Scotland because she was talking too fast. She would do well to get some training as to how to behave with the media. I did years ago and it stood me in good stead thereafter.

 

[Deltic1961]

The SNP have an invisibility cloak though. No matter how badly they perform those nasty tories are far worse. Until that cloak is removed they'll continue as is not caring about Scotland one bit.

 

[lachlan]

I'm no SNP supporter but when the alternative is the tories I'm not surprised the SNP do well. Especially if you consider many of those who want an independent Scotland will just be voting for the party most likely to make that happen and some folks may be hoping to vote the SNP out after that.

 

[PaulMc7]

I'm no SNP supporter but when the alternative is the tories I'm not surprised the SNP do well. Especially if you consider many of those who want an independent Scotland will just be voting for the party most likely to make that happen and some folks may be hoping to vote the SNP out after that.

This is what a lot of people don't get to be honest. The SNP aren't good but the alternative is absolutely miles ahead in terms of being god awful.

 

[muz379]

I'm told from a very reliable source that there were twelve spare drivers at Ayr depot this morning on the early shift alone. For those who don't quite understand what that means, it's drivers who are physically present at work but are all sitting doing nothing. Meanwhile some passengers are expected to wait an hour or more for trains that would normally run up to five times per hour. This demonstrates that the emergency timetables have been overkill say the least. ScotRail perhaps want to get their 'customers' used to virtually no train service whilst continually putting out the message that it's owing to a shortage of train drivers.
Personally I believe ScotRail are now in this for the long haul, capitulation is not an option. Tartar Tories for certain. I hope that the drivers return a ballot for action. Let's remember that officially no industrial action has been called, just that many drivers are simply not going to work on their days off!

I guess if that is the case everyday then the emergency timetable has cut too deeply and can be slowly increased so there are less spare resources , this does happen sometimes when plans are quickly drawn up for an emergency timetable I think plenty of places had it during covid with emergency timetables being implemented then fine tuned according to peaks and troughs in resource availability .But it could be a peak based on more vacancies on one rest day pattern or some other anomaly so the same spare resources are not available throughout the week in which case as daft as it seems to have loads of spare drivers sat around some days the timetable wouldn't be reliable every day if you upped it .

 

[Retorus]

Ended up having to a book a hotel in Edinburgh for Thursday night because the trains are stopping early. Frustrating.

 

[Deltic1961]

10:57 from Inverness today was a 3 car 170. No sign of any HSTs at Aberdeen on arrival.

Use 12ft.io to bypass the paywall

Cheers, got the Chrome plugin and it works flawlesslty. Genius!

 

[ld0595]

10:57 from Inverness today was a 3 car 170. No sign of any HSTs at Aberdeen on arrival.



Cheers, got the Chrome plugin and it works flawlesslty. Genius!

Looking at RTT today, the following services are/were HSTs:

• 07.38 to Glasgow
• 10.13 from Glasgow
• 11.01 to Edinburgh (5 car)
• 11.50 from Edinburgh
• 13.13 to Edinburgh
• 13.41 to Inverness
• 13.54 from Edinburgh
• 14.14 from Glasgow
• 14.42 to Edinburgh
• 15.35 to Glasgow
• 17.57 from Edinburgh (5 car)
• 18.40 to Glasgow (5 car)
• 19.38 from Inverness
• 20.05 from Edinburgh
• 21.21 from Glasgow

So not exactly none but far fewer than there should be.