Cross Country MD gone.

[STINT47]

It sounds like my last boss who we were suddenly told one morning that he had decided overnight to pursue exciting opportunities outside of the business.

 

[Russel]

but of course that's why they get the big bucks

Doesn't matter what you're being paid, if you're receiving a kicking from above and below on a frequent enough basis, you'll walk eventually.

Not saying this is what happened, just to be clear, I have no idea what the circumstances are, I'm speaking hypothetically...

 

[Ferret]

Most CrossCountry staff seem delighted by this development, which perhaps tells you all you need to know? Whatever happened seemed very abrupt - it was a matter of weeks ago that he was ‘re-imagining the train service to Cardiff’ or some such nonsense (just run trains FFS, without the word salad at industry events), and now he’s walking the plank? Very strange.

It became a distinctly unpleasant place to work in his time as MD, and the impression pre-Covid was that it was being run into the ground. The significant cultural issues will remain until someone new has had chance to bring about change, but perhaps this is a great opportunity for a fresh start. I wish their new MD, whoever that may be, the best of luck in their endeavours. Their In-tray of problems to solve will be bulging at the seams.

 

[The Planner]

Most CrossCountry staff seem delighted by this development, which perhaps tells you all you need to know? Whatever happened seemed very abrupt - it was a matter of weeks ago that he was ‘re-imagining the train service to Cardiff’ or some such nonsense (just run trains FFS, without the word salad at industry events), and now he’s walking the plank? Very strange.

It became a distinctly unpleasant place to work in his time as MD, and the impression pre-Covid was that it was being run into the ground. The significant cultural issues will remain until someone new has had chance to bring about change, but perhaps this is a great opportunity for a fresh start. I wish their new MD, whoever that may be, the best of luck in their endeavours. Their In-tray of problems to solve will be bulging at the seams.

I got that impression as well, very much his way or the highway from people I know.

 

[Ferret]

I got that impression as well, very much his way or the highway from people I know.

It’s like he has the reverse-midas touch. The acid test for someone in a leadership role is did they leave things in a better state than they found them in? It’s impossible to argue that Joyner did that.

When you look at the state of the XC Operation:

- Traincrew shortages.
- Stock shortages.
- Catering offer like Russian Roulette as to whether there is one.
- Cancellations galore.
- Staff morale destroyed.
- Recruitment disastrous. Nepotism rife, with incompetence and laziness among existing staff actively rewarded with promotion but doing a good job frowned upon.
- Disinterested management
- A long list of Directors of this, that and the other but no clear role, all drawing excessive salaries.

It’s a huge challenge for the next person to resolve all of that.

 

[Carlisle]

- Traincrew shortages.
- Stock shortages.
- Catering offer like Russian Roulette as to whether there is one.
- Cancellations galore.
- Staff morale destroyed.
- Recruitment disastrous. Nepotism rife, with incompetence and laziness among existing staff actively rewarded with promotion but doing a good job frowned upon.
- Disinterested management
- A long list of Directors of this, that and the other but no clear role, all drawing excessive salaries.

Although much of that could be said about many TOCs particularly post Covid

 

[3141]

Given the wording I have no doubt he was given the push.

A view supported by the fact that the announcement comes from the HR Director, who would have been involved in discussions about the immediate departure of such a senior figure.

 

[Ferret]

Although much of that could be said about many TOCs particularly post Covid

CrossCountry’s problems were rooted deep, long before Covid compounded them. There is just no excusing the culture that has been created there. Joyner’s departure should only be the start, there are several others who need to follow him out of the exit door. Starting with HR and the entire Recruitment team, and moving on to the legions of Middle-Managers who contribute little. There are good people at XC who, given some freedom and the right tools, can turn that franchise around. They should be given every opportunity.

 

[AlterEgo]

Why do you ask? Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. But the top job is a revolving door of figureheads coming and going

No it isn't. Not at a TOC - the MD is a crucial figure. Take it from someone who's worked at a couple of TOCs, including XC.

CrossCountry’s problems were rooted deep, long before Covid compounded them. There is just no excusing the culture that has been created there. Joyner’s departure should only be the start, there are several others who need to follow him out of the exit door. Starting with HR and the entire Recruitment team, and moving on to the legions of Middle-Managers who contribute little. There are good people at XC who, given some freedom and the right tools, can turn that franchise around. They should be given every opportunity.

What exactly is wrong with XC these days? When I worked there under Andy Cooper is was a good and pragmatic employer with good industrial relations. Sad to hear repeated rumours of culture issues as you mention. I do not recognise most of these issues from my time. Sad!

 

[Bletchleyite]

CrossCountry’s problems were rooted deep, long before Covid compounded them. There is just no excusing the culture that has been created there. Joyner’s departure should only be the start, there are several others who need to follow him out of the exit door. Starting with HR and the entire Recruitment team, and moving on to the legions of Middle-Managers who contribute little. There are good people at XC who, given some freedom and the right tools, can turn that franchise around. They should be given every opportunity.

I'd question whether it's possible to turn XC around without more rolling stock. Capacity is the biggest issue with it, it's otherwise no worse than any other average-ish TOC really. Anything else is tweaking round the edges.

I suspect staff attitudes (and some of them can be a bit surly at times, though most are decent enough) are mainly because they're just fed up of offering a bad service and getting abuse for it, which largely again comes down to inadquate capacity.

 

[Ferret]

I'd question whether it's possible to turn XC around without more rolling stock. Capacity is the biggest issue with it, it's otherwise no worse than any other average-ish TOC really. Anything else is tweaking round the edges.

I suspect staff attitudes (and some of them can be a bit surly at times, though most are decent enough) are mainly because they're just fed up of offering a bad service and getting abuse for it, which largely again comes down to inadquate capacity.

Not an inaccurate assessment. Much would be solved by having sufficient rolling stock to meet demand.

 

[43066]

MDs are just figureheads. Most frontline staff probably don't know who their MD is anyway

Have you worked for a TOC?

I’ve worked for two, and some MDs are better than others, both in terms of doing the job, and being known to and favourably regarded by the staff who actually deliver the service. The two do seem to go hand in hand, perhaps unsurprisingly!

I’ve not worked for XC, but clearly it isn’t a happy ship, even by the standards of the poor state of industrial relations industry wide, so the MD will need to take some responsibility for that.

 

[Ferret]

What exactly is wrong with XC these days? When I worked there under Andy Cooper is was a good and pragmatic employer with good industrial relations. Sad to hear repeated rumours of culture issues as you mention. I do not recognise most of these issues from my time. Sad!

It is incredibly sad. Andy Cooper was not perfect - the lack of driver training school at his direction is having serious consequences now. But the real culture issues started when Cooper left.

Some Managers were appointed who had no idea of how to run a railway, not even having a good record on the front line. You’ll have seen my comment about laziness being rewarded? Fantastic way to undermine staff who do the job well is to promote the idle ones ahead of the people who try their best. Managers who called this nonsense out were ignored by an arrogant and out of touch HR/Recruitment team.

It just perpetuates a culture where not giving a flying **** is the norm. Add to that some very unfortunate scandals, one of which resulted in Pentahotel at Derby having a justified eppy over the behaviour of certain staff on training courses (see prev comments on Recruitment consistently getting it wrong), and you have an unholy mess of a TOC.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It doesn’t matter if they are high profile and widely recognised amongst their staff…. they are all merely glove puppets following instructions issued by the DfT.

Which will probably be the situation under the next edition of the DfT, after the election.

Looking back, you would never say Chris Green or Christopher Garnett were anybody's glove puppets (under the "hated franchise regime").

 

[43066]

Which will probably be the situation under the next edition of the DfT, after the election.

There are still TOCs, and mine is one of them, where people seem generally pretty happy with both local and senior management, irrespective of DfT interference. The current mess is (correctly) perceived as being inflicted on the industry by the government, rather than something cooked up by TOC management. .

 

[class 9]

I'd question whether it's possible to turn XC around without more rolling stock. Capacity is the biggest issue with it, it's otherwise no worse than any other average-ish TOC really. Anything else is tweaking round the edges.

I suspect staff attitudes (and some of them can be a bit surly at times, though most are decent enough) are mainly because they're just fed up of offering a bad service and getting abuse for it, which largely again comes down to inadquate capacity.

Indeed, the fact they were only able to negotiate an extra 7 221s from potentially 18 available went down like a lead balloon amongst staff.

 

[geoffk]

A sweeping generalisation. Some of them are very high profile and widely recognised amongst their staff. Some not so much.

Of course none are as high profile as Sir Peter Parker and the two Bob Reids, and this is what the current railway set-up lacks. Sorry going off-topic....

 

[Carlisle]

Looking back, you would never say Chris Green or Christopher Garnett were anybody's glove puppets (under the "hated franchise regime").

I’d definitely agree about Chris Green but when Mr Garnett began suggesting de electrifying the ECML north of Newcastle I had some doubts about his potential greatness

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Indeed, the fact they were only able to negotiate an extra 7 221s from potentially 18 available went down like a lead balloon amongst staff.

7 is the minimum number, current expectations is that will be a higher number - the Annual Business Plan had a base of 7 extras with options for more.

 

[RichSwitch]

Again slightly off-topic, SWR has had three MDs in just under 7 years. It will soon be onto its fourth!

Is there an issue more widely with the quality of MDs being recruited onto the railway these days? Is there, by inference, an issue with those doing the recruitment? And who recruits the recruiters? Ad finitum.

 

[class 9]

7 is the minimum number, current expectations is that will be a higher number - the Annual Business Plan had a base of 7 extras with options for more.

Hope you're right.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I’d definitely agree about Chris Green but when Mr Garnett began suggesting de electrifying the ECML north of Newcastle I had some doubts about his potential greatness

Mr Garnett did support firmly the "Electric Horshoe" to give extra wired connectivity to the ECML links (as part of a franchise extension bid) - giving head on running London - Leeds - London , which was widely supported and a shame it never happened.....

 

[Oxfordblues]

Anyone attempting to board 1M58 14:45 Bournemouth-Manchester Picc at Oxford this afternoon would question the HR Director's assertion that "we continue to concentrate on delivering high performing services for customers and communities across Great Britain". On a half-term Friday afternoon just 3 standard-class coaches with 176 seats were deemed sufficient. The 220 was already full on arrival and the aisles were packed with standees but I estimate around 100 passengers were attempting to board. Zoe Kennedy clearly occupies a separate parallel universe!

 

[TrainBoy98]

Anyone attempting to board 1M58 14:45 Bournemouth-Manchester Picc at Oxford this afternoon would question the HR Director's assertion that "we continue to concentrate on delivering high performing services for customers and communities across Great Britain". On a half-term Friday afternoon just 3 standard-class coaches with 176 seats were deemed sufficient. The 220 was already full on arrival and the aisles were packed with standees but I estimate around 100 passengers were attempting to board. Zoe Kennedy clearly occupies a separate parallel universe!

People are often getting left behind at Banbury and Oxford in my recent experiences. Last Saturday fighting broke out on my XC back to Southampton due to lack of space and people still trying to crowd on.

 

[Goldfish62]

People are often getting left behind at Banbury and Oxford in my recent experiences. Last Saturday fighting broke out on my XC back to Southampton due to lack of space and people still trying to crowd on.

Capacity was cut by almost 50% on the Reading - Birmingham corridor in May when most trains were shortened to single units, but only a handful of Reading - Newcastle services reinstated. In any case judging by their erratic operation XC seem to consider these services optional.

 

[Towers]

Again slightly off-topic, SWR has had three MDs in just under 7 years. It will soon be onto its fourth!

Is there an issue more widely with the quality of MDs being recruited onto the railway these days? Is there, by inference, an issue with those doing the recruitment? And who recruits the recruiters? Ad finitum.

You might question why decent candidates who’ve done their homework would want to go anywhere near a TOC MD job in the current climate. The DfT’s wanton destruction of the railway and forcing of abysmal decisions onto TOCs leaves very little room for even an effective MD to make much of an impact. At XC alone we’ve seen chronic overcrowding problems that have existed for decades made substantially worse by the forced removal of the only decent high capacity trains in the fleet (the HSTs), as well as the enforced industrial relations disaster that our feckless government has deliberately engineered. And even then there is no apparent ‘strategy’ behind it, the DfT seemingly having woken up one day and suddenly decided that there was a burning need to settle with the RMT, but meanwhile choosing to keep the dispute going with Aslef.

TOC senior management have had control of their ship snatched from them, and I suspect many of them have little idea of where they are supposed to be sailing to! I would be inclined to suggest that nobody is likely to be able to heal very many wounds at an english TOC under the current regime.

 

[Goldfish62]

You might question why decent candidates who’ve done their homework would want to go anywhere near a TOC MD job in the current climate. The DfT’s wanton destruction of the railway and forcing of abysmal decisions onto TOCs leaves very little room for even an effective MD to make much of an impact. At XC alone we’ve seen chronic overcrowding problems that have existed for decades made substantially worse by the forced removal of the only decent high capacity trains in the fleet (the HSTs), as well as the enforced industrial relations disaster that our feckless government has deliberately engineered. And even then there is no apparent ‘strategy’ behind it, the DfT seemingly having woken up one day and suddenly decided that there was a burning need to settle with the RMT, but meanwhile choosing to keep the dispute going with Aslef.

TOC senior management have had control of their ship snatched from them, and I suspect many of them have little idea of where they are supposed to be sailing to! I would be inclined to suggest that nobody is likely to be able to heal very many wounds at an english TOC under the current regime.

Exactly this.

 

[father_jack]

(Snipped)

TOC senior management have had control of their ship snatched from them, and I suspect many of them have little idea of where they are supposed to be sailing to! I would be inclined to suggest that nobody is likely to be able to heal very many wounds at an english TOC under the current regime.

Funny you say that, I was talking to some trade union people and one of them (GWR side) said XC will end up "having" Mark Hopwood to run down to his retirement. This Richard Roland deputy MD character at GWR has been replaced in his customer service remit by a woman from Stagecoach buses and he's had a "transformation" role invented for him but it's thought this is a precursor to him becoming MD.

 

[Goldfish62]

Funny you say that, I was talking to some trade union people and one of them (GWR side) said XC will end up "having" Mark Hopwood to run down to his retirement. This Richard Roland deputy MD character at GWR has been replaced in his customer service remit by a woman from Stagecoach buses and he's had a "transformation" role invented for him but it's thought this is a precursor to him becoming MD.

Her departure from Stagecoach is itself an odd one.

I tend to think of "Transformation" roles in the same vein as "Special Project", ie one step out of the door.

I was rather hoping Hopwood would be sent back to SWR, but sadly not the case.

 

[The Planner]

Her departure from Stagecoach is itself an odd one.

I tend to think of "Transformation" roles in the same vein as "Special Project", ie one step out of the door.

I was rather hoping Hopwood would be sent back to SWR, but sadly not the case.

Happens all the time, you can't sack them so you "manage" them out of the business. Move them into a special project or a job which you know they don't want to do and play the waiting game for them to go.