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Scotrail collects 2nd improvement notice

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route:oxford

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Mingulay said:
Can someone think of the passenger in this pantomime? If the alliance was meant to be a coordinating body it clearly isn’t. Now kicked off a third Dunblane train. Reason this time is control parked a GLENROTHES service in front of us . The scotrail guard advice is travel on LNER to Stirling as Scotrail can’t run a bath. Good quote I think!
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It was quite dreadful yesterday afternoon.

15:49
16:23
16:49

All cancelled.

I grabbed the Perth train from Edinburgh Gateway, and changed onto the Glasgow train there as both were running... Can you imagine standing for 2 hours at Edinburgh Park? One half broken fan heater and bitter Sighthill winds. Not that you'd ever manage to board a service that was carrying 4x services passengers when it did turn up.

Just glad that I was heading *from* the airport and not going to it.

Probably the most important thing to note here is that whilst Great Western is going from strength to strength with their brand new stock, Scotrail are floundering with Great Western's redundant stock.

Classic "buy cheap, pay twice".

Get the knitting up to Perth, and order some 7 car bimode IETs ASAP.
 
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RailUK Forums

Deltic1961

Deltic1961

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Apparently quite a few cancellations in a row on Borders line on Sunday due to shortage of staff with the replacement bus service a disaster.

Capture.JPG
 
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Far north 37

Far north 37

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380101 said:
The extra 380s would have been welcome and they'd have been in service alot quicker. Better units all round.

185s on the other hand are nowhere near as good as the refurb HSTs are! I've travelled on it and its excellent and is hands down the best refurb job of any ScotRail rolling stock! Thankfully KBR Springburn / Gemini never got let near them! Abellio chose wisely in their InterCity stock choice but Wabtec and Angel have let them down massively with a highly ambitious refurb timetable on Mk3 coaches that have had almost 40years of salt water spray hitting them on the South West Coast of England. We're meant to be getting the best ones for refurb so I'd hate to see the worst ones!

Hopefully come May we'll be in a far better place rolling stock wise with all the 385s in service, 314s gone and a few more refurb HSTs in service.
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How can you say chose wisely but with a highly ambitious refurbishment timescale in the same sentence choosing wisely would be the opposite of highly ambitious surely.
 
C

Class 170101

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380101 said:
Why would the government have a say in what a private company pays its employees? All Transport Scotland do is set the terms and conditions on how they wish the ScotRail franchise to be run. Its up to the Franchisee, Abellio in this case, to meet the terms and run the services as specified. How they do that is entirely up to them.
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Grayling tried recently and look where that got him :E:E:E
 
J

Journeyman

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380101 said:
Why would the government have a say in what a private company pays its employees? All Transport Scotland do is set the terms and conditions on how they wish the ScotRail franchise to be run. Its up to the Franchisee, Abellio in this case, to meet the terms and run the services as specified. How they do that is entirely up to them.
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Government bodies letting contracts often specify minimum standards that have to be adhered to, such as paying the Living Wage rather than the national minimum wage. I used to do bus replacement co-ordination work on a zero-hours contract, and lost some of that when a TOC made an undertaking not to employ staff or contractors on ZHCs, at DfT's behest.
 
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380101

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Journeyman said:
Government bodies letting contracts often specify minimum standards that have to be adhered to, such as paying the Living Wage rather than the national minimum wage. I used to do bus replacement co-ordination work on a zero-hours contract, and lost some of that when a TOC made an undertaking not to employ staff or contractors on ZHCs, at DfT's behest.
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Yes, Transport Scotland as an arm of the Scottish government require a minimum of the living wage to be paid to permanent, agency and outside contractors of ScotRail and no zero hour contracts. Thats pretty much the only condition the Franchisee must commit to on staff pay. Railway staff in ScotRail would not be paid the salaries they get if the Scottish government had control of them. We'd be significantly worse off and languishing at the back of the queue for public sector pay deals.
 
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cairntoul

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Signal issues last week, last night and now this morning just outside Haymarket. Delays and cancellations all over the place once again...
 
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Mingulay

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cairntoul said:
Signal issues last week, last night and now this morning just outside Haymarket. Delays and cancellations all over the place once again...
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Timely. Now stuck at Linlithgow. No trains. scotrail alliance. Fall on your sword!! Mood on train is enough is enough !
 
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Stopper

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What was the signalling issue today at Haymarket as it seemed to be harder to fix than usual? 17 (yes, seventeen) westbound services in a row of the forever cancelled E-G via Cumbernauld services were cancelled or partially cancelled.
 
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InOban

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According to the tweet is was a complex issue to do with the axle counter.
 
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cairntoul

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>What was the signalling issue

You mean what it's the signalling issue...

Delays and cancellations still all over the place. 1800, 1815, 1830 EDI GLQ all cancelled. The last two at extremely short notice. Platform staff have no idea what is going on. Info boards giving wrong information. Customers boarding trains then being told to get off...
...Scotland's best ever railway.
 
Deltic1961

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"Building Scotland's Best Ever Railway" was a bit of an own goal. Despite the huge amounts of money invested the actual delivered service is getting worse.
 
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alangla

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Unfortunately it seems yet another incident where an electrified suburban & Winchburgh - Dalmeny, plus the route knowledge to use it, could have helped out. Looking at RTT, it looks like some XC stuff did go round the sub, don’t know about ScotRail or VT
 
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Mingulay

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cairntoul said:
>What was the signalling issue

You mean what it's the signalling issue...

Delays and cancellations still all over the place. 1800, 1815, 1830 EDI GLQ all cancelled. The last two at extremely short notice. Platform staff have no idea what is going on. Info boards giving wrong information. Customers boarding trains then being told to get off...
...Scotland's best ever railway.
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Given up. Taxi. £103 to Dunblane. Taxi this morning from Linlithgow as no bus replacement.

It does not held saying services are running and cancel at last minute time after time. Just say all services are cancelled. But Scotrail waste your time on waiting for next service in the full knowledge it’s not going. Platform staff saying despite board saying it’s on time it will be cancelled. It’s the same every time communication is appalling. Customer care absent. Staff in the dark

It seems the transport minister is unconcerned. No statement. Any statement from the new Network rail chief in Scotland?
 
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Stopper

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Deltic1961 said:
"Building Scotland's Best Ever Railway" was a bit of an own goal. Despite the huge amounts of money invested the actual delivered service is getting worse.
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But I was told by the ScotRail apologists on here that this was indeed Scotland’s best ever railway?
 
R

route:oxford

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Mingulay said:
Given up. Taxi. £103 to Dunblane. Taxi this morning from Linlithgow as no bus replacement.
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Make sure you put a claim in for it.

Mingulay said:
It seems the transport minister is unconcerned. No statement.
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Well, he's the MSP for Falkirk West - you'd hope his own constituents were expressing direct concern!

Perhaps it's time that a crossover was installed just to the East of Edinburgh Park and Edinburgh Gateway?

That way, at times of severe disruption, services could be turned back there with onward connection by tram?
 
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EMU303

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Given Scotrail's ongoing challenges and performance issues it does seem the chances of Abellio having their contract terminated early are increasing by the week. Scotrail have been unlucky on some fronts, late 385s, staggeringly late refurbed HST rakes from Wabtec, and the need to withdraw 365s earlier than planned etc. But add to that self-inflicted wounds around insufficient staffing, apparent lack of risk mitigation planning i.e. no "plan B" when things go wrong, no real perception that the alliance between Scotrail/NR has brought improvements, and numerous examples of astoundingly poor communication to passengers when things go wrong, all seem to be tarnishing not just Abellio but the Scotrail brand. Once that happens it's inevitable that there will be management change.

The SG is investing a lot (EGIP, 385s, additional 320/1's, HST's, A2I, 20-25% more capacity overall etc) and is rightly expecting a better railway in return. Today in Holyrood the language being used by the FM was "last chance saloon". I suspect Mr Hynes will have one eye on his next career move. This doesn't look like ending well for him and Abellio. Perhaps it's no longer a question of if, merely when and who.
 
Deltic1961

Deltic1961

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A2I is a great project in theory, but given years of poor service on that line (even going back to First) many people have literally walked away. Great having a redoubled line and all that but there are far too many other variables causing issues. The end customer doesn't care about all the excuses. Many people in Dyce where I live (and also Inverurie) won't touch the train service with a bargepole now.

Every time I complained to my MSP, I got the same canned were investing in the best ever railway blah blah response. It's as iff they stupidly thought spending £170m would magically cure all the problems overnight
 
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Stopper

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Did the 365s ‘have’ to be withdrawn early? I don’t think they had to, I just thought ScotRail had given up on maintaining them given how little time they had left.
 
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EMU303

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Stopper said:
Did the 365s ‘have’ to be withdrawn early? I don’t think they had to, I just thought ScotRail had given up on maintaining them given how little time they had left.
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I dont have any insider knoweldge, just what some other posters have said. Perhaps someone with confirmed insider knowledge can confirm?

Deltic1961 said:
A2I is a great project in theory, but given years of poor service on that line (even going back to First) many people have literally walked away. Great having a redoubled line and all that but there are far too many other variables causing issues. The end customer doesn't care about all the excuses. Many people in Dyce where I live (and also Inverurie) won't touch the train service with a bargepole now.
Click to expand...

In which case surely makes sense to invest in the line rather than ignoring it? On the assumption whoever is operating the franchise actually makes a professional job in running it.
 
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mcmad

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Deltic1961 said:
A2I is a great project in theory, but given years of poor service on that line (even going back to First) many people have literally walked away. Great having a redoubled line and all that but there are far too many other variables causing issues. The end customer doesn't care about all the excuses. Many people in Dyce where I live (and also Inverurie) won't touch the train service with a bargepole now.

Every time I complained to my MSP, I got the same canned were investing in the best ever railway blah blah response. It's as iff they stupidly thought spending £170m would magically cure all the problems overnight
Click to expand...
EMU303 said:
Given Scotrail's ongoing challenges and performance issues it does seem the chances of Abellio having their contract terminated early are increasing by the week. Scotrail have been unlucky on some fronts, late 385s, staggeringly late refurbed HST rakes from Wabtec, and the need to withdraw 365s earlier than planned etc. But add to that self-inflicted wounds around insufficient staffing, apparent lack of risk mitigation planning i.e. no "plan B" when things go wrong, no real perception that the alliance between Scotrail/NR has brought improvements, and numerous examples of astoundingly poor communication to passengers when things go wrong, all seem to be tarnishing not just Abellio but the Scotrail brand. Once that happens it's inevitable that there will be management change.

The SG is investing a lot (EGIP, 385s, additional 320/1's, HST's, A2I, 20-25% more capacity overall etc) and is rightly expecting a better railway in return. Today in Holyrood the language being used by the FM was "last chance saloon". I suspect Mr Hynes will have one eye on his next career move. This doesn't look like ending well for him and Abellio. Perhaps it's no longer a question of if, merely when and who.
Click to expand...
I'd suggest that for at least 2 of your 3 Scotrail are partially responsible.
For the 365's I'd suggest that was wholly a Scotrail decision based purely on performance, not the passengers.
The HST's were chosen by Scotrail (in the sense of HST's rather than refurb 170's or mk5's) and although the conversion performance has been woeful, it didn't take a genius to predict there would be issues after the Chiltern experiences. I think the HST's were jumped on by TS though as a great idea, perhaps showing up the lack of real world rail experience within TS.
The 385's is predominately a Hitachi issue granted but the Scotrail driver training plan (or lack thereoff) again highlights the lack of thinking within Abellio.
 
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