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overnight?

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adam0

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Hi all,

Quick question, any drivers/conductors/train managers ever stay in digs overnight?

I assumed that staff started and returned to their depot at end of every shift but a couple of posts on here have got me asking this question.
Appreciate all answers, no matter how short
 
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Cherry_Picker

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Some do, most don't. You'll have a few depots with lodging turns, where you are put up in a hotel and a few depots with jobs where you work the last train out to somewhere on a evening and the first train back the next day (usually with a generous break in the middle) but the overwhelming majority of jobs start and finish at the same point, certainly on the passenger side.
 

theironroad

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Hi all,

Quick question, any drivers/conductors/train managers ever stay in digs overnight?

I assumed that staff started and returned to their depot at end of every shift but a couple of posts on here have got me asking this question.
Appreciate all answers, no matter how short

Afaik it's rare on passenger TOCs, some Newcastle drivers lodge in Inverness not sure about others.

It may be more common on freight, someone else may come to answer that.

Most drivers and guards are returned to their home depot each day although that may be very late if engineering work closes the line and road transport is used to get the crew back to base.
 

tsr

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Between the parallel lines
Some do, most don't.

Caledonian Sleeper onboard staff (I believe it's Train Managers as well as the hospitality staff) do, but I'm not so sure about the drivers, at least on a routine basis. I think they get crew changes at mid-points en-route in order to go back towards their booking on point.

You'll have a few depots with lodging turns, where you are put up in a hotel and a few depots with jobs where you work the last train out to somewhere on a evening and the first train back the next day (usually with a generous break in the middle) but the overwhelming majority of jobs start and finish at the same point, certainly on the passenger side.

I can think of some pretty extreme early starts / late finishes at certain depots around the South which should have been replaced by night turns long ago (and possibly the "bit in the middle" used to make later evening passenger services). However, although the fatigue risks and antisocial impacts of night turns and very early (in particular) booking on times are probably almost equal, for some reason a good number of people oppose them being made into night turns, including a hardened core of LDC union reps who would prefer to sign off 0300 starts instead of night turns ending at 0645. Personally, as someone who's spent several years dealing with the impacts of a truly 24/7 roster, I'd rather have a consistent block of nights than random extreme early turns, but that may just be me.

As for having a company pay for hotel digs between two ends of a shift, I can't see much in the way of any other option for certain jobs. If it's not deemed worth having a remote booking-on facility for a small link to take up one or two jobs a day, this can be the only option to resource trains with crew with the correct knowledge. Depending on TOC, opening new train crew depots seems to sometimes be such a challenge that this sort of thing would otherwise be rather fraught.
 
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Bellbell

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16 Oct 2013
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Caledonian Sleeper onboard staff (I believe it's Train Managers as well as the hospitality staff) do, but I'm not so sure about the drivers, at least on a routine basis. I think they get crew changes at mid-points en-route in order to go back towards their booking on point.



I can think of some pretty extreme early starts / late finishes at certain depots around the South which should have been replaced by night turns long ago (and possibly the "bit in the middle" used to make later evening passenger services). However, although the fatigue risks and antisocial impacts of night turns and very early (in particular) booking on times are probably almost equal, for some reason a good number of people oppose them being made into night turns, including a hardened core of LDC union reps who would prefer to sign off 0300 starts instead of night turns ending at 0645. Personally, as someone who's spent several years dealing with the impacts of a truly 24/7 roster, I'd rather have a consistent block of nights than random extreme early turns, but that may just be me.

As for having a company pay for hotel digs between two ends of a shift, I can't see much in the way of any other option for certain jobs. If it's not deemed worth having a remote booking-on facility for a small link to take up one or two jobs a day, this can be the only option to resource trains with crew with the correct knowledge. Depending on TOC, opening new train crew depots seems to sometimes be such a challenge that this sort of thing would otherwise be rather fraught.

We have a couple of jobs like that. Don't know why there's so much opposition, I would far rather work a night turn than get up at 0200 or occasionally even earlier.
 
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