Should spare train crew be based from home?

[driver9000]

Moderator note: split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/january-2022-emergency-timetable-threads.226582/

I expect this thread will become a lot more important after reports today that all operators are to move to a reduced service from 16 January.

 

[dk1]

I expect this thread will become a lot more important after reports today that all operators are to move to a reduced service from 16 January.

Plenty of ‘spare @ home’ coming up for those not isolating there if these rumours are true.

 

[Sleepy]

Plenty of ‘spare @ home’ coming up for those not isolating there if these rumours are true.

Yes they are, I've seen next week's mods ........

 

[dk1]

Yes they are, I've seen next week's mods ........

Are they on the intranet do you know? Nothing from the LDC yet.

 

[Sleepy]

Are they on the intranet do you know? Nothing from the LDC yet.

Yes they're loaded up - Norwich to LST back to hourly.

 

[CAF397]

Plenty of ‘spare @ home’ coming up for those not isolating there if these rumours are true.

My TOC has done away with all Covid restrictions. Messrooms will be rather full!

 

[dk1]

My TOC has done away with all Covid restrictions. Messrooms will be rather full!

Blimey!! We have just reintroduced them in regard to being spare to assist with busy messrooms. No official social distancing & no in cab restrictions though.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Blimey!! We have just reintroduced them in regard to being spare to assist with busy messrooms. No official social distancing & no in cab restrictions though.

So with reduced covid timetables presumably means more spare train crew in messrooms doesn't sound like a sensible plan to me. Surely a proportion of drivers would be better off staying at home on call to minimise risk of being infected.

 

[dk1]

So with reduced covid timetables presumably means more spare train crew in messrooms doesn't sound like a sensible plan to me. Surely a proportion of drivers would be better off staying at home on call to minimise risk of being infected.

That's what my TOC reintroduced a couple of weeks back. Very sensible as you say.

 

[172007]

Spare!!!!!. We are cancelling trains due to no drivers and conductors. Jeez, we have no spare capacity at all. I am working today and the mess rooms are empty. I am doing nearly 12hrs today to do an extra trip to save a cancellation.

 

[dk1]

Spare!!!!!. We are cancelling trains due to no drivers and conductors. Jeez, we have no spare capacity at all. I am working today and the mess rooms are empty. I am doing nearly 12hrs today to do an extra trip to save a cancellation.

Amazing the contrast across various TOCs.

 

[LowLevel]

Spare!!!!!. We are cancelling trains due to no drivers and conductors. Jeez, we have no spare capacity at all. I am working today and the mess rooms are empty. I am doing nearly 12hrs today to do an extra trip to save a cancellation.

We were the same up to Monday. Tuesday onwards, pretty much all good.

 

[clagmonster]

My TOC has done away with all Covid restrictions. Messrooms will be rather full!

Guessing from your username as to who your TOC is, but did that lead to a withdrawal of a rest day working agreement a week before it was due to be renewed. I do wonder if the DfT / Treasury deliberately did this in a bid to avoid paying rest days.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

I do wonder if the DfT / Treasury deliberately did this in a bid to avoid paying rest days.

Well its one of the few costs that can be saved currently so in some sense matching a timetable to least cost train crew costs ought to be explored whilst demand is temporarily depressed although I appreciate that probably has biggest impact on weekends.

 

[MDB1images]

Due to the level of infections in virtually every TOC and with most going on emergency timetables I'd actually bring back spare from home until Spring if I was in charge of a TOC, with the caveat I had(if available) 1 Spare Driver/Guard on standby at depot to cover for last minute sickness/oversleeps etc.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Due to the level of infections in virtually every TOC and with most going on emergency timetables I'd actually bring back spare from home until Spring if I was in charge of a TOC, with the caveat I had(if available) 1 Spare Driver/Guard on standby at depot to cover for last minute sickness/oversleeps etc.

Very sensible and given they trust their office based staff to work from home they should do the same with train crew.

 

[Horizon22]

I remember when there was Spare @ Home and we never really used them. We still had a select number of spares come in and normally were able to work with what we had on site. If there was some really major issue then perhaps they would be mobilised, but they'd still have to get into work (60+ minutes) and then prepare kit etc which knows out any use for last minute issues.

So if there was a sudden issue it wouldn't be that useful. If there were duties to be covered the night before, then perhaps so but by then they wouldn't be showing as "Spare" on-the-day as they'd be covering a job. And with emergency timetables & fewer diagrams it becomes less of a problem.

What some places did was built in extra capacity for messrooms etc during the original lockdown. If TOCs are really worried about Omicron running rampant they could do that, but I don't get the impression that's part of the plan either.