SWR Morning Meltdown 30-01-20

[30909]

Network Rail and South West Railway at 06:55 are reporting the following

"A number of incidents this morning are causing disruption running to / from London Waterloo. These include the following:

• Overrunning engineering works in the Clapham Junction area
• An electricity supply problem between Epsom and Wimbledon
• A fault with the signalling system at Woking

We anticipate disruption will continue until 11:00."

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/241443.aspx

All this is in addition to the Eastleigh problems
Sympathy for the passengers, those in Control and the crews all this morning are infrastructure related

 

[saracen]

None of which are SWR’s fault.

Whether or not SWR is re-nationalised, the infrastructure will continue to creak.

 

[30909]

Exactly why I added

all this morning are infrastructure related

The sad bit is many of those inconvenienced will focus on SWR and not NR

 

[saracen]

Exactly why I added

The sad bit is many of those inconvenienced will focus on SWR and not NR

Indeed

 

[Monty]

Just more proof the South Western Division is falling apart and is in dire need of investment, but it's been like this for years..

 

[Bigfoot]

Whilst they are NR issues, they are compounded by the company. Moral is at an all time low. Where in the past most crews would have happily worked overtime or been more flexible than their contracts require now the majority think why bother? It's like taking a bucket with holes to a sinking ship, it's still going down in the end, just sinks a bit slower.

 

[30909]

I'm not a present or past member of the industry though,from my extensive experience of managing time and resource sensitive business, if sources beyond your or your business's control continually frustrate your efforts to run your business and or your employees work-life balance then moral can lower to the point of near stagnation. Customer facing SWR staff are justified in being frustrated and to lack incentive to work overtime etc..

 

[Stigy]

It’s not always the issues themselves that customers complain about, it’s often the communication aspect. None of this will change even if SWR are re-nationalised, which seems to be all the rage these days. We will still have NWR in charge of the infrastructure and a lack of funding, and still have the same people working in control rooms.

 

[kristiang85]

The blame lies with everyone involved to be honest. The SWR network is at an all-time low, and the problems are caused by a myriad of parties. This is how I see it from a passenger point of view (obviously we are not fully informed, so don't jump on me if you take umbridge to any of this):

Problem: Frequent failures of signals, track circuit, etc. The cause of most delays and disruption on the line.
At fault: Network Rail. 100%.

Problem: Lack of contingency planning when things go wrong; still problems getting crew and trains to the right places.
At fault: SWR for not having plans in place, or effectively operating them. Also for killing staff morale, or not offering any incentives to mobilise staff, meaning staff are less likely to come in on days off to man trains when others are stuck (unlike other public services). And the union is at fault here too, for not allowing SWR to run trains without on-board crew for any length of time even though if a driver is there it is perfectly possible.

Problem: Regular faults on trains, leading to delays and disruption.
At fault: As far as I'm aware, SWR for skimping on maintenance of trains. Also the government for allowing such as woefully undercosted and unrealistic bid.

Problem: Regular congestion at peak times, leading to delays and disruption.
At fault: The government for imposing impossible timetable objectives on a creaking network.

Problem: Lack of communication to passengers, awful customer service.
At fault: SWR 100%.

Problem: Regular strikes.
At fault: SWR and RMT leadership being completely belligerant and non-compromising, with absolutely no interest in the paying passengers. The government can also take some blame here too.

All this adds to untold disruption for paying passengers, who are stuck in the middle of it all and pay an arm and a leg for a service with pitiful recompense (so far in January I've had over 10 hours cumulative delays on what should be a 45m commute, and I pay more than our mortgage payments for this). At least TPE had the decency to reverse the fare rises for this year for season ticket holders; SWR are at fault for this as well, and to an extent the government for not pressing them to recompense customers. The DFT seems completely useless right now in this instance. They seem more interested in pacifying their new northern voters than worrying about us down here.

This is my very long and cathartic answer to the posts above as to who is to blame for the problems on this line - mostly Network Rail, then SWR themselves and the government and, although I can't stand them, the RMT are a long way below these three.

 

[Carlisle]

it's getting quite boring now.

As is constantly hearing the old chestnut of ‘morale is at rock bottom’

 

[Monty]

At fault: SWR for not having plans in place, or effectively operating them. Also for killing staff morale, or not offering any incentives to mobilise staff, meaning staff are less likely to come in on days off to man trains when others are stuck (unlike other public services). And the union is at fault here too, for not allowing SWR to run trains without on-board crew for any length of time even though if a driver is there it is perfectly possible.

Problem: Regular strikes.
At fault: SWR and RMT leadership being completely belligerant and non-compromising, with absolutely no interest in the paying passengers. The government can also take some blame here too.

With respect, even if the union and the company were suddenly reconcile their differences overnight it would change very little of anything. Of it's vast fleet only the Class 707s are 'DOO Ready' so virtually all trains at the moment would still require a guard to run in passenger service even if there was an agreement to allow DOO.

This is kind of the point i've been trying to make in my last post, in order to run DOO trains there will need to be significant changes to the physical infrastructure to allow this to happen. But NR are barely able to cope with what they have to look after already, so how are they expected to be able to maintain this new equipment to allow these new trains to run in the way the powers that be want? How is that safe?

I've said this before, the industrial action is a symptom not the cause.

 

[theironroad]

Whilst they are NR issues, they are compounded by the company. Moral is at an all time low. Where in the past most crews would have happily worked overtime or been more flexible than their contracts require now the majority think why bother? It's like taking a bucket with holes to a sinking ship, it's still going down in the end, just sinks a bit slower.

It's fair to say morale isn't great but the majority of crew are still prepared to go over their day when there is a clearly defined plan. Most crew have a lot of empathy with passneger and the dire performance of the railway in the region, but unfortunately it's not a once or twice a month event, it is almost daily that there is some incident or other.

Where morale is low is that when their is disruption that it is almost impossible to get hold over resource managers or controllers to find out what the plan is. At times it is farcical and overwhelmingly compounded by a overwhelmed and no doubt understaffed WICC refusing to devolve decision making in certain areas to local resource managers to be allowe to get on with the job of implementing recovery plans. With the size and complexity of the Wessex region , the WICC really need to accept that they aren't able to rubber stamp every suggestion. I've spoken to numerous drivers, guards and signallers over the last few days who say they are getting no information from control.

 

[pompeyfan]

I’ve noticed the social media team are very quiet at the moment. Usually they’re quite good but they either are not coping with the tidal wave of queries, or there is another issue at play.

i completely agree with many of the points about what is causing the issue and I don’t think you can blame the RMT or ASLEF. Too many trains running on tracks that aren’t maintained enough. If you want a reliable service, be prepared for services to close earlier to allow for more overnight maintenance and be prepared for some peak time services to be culled completely, which in turn leads to standing for longer journeys.

The Wessex is a victim of its own success, 95m passengers a year means there is no pain free fix. Even if NR did eventually get round to improving the layout at places like Woking, Basingstoke, Havant, Surbiton - Waterloo, it would take years and not necessarily improve day to day common occurrences.

I read recently that NR are consulting ASLEF on the resignalling of Petersfield, Haslemere and Farncombe boxes, this should help a large chunk of the network due to knock on delays at Woking, but at the same time it needs to be reliable (no point replacing it with anything less reliable) and the power supply needs looking at, again this all costs money.

 

[Kite159]

I just hope SWR are strengthening the West of England diesel services to cope with the added passengers for Basingstoke, as if I read the timetable changes page regarding Eastleigh, the diesels are the only fast services running between Basingstoke & Waterloo (plus the 2x stoppers).

I dare say if they send the usual single 159 on the XX:47 services from Salisbury (XX:50 from Waterloo) it will get cosy.

 

[Brush 4]

That would be a decision for Salisbury depot but, do they have the ability to respond or, is it controlled from some remote centralised office miles away?

 

[pompeyfan]

Difficult to see how train crew see the unions as being the total innocents in all this when they called strikes for most of December.

It may well be Network Rail, Management at fault - and everyone else you can throw in the mix - but the unions have hardly helped matters. More a case of throwing a bit of petrol on the fire.

with respect, the issues that have plagued the network the last 7 days are clearly not the unions fault. However one of the unions has undoubtedly added to the woeful experience passengers have experienced since the start of the franchise.

 

[Socanxdis]

Maybe the government should take NR into public ownership. Oh wait ...

 

[Dr Hoo]

According to an interview with interim SWR MD Mark Hopwood in the current edition of RAIL magazine he has already decided to move train crew management back to those ‘on the ground’. Presumably it will take several years to re-create old expertise but at least it is a step in the direction advocated by many.

 

[3141]

In the original post, the problems are described as follows:-
"A number of incidents this morning are causing disruption running to / from London Waterloo. These include the following:

• Overrunning engineering works in the Clapham Junction area
• An electricity supply problem between Epsom and Wimbledon
• A fault with the signalling system at Woking

We anticipate disruption will continue until 11:00."

And then several people weigh in with their gripes about SWR not having contingency plans, staff morale, the RMT, you name it, some of them leap in at the slightest opportunity.

If disruption was expected to be over by 11.00 it looks as if they understood the problems and had plans in place. As they did on Tuesday, when there were signal problems near New Malden, and my journey from Overton to Waterloo took 63 minutes instead of 59 after having to change at Basingstoke and with an extra stop at Clapham Junction. I had a longer delay on the way back, when there was a problem at Woking and down trains were having to use an up platform, but again there was no evidence for blaming SWR's response.

 

[Snow1964]

In the original post, the problems are described as follows:-
"A number of incidents this morning are causing disruption running to / from London Waterloo. These include the following:

• Overrunning engineering works in the Clapham Junction area
• An electricity supply problem between Epsom and Wimbledon
• A fault with the signalling system at Woking

We anticipate disruption will continue until 11:00."

And then several people weigh in with their gripes about SWR not having contingency plans, staff morale, the RMT, you name it, some of them leap in at the slightest opportunity.

If disruption was expected to be over by 11.00 it looks as if they understood the problems and had plans in place. As they did on Tuesday, when there were signal problems near New Malden, and my journey from Overton to Waterloo took 63 minutes instead of 59 after having to change at Basingstoke and with an extra stop at Clapham Junction. I had a longer delay on the way back, when there was a problem at Woking and down trains were having to use an up platform, but again there was no evidence for blaming SWR's response.

Now saying delays due to earlier signalling problems at Woking expected until 15:00
So looks like the recovery of service has slipped 4 hours from 11:00

And in a great peice of joined up thinking, the Eastleigh closure says season ticket holders can use any SWR car park, but there is a separate entry announcing Liphook car park is going to be closed all weekend, lets see if they modify the Eastleigh announcement at the weekend to exclude Liphook car park

 

[Stigy]

And in a great peice of joined up thinking, the Eastleigh closure says season ticket holders can use any SWR car park, but there is a separate entry announcing Liphook car park is going to be closed all weekend, lets see if they modify the Eastleigh announcement at the weekend to exclude Liphook car park

I doubt it warrants a change of announcement. Due to Liphook’s location and frequency of services, I doubt there’s any need.

 

[jayah]

None of which are SWR’s fault.

Whether or not SWR is re-nationalised, the infrastructure will continue to creak.

The infrastructure was re-nationalised in 2002.

 

[43096]

In the original post, the problems are described as follows:-
"A number of incidents this morning are causing disruption running to / from London Waterloo. These include the following:

• Overrunning engineering works in the Clapham Junction area
• An electricity supply problem between Epsom and Wimbledon
• A fault with the signalling system at Woking

We anticipate disruption will continue until 11:00."

And then several people weigh in with their gripes about SWR not having contingency plans, staff morale, the RMT, you name it, some of them leap in at the slightest opportunity.

If disruption was expected to be over by 11.00 it looks as if they understood the problems and had plans in place. As they did on Tuesday, when there were signal problems near New Malden, and my journey from Overton to Waterloo took 63 minutes instead of 59 after having to change at Basingstoke and with an extra stop at Clapham Junction. I had a longer delay on the way back, when there was a problem at Woking and down trains were having to use an up platform, but again there was no evidence for blaming SWR's response.

If anyone believed disruption would last til 1100 then they are naïve. The estimates SWR put out are laughable: often a 1700, becomes 1900, becomes 2100 and ends up being end of service. A degree of honesty with the punters on this sort of thing would be a good start.

 

[pompeyfan]

If anyone believed disruption would last til 1100 then they are naïve. The estimates SWR put out are laughable: often a 1700, becomes 1900, becomes 2100 and ends up being end of service. A degree of honesty with the punters on this sort of thing would be a good start.

whilst I completely agree with you, if it’s an infrastructure fault they can only go by what NR are saying. If NR say here’s our milestone plan, that’s all the guys in the information team have to work with. If there’s a fatality at somewhere like Woking at 10am, we all know that’s the rest of the day screwed, but they have to plan around the line reopening in about 90 minutes, those 90 minutes are mainly early turn PNB slots with no in and out crew/stock workings. They’re then playing catch up all day and it’s difficult to claw it back from there.

 

[bb21]

If anyone believed disruption would last til 1100 then they are naïve. The estimates SWR put out are laughable: often a 1700, becomes 1900, becomes 2100 and ends up being end of service. A degree of honesty with the punters on this sort of thing would be a good start.

They are NR estimates. SWR have no part to play in these situations as they are not infrastructure specialists.

 

[43096]

whilst I completely agree with you, if it’s an infrastructure fault they can only go by what NR are saying. If NR say here’s our milestone plan, that’s all the guys in the information team have to work with. If there’s a fatality at somewhere like Woking at 10am, we all know that’s the rest of the day screwed, but they have to plan around the line reopening in about 90 minutes, those 90 minutes are mainly early turn PNB slots with no in and out crew/stock workings. They’re then playing catch up all day and it’s difficult to claw it back from there.

I take the point but if recovery estimates from NR are hopelessly optimistic then they ought to be adding some contingency on - it’s not like there’s no historic evidence. I’d rather they said “expected until 1400” rather than 1100 if that is what usually happens. If it clears for 1300 then you’ve exceeded the customer’s expectations, which is always a better place to be.

 

[jayah]

I take the point but if recovery estimates from NR are hopelessly optimistic then they ought to be adding some contingency on - it’s not like there’s no historic evidence. I’d rather they said “expected until 1400” rather than 1100 if that is what usually happens. If it clears for 1300 then you’ve exceeded the customer’s expectations, which is always a better place to be.

The truth is that unless you know exactly what is wrong and it is something that you put right very often, there is no way an estimate will be accurate except by accident.

The true timescales will only start to emerge once the job is well advanced no matter what any Consultant, Analyst, Surveyor or Project Manager might tell you.