Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I would hope that it's more than one....very surprising, this. A first?

[plymothian]

Luckily there hasn't been an epidemic in TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about). 

The Acton workstation signaler's relief didn't turn up, the outgoing bobby worked over his time as there was no one else available to run the station, so it had to be shut down.

[TaplowGreen]

One guy fails to show up for work - and this is the result? Dozens of trains cancelled and severely disrupted as far afield as Cornwall and Wales.

Is there no contingency plan? 

[IndustryInsider]

Closed for just over an hour in the end, though the ramifications will be felt for hours.  Certainly not a first, but the first time I can remember it happening at the TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) at Didcot.  Very surprised adequate 'spare' staff weren't available as I thought that was one of the great advantages of these new signalling centres over traditional boxes scattered far and wide?

[grahame]

Noting just how long it takes for the repercussions to finish; astonished that there wasn't robustness to cover what was apparently one person not being available in a major signalling centre.

13:19 Newquay to London Paddington due 18:21
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to signalling staff being taken ill earlier on this train's journey.

[dviner]

This is purely supposition on my part, but how about this - the person that they would normally have used to cover this sort of occurrence was on leave, or covering another position? Don't forget, it is still "holiday season", and signallers are allowed to go on holiday.

Of course, you could ramp up the staffing levels to ensure that there will always be cover under every circumstance, but ensuring that the competence levels were kept up to standard would be a nightmare, and there would be an outcry over signallers being paid to sit around "just in case".

[TaplowGreen]

This is purely supposition on my part, but how about this - the person that they would normally have used to cover this sort of occurrence was on leave, or covering another position? Don't forget, it is still "holiday season", and signallers are allowed to go on holiday.

Of course, you could ramp up the staffing levels to ensure that there will always be cover under every circumstance, but ensuring that the competence levels were kept up to standard would be a nightmare, and there would be an outcry over signallers being paid to sit around "just in case".

If you are responsible for a business critical function, and you are any sort of manager, then you ensure that this function is covered, for all contingencies, and you factor annual leave, "holiday seasons" sickness etc into that calculation. To even attempt to use this as an excuse is frankly pathetic.

I am sure that the amount of compensation which will have to be paid out today far outweighs any additional callout allowance, to say nothing of the inconvenience caused to thousands of customers. To have a situation where the failure of one person to arrive at work paralyses an entire area for hours due to a lack of a robust contingency plan is simple incompetence.

[IndustryInsider]

Agree with TG.  I'm sure there will be some serious questions asked of NR^» (Network Rail - home page) by the train operators as a result of this - even if it was 'only' for just over an hour.

[broadgage]

Yes, they really should have better plans than this.
Simply unacceptable for single employee falling sick to have such consequences.
 Spare staff suitably trained should be available for critical roles like this. I see no problem in maintaining competency since it would seem a simple matter to rotate the "working" and the "spare" signaller at frequent intervals.

The cost should be less than the cost of all the delays, especially if some other productive but not time critical work could be found for the spare signaller.

[NickB]

It's a pedantic point but 'being taken ill' sounds much more alarming and, crucially in my view, sounds like the illness developed 'on the job'. It sounds like a more accurate description would be 'absent due to illness'??

[bobm]

In fact it could be a whole variety of reasons. Signaller's car could have broken down, he could have been involved in an accident or even, due to a rostering error, not actually exist.

I remember a case when a West Country signaller was phoned on his mobile to be asked why he hadn't shown up and his reply was "I'm on leave, it's 3am and I'm in Texas!"

[Electric train]

Spare staff suitably trained should be available for critical roles like this. I see no problem in maintaining competency since it would seem a simple matter to rotate the "working" and the "spare" signaller at frequent intervals.

It sounds to me in this incident the signaller going off shift reached his legal permitted hours, in addition if he / she runs substantially over the end of their shift there is also the minimum hours break between shifts which can have knock effect to the following day because they need to 12 hours between shifts.  This is made even more complex if the signaller was moved to Didcot under transfer and redundancy terms as they will have travelling time built into the conditions of transfer. Like all business there is a balance of cost against risk, would be great to have a 125% manning levels with standby staff sitting in the mess room ready for action, the travelling public just cannot afford this level of staff.


However there is a critical shortage of skilled staff in many rolls on the railways especially within NR^» (Network Rail - home page) because of the imposed pay restraint by HMG, which makes recruitment and retention difficult especially as these rolls are shift work and in an area of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) where there is not a high level of unemployment.

[Billhere]

Spare staff are available, but they have meal relief duties during their twelve hour shift and it could well be they were involved with one of those and could not step over quickly.

Each desk in TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) is of a different grade, the busier it is the higher the grade, the longer the training, and a higher salary to boot. Padd is of the top grade which reflects the busy position it is. Not everybody is passed out to work it.

I can't say what happened, but I endorse Electric trains comment that Signallers are in short supply. In fact there is one man still at TVSC who has a job elsewhere who has been waiting to be released for several months now but he cannot be done without so can't go.

Very much the same all over the country. In the recent closures at Banbury the staff there were being asked to go elsewhere to fill in the holes that exist at other boxes, but seven took the money and left the company.

However that doesn't forgive the situation that occurred.

 

[ChrisB]

Talking last weekend to one who did take the money & retire, he's heard from some who did transfer from a Banbury box to a West Mids screen & they hate it - just not the same job at all, which I can fully understand.

Apparently, there's not a window to be seen in the West Mids signalling centre, while you couldn't have more windows in the Banbury boxes if you'd wanted them!

[IndustryInsider]

No indeed, it's a completely different type of job.  Some might well get used to it after a time, but I expect most would take up the chance to swap back in a heartbeat.