Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway since September 2017 - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Electric train]

I can see two means by which the present situation could be slightly improved.
Firstly permit drivers and train managers to postponne or carry forward annual leave as desired, rather than forcing them to take leave by the normaly required date and making a bad situation worse.

This causes an issue where next year, you?ll have more drivers unable to use their leave.  The company only guarantees a certain amount off on any given day.

Been done.  I am aware of several who have delayed retirement until the middle of next year

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have a similar problem with many front line staff who have not used this years full quota of leave, only a certain amount can be carried over to 2021 and only 5 days can be sold back to the company.

Everyone is conscious of the fact that once restrictions on travel lift, possibly next summer,  these frontline staff will want to take time off and use their stored leave

[TaplowGreen]

I can see two means by which the present situation could be slightly improved.
Firstly permit drivers and train managers to postponne or carry forward annual leave as desired, rather than forcing them to take leave by the normaly required date and making a bad situation worse.

This causes an issue where next year, you?ll have more drivers unable to use their leave.  The company only guarantees a certain amount off on any given day.

Been done.  I am aware of several who have delayed retirement until the middle of next year

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have a similar problem with many front line staff who have not used this years full quota of leave, only a certain amount can be carried over to 2021 and only 5 days can be sold back to the company.

Everyone is conscious of the fact that once restrictions on travel lift, possibly next summer,  these frontline staff will want to take time off and use their stored leave

Have NR/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff been prevented or discouraged from taking their annual leave this year?

[a-driver]

Have NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff been prevented or discouraged from taking their annual leave this year?

The majority of GWR leave is rostered, the 2021 leave roster would have been posted several months ago, so it's all done well in advance.  You don't get rostered Christmas off that often, once in every 4 years, if that, so you aren't going to give up that up! 

Ad-hoc leave, the odd days you have left over (roughly about 7 days??).  For the size of Plymouth depot, the company will only guarantee a maximum of probably 4 drivers ad-hoc leave per day so in reality, you aren't going to gain much from trying to discourage crew taking leave.

Interestingly, GWR are trying other "methods" to obtain drivers https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/whats-new/news/index.cfm/gwr-tssa-covid-concerns

[TaplowGreen]

Have NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff been prevented or discouraged from taking their annual leave this year?

The majority of GWR leave is rostered, the 2021 leave roster would have been posted several months ago, so it's all done well in advance.  You don't get rostered Christmas off that often, once in every 4 years, if that, so you aren't going to give up that up! 

Ad-hoc leave, the odd days you have left over (roughly about 7 days??).  For the size of Plymouth depot, the company will only guarantee a maximum of probably 4 drivers ad-hoc leave per day so in reality, you aren't going to gain much from trying to discourage crew taking leave.

Interestingly, GWR are trying other "methods" to obtain drivers https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/whats-new/news/index.cfm/gwr-tssa-covid-concerns

Thanks, but it was more about Electric Trains point re: staff having a lot of leave stored up, but if as you say it's all planned so far in advance, most of 2020s will have been planned well in advance & used, and 2021s will have been posted so it shouldn't be an issue?

[a-driver]

Thanks, but it was more about Electric Trains point re: staff having a lot of leave stored up, but if as you say it's all planned so far in advance, most of 2020s will have been planned well in advance & used, and 2021s will have been posted so it shouldn't be an issue?

The only days GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers will have is their ad-hoc days stored... maximum 4 guaranteed off per day, 5 days can be carried over into 2021.  NR^» (Network Rail - home page) could obviously be different.

[TaplowGreen]

Over 100 listed including those pre-notified.

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Plymouth
Cancellations to services between Reading and Gatwick Airport
Cancellations to services between Swindon and Cheltenham Spa
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Cardiff Central

I do wonder how a safe environment on those trains which are still running is being assured.

Has the Tsar issued any guidance publicly for those still planning to travel on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and elsewhere?

[Electric train]

Have NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff been prevented or discouraged from taking their annual leave this year?

The majority of GWR leave is rostered, the 2021 leave roster would have been posted several months ago, so it's all done well in advance.  You don't get rostered Christmas off that often, once in every 4 years, if that, so you aren't going to give up that up! 

Ad-hoc leave, the odd days you have left over (roughly about 7 days??).  For the size of Plymouth depot, the company will only guarantee a maximum of probably 4 drivers ad-hoc leave per day so in reality, you aren't going to gain much from trying to discourage crew taking leave.

Interestingly, GWR are trying other "methods" to obtain drivers https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/whats-new/news/index.cfm/gwr-tssa-covid-concerns

Thanks, but it was more about Electric Trains point re: staff having a lot of leave stored up, but if as you say it's all planned so far in advance, most of 2020s will have been planned well in advance & used, and 2021s will have been posted so it shouldn't be an issue?

The Frontline NR staff are professional and dedicated to what they do, and they understand the need to plan leave, the senior managers and directors also respect that staff need to have a holiday for well being reasons and for safety reasons.

You have to remember the frontline staff have not had the opportunity to work from home, they have had to cover at short notice when colleges have had to self isolate, been sick.

My experience of the frontline teams is they are still highly motivated to maintain an operational railway

[Wizard]

Over 100 listed including those pre-notified.

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Plymouth
Cancellations to services between Reading and Gatwick Airport
Cancellations to services between Swindon and Cheltenham Spa
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Cardiff Central

I do wonder how a safe environment on those trains which are still running is being assured.

Has the Tsar issued any guidance publicly for those still planning to travel on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and elsewhere?

On the plus side at least some Cheltenham - Paddington trains have been replaced with a shuttle between Cheltenham and Swindon.

[grahame]

My experience of the frontline teams is they are still highly motivated to maintain an operational railway

My experience too ... and from a different personal background.  Quoted separately as a "soundbite" to highlight it.

[grahame]

Here's "what it looks like" this morning ... not sure if this is really best understandable.   



Such diagrams work well in the case of a low number of trains with issues but the message gets less clear as numbers rise.   Looking through the list on JourneyCheck, I find it equally obtuse / difficult to find what is actually expected to run.   With automated systems, I really wonder if timetable generation software can't be linked in, so that a it's easy to pull up a timetable of what's actually running / expected to run for the (rest of) the day.

Not really what I'm shouting for ... but the MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site) "onward journey" pages can help - here for Bristol Parkway

and on there I can select my final/next destination to see services to there


Control case - here is the CURRENT services shown on the same diagram - as I write, almost the same as the image above - but it will change over time (less scribbling all over it, we hope)



Links to(wards) the current versions of diagrams above:

Map: http://new.passenger.chat/map/_DAAJAAACAA.jpg
Map explorer: http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html
Onward trains: http://www.mrug.org.uk/bpw.html
Information pages including links to multiple status sources: http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html?stn=BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)

Edit to add - I have taken advantage of all the cancellations and updated the reports to make them a little clearer at such times.   Now greying out and striking through cancelled trains, and leaving out their calling patterns too.   Example:

[TaplowGreen]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter now saying that social distancing cannot be guaranteed on the services that are running due to volume of customers displaced from cancelled trains.

A friend is on the 1203 Paddington-Penzance which is apparently full and standing throughout. Extra stops not helping.

[IndustryInsider]

Double time being offered to those working on 27th December to perhaps coax a few more volunteers to work an additional shift.

[a-driver]

Double time being offered to those working on 27th December to perhaps coax a few more volunteers to work an additional shift.

Hull Trains have been approached as well.  Wanting to see if they have any volunteer drivers to cover work out of Plymouth

[TaplowGreen]

4pm Press Conference today may make it all academic.

[broadgage]

The station master at Brimpsfield might reasonably state that the service has "all gone to pot"