Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[bradshaw]

Today, the 1415 Weymouth to Castle Cary was cancelled, due to a delay not investigated.The problem seems to be the timetable shows consecutive Weymouth departures.
 Looking at next Sunday, which has the same Castle Cary /Weymouth service, it would appear they did not timetable a 15.50 Castle Cary to Weymouth. Since the service was being run by a single unit there has the be a return from Castle Cary before the next Weymouth.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:MDN/2025-09-14/0200-0159?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

[grahame]

Today, the 1415 Weymouth to Castle Cary was cancelled, due to a delay not investigated.The problem seems to be the timetable shows consecutive Weymouth departures.
 Looking at next Sunday, which has the same Castle Cary /Weymouth service, it would appear they did not timetable a 15.50 Castle Cary to Weymouth. Since the service was being run by a single unit there has the be a return from Castle Cary before the next Weymouth.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:MDN/2025-09-14/0200-0159?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Switching "CAN" services on, it reveals a round trip with a single unit every 2.5 or 3.5 hours Weymouth to Castle Cary, plus a working from Bristol to Weymouth in the morning and one back in the late afternoon.   With the line from Castle Cary to Westbury not available, the Bristol service is cancelled, as is one of the 5 shuttles - leaving just 2 morning and 2 evening round trips.   Next Sunday looks the same.

[bradshaw]

Abbreviations and meanings, from Rail Forum UK^▸ (United Kingdom) website

  VST - STP^▸ (London St Pancras International (very large railway station, run by Network Rail)) schedule under VSTP arrangements
VVR - VAR schedule under VSTP arrangements, note that this does not discriminate between a VST that has received a variation, a WTT^▸ (Working Time-Table) that has received a VAR. You can also get stacks of VARs on top of each other in VSTP world. Or indeed a totally new schedule that has come through as a VAR.
VCN - schedule CANcelled under VSTP arrangements, sometimes they come with the nightly service plan agreement for the next day's services which appear as a PG cancel too, but sometimes not.

So the missing Castle Cary - Weymouth service was cancelled the night before for some reason, crew? Thus not appearing on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and necessitating the cancellation of the 14.15 Weymouth-Castle Cary service to balance it.

Today starts with the cancellation of the 06.38 Weymouth to Gloucester between Weymouth and Bristol due to a train fault.

Soon followed by the cancellation of the 07.33 Weymouth to Bristol, crew delayed!

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Gloucester and Worcester Foregate Street
Due to a shortage of train crew between Gloucester and Worcester Foregate Street fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
Due to crew shortages, we are unable to run our Gloucester to Worcester services today

[Witham Bobby]

Friday 10October 2025:

15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 18:26 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

19:02 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

The protestations that we hear from time to time by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that there really are enough staff to run the scheduled service are wearing a bit thin, now

Multiple cancellations occur on a daily basis because there are insufficient staff

[a-driver]

Friday 10October 2025:

15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 18:26 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

19:02 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

The protestations that we hear from time to time by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that there really are enough staff to run the scheduled service are wearing a bit thin, now

Multiple cancellations occur on a daily basis because there are insufficient staff

Staffing levels are within the agreed level set by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

You can’t drop below or go above that figure by 5%.

[Witham Bobby]

Trainee Driver vacancies now published:

 Bristol; Swansea; Gloucester; Fratton; Westbury

Hopefully the situation will improve over time

https://careers.firstgroup.co.uk/jobs/trainee-train-driver-central-region-bristol-united-kingdom-fratton-hampshire-gloucester-gloucestershire-swansea-westbury-wiltshire

[IndustryInsider]

There's also a fair number of trainees currently going through the training as well - mostly internal applicants.

A lot more churn than there used to be though, a lot of people who will be retiring in the next few years.

You're looking at a minimum of 18 months from applying to driving your first train!

[Timmer]

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Weymouth

Due to a shortage of train crew between Westbury and Weymouth fewer trains are able to run.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 21:15 01/11.

Customer Advice
Owing to a shortage of train crew we have regrettably had to cancel a number of services on the Westbury - Weymouth - Westbury route.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

The 17:34 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads service is running but the 20:40 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads has been cancelled. Road transport will operate in place of the cancelled train.

In the opposite direction, the 15:08, 16:08 & 17:08 Gloucester to Weymouth will not operate between Westbury and Weymouth. The first and last of these services will be covered by road transport. The final train service of the day 20:45 Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth is scheduled to operate as normal.

[Mark A]

It's curious. The railway, with its infrastructure that was pricy to build and not cheap to maintain, and some stretches have been in place for hundreds of years - and now, on the lines staffed from Westbury it's not unusual that that infrastructure cannot be used to generate an income - or serve a useful purpose - for lack of people to staff the trains.

Mark

[John D]

In addition to the multiple cancellations between Westbury and Weymouth, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) now added following

Cancellations to services between Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central
Due to a shortage of train crew between Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central fewer trains are able to run.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or revised. Disruption is expected until 22:30 01/11.
Customer Advice:
Owing to a shortage of train crew the frequency of train services which would normally operate between Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central will be reduced this evening.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

[TaplowGreen]

Friday 10October 2025:

15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 18:26 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

19:02 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:10/10/2025 12:03

The protestations that we hear from time to time by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that there really are enough staff to run the scheduled service are wearing a bit thin, now

Multiple cancellations occur on a daily basis because there are insufficient staff

Staffing levels are within the agreed level set by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

You can’t drop below or go above that figure by 5%.

Are staffing levels sufficient to run all services, all things being equal?

[John D]

Friday 10October 2025:


The protestations that we hear from time to time by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that there really are enough staff to run the scheduled service are wearing a bit thin, now

Multiple cancellations occur on a daily basis because there are insufficient staff

Staffing levels are within the agreed level set by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

You can’t drop below or go above that figure by 5%.

I have never understood how this works, DfT sets a service level to be operated under the management contract.  Then basically seems to decide a number of staff to be employed even if it is insufficient contracted hours for the service they are financing.

I know in past decades when pay was lower, voluntary overtime was common, but we are in 2020s and concept that anyone would base a contract worth few hundred million pounds on hoping for a bit voluntary work doesn't compute.

Can someone please explain how this apparently works to me, because I cannot see any logic in this. Perhaps I am just being dumb.

[ChrisB]

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) specifies a service level & an overall budget to be spent, and the operator then has to match one with the other to the best of their ability. This budget is shrinking now year-on-year, meaning that savings need to be found in order to continue matching available budget to service level. Next year's is lower still according to a friendly operator.

Of course, they can exceed the service level if they think additional income can be generated, and the DfT agrees. As previously mentioned above, the operator cannot exceed or reduce headcount by more than 5% without agreement.

Removing route-learning from depots of course means that those drivers can be employed in actual driving services, meaning short-term cost gains but not needing as much cover for doing that.....

[grahame]

Friday 10October 2025:


The protestations that we hear from time to time by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that there really are enough staff to run the scheduled service are wearing a bit thin, now

Multiple cancellations occur on a daily basis because there are insufficient staff

Staffing levels are within the agreed level set by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

You can’t drop below or go above that figure by 5%.

I have never understood how this works, DfT sets a service level to be operated under the management contract.  Then basically seems to decide a number of staff to be employed even if it is insufficient contracted hours for the service they are financing.

I know in past decades when pay was lower, voluntary overtime was common, but we are in 2020s and concept that anyone would base a contract worth few hundred million pounds on hoping for a bit voluntary work doesn't compute.

Can someone please explain how this apparently works to me, because I cannot see any logic in this. Perhaps I am just being dumb.

No - because it doesn't work.    With a noble headline of running a financially tight ship, numbers of staff are kept to a minimum. There are enough to run the service when all the staff are well, fully trained (and never leave), not on vacation, and not out of place because of engineering works or other disruptions, and willing to work a modicum of overtime.   And the numbers are squeezed by arranging quite complex diagrams in which trains are kept running all day (they don't have personal needs breaks), but staff are dropped back from one train to another or - worse - across onto another line. That means that when it goes wrong means the disruption spreads like a disease that takes a long time to cure.  Many is the time I have read "disruption until 11:00" but yet found that passenger journeys into the middle of the afternoon are not being made as they should be.

The marketing headline is a noble one.  But I wonder if the approach actually is financially prudent. So many times, we see / hear of delay/repay which is an immediate loss of income that should be money kept to pay the crew that the railway doesn't have.  I see / hear of rail replacement buses which employ drivers and aren't always available. That gets worse when taxis or clusters of taxis are needed - more road drivers again. The feeling is that a single missing train driver results in multiple other drivers being used.  It's a nonsense.  It's also a nonsense in the longer term. Public Transport that is supposed to run but often (more than 2% of the time) does not discourages people from using it. You end up with not one a failure to sell on the day, but also a failure to market for future occasions, which is long standing damage.

I am going to suggest to you that the train operators are perfectly well aware that they are running a tight ship which relies (or tries to) on the goodwill of staff working overtime beyond what those staff want to do. It overlooks the over-complex staff rostering which makes for passenger chaos that results from the number of staff available being below those that are needed to run the service on many / most days.  I suspect it means that more staff have to be employed in control / rearranging things. It means that staff on the ground who come into contact with the public as representatives of the train operating company and rail industry have to routinely deal with some pretty upset people who at times can get nasty.  "We will not tolerate abuse to our staff" say signs, yet at the same time, do not the train operator's managers abuse their customers by knowingly failing to provide what they are contracted to provide?

GWR employs a number of senior managers with golden tongues who are well used to explaining their position.  I was at such an online meeting 4 or 5 weeks ago, at which several of the people who actually do the timetabling work and planning were wheeled out. They explained how they are adding a couple of minutes to expresses into Paddington in December that arrive at higher number platforms to get better on time performance.  They also noted a couple of other changes to help with staff rotas.   But when I asked about timetable planning for robust operation away from London, the senior manager shut me down and asked if we could take that offline; a promised follow up meeting has had to be requested multiple times and is still several weeks in the future.   We are, I'm afraid, still in the same situation as we were in in September last year - if anything it's worse, even though the reasons given last autumn are long since passed.

In summary - it has demonstrably not been working.  

Edit - correcting spelling and punctuation and splitting over-long sentences