North Cotswold line - driver route knowledge

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I'm hearing that Bristol drivers are losing driving knowledge for the North Cotswold Line at the May timetable change, so only Worcester & Oxford drivers will be signing the line after that.

So Bristol drivers take IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) out of Stoke Gifford & pass stock over to Worcester drivers when heading to the North Cotswolds....

Expect driver shortages....who's idea was that, I wonder?

[IndustryInsider]

Expect driver shortages....whose idea was that, I wonder?

All part of a depot wide review on routes.  Worcester is expanding and Oxford has a fair bit of spare capacity, so it might not be the worst idea in the world as they only cover a handful of trains over the route.  Time will tell.

[Timmer]

All part of a depot wide review on routes.  Worcester is expanding and Oxford has a fair bit of spare capacity, so it might not be the worst idea in the world as they only cover a handful of trains over the route.  Time will tell.

Let’s hope that review included having more Bristol based drivers signing the Berks and Hants again so we don’t see a repeat of the vastly reduced Sunday timetable that the last two times the line between Swindon and Didcot has been closed for engineering work.

[Worcester_Passenger]

At present, there's only one empty stock movement from Stoke Gifford to the North Cotswold line in the morning, 3G18 04:42 Stoke Gifford to Great Malvern, which forms 1P18 07:13 Great Malvern to London Paddington. The empty stock is at Shrub Hill at 06:31.

There's two return workings in the evening.

5G36 21:23 Great Malvern to Stoke Gifford (at Shrub Hill at 21:58) is the empty stock from 1W36 18:57 London Paddington to Great Malvern (21:18).
5G29 22:21 Worcester Shrub Hill to Stoke Gifford (23:45) is the empty stock from 1G29 19:36 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill via Stroud.

The two Great Malvern movements would have to be done with the driver doing the 'other' half of the working (back to Stoke Gifford in the morning and out from there in the evening) either 'on the cushions' or in a taxi.

If you're going to expand the establishment of drivers at Worcester, then it makes more sense for this stock to be parked overnight at Shrub Hill.

[ChrisB]

I'm told that they won't even be learning Stoke Gifford to Worcester, so the Worcester/Oxford drivers will sign that (with a taxi trip from/to their depot), or a hand-over maybe at Cheltenham, for example?....

[Worcester_Passenger]

I'm told that they won't even be learning Stoke Gifford to Worcester, so the Worcester/Oxford drivers will sign that (with a taxi trip from/to their depot), or a hand-over maybe at Cheltenham, for example?....

If you do it that way, then there's one night-time duty for Worcester, taking the 5G36 from Shrub Hill (21:58) to Stoke Gifford (23:40) and  coming back with 3G18 04:42 from Stoke Gifford to Shrub Hill (06:31)

[Witham Bobby]

I'm hearing that Bristol drivers are losing driving knowledge for the North Cotswold Line at the May timetable change, so only Worcester & Oxford drivers will be signing the line after that.

So Bristol drivers take IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) out of Stoke Gifford & pass stock over to Worcester drivers when heading to the North Cotswolds....

Expect driver shortages....who's idea was that, I wonder?

Genius

I clicked "Like", but really don't like at all

[IndustryInsider]

I'm told that they won't even be learning Stoke Gifford to Worcester, so the Worcester/Oxford drivers will sign that (with a taxi trip from/to their depot), or a hand-over maybe at Cheltenham, for example?....

If you do it that way, then there's one night-time duty for Worcester, taking the 5G36 from Shrub Hill (21:58) to Stoke Gifford (23:40) and  coming back with 3G18 04:42 from Stoke Gifford to Shrub Hill (06:31)

That might well be how they do it, Worcester_Passenger.  Although don't forget Gloucester drivers also sign the route from Worcester to Bristol.

[UstiImmigrunt]

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

It used to be only the top link at Oxford signed the North Cotswolds, I don't know if that has changed since I finished.  The Worcester HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) drivers haven't been replaced as retirements occur. Again I don't know if there has been changes since retiring but the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers only signed Hereford to Oxford whilst HSS did Paddington to Oxford, Didcot to Worcester via Kemble and Standish to Bristol Parkway.

So there will be shortages from the timetable change.

So glad to be out of it all.

[IndustryInsider]

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

It used to be only the top link at Oxford signed the North Cotswolds, I don't know if that has changed since I finished.  The Worcester HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) drivers haven't been replaced as retirements occur. Again I don't know if there has been changes since retiring but the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers only signed Hereford to Oxford whilst HSS did Paddington to Oxford, Didcot to Worcester via Kemble and Standish to Bristol Parkway.

So there will be shortages from the timetable change.

Oxford's second link has signed the North Cotswolds (as far as Malvern Wells) for over twenty years.  With those links growing in numbers over that time it now stands at over 70 drivers - virtually the whole depot - that sign it.

Worcester GWR driver numbers are increasing at a quicker rate than HSS drivers are decreasing.  Originally the depot was 30 HSS drivers.  It is now 22 HSS drivers and 18 GWR ones.  Worcester GWR drivers now sign to Paddington via North and South Cotswolds routes and from Bristol Parkway to Paddington.  They also sign Turbos.

HSS is dying out as people retire, and it's probably no surprise that they are now starting to be starved of route knowledge.  Morale seems to be getting quite low on the HSS side from casual conversations I've had as that fact is slowly dawning on them.

To what extent in the grand scheme of things that will result in additional crew shortages remains to be seen.

[charles_uk]

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

<snip>

Might it be worth having this in a separate thread? Whilst the annual delays and cancellation thread is a useful historical record, there is sometimes the risk that the issues behind particular delays (e.g. regular flooding in a particular area, the issues with the bridge at Yarnton last year) simply get buried when, perhaps, they deserve a little more air.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Might it be worth having this in a separate thread?

Yes - and now it does have a topic of its own. 

CfN.