It also helps that their Dec timetable isn't much different from the May one. Whereas at Northern and several other operators, there are substantial changes.
Because if the planning teams are under-resourced, they can be putting in all the hours god sends and still not have enough time to produce a new 'shoulder' day plan.
No guards to work trains......overtime ban over the Xmas period.
Nothing across the Pennines then?
Businesses that take their customers for granted and say 'they'll be there whatever we do' are usually the ones who deserved fail during hard times.
Even if fully resourced, the volume of work is overwhelming. And as ever it isn’t just timetablers, be they in TOCs or at MK, it‘s all the unit and crew diagrammers and roster clerks too. And don’t forget Control and crew supervisors who have to pick up the pieces when the planning timescales have expired. There’s a whole chain of people involved.
Exactly. I know of TOCs whose planning teams have nearly tripled in size since before Covid, that are still struggling with the workload.
After a late start EMR are now planning to operate an almost normal service tomorrow over at least the Liverpool - Sheffield section. No signs of anything on TPE or Northern.
Why can SWR run a good service outside strike days? If SWR doesn't rely on overtime working than it's clearly Chiltern's problem!
My thoughts too. I’m all for constructive criticism, but with the emphasis on constructive.
) stepped away and the shoddy corporate culture at Arriva started creeping in. It's just a generic mostly-DOO South East operation these days with its fair share of problems, e.g. 2-car DMUs showing up on busy services.
According to TfL, only 39% of households in inner London have access to a car, and 64% in outer London does so. Therefore I won't use the word "most" to describe the proportion of rail users owning a car. Even for the rich earning £75k+ per annum household income pre-tax, the level of car ownership is just about half.No car owners ever use trains?
Most households own at least one car. Thus most rail users own cars too. Indeed in the South East commuter area most people appear to get to the station by car!
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While it's not specifically relevant to this industrial action etc, I think most people who use it (which I do from time to time) who aren't just big Class 68 fans would take the view that it was good, but unfortunately has degraded significantly since Adrian Shooter (RIP, I heard today
How about journeys such as Southampton - Brighton and Southampton - Gatwick Airport (where the direct train is much cheaper), or Stevenage - Brighton (where driving requires cutting across the centre of London)?
This won't happen under the current Conservative government.
While Chiltern may have good reasons for not running services at all on the 18th December and none past Banbury for almost a month, for passengers it is not a good look and could re enforce the perception that Chiltern is not as good as it was. I suspect many could start looking elsewhere for their travel needs.While it's not specifically relevant to this industrial action etc, I think most people who use it (which I do from time to time) who aren't just big Class 68 fans would take the view that it was good, but unfortunately has degraded significantly since Adrian Shooter (RIP, I heard today
