Transpennine Express boss apologises for poor services (BBC)

[40C]

On TPE South the last train of the day from Cleethorpes appears to have been 1B83 at 14.24.

 

[Iskra]

As an aside at least one Northern Sheffield-Cleethorpes service was cancelled too, on a day when it would have been quite useful...

 

[LittleAH]

Meanwhile, another day of constant cancellations/part cancellations at an otherwise very busy Sheffield station today.

It would be quite nice if the 'action/recovery plan' could be communicated, so that passengers can understand when or if they will ever get a usable service again, and if not make alternative arrangements.

That will be for RNP/DfT to decide. Given they'll sign it off.

 

[td97]

It appears their drivers have no idea what's going on either

this is the 04.57am manchester to glasgow on a day when it ran

today its cancelled due to a driver shortage..i'm the booked driver and was on duty at 03.35 am wrong excuse i'm afraid...

https://twitter.com/1truelilywhite/status/1623916043654811649?t=-VVJTqTO91VUR1efXHxXZg&s=19

Appears to have now been deleted, but amassed 750k+ views

 

[zwk500]

It appears their drivers have no idea what's going on either

Tbf sounds like their drivers know some of what's going on.

Appears to have now been deleted, but amassed 750k+ views

Yes can't imagine that tweet complied with the TOC's Social Media Policy.

 

[Fokx]

This is quite correct though, otherwise there would be a complete mess of staff at a depot with some signing certain routes and others not.

You’ve just described the current situation currently though.

For example, I continue to sign Liverpool (via Huyton) where as most of the colleagues I share a depot with do not. Meanwhile I’ve recently lost Liverpool to Manchester (via Widnes), Salford Cresent diversion, and I’m dangerously close to losing my TPRU diversion knowledge because I’ve had absolutely zero work over it in the last few months. Soon I’ll also lose Manchester to Sheffield.

The solution is that a depot is allocated a decent amount of routes and traction and then everyone at that depot is required to learn said routes and traction.

Which is what took place prior to the previous timetable change, resulting in dormant knowledge currently, such as my own above that I will also lose and as a result become LESS productive

Having individuals choosing to refresh routes they once did on a case by case basis wouldn't work so well in terms of planning the service. TpE needs to pull its finger out and get all staff at depots re learning lost route knowledge.

Its worked perfectly fine for years. Previously all staff would have a training day in the link used for the purpose of route refreshing. You could also apply for route retention days when you were space, where rather than sitting in the depot for a number of hours waiting for the phone to ring, the knowledge was refreshed, and available for when required.

 

[Watershed]

It appears their drivers have no idea what's going on either

https://twitter.com/1truelilywhite/status/1623916043654811649?t=-VVJTqTO91VUR1efXHxXZg&s=19

Appears to have now been deleted, but amassed 750k+ views

It's not mutually exclusive for a train to be cancelled due to "no driver", even if a driver is there to take it part-way. TPE's policy, for better or worse, appears to be that whole unit diagrams will get canned if any one of the services in the diagram lacks a driver. With the number of crew changes that TPE does en-route, that makes this particular outcome quite likely - and no doubt very frustrating for the driver, who will have got up at 2am for nothing.

 

[VauxhallNova]

The idea that this is all DfTs fault still makes me laugh.

For those wanting TPE to put the "honest truth" out there, what do they think that is that hasn't already been said?

And do you think the full truth would be flattering on TPE?

 

[irish_rail]

You’ve just described the current situation currently though.

For example, I continue to sign Liverpool (via Huyton) where as most of the colleagues I share a depot with do not. Meanwhile I’ve recently lost Liverpool to Manchester (via Widnes), Salford Cresent diversion, and I’m dangerously close to losing my TPRU diversion knowledge because I’ve had absolutely zero work over it in the last few ou were space, where rather than sitting in the depot for a number of hours waiting for the phone to ring, the knowledge was refreshed, and available for when required.

Trouble being how can work be allocated if only a handful of traincrew at a certain depot have the RK or traction. There needs to be consistency. So say for example EVERYONE at Liverpool signs all routes to Manchester, Leeds plus the road to Newcastle. That way planners can diagram traincrew at a particular depot accordingly. Having one bloke happy to keep X on his card, but another bloke isn't but is prepared to have Y on his card just leads to more confusion and poor rostering. Everyone at a depot (or certainly within a certain link) should have identical (and extensive) route knowledge. The more the better.

 

[Clarence Yard]

The idea that this is all DfTs fault still makes me laugh.

For those wanting TPE to put the "honest truth" out there, what do they think that is that hasn't already been said?

And do you think the full truth would be flattering on TPE?

I will say it again. Until the DfT provide enough money to recruit and train enough staff for TPE to have the route and traction knowledge required to open up these “optimised” diagrams, the situation isn’t going to get improve quickly enough for anyone.

The policy to cancel a service if it can’t be crewed throughout is one that NR and the DfT now favours because it doesn’t lead to stranded punters or, indeed, units. The more “optimised” your staff diagrams are, the more likely you are to see a cancellation. And the DfT love keeping crew establishments to the minimum it can get away with.

It isn’t only TPE that sees this policy in action. It is, in my view, mad.