London North Eastern Railway (LNER) First Class service

[Clansman]

Not good. Do you think this is simply a case of LNER not employeeing enough Chefs, people leaving/retiring or is there more to it?

I’m told it’s just an unfortunate coincidence due to long term sickness issues.

There’s only 3 full time chefs up there, so if one or two are off in the same week then it downgrades most services. For 1 train a day the depot has around 20 staff including chefs. But the physical nature of the job (and deteriorating conditions onboard re Azuma’s ride quality and increased physical working demands) means that if staff have issues causing sickness or restricted duties (which seems to increasing network wide I’m told) then it’s not as easy to find cover that larger depots like Aberdeen and Edinburgh can find, especially chefs.

If there was a second service up to Inverness then staffing levels would be split with Edinburgh and Inverness, thereby increasing resilience and decreasing staffing and lodging costs - two of the many reasons LNER have pushed for paths and continue to do so from Network Rail and ScotRail (who would need to sacrifice one as things stand). Cost savings would in turn part-subsidise the service in the quieter seasons, ironically making the Chieftain more economically and operationally efficient than having just one train each way per day, and then there'd be more consistency in service offerings across the board.

 

[Clansman]

Has anyone been in the Lounge at Leuchars yet ? Missed it due to restricted opening hours not coinciding with any of my frequent trips to and from Edinburgh.

From the outside it looks like a "Tea and Biscuits Job"

Pretty much, but having the lounge is a stealthy way of having an additional platform staff member in place. The punctuality of 1E11 and 1E15 has increased due to the LNER staff member getting passengers in the right place at the right time on the platform, and arranging luggage provisions by ringing up the TM ahead of time with intel on what to expect - especially when golfers rock up with a dozen club bags and the onboard racks/cupboards are full of smaller cases that could go overhead. This is saving the service valuable minutes that would’ve delayed it in the past since staff can get a proper heads up to make room. So the lounge probably pays for itself in fine reductions due to this.

In a lot of ways this was probably always the main idea behind the lounge.

 

[ajrm]

then it’s not as easy to find cover that larger depots like Aberdeen and Edinburgh can find, especially chefs.

Aberdeen might struggle to cover chefs as they don't have any!

 

[Butts]

Pretty much, but having the lounge is a stealthy way of having an additional platform staff member in place. The punctuality of 1E11 and 1E15 has increased due to the LNER staff member getting passengers in the right place at the right time on the platform, and arranging luggage provisions by ringing up the TM ahead of time with intel on what to expect - especially when golfers rock up with a dozen club bags and the onboard racks/cupboards are full of smaller cases that could go overhead. This is saving the service valuable minutes that would’ve delayed it in the past since staff can get a proper heads up to make room. So the lounge probably pays for itself in fine reductions due to this.

In a lot of ways this was probably always the main idea behind the lounge.

No Golfers on Tuesday and Wednesday then ?

 

[Clansman]

Aberdeen might struggle to cover chefs as they don't have any!

More of a reference to hosts than chefs in Aberdeen’s case but the point stands regarding staffing resilience in bigger depots vs smaller ones.

No Golfers on Tuesday and Wednesday then ?

Trials are funny things, especially on minimal staffing when they’re just testing the waters. But they do give a flavour of what things could look like if permanently adopted.

 

[Segedunum]

Pretty much, but having the lounge is a stealthy way of having an additional platform staff member in place. The punctuality of 1E11 and 1E15 has increased due to the LNER staff member getting passengers in the right place at the right time on the platform, and arranging luggage provisions by ringing up the TM ahead of time with intel on what to expect - especially when golfers rock up with a dozen club bags and the onboard racks/cupboards are full of smaller cases that could go overhead. This is saving the service valuable minutes that would’ve delayed it in the past since staff can get a proper heads up to make room. So the lounge probably pays for itself in fine reductions due to this.

In a lot of ways this was probably always the main idea behind the lounge.

The beauty of having staff who are already well-versed in platform etiquette at a much busier station!