Caledonian Sleeper

[najaB]

As a student, I worked in McDonalds. The company ethos required managers to be able to do the "manager" bit from the office, but also to be able to fill in anywhere within a branch as required. It was extremely effective, and very good at focusing attention on getting the little things right.

With all respect due to McDonalds managers, who I'll freely admit don't have an easy job, managing a single franchise location is going to be an order of magnitudes less complex than managing an organisation that provides a service that literally spans the length of the country.

Would you expect that a CS manager could step into the shoes of a host, a guard, a driver, carriage maintenance, etc?

 

[6Z09]

With all respect due to McDonalds managers, who I'll freely admit don't have an easy job, managing a single franchise location is going to be an order of magnitudes less complex than managing an organisation that provides a service that literally spans the length of the country.

Would you expect that a CS manager could step into the shoes of a host, a guard, a driver, carriage maintenance, etc?

No , but you would expect Guest Experience management to be visible to guests occasionally!
Have you ever come across any?

 

[Grumpy Git]

No , but you would expect Guest Experience management to be visible to guests occasionally!
Have you ever come across any?

I just hope they are better attired than some of the Northern staff I've witnessed on Piccadilly P13.

 

[najaB]

No , but you would expect Guest Experience management to be visible to guests occasionally!

I agree.

Have you ever come across any?

I've not used the sleeper recently so am not in a position to comment.

 

[Iskra]

With all respect due to McDonalds managers, who I'll freely admit don't have an easy job, managing a single franchise location is going to be an order of magnitudes less complex than managing an organisation that provides a service that literally spans the length of the country.

Would you expect that a CS manager could step into the shoes of a host, a guard, a driver, carriage maintenance, etc?

Some McDonald's are very complex large scale businesses. Look how many staff some of the busiest have on shift; 25+ at a time in my local DT, and they are 24 hour operations.

I would expect a CS manager, as a minimum to have experienced working all of those roles, even if only for half a day each. How can you lead people if you have no concept of what their day to day existence is like? It makes you do your job a lot better as a manager, and focuses your mind on the real issues spending a bit of time taking some flak on the front line for poor service delivery and ensures you care about not putting your team through that unnecessarily.

 

[35B]

With all respect due to McDonalds managers, who I'll freely admit don't have an easy job, managing a single franchise location is going to be an order of magnitudes less complex than managing an organisation that provides a service that literally spans the length of the country.

Would you expect that a CS manager could step into the shoes of a host, a guard, a driver, carriage maintenance, etc?

I deliberately didn’t confine myself to branch managers. And, no, I wouldn’t expect them to be able to do all jobs - but certainly the public facing ones.

 

[greatkingrat]

So CS are supposed to have a manager at every terminus every night just in case things go wrong?

 

[Iskra]

So CS are supposed to have a manager at every terminus every night just in case things go wrong?

No, but there should be someone with enough clout to make common sense decisions working or on call as a minimum. Surely they have some form of 'service manager' overseeing things each night?

 

[6Z09]

So CS are supposed to have a manager at every terminus every night just in case things go wrong?

What would be so ridiculous about that?
Obviously you haven't travelled during recent weeks!
Is it acceptable for management to actually avoid contact with customers when there are difficulties?
Your setting them a very low bar.
Just a pity nobody has posted a trip report for Monday night's shenanigans.
I'm sure the M&S delivery drivers did their best in directing the "Guests " to the correct platform at 5am in Waverley. Their help was much appreciated in the absence of CS management who you seem to think are too busy doing the "Day job"

 

[185143]

So CS are supposed to have a manager at every terminus every night just in case things go wrong?

I don't think it unreasonable to have a manager at Euston at least, for both the evening departures, no.

 

[Chrism20]

So CS are supposed to have a manager at every terminus every night just in case things go wrong?

There should be a manager on duty at Euston and one of the Scottish stations - probably Edinburgh due to the splitting etc every single night the service operates.

Having experienced the shambles on four occasions over the last three years which resulted in being bussed or late by hours it's blatantly obvious that the men and women on the trains are being left to deal with the fallout without any help/with very little help at all as the manure starts to hit the fan at colossal speeds and they are left dealing with someone on the end of the phone.

Serco need sacking and I know this may not be popular with some and it may be a bit controversial but a large percentage of the back office staff need sent packing with them, the service has lurched from one shambles to another on a far too frequent basis. We are what? six years into them running and it's a shambles. I don't doubt for a minute that there are some people "Off train" working in operations or other roles who do actually care but clearly they are in the minority.

Given the amount of money its costing it should be rolled back into the ScotRail operation at the earliest opportunity and some of the savings that are made should be used to address some of the problems.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Genuine questions: Is there currently any concept of a 'senior person' on each train? (I mean this in terms of customer/guest 'contact', not an operational, safety-critical 'guard'.)

Or are all of the mobile staff essentially straightforward 'sleeping car attendants' with no additional responsibilities beyond the basics like welcoming passengers and serving a breakfast snack?

If there is a 'senior host'/'train captain' or whatever, do they have any authority/empowerment to do things like handing out food vouchers, on-the-spot refunds and so on? Or is every little problem simply phoned through to 'Control'? And where is 'Control'?

 

[185143]

Genuine questions: Is there currently any concept of a 'senior person' on each train? (I mean this in terms of customer/guest 'contact', not an operational, safety-critical 'guard'.)

Or are all of the mobile staff essentially straightforward 'sleeping car attendants' with no additional responsibilities beyond the basics like welcoming passengers and serving a breakfast snack?

If there is a 'senior host'/'train captain' or whatever, do they have any authority/empowerment to do things like handing out food vouchers, on-the-spot refunds and so on? Or is every little problem simply phoned through to 'Control'? And where is 'Control'?

I suspect 'control' is the Guest Service Centre in Inverness.

 

[Journeyman]

Genuine questions: Is there currently any concept of a 'senior person' on each train? (I mean this in terms of customer/guest 'contact', not an operational, safety-critical 'guard'.)

Yes.

Or are all of the mobile staff essentially straightforward 'sleeping car attendants' with no additional responsibilities beyond the basics like welcoming passengers and serving a breakfast snack?

No, there's a team leader on every train.

If there is a 'senior host'/'train captain' or whatever, do they have any authority/empowerment to do things like handing out food vouchers, on-the-spot refunds and so on? Or is every little problem simply phoned through to 'Control'? And where is 'Control'?

Yes, they have authority to deal with a range of issues on the spot.

Control for train running issues is GBRf in Peterborough. For guest-facing issues there's service delivery managers on duty in Inverness throughout the hours the trains run.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Thank you for that very clear reply, Journeyman.

Once upon a time, in my ScotRail days I was a regular sleeper user because of meetings in London but never a great fan really.

My take on the current, modern, situation is that the unique advantage is that the overall size of the operation is small enough and controlled enough (through compulsory reservation and berth allocation) for each journey to be treated as a 'case'.

With modern IT every member of train staff could have a tablet with 'their' customers on. Any 'accommodation' problem or 'catering' problem and any above-threshold delay (for delay repay) could be logged in real time.

As any passenger alighted they could know that (provided that they had advised a host, who had had the chance to try and solve it) all their issues had been captured.

"Thank you for travelling with us. Sorry for no food in the evening (£25 compensation), sorry no hot drink in the morning as machine was broken (£10 compensation), sorry no hot water in your cabin (£40 compensation), sorry thermostat broken in your cabin (£40 compensation), sorry over XX minutes late arrival (50% refund). All of the money will be repaid to your card within an hour. Hope to see you again soon."

Once all of the trains had completed their journeys the various IT records would combined and advised as necessary.

E.g. the depots would get an immediate list of every cabin with a plumbing problem or HVAC problem and every catering equipment failure so that repairs could be targeted during the day, vehicles swapped out if possible and so forth.

CS management would know every day, over elevenses, how much 'poor service' had cost them and why - catering supply failures, vehicle maintenance problems, network delays or whatever.

These figures could be copied to Transport Scotland so that they knew how much of their financial support was going on 'failures'.

This approach would (a) demonstrate a genuine guest-centred approach to the end customers; (b) empower staff and transform them from helpless apologists into the key to getting problems tackled and showing that they were 'on the passenger's side'; (c) focus minds within CS management it terms of how they dealt with critical suppliers; (d) hopefully assist the fleet maintainers in really nailing down 'bad actors' and 'rogue vehicles'; and (e) show Transport Scotland that CS were really on the case.

(Yes, I know that you can quibble over the precise magnitude of the compensation payments but hopefully get the basic idea.)

It is more than twenty years ago that if the family went to a Tesco cafe for a meal and there was a problem the supervisor would immediately refund the whole bill. Customer expectations are so much higher than they were in BR's day.

 

[jagardner1984]

I agree with all you say but I think they simply don’t have the solutions to these problems.

The reply I got to a
complaint about no water in a classic cabin suggested they now had a fitter on every train to resolve technical issues. This in a sense is admirable, but seems a workaround to a problem that shouldn’t really exist (why is the car leaving Polmadie with failed plumbing on a 2 year old train).

Similarly it seems crazy that one of the carts of Avanti “snack boxes” of various long life products (the weekend first class offering) could not sit in a corner of the disused club car and distributed to all rooms in lieu of meal service. But that’s a solution to a problem of failed equipment that should not have failed.

I imagine the SG will want Serco to keep going as long as humanly possible, as presumably the performance of the CAF stock will only decline during its service life, and the heady combination of poor equipment, complex operations and abysmal industrial relations will be deeply unappealing to the ministers who currently have a faceless outsourcing whipping boy to take the heat for them.

And of course there is the simple fact of the huge subsidy the franchise runs with, and that any of the solutions to these problems are likely to result in significant further investment and make the whole operation more of a financial basket case than it currently is.

As a long time sleeper user, I hope solutions can be found to secure its long term viability. As time goes on, I become increasingly unsure.

 

[RT4038]

My take on the current, modern, situation is that the unique advantage is that the overall size of the operation is small enough and controlled enough (through compulsory reservation and berth allocation) for each journey to be treated as a 'case'.


This approach would (a) demonstrate a genuine guest-centred approach to the end customers; (b) empower staff and transform them from helpless apologists into the key to getting problems tackled and showing that they were 'on the passenger's side'; (c) focus minds within CS management it terms of how they dealt with critical suppliers; (d) hopefully assist the fleet maintainers in really nailing down 'bad actors' and 'rogue vehicles'; and (e) show Transport Scotland that CS were really on the case.


It is more than twenty years ago that if the family went to a Tesco cafe for a meal and there was a problem the supervisor would immediately refund the whole bill. Customer expectations are so much higher than they were in BR's day.

I fear that you are making some assumptions which may not be the case, particularly that there is any money available to fix these problems. The maintenance problems could be down to incorrect or unsuitable specifications, not necessarily the fault of the car builder. Other suppliers may be providing what is specified in their contract. Do CS really want/need to show Transport Scotland that they are really on the case? If Serco throw in the towel, TS will end up with a much larger bill to deal with the problems.

 

[Meerkat]

Is Serco taking the revenue risk?

 

[RT4038]

Is Serco taking the revenue risk?

Believe so.

 

[JamesT]

Believe so.

They’re running under an EMA, like pretty much all franchises. Doesn’t that usually shift the revenue risk to the government and the TOC will be getting a management fee?

 

[John Bishop]

Out of interest, who picks up the bill for all the light engine movements from Edinburgh to Aberdeen/ Inverness and FW over the last few months to replace faulty traction?

 

[MrEd]

Out of interest, who picks up the bill for all the light engine movements from Edinburgh to Aberdeen/ Inverness and FW over the last few months to replace faulty traction?

Presumably GBRF as they are contracted to supply the locomotives?

 

[paul1609]

It really wouldn’t. Maybe low single digit % of the cost base, at the cost of a loss of focus on what is a niche operation (and many here are suggesting there is insufficient focus as it is).

Having been involved in small scale government procurement for some years I can assure you that the efficiencies of having an organisation like SERCO doing your negotiations probably outweighs their management fee by a considerable margin.

 

[AberdeenBill]

The reply I got to a
complaint about no water in a classic cabin suggested they now had a fitter on every train to resolve technical issues. This in a sense is admirable, but seems a workaround to a problem that shouldn’t really exist (why is the car leaving Polmadie with failed plumbing on a 2 year old train).

Seems incredulous that they would be carrying a plumber on board every night dedicated to rectifying faults as they occur. That literally sounds like pouring money down the drain. As the original post implies, surely they could have a better quality control system to ensure that the basics in each cabin are functioning before the train leaves the depot.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Seems incredulous that they would be carrying a plumber on board every night dedicated to rectifying faults as they occur. That literally sounds like pouring money down the drain. As the original post implies, surely they could have a better quality control system to ensure that the basics in each cabin are functioning before the train leaves the depot.

One would hope that CAF are paying for that, having delivered what is evidently a seriously substandard product. If it was a home appliance it'd have gone back to the shop by now.

Yes, there is the possibility that some of it was due to a poor spec from CS themselves - but a truly professional company would refuse to bid for something that might damage their reputation.

 

[6Z09]

Seems incredulous that they would be carrying a plumber on board every night dedicated to rectifying faults as they occur. That literally sounds like pouring money down the drain. As the original post implies, surely they could have a better quality control system to ensure that the basics in each cabin are functioning before the train leaves the depot.

It certainly is incredulous if this is the case!
Even more incredulous, that two years down the line this travelling plumber has still not got on top of the faults.
Very hard to believe he even exists, has anyone come across him in their travels? I have not heard of any sightings.

 

[14xxDave]

It certainly is incredulous if this is the case!
Even more incredulous, that two years down the line this travelling plumber has still not got on top of the faults.
Very hard to believe he even exists, has anyone come across him in their travels? I have not heard of any sightings.

I have a suspicion that this person does not exist. I think all faults are rectified in the depot.

 

[Chrism20]

I have a suspicion that this person does not exist. I think all faults are rectified in the depot.

For a while after the new stock was introduced and there were a massive amount of problems there was a fitter on board for a while. I doubt it's still happening though.

 

[route101]

For a while after the new stock was introduced and there were a massive amount of problems there was a fitter on board for a while. I doubt it's still happening though.

Yes, I recall a fitter on one of the sleeper services back in September 2019. The toilets were out of order nearest the seated coach.

 

[cyclebike]

I thought I'd report on my recent trip with Caledonian Sleeper. I had booked to travel in the seats, with a bicycle, from Euston to Fort William - with the inevitable change of coach in Edinburgh for both myself and the bike. I wasn't expecting a restful night's sleep, but the ticket was £73, which was fully refundable until a couple of days prior to travel, so I was expecting a straightforward, cost- and time-efficient way to travel to the Highlands. I was continuing by train to Mallaig, and then on to Lochboisdale in the Hebrides by ferry (and to finally start actually cycling).

Boarding time at Euston came and went, with no sign of the train or any information. An announcement then did occur, advising that the stock would arrive late into Euston and to remain on the concourse. When boarding did begin, no further information was provided. I was referred from host to host on the platform, eventually being advised (to my considerable surprise) that I would be travelling in a classic room rather than the seats. What's more, a whole other (accessible) classic room had been set aside for my bike. So, I was extremely chuffed at the bargain journey I had suddenly bagged. The reason offered for the change was "it's silly for people to have to move around at Edinburgh when there are spare berths." Very noble, although I was rather bemused as a check online before leaving had indicated that the train was fully booked!

The journey itself was smooth, although I don't feel it's worth the usual price requested for a berth. I would suggest that the design of the Night Riviera cabins is superior, and certainly more cosy. No announcements or information at all on-board (especially surprising considering the late departure), and no mention of any refreshments or breakfast being available (perhaps this is offered to those who have actually paid for their room), although I would have happily paid for a cup of coffee in the morning!

Arriving in Fort William on-time alongside the Jacobite, I managed to find the host to unlock the cabin in which my bike had restfully slumbered during the journey, and continued on my way.