GWR daily cancellations

[PLY2AYS]

So who then covers the depot driving?
Trains aren’t driven round depots for fun but for maintenance requirements.

Without a maintained train fleet you have cancellations

But depot drivers didn’t exist before 2020 on GWR… they made a grade up to take little bitty ferry jobs to depots out of diagrams for ‘productivity purposes’.
It didn’t work, and now you have scores of mainline qualified drivers sitting about wanting to do these turns, yet the company won’t let them.
I get messages every day from former colleagues to the tune of “X is cancelled again whilst I’m sat here spare on depot”

Of the list of 54 cancelled services posted up, I can think of 29 possible services that could have run from Plymouth depot alone, if they’d manage their drivers better.
Not that there isn’t already a link of fully paid mainline drivers already in a link on some depots who now do even less work than before (and 0 mainline) because of these new drivers.

 

[SirDanielGooch]

I was supposed to be catching one of these yesterday from Castle Cary to Reading and back. Both my train and my backup service were cancelled, only service to London was the SWR one but I had no idea if my ticket was valid to go to Basingstoke on it and then hop up to Reading from there so didn’t risk it. End result was another car on the road that didn’t need or want to be there!

Travelling by rail is currently the least reliable, most expensive, and often the least comfortable way of travel. Just such a continuously frustrating experience all round.

 

[GoneSouth]

I was supposed to be catching one of these yesterday from Castle Cary to Reading and back. Both my train and my backup service were cancelled, only service to London was the SWR one but I had no idea if my ticket was valid to go to Basingstoke on it and then hop up to Reading from there so didn’t risk it. End result was another car on the road that didn’t need or want to be there!

Travelling by rail is currently the least reliable, most expensive, and often the least comfortable way of travel. Just such a continuously frustrating experience all round.

You’re lucky in that you have the option of driving. When that sort of thing happens to me it just completely destroys my weekend, it’s soul destroying relying on the railway. I’ve had 2.5 hour waits at Plymouth on a December evening with nothing open in the station, it’s just utterly depressing!

Bring on those autonomous vehicles, can’t wait!

 

[father_jack]

Removing/reducing enhancements on a (now) well paid role, then leaving Sundays ‘outside’ and killing off goodwill by trying to strip out hard earned T&Cs for free has had inevitable consequences.

Very well put.

Ticket offices where I work have "expected" Sundays and are time and a fifth pay (and flat rate for rest day work !!). There are locations where more people are completely opted out than are available to work their "expected" Sundays.

I've not done a Sunday in over 4 years- and with the vague proposals previously made that if you could prove to not be a "Sunday worker" you could opt out permanently from any new arrangements you'd be foolish to do even one to mess up your future....

 

[irish_rail]

Meanwhile today is pretty horrendous from a capacity point of view. 1115 and 1215 off Plymouth to London both 5 car with predictable consequences, I'm travelling pass on the 1115 and they've even removed stops due to the overcrowding (we are stopping approximately 5 minutes per station to attempt to squeeze more people aboard, Largely without success.) Countless disabled people being turned away. Something needs to be done about the proliferation of 5 car sets GWR have been lumbered with , extra vehicles are desperately needed. Unfortunately, I've hears passengers being told to try and board the 1127 voyager ex Plymouth instead, but, you've guessed it, a 4 car today, and apparently completely and utterly wedged. Something needs to be done with our intercity railways, and HS2 is just not the answer. Sell off the land at Old Oak and in birmibgham for housing and fund 100s of extra vehicles for the intercity trains the travelling public actually use.

 

[SirDanielGooch]

You’re lucky in that you have the option of driving. When that sort of thing happens to me it just completely destroys my weekend, it’s soul destroying relying on the railway. I’ve had 2.5 hour waits at Plymouth on a December evening with nothing open in the station, it’s just utterly depressing!

Bring on those autonomous vehicles, can’t wait!

I don’t always, I have a disability which can affect my driving, hence why I booked the train. I was lucky that I wasn’t in a flare up yesterday and was able to make it.

Relying on the railways in this country is soul destroying at times. I’ve hung onto a crutch barely able to stand crushed into a voyager and unable to even see my booked seat through the crowd let alone reach it. I dread to think what’s it’s going to be like when Im in a chair and need to take the train somewhere, probably spend 4 hours on the platform cos the guy in charge of the ramp is only scheduled to work 2 hours a week with 38 hours voluntary overtime…

 

[londonmidland]

Quite a few delays out of Paddington this evening due to an object being caught on the overhead wires in the Ladbrook Grove area. More specifically, party streamers.

 

[Horizon22]

But depot drivers didn’t exist before 2020 on GWR… they made a grade up to take little bitty ferry jobs to depots out of diagrams for ‘productivity purposes’.
It didn’t work, and now you have scores of mainline qualified drivers sitting about wanting to do these turns, yet the company won’t let them.
I get messages every day from former colleagues to the tune of “X is cancelled again whilst I’m sat here spare on depot”

Of the list of 54 cancelled services posted up, I can think of 29 possible services that could have run from Plymouth depot alone, if they’d manage their drivers better.
Not that there isn’t already a link of fully paid mainline drivers already in a link on some depots who now do even less work than before (and 0 mainline) because of these new drivers.

The issue often on GWR services from the W. Country is all well and good getting the service to/from Paddington, but getting it back the other way again is not so easy.

 

[Desirolly]

Quite a few delays out of Paddington this evening due to an object being caught on the overhead wires in the Ladbrook Grove area. More specifically, party streamers.

Was on the 1724 GWR service from Maidenhead to Paddington. All well and good until Slough where we were given a stop order for West Drayton Hayes and Southall. Unfortunately it seemed like no one was aware this was occurring and led to many bewildered passengers on the platforms!

 

[dk1]

Was on the 1724 GWR service from Maidenhead to Paddington. All well and good until Slough where we were given a stop order for West Drayton Hayes and Southall. Unfortunately it seemed like no one was aware this was occurring and led to many bewildered passengers on the platforms!

That is often the way. Always has been.

 

[800301]

Was on the 1724 GWR service from Maidenhead to Paddington. All well and good until Slough where we were given a stop order for West Drayton Hayes and Southall. Unfortunately it seemed like no one was aware this was occurring and led to many bewildered passengers on the platforms!

You should see the reaction you get when you stop at those station in a turbo

 

[Horizon22]

Was on the 1724 GWR service from Maidenhead to Paddington. All well and good until Slough where we were given a stop order for West Drayton Hayes and Southall. Unfortunately it seemed like no one was aware this was occurring and led to many bewildered passengers on the platforms!

I imagine that was a request from the Elizabeth line to GWR to stop there.

You should see the reaction you get when you stop at those station in a turbo

No turbos on that route any more (excluding extreme late nights and early mornings)!

 

[PLY2AYS]

The issue often on GWR services from the W. Country is all well and good getting the service to/from Paddington, but getting it back the other way again is not so easy.

As Isaac Newton once said: “what goes up, must come down”

The West Country drivers have to go home right? And looking at the services cancelled… that wouldn’t have been much of an issue with resources.

 

[Horizon22]

As Isaac Newton once said: “what goes up, must come down”

The West Country drivers have to go home right? And looking at the services cancelled… that wouldn’t have been much of an issue with resources.

It depends - crew often change at Exeter. If it's a Paddington driver's return leg, it might not be easy to bring it back. Even if it wasn't, crew don't work the same train back and often break at Paddington which means you really need to confirm 2 trips both ways for crew.

If it "wasn't much of an issue", GWR wouldn't have cancelled so many trains.

 

[bramling]

Why? It’s perfectly normal for different people to have different T&Cs.

Normal or otherwise, it’s a good way to create a rather toxic work environment. Whilst it may well be the case that new starters don’t have a leg to stand on in terms of what they signed up for, this doesn’t stop resentment building up. This is all quite a problem in an industry where people tend to stick around for very long amounts of time.

 

[The exile]

That's good to know, thank you. Although seems a bit unfair if different employees at the same company are on different conditions?

Something, somewhere along the way will always be “unfair” to someone if they choose to look at it that way. It was part of the package new recruits signed up to, so they were clearly prepared to do it.

 

[PLY2AYS]

It depends - crew often change at Exeter. If it's a Paddington driver's return leg, it might not be easy to bring it back. Even if it wasn't, crew don't work the same train back and often break at Paddington which means you really need to confirm 2 trips both ways for crew.

If it "wasn't much of an issue", GWR wouldn't have cancelled so many trains.

Yeah I see what you’re saying… but GWR have Exeter, Plymouth, Penzance and Bristol ‘depot’ drivers, all mainline qualified. Admittedly this doesn’t help with other crew and chopping and changing diagramming.
But if they had a Sunday pay agreement that at least matched their RDW agreement, then I’m sure there’d be a considerable surplus of crew.

 

[chrisp37]

I pity anyone who used the Looe Valley line on Sunday for a day out at Looe. The last four trains of the day were cancelled meaning that the last service to leave Looe was 14.23 and then absolutely nothing for the rest of the day!

When I travelled on the Looe Valley line last June it was very well used, so I can imagine there were quite a few unhappy people. Was there ticket acceptance in place on local buses / alternative transport put on?

 

[Horizon22]

But if they had a Sunday pay agreement that at least matched their RDW agreement, then I’m sure there’d be a considerable surplus of crew.

Well yes, there’s the real issue.

There are still some who will chuck in every Sunday going regardless, but it would be a lot better.

 

[GoneSouth]

When I travelled on the Looe Valley line last June it was very well used, so I can imagine there were quite a few unhappy people. Was there ticket acceptance in place on local buses / alternative transport put on?

Let’s hope so, probably not many local taxis to get everyone back to Looe

What a terrible state of affairs.

 

[Snow1964]

GWR seems to be having big mess with its DMU fleet today

Per real time trains
1F03 Bristol - Portsmouth, cancelled due to defective 158 745
1F12 Portsmouth -Cardiff part canx due to defective train
2T53 Frome - Bristol (local) replaced by IET 802 009
2H62 Bristol - Filton cancelled (unspecified), and some later trains same route
2C12 Gloucester-Bristol cancelled (crew)

 

[bramling]

Something, somewhere along the way will always be “unfair” to someone if they choose to look at it that way. It was part of the package new recruits signed up to, so they were clearly prepared to do it.

Realistically, whether it’s unfair or not isn’t really the problem. What is a problem is that people *see* it as unfair, which is a human nature thing. Over time resentment festers and boils, which then just causes a working environment where people dig their heels in at every opportunity.

And what more emotive issue than other people (which in practice will tend to be older people) being able to spend quality time with their families?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

GWR seems to be having big mess with its DMU fleet today

Per real time trains
1F03 Bristol - Portsmouth, cancelled due to defective 158 745
1F12 Portsmouth -Cardiff part canx due to defective train
2T53 Frome - Bristol (local) replaced by IET 802 009
2H62 Bristol - Filton cancelled (unspecified), and some later trains same route
2C12 Gloucester-Bristol cancelled (crew)

Yes, there are problems with the 150s and 158s at the moment. Additional rolling stock can’t come soon enough!

 

[father_jack]

2C12 Gloucester-Bristol cancelled (crew)

TM delayed due to axle counter failure Didcot-Swindon, diagrams are intertwined units and HSS

 

[WelshBluebird]

2H62 Bristol - Filton cancelled (unspecified), and some later trains same route

I do wonder what is going to happen when Ashley Down opens given it is just these shuttles that seem to be timetabled to stop there most of the time, but it's also these shuttles that seem to be the first to be ditched when there's rolling stock issues in the Bristol area. Won't look great for a brand new station to have it's only services cancelled frequently!

 

[father_jack]

I do wonder what is going to happen when Ashley Down opens given it is just these shuttles that seem to be timetabled to stop there most of the time, but it's also these shuttles that seem to be the first to be ditched when there's rolling stock issues in the Bristol area. Won't look great for a brand new station to have it's only services cancelled frequently!

Let me assure you that's it's already flagged up !!! Not enough time for the Gloucester- Weymouths and Bristol TM- Worcesters in the opposite direction etc to have stop orders and cross over at Horfield Junction, if there was they'd be doing it already.

 

[Sly Old Fox]

TM delayed due to axle counter failure Didcot-Swindon, diagrams are intertwined units and HSS

Ah, progress

 

[Xavi]

2 separate DMU failures and associated cancellations on the Okehampton today (150234 & 158766)

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

GWR would be better off putting in an emergency timetable and getting drivers rapidly trained on the 175's as soon as they become available.

 

[vicbury]

It looks like all services between Cardiff and Portsmouth are 2 or 3 cars this morning, instead of 4 or 5.

Would it not make more sense to cancel or withdraw the shorter services between Bristol and Westbury / Salisbury to allow the Cardiff to Portsmouth services to be correctly operated?

There will be a lot of people left behind at Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Filton Abbey Wood by the 0728 from Cardiff, for example.

Are we getting to a point where GWR needs to put in an emergency timetable until it has the right amount of serviceable rolling stock?