Hiring a replacement train

[Jan Mayen]

Could Hull Trains hire a replacement train from LNER (or any other TOC, including charter operators) to cover when they cancel a service due to industrial action?

Could LNER operate additional trains to cover cancelled Hull Trains services?

Curious as to why neither of the above seems to happen.

 

[The exile]

Neither would be good for industrial relations even if stock available. It’s different (potentially) when it’s the rolling stock that’s the issue.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Neither would be good for industrial relations even if stock available. It’s different (potentially) when it’s the rolling stock that’s the issue.

Exactly. Self defeating imho. Now hiring a luxury bus/coach-------

 

[MCR247]

Well if it’s industrial action that’s cancelled the train, that suggests to me that the problem isn’t the train itself but the lack of staff to work it.

Where would this extra LNER stock come from? They need their fleet to run their own services and allow time for their fleets to be maintained.

You also need extra LNER staff to work the service. I’d be quite annoyed to see my LNER service cancelled due to lack of staff but then find out they have ‘spare’ staff to lease to Hull Trains. The same would equally apply if they were to run additional services ‘in house.’

And that’s before getting into how it’d go down with striking Hull Trains staff that their LNER “colleagues” were strike busting them. While not technically working for the same company, I think they’d hope for some solidarity from staff working the same types of roles.

 

[Krokodil]

In the early days of Avanti when Voyager availability was an issue they did once hire a 150 and crew from TfW to run from Wrexham to Chester.

I'm not sure of the legality of running strikebreaking trains, nor of whether hiring a non-PRM formation from the likes of LSL would be legal now that all public service trains must be accessible.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Early in privatisation Great Western Trains guards were occasionally hired in to work XC services.