How are GWR allowed to do this?

[Kath123]

Hello All

As some of you probably know by now I’m registered severely visually impaired and one of my local stations is Yeovil Pen Mill (Yeovil Junction is also local to me but is on a different line to Pen Mill).

On Friday a member of staff retired from working at Yeovil Pen Mill after working there 23 years. This leaves the station with only one permanent member of staff.

GWR knew the retirement was coming but have not recruited a replacement in time.

Last year when I had a meeting with the Station Manager (who is based at Westbury), GWR’s Accessibility Manager and 2 Caseworkers from my local MP’s office we discussed the possibility that a member of staff from the station may potentially retire in the near future - the Station Manager was aware of this and said things would be ok as they had a Talent Pool of people waiting to fill positions.

Fast-forward to the 10th/11th March this year when I had some e-Mail contact with the Accessibility Manager, and they passed on to me that the Station Manager had informed them a member of the Team at Pen Mill would be retiring in May, and they would start recruiting for that role but there ‘may be a small window of time’ where staffing would be disrupted between the previous employee retiring and the new employee being fully trained up.

Fast-forward to now, and I’ve been told by both the GWR social media team and the station that the position hasn’t been filled yet and this plus training the new staff member up will take TWO TO THREE MONTHS. As far as I’m aware the position was only advertised externally about 3 weeks ago,

As said above this currently leaves one permanent member of staff at the station. I’ve been informed it may be possible for cover staff to do some work at the station during this time but as the member of staff who has now retired said this will be limited as these staff have to cover stations across the region. Therefore, until the position is filled and the new member of staff fully trained up there will be times when the station is unstaffed when it should be staffed.

An example of this is that today (Sunday) Yeovil Pen Mill will receive no staffing and then from Monday to Friday this week the station will be unstaffed from 15:30 each day instead of being staffed until 18:25. This has been posted on the National Rail website https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/yeovil-pen-mill/

I’ve been told they are focusing on keeping the station staffed mornings and I understand that this is probably the time they get most people buying tickets, but it feels like they haven’t thought about people like me who may at times travel towards Bristol direction in the morning and then arrive back to platform 3 early evening and need assistance exiting the station (because you either have to cross the stepped footbridge or barrow crossing).

I have re-opened my petition re staffing at Pen Mill because over the past few months there have been quite a few times when the station has either had reduced staffing hours or been left unstaffed for the day, but I don’t know where to go from here.

Any support or suggestions welcome.

I don’t understand why or how GWR are allowed to do this and treat Yeovil Pen Mill as they do?

 

[WolvertonWorks]

Kath I am so sorry to hear that the situation has developed as it has. It shouldn't be like this, you should be able to turn up at the station like anyone else and buy a ticket and travel without having to make advance arrangements.

I assume you've let your MP know the current situation.

Have you drawn this week's late afternoon and evening unstaffed issue to the GWR Accessibility Manager and asked what you are supposed to do should you need to travel this week?

 

[MartinC]

As you have previously made contact with your local MP's office they should be aware of Parliament's involvement in this service (https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/61237/html/). Encouraging your MP to raise this as a matter of urgency in the House might achieve more action.

 

[flitwickbeds]

I appreciate it's not the "turn up and go" service you deserve, but have you looked into requesting passenger assistance for the times you will need assistance?

 

[WesternLancer]

I appreciate it's not the "turn up and go" service you deserve, but have you looked into requesting passenger assistance for the times you will need assistance?

Not disrespectful of your post but I rather suspect Kath has had more experience of passenger assistance then most users of thus forum.

Kath, sorry to have to welcome you back but I salute you for your continued efforts over this issue. In my view you are a stalwart campaigner on this issue but I know that’s not what you want to have had to be.

 

[flitwickbeds]

Not disrespectful of your post but I rather suspect Kath has had more experience of passenger assistance then most users of thus forum.

No disrespect taken - and sorry I'm not aware of the history of Kath.

However, my understanding is that the railway companies are legally obliged to assist passengers who need it under the DDA. On the assumption that the member of staff who has now retired used to assist Kath on demand over the barrow crossing, and that option is now not available, the company must provide a way for Kath to continue being able to use the railway. That might not be through the same method - having someone assist across the barrow crossing - but could be a range of solutions all of which will be costly to the company (=government). While this may not be ideal short-term for Kath, it would allow them to continue their journeys on the railway while making a point to the company that for the whole time they fail to employ someone in place of the retiree, it's costing them extra money.

Sorry this was clumsily written in the previous post (and probably this one as well!).

 

[AlterEgo]

However, my understanding is that the railway companies are legally obliged to assist passengers who need it under the DDA.

Equality Act, but yes. They are required to make reasonable adjustments, but there is no blanket "you must assist every person" requirement.

On the assumption that the member of staff who has now retired used to assist Kath on demand over the barrow crossing, and that option is now not available, the company must provide a way for Kath to continue being able to use the railway. That might not be through the same method - having someone assist across the barrow crossing - but could be a range of solutions all of which will be costly to the company (=government). While this may not be ideal short-term for Kath, it would allow them to continue their journeys on the railway while making a point to the company that for the whole time they fail to employ someone in place of the retiree, it's costing them extra money.

Essentially yes.

If GWR find that Kath's journeys are cheaper to provide a taxi to the nearest accessible station (Salisbury?), they may just do this in the end. Either way, Kath has to be able to use the railway, so in the interim, this may be a solution. If they are getting a very low number of accessibility requests one can understand why they are not treating this with urgency.

It may be helpful to know Yeovil Pen Mill does have a footbridge, but that the OP does not feel confident in using it. I suspect therefore that the number of assistance requests at the station will be low.

The best thing the OP can do at the moment is to raise this again with her MP, given it escalated that far to begin with.

 

[Kath123]

Thank you to everyone for the replies to this.

It seems from my MP’s Facebook page that they are well aware of the retirement that took place on Friday and that they visited the station on the employee’s final day to thank them for all their hard work. This is of course only right and I too visited them on Friday to do the same.

I am disappointed and upset however that the MP’s Facebook page makes no reference to how unreliable staffing at the station has still been occurring and will be worse now GWR have failed to recruit a replacement at this time.

Unfortunately I am not on Facebook but am on Twitter. I have tried to tag the MP into a number of posts recently but it seems they are choosing not to post on Twitter at the current time and I’m worried it’s my fault.

Regarding assistance and further journeys - I have decided not to fight to travel this week given the information that has been put on the National Rail website and also because I currently have a medical issue with one of my toes which means it has to have a dressing, I have to wear open toe shoes and the dressing must not get wet so I could only travel if it is dry weather which would probably mean booking assistance at short notice.

I have sent to GWR’s Accessibility Manager details of 6 day return journeys I plan to take from Yeovil Pen Mill between 9th June and 30th June and asked them that someone from GWR let me know if the station will not be staffed for any of them. The journeys are for a variety of reasons which include to intend medical appointments and for leisure. I sent the e-mail lunchtime on Friday and received a very prompt response but it simply said ‘Hi Kath, Thanks for the heads up. Have a nice weekend.’

I telephoned GWR’s Assisted Travel Team in Sheffield this morning to book the assistance for my day return journeys for 9th and 15th June. As usual they were totally oblivious to the situation (I don’t blame them - they obviously deal with assistance requests for a lot of stations and are not local) and they told me Pen Mill will be staffed 07:20 to 18:25 on those dates and there will be no problem. I guess we wait and see for the next instalment……

I have been so concerned about the situation at the station that it has continued to affect my sleep and mental health. I am already on medication for anxiety and it is causing me to feel incredibly anxious and worried and I don’t know where to turn for support.

 

[py_megapixel]

I have tried to tag the MP into a number of posts recently but it seems they are choosing not to post on Twitter at the current time and I’m worried it’s my fault.

Just to address the particular anxiety:

Twitter (now calls itself 'X', although plenty of people still call it Twitter) has many notorious issues, mostly stemming from billionaire and right-wing extremist Elon Musk, who bought it out a few years ago. In particular, it has a reputation as a safe haven for all sorts of unpleasant content, from automated spam to racist/xenophobic abuse. This means there are large numbers of former Twitter users who now avoid it - if your MP is one of them, it's almost certainly not because of you!

It's also important to recognise that your MP is employed precisely to engage with and represent you as a constituent, and listen to the issues you raise. They are paid a large salary from public funds in order to do that. So, as long as you are not aggressive or malicious or anything like that (which, based on how you write here, I do not think is the case), you should not in any way feel bad about trying to contact them.

If they are choosing to avoid you - especially when the issue is as major as this (you have made clear that it is rendering you unable to reliably access transport!) - then that certainly does not reflect poorly on you. If anything it reflects poorly on their ability to do the job of an MP.

 

[Acathater]

I have a memory that in years past platform 1 at Pen Mill was reversible.
Is it still and do trains still cross at Pen Mill? If it is, and if they don't then all that is needed is for down trains to use P1. Or maybe just specific down trains?

 

[30907]

I have a memory that in years past platform 1 at Pen Mill was reversible.
Is it still and do trains still cross at Pen Mill? If it is, and if they don't then all that is needed is for down trains to use P1. Or maybe just specific down trains?

Yes it is reversible but there are some crossings there.