London Midland Drivers @ Crewe

[ole man]

Last Thursday there was cable theft somewhere near Lichfield closing the WCML, now in years gone by London Midland drivers based from Crewe would divert via Coventry to Rugby.
Due to threats made from London Midland drivers based out of Birmingham New Street, london midland stop letting crewe drivers sign the route via coventry.
This acton cancelled every London Midland train from going south.
What sort of company are LM, and proves they are not intrested in the passenger but getting compensation from Network Rail.

 

[SS4]

What sort of company are LM, and proves they are not intrested in the passenger but getting compensation from Network Rail.

A company that cares more about money than passengers. Like every other TOC.

Nonetheless those are pretty strong claims, do you have some evidence to back them up? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not put it in the public forum

 

[ole man]

Birmingham New Street drivers theatened to withdraw rest day working if LM did'nt stop Crewe drivers from this route.
Later on that day the renewed cable was robbed again, thus ensuring the same problem happened again

 

[nr_signaller]

All I can speak for is the problems later on. This only affected one LM Crewe train (last one of the day) which DID divert via the West Mids. Think your facts may not be 100% correct?

 

[TDK]

Birmingham New Street drivers theatened to withdraw rest day working if LM did'nt stop Crewe drivers from this route.
Later on that day the renewed cable was robbed again, thus ensuring the same problem happened again

I find this a poor working relationship and to be honest it happens with many TOC's with depot to depot problems, usually fuelled by the union reps, unfortunatley this happens far too frequently and in my opinion it is down to poor management, I was told and this is just what I was told is that VT can close a depot completely on a temporary basis say Liverpool for instance and still run a full service with depot cover, just shows the difference between the workings of 2 different companies. Cross depot cover in my opinion is very important if a company wants to run a reliable train service.

 

[Greenback]

I agree that cross depot cover is important, as is flexibility. However, it has been known for managers to try and play depots off against each other, as they do with staff groups, so it's not surprising that union reps can be a little suspicious of management motives.

 

[mallard]

TOCs, unions and the government all working together to provide the best possible service for the public... Yeah right.

TOCs after profit, unions after maximum pay for minimum work, government out to score political points and the public suffer. Great system isn't it?

 

[DavidBusDriver]

unions after maximum pay for minimum work

Surely this is what any reasonable union should always aim to achieve? Within reason of course, but fed up of all the staff bashing that is going on at the moment!

 

[ole man]

In a tit for tat move, the drivers at crewe have threatened to withdraw Bescot and Proofhouse Juncton from there route.
LM said via Coventry was a diversionary route, so is the routes named above.
Cracking way to run a railway!!!

 

[mumrar]

I have no specific knowledge of this situation, but it is usually more prevelant that differences in route knowledge arise from the TOC itself. At XC, Senior Conductors don't sign Wychnor Jcn-Proof House Jcn via Lichfield, Birmingham Senior Conductors don't sign Sheet Stores Jcn to Syston Jcn or Gloucester to Severn Tunnel Jcn via Charfield, Leicester Senior Conductors don't sign Syston Jcn to Stansted. It's all about penny pinching on route knowledge and route retention - yet they still phone you to ask if you sign one despite them knowing full well you don't.

 

[RichmondCommu]

What happened to the needs of the customer? No customers, no railway. Its terribly frustrating to read this kind of stuff.

 

[Greeby]

In a tit for tat move, the drivers at crewe have threatened to withdraw Bescot and Proofhouse Juncton from there route.
LM said via Coventry was a diversionary route, so is the routes named above.
Cracking way to run a railway!!!

Yeah, a pity London Midland aren't in that business

 

[Greenback]

What happened to the needs of the customer? No customers, no railway. Its terribly frustrating to read this kind of stuff.

It's very frustrating that an atmosphere of confrontation and suspicion between unions and management seems to exist at every turn. I suppose it is a by product of having local councils and managers that have a poor working relationship.