More FCC staff shortages/action to come?

[jon0844]

I may be jumping the gun a little, but yesterday I noticed a number of services on the GN route being cancelled due to a shortage of staff. It also made some Tweets on Twitter, which may have been for GN or TL sides - suggesting cancellations I don't know about.

Today, there's a couple too.

I was just wondering if anyone knew if there was any pending problems to look forward to on FCC again, given what happened last year. Summer BBQs and Christmas shopping and all that!

(It could just be a number of drivers being off sick, of course).

 

[t0ffeeman]

Blimey, theres about 20 cancellations. Glad I'm not going to work today.

 

[Aictos]

Blimey, theres about 20 cancellations. Glad I'm not going to work today.

It's simply down to a shortage of driver diagrams not being able to be covered for reasons unknown, it could be sickness, annual leave, anything!

Haven't heard anything about BBQs though,

 

[jon0844]

It's simply down to a shortage of driver diagrams not being able to be covered for reasons unknown, it could be sickness, annual leave, anything!

Haven't heard anything about BBQs though,

Chaos at KGX now. All FCC trains visible on depature board shown as delayed or cancelled, bar the 1522, so National Rail showed me that the 1522 would be delayed to effectively become the 1536 with extra stops. When I got to KGX, it was shown as running at 1522 again, with the xx36 stopping pattern.

However, at the last minute (after they'd closed the doors) they realised and stopped it, reopened the doors and waited to become the 1536!

No point adding stops then leaving before the train you're supposed to be replacing!

Glad to be home now!

Also, on way in, Arsenal was playing. 1324 service at Hatfield was rammed and loads of people couldn't get on. I had to wait, with many others, to get 1332 slow train. However, I noticed they'd put on a special service at 1346 to run only to Finsbury Park, with only 3-4 stops on the way.

Great as that was, everyone got on the empty slow train so I am sure that when the Arsenal express came through it probably picked up a few people at most. And the Arsenal special started from WGC too, so it wouldn't have many people getting on beforehand either!

 

[Aictos]

Don't know if you noticed earlier but the football specials were advertised "wait for it" as Additional Football Specials and were advertised/announced as such ie Platform 2 for the 1355 Additional Football Special to Finsbury Park as heard and seen at Hertford.

Very rarely do I see or hear that!

Still, as history has taught us passengers will go for the first train they see never mind the fact that a longer train or a train with plenty of seats will be along a few minutes later - I had a packed 3 car 313 terminate at Hertford North two years ago and the football special formed up of 2 313s terminated barely 10 minutes later with enough passengers on it for the service to be formed of a 153!

 

[jon0844]

Don't know if you noticed earlier but the football specials were advertised "wait for it" as Additional Football Specials and were advertised/announced as such ie Platform 2 for the 1355 Additional Football Special to Finsbury Park as heard and seen at Hertford.

Very rarely do I see or hear that!

Still, as history has taught us passengers will go for the first train they see never mind the fact that a longer train or a train with plenty of seats will be along a few minutes later - I had a packed 3 car 313 terminate at Hertford North two years ago and the football special formed up of 2 313s terminated barely 10 minutes later with enough passengers on it for the service to be formed of a 153!

No announcements at all at Hatfield and no revenue staff working, so gates were open. I am sure that if staff said or there were posters, people might have waited. The platform screens only show 2 trains so this wouldn't have shown there either.

 

[obladonk]

Think some problems started yesterday, I was waiting at Stevenage for the 14:16 to Cambridge, was showing on board as on time, couple of minutes to go and it was announced..........and then it disappeared. The 14:12 to Peterborough was running 10 mins late and when it turned up it wasn't clear if it was the Cambridge or Peterborough train so I jumped on anyway knowing I could jump off at Hitchin if need be. Luckily things were more clear there and the Cambridge train shortly followed.

Also heard announcements for 2 London trains being cancelled due to staff shortages.

 

[Aictos]

No announcements at all at Hatfield and no revenue staff working, so gates were open. I am sure that if staff said or there were posters, people might have waited. The platform screens only show 2 trains so this wouldn't have shown there either.

Best thing to do if the screens aren't displaying the timetable information or if no annoucements are audible is to tell a member of staff who then would be able to report it, failing that use the help points that are provided as staff have the equipment to carry out the same travel enquires as platform bods have.

There might be a chance that it has already been faulted BUT it's always pays to fault it twice then never not that I'm saying to actively look for faulty equipment but if you see something on your journey, tell someone.

Anything which is highly important is onboard announcements especially with the 313s, if you can't hear them then the driver must be made aware asap.

 

[O L Leigh]

Never assume.

We've had some balls-ups with rostering which has resulted in cancellations without there being any suggestion or suspicion of action. Just tonight a Chingford diagram could not be covered and so 12 trains didn't run.

O L Leigh

 

[jon0844]

Best thing to do if the screens aren't displaying the timetable information or if no annoucements are audible is to tell a member of staff who then would be able to report it,

They were down for two days in the week and it was FCC staff that reported it. There were people working on them on Thursday or Friday, and I wondered if this was part of the eventual change to a new system.

But, to make it clearer, the screens were working but there was no special announcements about a football special - so only people in the main building would have been able to look further ahead than the next two trains. With no posters or staff to inform, people wouldn't know unless they simply missed the trains and happened to turn up before it arrived.

I didn't even know when I checked from home as I've got a planner that shows trains from HAT to KGX, so as this stopped at FPK it didn't show up!

Anyway, I'm not knocking FCC for putting on special services for the football (even if I wasn't going to the football and happen to support Spurs!!) but it just seemed a bit of a waste. I don't know it ran near empty of course, but I suspect it did.