Staff depot locations of open access operators.

[stadler]

Does anyone know why Lumo decided on one staff depot at Newcastle in the middle of the route instead of two separate London and Edinburgh depots. The current arrangement seems bonkers as it means overnight stays in London and Edinburgh are required for drivers and onboard staff are required every day. If they had depots in both London and Edinburgh instead of in Newcastle then they could get rid of overnight stays and just have their drivers and onboard staff do one return trip each day.

Similar for Grand Central and Hull Trains why do they only have depots at the Northern ends. Grand Central have drivers and guards depots at Bradford and Sunderland but nothing at the London end. Hull Trains have drivers and guards depots at Hull but nothing at the London end. So again this means that both Grand Central and Hull Trains require overnight stays in London ever night for their staff. But if they had London depots then overnight stays could be completely avoided with staff returning back to their depot each day.

I am just curious why the open access operators decide to do it like this. All these hotel stays every night must get very costly and it would just seem to make so much more logical sense to have depots at each end with staff going home every night just like most of our normal operators do. I would be curious if anyone knows more as to why the three open access do not put their staff depots in more sensible locations.

 

[whoosh]

You need 'spare cover' in the roster - from which you can move the start and finish times within certain parameters to cover turns of duty when people are sick/have medicals/rules refreshers/annual leave etc.

If you have two depots you need sufficient spare coverage at each depot, which could increase the headcount.
With two depots and a small number of services, you will either run out of spare coverage because there isn't enough, and have to send someone from the other end of the line to do half a duty, or you're more likely to have them stay spare and not have a duty that day.

If you run a handful of trains a day, you can get away with only one traincrew depot, and have a lower headcount of staff, and even with a hotel cost (via a long-term arrangement, so favourable rates), this would be cheaper in the long run.

 

[Horizon22]

The cost of hotels across the year probably doesn't even hit the cost of hiring an additional one driver full-time, taking into account all costs.

 

[74A]

The cost of hotels across the year probably doesn't even hit the cost of hiring an additionl one driver full-time, taking into account all costs.

Plus the cost of staff accommodation, support staff and driver managers.