RMweb Gold wombatofludham Posted July 6 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 6 (edited) WMT have announced a "sudden short term spike in illness" affecting train crews on 6th and 7th July, causing train cancellations. According to local media, social media was quick to diagnose the illness as "England-itis"... News Item about short term WMT train cancellations Now I have zero interest in the Eurovision Kickball Contest but for anyone travelling on the Shrewsbury Line, Transport for Wales are currently showing a normal service from Shrewsbury to Birmingham. Wales of course are not in the contest. Edited July 6 by wombatofludham Stuffed up the link... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold franciswilliamwebb Posted July 6 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 6 1 minute ago, wombatofludham said: According to local media, social media was quick to diagnose the illness as "England-itis"... Not a long-term illness, from experience😉 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium pete_mcfarlane Posted July 6 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 6 Is it an outbreak of plumbum oscillans? 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold CovDriver Posted July 6 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 6 Well this is what happens when you rely on traincrew to work there rest day's and overtime all the time. This is my personal view of the situation and not of my employer. I'm not going comment after this as it could get very political. But I did work 12 hours today to help out and keep trains running. 7 1 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ColinK Posted July 6 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 6 The same thing happened when England pkayed the other Sunday. Northern advised people not to travel on some routes as traincrew had not volunteered to work that Sunday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyPenguin Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Not everyone likes to watch 22 overpaid men, 1 x ref & 4 x linesmen running around chasing & watching a leather bag or wind ! Some like to watch overstrung people bash yellow balls at each other or (more) overpaid men drive round in almost identical cars going absolutely no-where. 1 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 4 hours ago, wombatofludham said: Wales of course are not in the contest. I think the whole purpose of your OP was really to make this point. 😂😂😂 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 7 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 7 Oddly back in the day the opposite used to happen in Wales if the home country was playing an international at the Arms Park. There would be a queue of volunteers ready and willing to work the match specials - which in turn would leave them at a loose end in Cardiff during the time the match was on. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted July 7 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7 The Arms Park, that takes me back a bit! How many names has it had, since they knocked it down and rebuilt it? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hodgson Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 17 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said: Not everyone likes to watch 22 overpaid men, 1 x ref & 4 x linesmen running around chasing & watching a leather bag or wind ! Really? We've been watching more like a couple of thousand overpaid windbags running around the country this week in a game of musical chairs with 650 seats. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold wombatofludham Posted July 7 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 7 19 hours ago, CovDriver said: Well this is what happens when you rely on traincrew to work there rest day's and overtime all the time. This is my personal view of the situation and not of my employer. I'm not going comment after this as it could get very political. But I did work 12 hours today to help out and keep trains running. Just for clarification I didn't actually post to try and score any points on the staffing situation, mainly to highlight how people had immediately seen through the "sudden sickness spike", but the point you make about the reliance on rest day working is pertinent. Personally I don't have any axes to grind, I detest football and no longer live in the Midlands, it was the news angle that made me laugh. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingEdwardII Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said: at a loose end in Cardiff Or rather, propping up one of the many bars in the city centre - assuming they did not have tickets to the game itself... ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidlandRed Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 On 06/07/2024 at 16:24, wombatofludham said: WMT have announced a "sudden short term spike in illness" affecting train crews on 6th and 7th July, causing train cancellations. According to local media, social media was quick to diagnose the illness as "England-itis"... News Item about short term WMT train cancellations Now I have zero interest in the Eurovision Kickball Contest but for anyone travelling on the Shrewsbury Line, Transport for Wales are currently showing a normal service from Shrewsbury to Birmingham. Wales of course are not in the contest. Interesting these journos haven’t noticed the standard (when I’ve been at Birmingham New Street at least and seemingly borne out by @CovDriver recent post) procession of West Midlands Trains cancellation announcements caused by a lack of train crews. No doubt the journalistic purveyors of, bordering on, disinformation never experience the real world of rail travel on the affected lines!!! It was a similar story on Southern when they were being affected by drivers not doing rest day work/overtime - rather cynically their announcements were that it was caused by industrial action (which most people think is a strike), rather than sorry we’re unable to run your train service because we don’t have enough staff to do so because that’s how we choose to run our business, relying on the staff’s goodwill to help us out. I can just imagine the management meetings where their PR gurus dreamt up that little ruse to attempt to shield the company from any blame for their own decisions 🤣🤣 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 9 hours ago, MidlandRed said: rather than sorry we’re unable to run your train service because we don’t have enough staff to do so because that’s how we choose to run our business, In defence of the TOCs, it's more likely that DfT has prevented recruitment to levels that management think necessary. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatus-maximus Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 51 minutes ago, david.hill64 said: In defence of the TOCs, it's more likely that DfT has prevented recruitment to levels that management think necessary. That might be what is preventing it now, but the railways have been running on Overtime for a decade or two atleast. The erosion of good will over the last decade or so is the key factor. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 9 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 9 (edited) 13 hours ago, MidlandRed said: Interesting these journos haven’t noticed the standard (when I’ve been at Birmingham New Street at least and seemingly borne out by @CovDriver recent post) procession of West Midlands Trains cancellation announcements caused by a lack of train crews. No doubt the journalistic purveyors of, bordering on, disinformation never experience the real world of rail travel on the affected lines!!! It was a similar story on Southern when they were being affected by drivers not doing rest day work/overtime - rather cynically their announcements were that it was caused by industrial action (which most people think is a strike), rather than sorry we’re unable to run your train service because we don’t have enough staff to do so because that’s how we choose to run our business, relying on the staff’s goodwill to help us out. I can just imagine the management meetings where their PR gurus dreamt up that little ruse to attempt to shield the company from any blame for their own decisions 🤣🤣 Alas West Midlands went adrift due to the actions of one of its previous General Managers. They carried out one of the usual 'wizard wheeze = quick savings = make me look very clever' things while at the same time naive playing right into ASLE&F's hands. The trick is simple - 1. You either cut out or massively reduce the number of Spares in your roster which saves lots of money but leaves no cover if a Driver calls in sick (genuinely) or things go awry operationally, 2. You get the local staff reps and their union to agree that instead they will cover by voluntary Rest Day Working and overtime. And - this where ASLE&F bites off your hand - you will increase the basic salary for those Drivers you still have (but there are fewer of them so you are still saving money so it still looks good to the money men). 3. You don't take any notice of Hidden 18 requirements in respect of rostered rest intervals and length of time free from duty - in fact you'd probably never heard. 4. To help smooth the path of making people redundant you tell those who are left that working on a Sunday will become voluntary instead of the past practice of being rostered. To make this more acceptable you might well make Sunday payment rates offer a better differential from the normal day rate. 5. You might, especially if you don't fully understand how Driver diagrams work, or the geography of traincrew bases, also reduce the basic working week by an hour or so. 6. You now look so clever and effective as a manager that within a year you're off somewhere else and you're away before things turn round and bite the company you have left.. The reality is usually that Sunday turns, Rest Day working, and overtime, payments are only attractive for so long after folk have received a nice pay increase which means they don't always now need the money such work provides. So people cease to volunteer for Sundays, many don't want to work Rest Days (and I don't blame them one bit) and overtime can be a bind if you've made social arrangements. Then throw in - if you're no longer a franchise but running on a DafT contract that the latter love to micro-manage things they don't understand and impose recruitment bans (as they have) so you can't even replace natural wastage which in turn increases the need for Rest Day working and overtime - and staff simply don't want to work Rest Days etc. You need to understand a lot of detail if you ever embark on this sort of approach to managing down Driver numbers and costs but it can be done although not with such big short term savings. Unfortunately two people (to my knowledge) clearly didn't understand and left TOCs in a big mess as a result - but both had moved on to far bigger salaries elsewhere. (in one case to create yet another mess). Edited July 9 by The Stationmaster typo 6 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 2 hours ago, eatus-maximus said: That might be what is preventing it now, but the railways have been running on Overtime for a decade or two atleast. For an awful lot longer than a decade or two! When I joined BR in 1978 6 12-hour shifts a week in summer was not unusual, and when I retired in 2016 I was still being asked to do similar. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 (edited) Not the only ones https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5jevlyr94o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw8y5jww2w5o Edited July 14 by ess1uk Add another link 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ColinK Posted July 14 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 14 Bad at Northern too. Instead of a roughly hourly service, Morecambe has had just three trains all day. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold wombatofludham Posted July 14 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14 I wonder if Renfe will be having issues tomorrow... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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