Aside from the rampant politicking, the truth behind the current issues on Avanti is far more prosaic. The number of drivers available has been allowed to fall well below the number needed to cover the normal daily service. This can work well assuming everyone's getting along as drivers can earn a wedge in overtime, whilst the company doesn't end up with additional pension or NI commitments hitting the bottom line. The problem is when industrial relations turn nasty, as staff have a big stick to beat management with (as we are now seeing).
As such, the sensible long term thing to do is to ensure full establishment at depots, which the Unions also quite like as it boosts their membership. Graham Eccles who was co-Chair of Virgin West Coast has given a full breakdown on this via his twitter (https://twitter.com/gceccles). He's also adamant that staff numbers were sufficient during his tenure, meaning that this situation has arisen over the past decade as the DfT (and by extension the Secretary of State) have explicitly or otherwise steered franchises and franchise bids towards short term bottom lines. Great eh?
The untold story here is that passengers in the Manchester city region have been suffering a chaotic and unreliable train service for several months now, with multiple cancellations most days and a service which bears only a superficial resemblance to the published timetable. The reason it has become newsworthy now is that the passengers affected are travelling to or from London.
There have been occasions this year when the time to get from Manchester to Mossley has been greater than the time to get to London.
Come and visit us in Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden or Slaithwaite and we can tell you just how bad TransPennine Express have been, but allow plenty of time because your train back into town will most likely be cancelled.
But….. you have trains which can go up and down the line simultaneously …. I should also say that to add to the unalloyed fun we had, until very recently, the old Pacers to ride in. I’ve seen heavy rain coming in through closed windows on those things
London Cut Off - the failure of Avanti to manage its staffing comes on the back of BA removing most connecting flights to Manchester. We are becoming better connected to other places than to London. Reminiscent of Fog in the channel…….
Jim Ratcliffe though? Surely, for all his faults (tax exile, stupid vanity truck) he’s too astute to be unaware of the rule that says the way to get a small fortune in football is to start with a large one?
Surely it’s London that’s cut off? The poor dears will be fretting!
Hahaha
Aside from the rampant politicking, the truth behind the current issues on Avanti is far more prosaic. The number of drivers available has been allowed to fall well below the number needed to cover the normal daily service. This can work well assuming everyone's getting along as drivers can earn a wedge in overtime, whilst the company doesn't end up with additional pension or NI commitments hitting the bottom line. The problem is when industrial relations turn nasty, as staff have a big stick to beat management with (as we are now seeing).
As such, the sensible long term thing to do is to ensure full establishment at depots, which the Unions also quite like as it boosts their membership. Graham Eccles who was co-Chair of Virgin West Coast has given a full breakdown on this via his twitter (https://twitter.com/gceccles). He's also adamant that staff numbers were sufficient during his tenure, meaning that this situation has arisen over the past decade as the DfT (and by extension the Secretary of State) have explicitly or otherwise steered franchises and franchise bids towards short term bottom lines. Great eh?
The untold story here is that passengers in the Manchester city region have been suffering a chaotic and unreliable train service for several months now, with multiple cancellations most days and a service which bears only a superficial resemblance to the published timetable. The reason it has become newsworthy now is that the passengers affected are travelling to or from London.
There have been occasions this year when the time to get from Manchester to Mossley has been greater than the time to get to London.
Come and visit us in Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden or Slaithwaite and we can tell you just how bad TransPennine Express have been, but allow plenty of time because your train back into town will most likely be cancelled.
I see your Mossley-Slaithwaite and raise you a trip through Bolton - Bromley Cross - Darwen, where the line is single track and often blocked by a passing Laurel and Hardy style velocipede https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Theb0741_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg
Looking at the data on ontimetrains.co.uk, I'm a bit envious of your 4% cancellations at Bromley Cross. Ours is 11% cancellations.
But….. you have trains which can go up and down the line simultaneously …. I should also say that to add to the unalloyed fun we had, until very recently, the old Pacers to ride in. I’ve seen heavy rain coming in through closed windows on those things
Rightly picked up by the social media. Continued good reporting.
Maybe you could have risked the header ‘London cut off from Manchester’.
My thoughts exactly!
London Cut Off - the failure of Avanti to manage its staffing comes on the back of BA removing most connecting flights to Manchester. We are becoming better connected to other places than to London. Reminiscent of Fog in the channel…….
Jim Ratcliffe though? Surely, for all his faults (tax exile, stupid vanity truck) he’s too astute to be unaware of the rule that says the way to get a small fortune in football is to start with a large one?