West Midlands Railway

[2206]

Seems to be lots of cancellations on the Snow Hill line today.
Gap of 40 minutes from 17:25 to 18:04 at Solihull for instance.

[stephen ford]

What's going on with snow hill line trains cancelled yesterday and today again gaps all over the place on a reduced service it's ridiculous.

[mikestone]

I would guess failure to agree rest day working with the unions.

[Dom]

I would guess failure to agree rest day working with the unions.

Why would it involve the union?

[Ian Hardy]

Why would it involve the union?

On the railway quite of lot of weekend work especially Sunday is not rostered so to speak, it relies on crews working some of their rest days as they have more rest days than the minimum requirement.

If the unions have a gripe with the management, the first thing they do is to instruct their members not to do any rest day working, so there are no crews to work those services and therefore they are cancelled.

Some of the TOCs are trying to get an agreement that weekends are normal rostered days, but rest day working is paid more than normal working, so the unions don't want that to occur. 

So to put in bluntly - the rail unions don't care about the giving the rails users (who ultimately pay their wages) a good service 7 days a week so eventually there won't be any requirement for rest day working or normal rostered working as the unions will have forced the rail users to find another way to travel so they won't have a job.

P.S. I am a member of a TU (but nothing to do with transport).

[Dom]

On the railway quite of lot of weekend work especially Sunday is not rostered so to speak, it relies on crews working some of their rest days as they have more rest days than the minimum requirement.

If the unions have a gripe with the management, the first thing they do is to instruct their members not to do any rest day working, so there are no crews to work those services and therefore they are cancelled.

Some of the TOCs are trying to get an agreement that weekends are normal rostered days, but rest day working is paid more than normal working, so the unions don't want that to occur. 

So to put in bluntly - the rail unions don't care about the giving the rails users (who ultimately pay their wages) a good service 7 days a week so eventually there won't be any requirement for rest day working or normal rostered working as the unions will have forced the rail users to find another way to travel so they won't have a job.

P.S. I am a member of a TU (but nothing to do with transport).

As a railway employee, that isn't the case anymore. Weekend working is rostered on both Saturdays and Sundays.

[the trainbasher]

Don't forget we're still in a pandemic

[Gareth]

As a railway employee, that isn't the case anymore. Weekend working is rostered on both Saturdays and Sundays.

I'm guessing that all new contracts are like that, but like in so many industries there are people on old contracts who's will be very different to yours.

[mikestone]

Rest day working certainly used to have to be sanctioned by the relevant union.

[Dom]

Rest day working certainly used to have to be sanctioned by the relevant union.

Times have changed I guess. The union get very little say.

[B61 ANDREW]

 WMR not doing themselves any favours at Bromsgrove today , o k , a bus service is running Stourbridge - Kidderminster - Bromsgrove - Worcester [ plus other stations ] , BUT , the station announcements and the departure screen are both telling passsengers for Worcester to go to Platform 4 . . . .  After people realise there is no train to Worcester they return to the front of the station only to realise the replacement bus has gone .  No "customer service" staff seen either.   The local taxi firms are not complaining though !   

[B61 ANDREW]

WMR not doing themselves any favours at Bromsgrove today . . . . .

Pretty much the same again today. Nobody on hand for passenger assistance , at least one coach not displaying any route information.  And to add to the mix , according to the departure display and tannoy , there are [none existant] departures to Worcester from platform four at xx.55  AND  xx.56.    ;)

[WMT3000]

No trains from local stations on the Dorridge line into Birmingham for 2 hours this morning. Pretty pathetic when you consider Birmingham's supposedly the second city. I think they're still blaming Covid for some reason while in reality, as has been the norm since the days of Central trains on this line, they just can't get the staff.

[stephen ford]

Yes there's a load of cancellations again on snow hill line again its ridiculous.

[Trident 4194]

No trains from local stations on the Dorridge line into Birmingham for 2 hours this morning. Pretty pathetic when you consider Birmingham's supposedly the second city. I think they're still blaming Covid for some reason while in reality, as has been the norm since the days of Central trains on this line, they just can't get the staff.

Yeah they are a complete disgrace. The Williams review can't come into action fast enough. Twice this week the Wolverhampton- Birmingham New Street (originate from Shrewsbury) has been cancelled.