Southern Rail STRIKE details

[albionite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-44188947?SThisFB

So it begins, only a few of the drivers have learned the new routes.

Going to be a mess.

 

[beorhthelm]

what routes have changed? means drivers havent changed the time they turn up to work, shirley?

have to chuckle at the campaigner quote "The way customers have been informed just has not been good enough". we've been hearing about it, posters, people at stations for two to three months and every single damn enquiry on National Rail notes it. i cant see how anyone wouldnt know unless they rock up to the station after a 3 month holiday.

 

[The Large One]

what routes have changed? means drivers havent changed the time they turn up to work, shirley?

have to chuckle at the campaigner quote "The way customers have been informed just has not been good enough". we've been hearing about it, posters, people at stations for two to three months and every single damn enquiry on National Rail notes it. i cant see how anyone wouldnt know unless they rock up to the station after a 3 month holiday.

You keep asking question to which the answers are already out there.

There aren't enough drivers - this we have known for over four years. Plus many driver need to learn new routes, and the haven't been given the time to do so. GTR themselves have told everyone to be aware of problems, and so it has proved.

Meanwhile the customers haven't been informed; GTR have told everyone to go and find out for themselves. And what they have had to find out is not only a total mess, and inconvenience to many - it simply didn't work today, for a variety of reasons. Plus, if you are disabled, there is no guarantee you will be allowed to get on or off a train.

 

[beorhthelm]

You keep asking question to which the answers are already out there.

There aren't enough drivers - this we have known for over four years.

if new drivers needed (for new services presumably) this is the first time its been mentioned.

and prehaps every household in the region could have been sent a timetable in the mail, or prehaps we can accept some degree of personal responsibility for being told time table will change and picking one up, going online ourselfs?

 

[dazzer6666]

You keep asking question to which the answers are already out there.

There aren't enough drivers - this we have known for over four years. Plus many driver need to learn new routes, and the haven't been given the time to do so. GTR themselves have told everyone to be aware of problems, and so it has proved.

Meanwhile the customers haven't been informed; GTR have told everyone to go and find out for themselves. And what they have had to find out is not only a total mess, and inconvenience to many - it simply didn't work today, for a variety of reasons. Plus, if you are disabled, there is no guarantee you will be allowed to get on or off a train.

Not informed? Seriously? There have been announcements - to the point of irritation - at stations and on trains, multiple times during each journey, every day for weeks. Posters at stations, staff handing out leaflets etc etc. Anyone who has been on a train in the last month should know timetables have changed.

The first few days of a new timetable are ALWAYS crap......must be pisspoor planning.

 

[The Large One]

Not informed? Seriously? There have been announcements - to the point of irritation - at stations and on trains, multiple times during each journey, every day for weeks. Posters at stations, staff handing out leaflets etc etc. Anyone who has been on a train in the last month should know timetables have changed.

The first few days of a new timetable are ALWAYS crap......must be pisspoor planning.

No-one has been informed of the timetable changes - just that there will be timetable changes. If you want to know your new timetable changes, you have to go and find them. One place you won't find them - where previously they have always been there - is at the station themselves.

As for planning - to call it pisspoor is to imply that there has been some.

 

[The Large One]

if new drivers needed (for new services presumably) this is the first time its been mentioned.

Seriously? This is the whole crux of the matter regarding GTR's performance. They were warned of staffing issues in 2014, and it has been discussed on here ad nauseum.

If it's the first you've heard of it, suggest going for a hearing test.

and prehaps every household in the region could have been sent a timetable in the mail, or prehaps we can accept some degree of personal responsibility for being told time table will change and picking one up, going online ourselfs?

Er... that is precisely what has happened.

What you won't get is GTR telling you what your new train time is at somewhere like - I don't know - the station, where previously they did.

 

[Boys 9d]

I arrived at Victoria about 1930 this evening seeking a train to return me to Shoreham by Sea. The departure board was hardly fit for its purpose as each list of trains appeared for about 5 seconds and then alternated with a notice announcing that all train times has changed and a link to a web site displayed. The latter notice appearing for much longer than the former. It was a bit like Morse Code with alternate dots and dashes.

 

[theboybilly]

if new drivers needed (for new services presumably) this is the first time its been mentioned.

and prehaps every household in the region could have been sent a timetable in the mail, or prehaps we can accept some degree of personal responsibility for being told time table will change and picking one up, going online ourselfs?

Southern have been short of drivers for at least 5 years now. I've been retired for nearly 3 and the way Southern management operate does not encourage people to take up Driver Instructor duties or even mentoring. There is an atmosphere of apathy within the grade now - the pride seems to have gone with every attempt at management's attempts to ride roughshod through the Rule Book. 'It's only a guide' I was once told. 'Okay then' I replied 'if I isolate one set of doors and carry on 'because it's just one more stop to go' and somebody falls out of the door you won't be having me up for manslaughter to save your sorry ar*es?' Managers straight out of Uni are just not up to the task

 

[dazzer6666]

No-one has been informed of the timetable changes - just that there will be timetable changes. If you want to know your new timetable changes, you have to go and find them. One place you won't find them - where previously they have always been there - is at the station themselves.

As for planning - to call it pisspoor is to imply that there has been some.

Hardly difficult to go online and check.

Never use a printed timetable personally but why are they not available?

As for planning.......sounds normal. Going to work from home tomorrow and let the carnage unfold without me.

 

[The Large One]

Hardly difficult to go online and check.

Never use a printed timetable personally but why are they not available?

As for planning.......sounds normal. Going to work from home tomorrow and let the carnage unfold without me.

Presumably because of the high probability of it being a work of fiction.

One day in, and they've announced an emergency timetable on same routes until 8 June.

 

[dazzer6666]

Presumably because of the high probability of it being a work of fiction.

One day in, and they've announced an emergency timetable on same routes until 8 June.

****ing useless......but no surprise

 

[Billy the Fish]

Printed timetables have gone the same way as phone books. The information is easy to find for anyone who needs it.

 

[The Large One]

Printed timetables have gone the same way as phone books. The information is easy to find for anyone who needs it.

Nope. Printed timetables still exist, and tens of thousands of people still pick them up.

They just don't have any meaning with GTR.

 

[albionite]

It’s not just that they are short of drivers that is nothing new, only last week they recruited an extra 60 drivers, mostly from southern( they will have to learn new routes and traction taking roughly 6weeks plus)

Thameslink now serve Horsham, littlehampton up to Peterborough, only a handful so far have learnt these new routes ( they have had this planned for years) they are also short on driver instructors so don’t expect this just to be a short new timetable run in.

 

[pasty]

No-one has been informed of the timetable changes - just that there will be timetable changes. If you want to know your new timetable changes, you have to go and find them. One place you won't find them - where previously they have always been there - is at the station themselves.

Never use a printed timetable personally but why are they not available?

They were available. I picked up a pocket size printed timetable at Brighton station last week.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Good luck anyone travelling right now. I had to leave at the crack of birdshit to be in Preston, Lancs at 9.38. The 05.06 and 06.05 were already cancelled due to an "operational incident" (which translates as no drivers that know the Cambridge route yet) and there was a signal issue at Three Bridges.

 

[Simster]

Southern have been short of drivers for at least 5 years now. I've been retired for nearly 3 and the way Southern management operate does not encourage people to take up Driver Instructor duties or even mentoring. There is an atmosphere of apathy within the grade now - the pride seems to have gone with every attempt at management's attempts to ride roughshod through the Rule Book. 'It's only a guide' I was once told. 'Okay then' I replied 'if I isolate one set of doors and carry on 'because it's just one more stop to go' and somebody falls out of the door you won't be having me up for manslaughter to save your sorry ar*es?' Managers straight out of Uni are just not up to the task

Not disputing any of that, but incompetent management is a thing in all walks of life. As far as I'm concerned, you're all the same company and you don't operate with the customer in mind and never have. For that reason, I hold the whole lot of you in complete contempt.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Printed timetables have gone the same way as phone books. The information is easy to find for anyone who needs it.

No: they are still widely available in the 'Fiction' section of major libraries.

 

[dazzer6666]

This notice posted by Great Northern/Thameslink is utter garbage - so contradictory

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/191459.aspx

The majority of the new timetable services are in operation but services on some routes are being progressively phased into the timetable during the course of the summer - so why publish everything on the new timetable then ?

New carriages need to be introduced to operate the service. Some of these carriages are currently stored off the network. To get them to what will be their home depots; the train operators must also move some of the existing trains off the network and switch over to the new rolling stock.The majority of this has been carried out over the weekend, but it is not possible to change over the entire fleet in this short time frame without risking disruption to services. The remaining new trains will be brought onto the network as the summer progresses - so it's gone from 'weekend' to 'over the summer' in the space of 24 hours ?

The train operators have been painstakingly preparing for this significant alteration to the timetables and every effort has been made to prepare for this - yet we need to introduce and emergency timetable, and replacement buses, on day 1

....and so on. Weeks of misery it is then.