| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7161 Written by Industry Insider on Tuesday, 28th August 2007 Just wondered what the readers of this forum think about the fact that all FGW staff (whether directly able to affect train timekeeping or not) are to receive a monthly bonus of Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7181 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Tuesday, 28th August 2007 I'm all in favour of motivating staff to provide a better service for customer and for employer. But I have also been involved in a number of such schemes (as employee and scheme constructor) where they reward so widely that they're a blunt tool, where they lead to envy of those in the scheme by those outside, and where they lead to distorted actions by the scheme members to maximise their income irrespective of whether that's really in the interest of the scheme organiser. I don't know the scheme that you're talking about, but it seems from how you describe it that it might fail at my first hurdle - too blunt to be useful. It may also fall at the third hurdle if it looks at a statistic which is arteficial. However, it could be that although it's not going to make any practical direct difference to the staff involved it WILL cause them to take a renewed interest in a statistic that many be flawed, but never the less is something they should be aware of and be looking to improve. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7210 Written by courgettelawn on Wednesday, 29th August 2007 My hard self would say that why should employees be rewarded for doing their job? A doctor does not get bonuses for every patient who recovers. I would prefer anyone involved in running the railways to instill a sense of pride in the railways they run. I would also say that I feel really put out when staff at stations begin blowing their whistles while people are still filing out of the four sets of doors available for passengers to alight and get on a service. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7216 Written by gaf71 on Wednesday, 29th August 2007 [quote author=courgettelawn link=topic=3660.msg7210#msg7210 date=1188372200] My hard self would say that why should employees be rewarded for doing their job? Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7217 Written by courgettelawn on Wednesday, 29th August 2007 "As for having pride in the railways, I really wish I could.....but have you seen the state of some of the 153's we have to work on?" Yes I travel on them regularly... It surprises me not one jot that staff morale is low, often indicated by the malaise shown at ticket-checking time. Shame. I sometimes wish there was more rapport between train and station staff and passengers. You're obviously keen to see improvements yourself. How much representation do your views get at your staff meetings? Do you get a chance to feedback from your own experiences and those that passengers provide? Does your union help the cause? I was disappointed not to see rail issues highlighted at this year's Tolpuddle Festival. Perhaps something Save the Train could have presence at next year? Please don't take offence at my comment on bonuses for doing jobs. I do not say that they are not deserved, just whether they make a difference on their own to performance, etc. You have by your descriptions demonstrated that there are clearly other problems related to procedures, planning and systems, not staff themselves. However I remain with my simple adage that one does a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, no more and no less. Good luck with your efforts and please do feedback about this initiative as appropriate! Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7243 Written by Industry Insider on Thursday, 30th August 2007 Some interesting points made there. I agree with almost all of them. My own perception of staff reaction to the 'bonus' is that it is felt that it is just another way of trying to increase morale by glossing over the REAL issues as to why performance has been hit badly since the tail end of last year. I can not blame on-train staff for showing malaise when they have to witness a frankly embarrassing lack of organisation and systems for providing them with the tools to do there job correctly. Removal of local train crew supervisors at the bigger stations (Oxford, Reading, Paddington etc.) and plonking them all in the control offices at Swindon is a prime example. FGW tried to tell us that by doing this their supervisors would be the 'first to know' about any disruption and be able to sort out cover for trains much quicker than now (and of course save money on staffing costs). Sounds a reasonable assumption? However, anyone who knows how useful these supervisors were - especially at times of service disruption - knew that all that would happen is that the guys and gals in Swindon would get totally swamped as soon as anything went wrong. For example, WHAT USED TO HAPPEN - A driver arriving late at Oxford and needing a PNB (statutory Physical Needs Break) meaning he would be delayed for his next working used to pop his head round the door and tell the supervisor on his way to his break, who would instantly know who was in the mess room and could cover his next move and just wander 10 yards to go and ask him to cover it. WHAT NOW HAPPENS - The driver arrives and has to call Swindon (usually involving several attemps as the line is busy with similar enquiries). Swindon then has no real idea who exactly is available and has to call the mess room in the hope that someone answers it. If not, then they have to try mobile phones (which drivers are not allowed to have switched on when driving and may have forgotten to switch on at all). And all this while that next working is sat in platform 2 at Oxford waiting for a driver with three trains now stuck behind it due to the inflexible operation at Oxford station. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7252 Written by Lee on Thursday, 30th August 2007 The following link may be of interest. http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=405.msg1952#msg1952 Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7281 Written by gaf71 on Friday, 31st August 2007 [quote author=Industry Insider link=topic=3660.msg7243#msg7243 date=1188472908] Some interesting points made there. I agree with almost all of them. My own perception of staff reaction to the 'bonus' is that it is felt that it is just another way of trying to increase morale by glossing over the REAL issues as to why performance has been hit badly since the tail end of last year. I can not blame on-train staff for showing malaise when they have to witness a frankly embarrassing lack of organisation and systems for providing them with the tools to do there job correctly. Removal of local train crew supervisors at the bigger stations (Oxford, Reading, Paddington etc.) and plonking them all in the control offices at Swindon is a prime example. FGW tried to tell us that by doing this their supervisors would be the 'first to know' about any disruption and be able to sort out cover for trains much quicker than now (and of course save money on staffing costs). Sounds a reasonable assumption? However, anyone who knows how useful these supervisors were - especially at times of service disruption - knew that all that would happen is that the guys and gals in Swindon would get totally swamped as soon as anything went wrong. For example, WHAT USED TO HAPPEN - A driver arriving late at Oxford and needing a PNB (statutory Physical Needs Break) meaning he would be delayed for his next working used to pop his head round the door and tell the supervisor on his way to his break, who would instantly know who was in the mess room and could cover his next move and just wander 10 yards to go and ask him to cover it. WHAT NOW HAPPENS - The driver arrives and has to call Swindon (usually involving several attemps as the line is busy with similar enquiries). Swindon then has no real idea who exactly is available and has to call the mess room in the hope that someone answers it. If not, then they have to try mobile phones (which drivers are not allowed to have switched on when driving and may have forgotten to switch on at all). And all this while that next working is sat in platform 2 at Oxford waiting for a driver with three trains now stuck behind it due to the inflexible operation at Oxford station. [/quote] A prime example of this is that our rosters for sunday have been posted at our depot. 2 guards are shown as "sorry unavailability declined". This means that the have opted not to work sundays, and have never worked on a sunday,but centralised rostering is expecting them to work this sunday.THEY WILL NOT BE THERE! If they turn up to work on sunday they leave themselves open to have to work every sunday they are rostered for( as per local agreements) What do you think will happen? They will inform our resource centre at Swindon, who will try(unsucssefully) to cover their jobs, so the turns will go uncovered, and various trains will be cancelled. This is despite of the fact that there are other guards available to work, but because of their start times on monday morning cannot pick up the turns (due to Hidden) Now if resourcing and rostering was still done locally there would be some favours called in, and some swapping and changing of turns to ensure that all jobs were covered, but as this is all done centrally in Swindon by a computer programme which apparently cannot look further than the day it is working on, trains will be cancelled( or someone who was unavailable to work will be paid 24 hrs pay to work an 8 hr shift) It's a good system apparently if you read what is said in the link in one of the above posts......... Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7306 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Saturday, 1st September 2007 I find myself almost weeping with frustration at threads like this. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/7347 Written by Industry Insider on Monday, 3rd September 2007 [quote author=Graham Ellis link=topic=3660.msg7306#msg7306 date=1188672459] I find myself almost weeping with frustration at threads like this. [/quote] And I think that's why even the 'good' staff find it hard to be motivated sometimes. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/8095 Written by sumila on Monday, 8th October 2007 This may well explain why FGW regularly lie in a quite blatently and breath-taking way about delays which were originally attributed to them in order to have them re-attributed to Network Rail. Perhaps if the plethora of staff FGW have employed in the area of delay attribution, were to be redeployed onto actually running their services more efficiently, the delays would be far less anyway! If delay attribution is used properly by FGW, IE: accept you have caused a delay and the reason for it. Look at what went wrong, learn from it and avoid doing it again (honesty is the key to this, so it aint going to happen anyway) delays would again be far less. They do not pay members of staff Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/8099 Written by Industry Insider on Tuesday, 9th October 2007 [quote author=sumila link=topic=3660.msg8095#msg8095 date=1191871190] This may well explain why FGW regularly lie in a quite blatently and breath-taking way about delays which were originally attributed to them in order to have them re-attributed to Network Rail. Perhaps if the plethora of staff FGW have employed in the area of delay attribution, were to be redeployed onto actually running their services more efficiently, the delays would be far less anyway! [/quote] The delay attribution system is so inaccurate on occasions, that it beggars-belief. To paint the somewhat whiter-than-white picture that poor old Network Rail is lumped with all these delays it didn't cause is a little far-fetched though - as they'll pull all the same stunts that all the other TOC's (including FGW) to try and save them getting attributed to themselves and therefore having to pay out! The problem is that so much money changes hands that if FGW or anyone else were to just hold their hands up and not challenge the delays NR have put down to them, they would literally lose thousands of pounds a day. The big problem with delay attribution is not so much the 'direct cause' delays, but the 'reactionary delays'. I've seen a simple delay of 10 minutes waiting a driver, get over 300 minutes of reactionary delay attributed to it from all sorts of very difficult to prove delays that it allegedly caused - this can be as a result of poor management of the delay by FGW, or poor regulation of trains by NR signallers, or many other reasons. Either way, that's when all the TOC's and NR fight like mad to get another party to accept these delays. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/8101 Written by sumila on Tuesday, 9th October 2007 Industry Insider said, 'To paint the somewhat whiter-than-white picture that poor old Network Rail is lumped with all these delays it didn't cause is a little far-fetched though - as they'll pull all the same stunts that all the other TOC's' I never claimed Network Rail are whiter than white, or that FGW lumped all their delays on us. In other posts I have stated we are not perfect. The point I am making is that FGW blatantly lie in this area. If a signaller makes a poor regulating decision, there is a high probability that it will be a genuine mistake bourne out of a desire to reduce overall delays - and certainly never done deliberately - a decision which subsequently did not work, and no one will be more annoyed than the signalman himself - but then how do any of us learn if we do not make mistakes? Any decent and professional signalman will learn from that and not make the same mistake twice. We are actively encouraged to tell the truth when questioned by delay clerks, in order to learn in this way. Certainly the signalmen I work with are constantly striving to run an efficient service, and always always always put the passengers first - only to have these aims continually frustrated by FGW. There are times when we go out of our way, bending over backwards to accomodate FGW - you wouldn't believe the delay minutes we actually save them - only for them to lie and incorrectly blame us for a situation of their own making. It's a pity I can't let you visit our signalbox to see first hand that what I am saying here, is what is actually happening on the ground. Re: Delay minute related bonuses for FGW staff - 3660/8104 Written by Industry Insider on Tuesday, 9th October 2007 I have got to know plenty of signallers, and visited many signalboxes during my career. The majority are hard working, concientious, and friendly. There is also the odd lazy, grumpy bugger! That's the same with any industry, including the front-line staff of FGW. I felt your post was over-criticising those staff and I was pointing out that Network Rail and all the other TOC's 'blatantly lie' too. link to index of articles |
|||
Save the Train was the campaign to bring an approriate train service back to and through Melksham. Most big contributors are still around writing at the Coffee shop forum where new members are very welcome. The train has been saved - sort of - we have stepped back up from an unusable service to a poorish one but it's doing very well. We did that through setting up the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. That fulfilled its early objectives; it has been taken over by local and regional government types who are now doing medium and long term work. The team from this forun can also be found at the Melksham Rail User Group (which was the Melksham Rail Development Group at the time these articles were written and we had no users. We mustn't loose sight, though, that the train service remains poor and needs our community support in marketing and campaigning to keep it going in a positive direction ... and all the more so when we're expecting to find a different normallity once we get out of the Coronavirus Pandemic and head for zero carbon via the climate crisis. Yes, it's saved ... it's now a key community facility ... the need for enhancement and the strong and near-universal local support remain, and the rail industry and goverment remain slow to move and provide the enhancements even to level us up with other towns. Please support the Melksham Rail User Group - now very much in partnership rather than protest with the rail industry and local government, including GWR, TransWilts and unitary and town councils. And please use the trains and buses, and cycle and walk when you can. -- Graham Ellis, (webmaster), February 2021 | |||
|
|||
Further Information:
Home
Current Summary
Daily update
User forum
Consultation
Service now
Service future
Future Analysis
Recent Statistics
Recent letters
Letter to DfT
Save the train
Presentation
Support us
Other Maps
Station facilities
Station approach
Pictures
Trains diverted
History
About Melksham
Site Map
About this site