Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• alf, kent, uk

  Looks like southeastern trains will have a similar problem from 13th December. Majority of drivers are not going to work overtime from Sunday to Sunday. They even have a facebook page, just search facebook for southeastern drivers.

• H T Harvey, Birmingham, UK

  I usually find myself in complete opposition to Bob Crow whose outbursts do great damage to his union its members the rail system and therefore to his members. On this occasion I find I am completely on his side and find I cannot agree with Alan Bevan it is NOT the Drivers who are at fault they may have a moral obligation to their passengers but it does not go beyond that.
  Who is to blame?
  The drivers are in total compliance with their part of the contract They have to Volunteer (an unpaid worker is the definition of volunteer) so that excuses them.
  That none volunteered is a situation that London Midland implicitly accepted when taking on the franchise. The other party/parties to the contract must take the ‘blame’ it is they who in purchasing the franchise accepted the terms of the contract signed by their predecessor Central Trains.
  Knowing the terms of the contract the first action of LM should have been to renegotiate it.
  
  Wait a minute. There is a third party to this contract - the DfT. It is they who drew up the franchise and who accepted the London Midland bid. It is they and politicians who are the real culprits it is they who originated the franchise system..
  
  It is the franchise system which results in the continual changing of franchises, franchise operators, the routes covered by those franchises and therefore the staff involved.
  Many franchises, including the London Midland are now a combination of staff of two or more franchises with two different contracts applying to the original groups of staff and this of course creates strife among the staff never mind between employer and employee.
  
  The New franchisee puts there heads in the sand and hopes the problem will go away, or want to negotiate down to the lowest cost option whereas the workers want to negotiate up to the better pay and conditions option. London Midland consists of part Silverlink part Central trains. Cross Country part Virgin part Central Trains. No doubt in a few years time, following more changes we will have routes where parts of Northern Trains will be merged with parts of London Midland which had been merged with other parts of Virgin etc etc. I can only see confusion and conflict increasing. The word Balkanisation for Franchise comes to mind I shall add it to the Thesauras and the problem will only get worse.
  
  So I repeat I have little sympathy with the Franchise operator they knew what they were taking on the employees had little choice. It is a problem that will progressively worsen until our rail system is re nationalised.
  
  I would maintain the myopic civil servants in the DfT, the politicians who privatised the Railways should be called to account for the disaster we now have.
  Please do not tell me it is privatisation that has brought about the increased use of rail in the UK. Across the Irish Sea there has been a similar if not greater increase in usage of rail and Irish Rail is state owned.
  
  I would maintain it is privatisation that has created this problem resulted in massive cost increases but has benefited from largesse from the taxpayer largesse never bestowed upon British Rail. Had BR had the funds and economic, environmental circumstances experienced by the privatised railway All of our rail system would have been electrified and we would probably have a High-Speed rail network to boot.
  
  With the continual changing of the areas, routes, lines, franchise operators we have a rail system that is a multi-dimensional multiple layered jigsaw puzzle that rail privatisation has ‘mutated’. It is this malformed disorganisation born of politicians (Tory and Labour) created by bureaucrats, civil servants and lawyers. All of whom benefit from well paid jobs they have created for themselves and the Civil servants of the Department for Transport (by the way who is Mike Mitchell) all paid for by farepayer and taxpayer. Now wouldn’t this be a marvellous place to achieve savings without hitting front line services.
  

• ken, brighton

  I'm really not sure what's the matter with you moaning lot, since when has sunday work become compulsory ? if staff were employed on a sunday optional basis then why should they be forced to work ? i'm really certain that the bank workers/office workers/financial wizards of the world would all roll into work at 3am or 10pm on a sunday with a happy smile on their faces as they expect railway staff to do. In a couple of months time we'll have the old 'how dare you not run a full rail service on christmas and boxing days' chestnut from those that have 2 weeks off every christmas/new year, well yes, railway staff would like that as well thanks very much. Maybe if the tight fisted misers that run the railway for their shareholders gave one moments thought for their staff then things might be a little better, double pay ! lucky LM staff, my company pay single rate for sundays, tempted are you ? of course you're not and that's why the staff aren't either.

• Railway Engineer, Derby, Britain

  Stupidity...if we were still under British Rail we would not be having any of this lot around. I wonder how can other staff other than train drivers cope with the new post British Rail era and why can't they?

• John Gaughan, Hanover, PA, USA (Ex UK)

  Totally absured. They should have Sunday through Thursday, Tuesday through Saturday as well as the standard Monday through Friday schedule based on seniority bidding. Of course this would be disruptive to the union workforce and cost the company a few more pounds to add some new positions. Bull.

• andrew ganley, cheam, england

  Well what can i say,thats what happens when you give bus companies a railway to play with!

• leslie burge, leicester, england

  Franchising is an utter and total MESS.

• Anthony Simkins, Chesterfield, UK

  The contract for the workers has a clause in which they are not required to work on sundays and when they do this is at over-time pay rates. The workers pay agreement had run out on the last sunday of August and a new agreement had not been reached so these members of staff did not know what rate of pay they were to receive for this overtime work.
  Many workers in a large range of jobs are offered sunday working as an optional overtime and are not required to work this is they do not want,and the rail industry as a whole works this way. London Midland usually have enough staff to cover sunday services, but due to the fact they did not know pay rates, they opted out of working the previously mentioned date.
  So this is not any fault of the drivers, conductors and station staff, nor the fault of London Midland and its franchise owner, but the entire structure of the rail industry as a whole.
  

• Ben, Aston, UK

  It is all driver's fault! They are asking for double pay on sundays. LM is going bust. No money left for shareholders lol
  I was at New Street today and its shocking!! Only one manager turned up and even he looked a bit lost. He was hiding behind Network Rail reception and spend most of the time on the phone. Probably, informing his management.
  Customer reception was full of people asking for alternative transport. One chap was trying to get to Worcester. So, they adviced him to get on X Country service to Chelt Spa and changed there. I was with him on the same train. He was fuming! As Train Manager charged him for a full ticket. Apparently it is a different route!!
  I had a chance to speak to LM staff on the concourse and they said its someone called Andy Garner to blame for.
  Why wasnt he on the concourse? Why wasnt he answering customer enquiries?
  LM recruited 30 new drivers a year ago, so why did not they changed the contracts? Why should fare paying customers like myself suffer every week end?
  

• Steve, Bletchley

  Re-nationalise the lot of them. This is a disgrace and we as a country should be ashamed that we have allowed this kind of thing to happen in the 21st century. Write to your MP and complain as I have done.

• Dave, Oxford

  This is a disgrace - the rail regulator should step in immediately!

• Steve, M Keynes

  I don't need to say anything, everyone else here has said what I am feeling. I will add that I have written a strong email of complaint to London Midland as suggested by the ORR, and have given them a few days to respond, and shall then take it to the ORR when I have not been given the reply I want to hear (which of course will be the case). I have also written to my MP, asking why they were given the franchise if they plainly cannot maintain a seven day service as outlined in their timetables (and as part of the agreement of the franchise). May I suggest all other who feel as strong also involve their MP.
  
  I was interested to read that an agreement of double pay for Sunday working on this line ended - last weekend. Well, what a surprise that they have all decided not to work this week. Come on London Midland, sort this out before it becomes a weekly occurrence (or you get rightly de-franchised, or whatever the term is).

• Terry Piper, Altrincham, England

  this kind of incident does the whole industry harm as passengers will have little confidence in the train operators, the rail regulator and ultimately the Minister for Transport - with an election looming this is a PR disaster
  

• thomas allen, Albufeira, Portugal

  Unbelievable! A seven-day-a-week operation that relies on volunteers?
  
  Why are staff not rostered to work on a Sunday as they would be in the firms mentioned above?
  
  How many thousands are going to be inconvenienced as a result of this complete lack of management and organisation?
  
  I trust they will refund anyone who has a season ticket they cannot use.

• Darky, Norwich, United Kingdom

  It's a bit late now saying that the need to volunteer for Sundays is wrong. Management should never have agreed to it in the first place as it is going to be an obvious problem when the company & staff fall out. You cannot blame the present operator who simply inheret these agreements & you cannot blame the staff who definatly will not give up this very effective bargaining tool without substancial payment or condition improvements.

• debbie, Berkhamsted, UK

  No mention of this when I bought a weekly ticket today - of course my work on Sunday isn' voluntary and this makes it almost impossible for me to get there.
  
  Well as long as evrything is cosy for those whose jobs are secure there , could you imagine Police, Coastguard or even Sainsbury's shutting because there weren't enough "volunteers"
  
  Disgraceful, it i sbad enough all the week ends I spend on "replacement buses" that add hours to a long day and are simetimes not there at all! If I failed as badly in my job, I would be sacked.

• Geoff Steel, Northampton, United Kingdom

  How many more instances like this have to happen before the Rail Regulator steps in and does what he or she is supposed to do. Surely this inability to run a service because the train company - which seemingly has no control over its staff - must constitute a breach of their franchise conditions (if it doesn't then it should) and strong action must be taken by the ORR.
  
  It is ridiculous that any TOC should be appointed by the DfT without them first obtaining assurances that the company gives assurances that it will operate a 7 day railway for the customers and not at the behest of their staff.
  
  All this just highlights yet another major flaw in the franchising process. BR was not perfect by a long way but I am sure that operational staff were rostered to work Sundays and did not have to rely on volunteers.
  
  Whilst I realise that the railways will never be renationalised as they were before I really do think that the time has come to do away with all the separate franchises and have one big franchise to cover passenger services and another for non passenger trains let out to on commercial grounds and call them British Rail Passenger and British Rail Freight Services respectively.
  
  Does anybody out there agree with this proposal?

• Rich, Canterbury

  That's pretty shocking, to be honest - you'd think that something as essential as a railway would not be expecting people to volunteer for Sunday working...it's Sunday, not Christmas Day!