Rail company defends 'disgraceful' Sunday disruption

A rail company has apologised for ongoing disruption on Sundays that has been branded "disgraceful" by passengers.

Routes between Wales and London have seen significant delays and cancellations for several weeks, with Great Western Railway [GWR] advising people not to travel by train to Bath on the penultimate Sunday before Christmas.

"It's a joke and clearly the service is not fit for purpose," said passenger Paul Owen.

GWR said voluntary Sunday working for crews, combined with unplanned engineering works and the recent storms had "put additional pressure" on resources. They added a solution "is not going to happen anytime soon."

"I'm really sorry for anyone that's been caught up with the challenges that we're seeing on Sundays," said Dan Panes from the network, who said much of the disruption was "out of our control".

Passenger Paul Owen said on the BBC Bristol Facebook page: "Used the train four times and three times I've been left either stranded or had the journey significantly disrupted."

Andrew Musty also commented: "It's disgraceful that GWR is advising passengers not to travel to Bath by train on one of the busiest Sundays before Christmas."

Steve Austin, GWR organiser from the train drivers union Aslef, explained many drivers do not have Sundays as part of their working week and are instead offered the shifts as overtime.

"You give someone the opportunity to choose whether they come in or not, then they're always going to choose to have the weekend at home with their family, especially when it's that close to Christmas."

He added: "It's frustrating at the moment, because management just don't seem interested in running the service."

Aslef said that for the last 20 years it has argued that Sunday should be included in the working week.

But it said that would require employing a large number of drivers.

However, Mr Pane explained that recruitment alone would not solve this issue, as even if 10,000 extra staff without Sundays in their working week still relies on overtime to guarantee a service.

Although GWR runs a full service on Sundays, the company confirmed that for most drivers it is up to them whether they work on that day.

Mr Panes said about 60% of staff have this choice.

It was, he said, "a challenge facing most of the railway industry".

Throughout most of GWR's 200-year industry, enough colleagues have consistently wanted to work on Sundays. However, Mr Panes explained that this position has changed significantly post-Covid.

Several drivers have told the BBC that a recent pay deal means they do not need the extra money they earn by working on their rest days.

The deal included an element of backdated pay for the previous two years, which means drivers received a lump sum in their autumn payslips.

And it has traditionally been harder to persuade drivers to work voluntary overtime during the weeks running up to Christmas.

Recent weeks have not just been down to a lack of crew, but it has also combined with recent storms and late-notice engineering works.

Another challenge is a looming "retirement bulge" of drivers: the average age has been rising steadily and the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) estimates that one in three drivers nationally will retire within ten years.

Mr Panes said they were working with the government and industry partners to "work it through", adding "it will take some time to fix".

Bruce Williamson from the campaign group RailFuture, said: "It's not a satisfactory situation where the train operators are saying 'don't use the trains'.

"Clearly, something is very wrong there."

Speaking about the popular Bath Christmas market, he said: "People rely on the trains as a better alternative, and if that alternative is not available, that's very, very frustrating and and bad for business in Bath as well.

"In spring, rail fares will go up again by above inflation, and all of this is driving people off the railways and and onto the roads, adding to more pollution and more congestion."

Liz Montague, commenting on Facebook, said she would have to pick up her daughter, who relies on trains, from work, adding: "So much for trying to reduce car emissions and yes I have a diesel! Disgusting. Employ more staff!!!!"

"A lot of the problems in the railways go back to long term underinvestment, historical working practices, the consequence of privatization," said Mr Williamson.

Mr Austin, from the rail union Aslef, said the problem is getting worse.

Those who do work Sundays are "suffering the wrath of the passengers that are being stranded".

"They don't want to be coming into work on a Sunday if they're going to have to deal with the passengers being angry at the company's ineptitude of putting the service on."

Mr Panes said GWR was incentivising staff to work Sunday and that 22 and 29 December were looking "more robust", but there could still be some disruption.

"So we're always encouraging customers to check before they travel, particularly, unfortunately, with Sundays at the moment."