Snow Hill route recovery plan - January 22

2022. A new year and a new start.

It may not quite be the new year that we’d all been hoping for following the last 22 months, but just as with the seemingly encouraging news that the Omicron variant may pose less of a concern than first imagined, there are also some green shoots on the horizon for the Snow Hill lines.

Following nearly two years of covid related colleague absence and public health restrictions interrupting our training programme, we ended 2021 with some promising signs that our route recovery plan is starting to have a positive impact. Across our Snow Hill, Worcester and Leamington Spa traincrew depots; 12 new drivers qualified last year, with 60 more trainees hot on their heels and 58% of overdue training for existing colleagues delivered.

With additional drivers on board, and more drivers able to operate the full range of routes and types of train again, we are already seeing fewer cancellations than last year. This doesn’t mean we underestimate the remaining challenge to fully restore stability on the route. However, as we have previously discussed in this blog, with each step forward in our recovery plan, we become less exposed to the causes of disruption and better able to contain the impact of any local issues before they spread across our network.

Omicron, the unwelcome festive guest.

In our last update before Christmas, we explored some of the preparations we were making to help mitigate for what seemed a very challenging festive season with the Omicron variant causing significant absence rates within our teams. Central to our plan was the proactive scheduling of large numbers of rail replacement buses to be on standby at hub stations. This enabled us to be prepared for any major disruption or back-to-back cancellations caused by short-notice sickness.

In addition to our bus plans, our whole team pulled together to keep trains moving wherever possible. This included operational, office and senior managers supporting frontline teams with some trained colleagues covering shifts left vacant by the spike in absence. We cannot promise overnight fixes for the issues we have faced in rebuilding our business post pandemic, but we do promise we will continue to do everything in our gift to reduce the effects it has on our customers.

Whilst we rebuild our teams, we continue to remain most vulnerable to disruption and cancellations during peak annual leave periods. As part of our recovery plan, we continually assess performance data to help identify where we are progressing and where we need to focus our efforts. Comparing the festive period with the October half term week is a good way of checking the progress of our long-term plan. Despite Omicron-related absence causing driver availability on the route to fall by up to 12.5% between half term and New Year’s Eve, the total number of cancellations remained much more stable and rose by just 3% on average. While any cancellation is unwelcome, this does demonstrate that the impact of the new variant was far less severe on our service than it would have been even a few months earlier.

With Omicron-related colleague absence reducing and the easing of public health restrictions, current forecasts suggest our new driver and new fleet training programmes remain on track. In our last update, it was not clear what the impact of reintroducing restrictions would be or how long they may last for. While the timescales remain deliverable, we need to be conscious the recent period of restrictions has eaten into some of the programme’s reserve capacity and therefore any further delays or spikes in absence could cause issues, as we now have less flexibility in the schedule. Our route management team continue to monitor this situation closely and make interventions where possible.

The story of a trainee train driver, 3 years later, qualified at last!

We caught up with one of our newly-qualified drivers based at Snow Hill, Adam, to find out more about what it takes to become a train driver and his experience during the pandemic.

What made you want to become a train driver?

I have always had a keen interest in all things trains, planes and automobiles, as well as having railway blood in my family. My uncle worked his way up to be a driver, but sadly due to illness he moved into a non-traincrew role before retiring. I wanted a job where I can enjoy the balance of something technical while gaining the satisfaction of getting our customers to their destination.

How long have you worked on the railway?

I joined Virgin Trains in 2016 as an onboard manager, based at Wolverhampton. I quickly fell in love with the operations side of the railway and knew it is where I wanted to be. After a tough recruitment process, I was really excited to be offered a trainee driver position with West Midlands Railway based at Snow Hill in July 2019, then (not so) fast forward two and a half years, I finally passed out as a newly qualified driver in January 2022 and literally haven’t looked back since.

What does it take to learn to be train driver?

We started in the classroom in July learning all the basics about staying safe on the railway. We were in the classroom until November covering lots of different topics like core rules (the regulations that all drivers, signallers, conductors and dispatchers abide by), as well as radio comms, safety systems, different types of signal (classic and new LED-style - we use them both on the Snow Hill lines), shunting, engineering depot movements and emergency evacuations. Basically, learning everything about the trains we would eventually drive and loads more.

Following initial training, we split our time between the classroom, time out on the tracks and many hours in the simulator where the instructors put you through your paces in different weather conditions and challenging scenarios. So many exams were sat and lots of coffee was drunk! Next comes the aptly-named practical handling phase, where you get to learn how to actually drive a train on the live railway, with an instructor. Before you’re allowed to go it alone, you have to spend at least 230 hours under supervision, learn every single platform, all the tracks and junctions, hills, bends, powering off areas, braking points, speeds and risks. Then, you have to learn it all again in the dark, rain, cold, warm, basically inside out and upside down.

What stage of training were you at when the pandemic hit?

I was just about to begin my practical handling in March 2020 when the news started talking about a possible pandemic. As we swiftly went into lockdown, it become clear that spending long hours in a train cab with an instructor just wasn’t safe. In everyone’s interest and not wanting to spread the virus through thousands of trainees across the country, it was decided at an industry level that all driver training must stop. While I understood, I was gutted as I was just about to actually get to drive a train for the first time!

We were asked to continue studying from home until further notice ... little did I know that it would be 14 months before I would get back in a train cab. Like many others in all walks of life, I found it really tough as I enjoy work and being stuck at home took its toll. I tried to stay positive though and filled my time with a mix of studying, baking and helping elderly neighbours with their shopping.”

When were you able to come back to work?

I eventually got the green light to come back in June 2021 and with the significant gap since I’d last been operational, joined three classmates for a few weeks of revision and exams before being allowed into a driver’s seat. After lots of lateral flow tests, I got assigned my ace instructor Roger, to finally begin my practical training out on the mainline. Even though I was delighted to be finally back to it, it didn’t feel very “normal” – we were both very mindful of each other’s safety with the virus and tested several times per week, remained socially distant from other colleagues and were cautious about mixing with friends outside of work.

What was it like to finally get into the hot seat?

I was Roger’s first trainee, so it was important we built up trust and confidence in each other. Although new to instructing, he’s a very experienced driver and had been a conductor before that, so has loads of knowledge. I remember driving at 100mph for the first time, I was frantically looking back and forth between the windscreen and the speedo having a little panic, then looked over to Roger just to see him sat calmly smiling, knowing that I was having a little moment to myself, but him knowing we were perfectly safe! Thankfully, I feel at ease at travelling at those speeds now and looking back am grateful for his calmness and experience at the time, a natural teacher!

How long did it take in the end to get fully passed out?

Gaining all the required experience (and the 230 hours) takes quite a long time, it wasn’t until January 2022 that I was able to go forward into my pass out week. This is where a driver manager assesses a trainee performing all their duties from booking on to clocking off. They assess your practical driving skills across all the routes on your licence in daylight and darkness, as well as the coupling / uncoupling trains and set route theory, railway rules, track safety and fire assessment exams (More exams! And yes, more coffee!!). Then, and only then, was my file submitted for review and signed off in January 2022, meaning I finally got issued with my driving licence!”

So you’re passed out now, talk us through a typical day?

Depending what shift I’m on, my day could start with a 3am alarm clock or finish at 1am in the city centre. An early turn will generally see me get to Snow Hill anytime after 4am to get allocated my work for the day and check safety bulletins. We then ship out to Tyseley depot to start taking the trains off to all four corners of the network for the start of service. We’ll then be kept busy taking services back and forth between Stratford and Worcester until home time. Late jobs are generally the same but in reverse, you work your trains late afternoon into the night and then form an orderly queue to take trains back on to the depot for cleaning and maintenance. Obviously, it doesn’t quite always go to plan.”

Despite all the challenges, has it been worth it?

Absolutely 100%! It has been a very hard and long journey but being able to drive a train on your own, with amazing views out the “office window” and at speeds up to 100pmh is one of the best jobs in the world!

In other recent news …

Last month, we looked at the extensive damage that our class 170 & 172 fleet sustained in the early winter storms and the challenges that our depot teams were having in overhauling the axles on our class 172 trains due to problems in the national supply chain. We are pleased to report this month that thanks to the efforts of our engineers at Tyseley, most of the affected units have been repaired and came back into service earlier in January. With 11 units in the class 172 fleet awaiting axle overhauls at the turn of the year, six have been fixed and two more are due back in service by the first week in February, leaving just three awaiting works to be scheduled.

At the Leamington Spa end of the core route, we also run services connecting with Kenilworth, Coventry and Nuneaton. These services are also operated using our diesel fleet and many by our crews based at Leamington Spa. For much of the pandemic and during the recent Omicron wave, we were unable to operate this service due to crew resources and rolling stock availability. As a result, we implemented a road replacement timetable in its place. During the most recent wave, we have received customer enquiries as to why we were able to operate trains on a Sunday, whilst rail replacement buses ran Monday to Saturday. This is due to the reduced scale of our standard Sunday timetable meaning we generally have more resource capacity and flexibility to accommodate such moves. It was also a key way to keep our team up to date with the required route competence over the line and avoiding a new backlog of refresher training to compound wider issues. Thanks to the apparent waning impact of Omicron, we are now working on plans to reinstate services on the route in the coming weeks, currently scheduled from 27th February. Look out on our social media and website feeds for more information about this soon.

Thank you again for taking the time to read our monthly update, we are working really hard to put things right, but again we acknowledge and apologise for the recent issues impacting service delivery on the route.

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