Staff shortage hits rail travel (BBC News)
 

Rail users can expect to face disruption to their journeys due to a shortage of conductors, a train operator says.

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Oh dear, not this one again!! Inexcusable at any time but especially not when we have such high levels of unemployment. There are plenty of potential staff out there so any operator who cancels services claiming insufficient staff should face such severe penalties that they never do it again.

Any sensible employer should know that staff have annual leave, may be sick, go on courses and may choose not to do non-contractual overtime so staffing levels have to reflect this. Supposing the NHS, police, fire brigade etc chose to manage their organisations like some train operators. "Sorry, we are closed due to staff shortages" is simply not an option for them and shouldn't be for TOCs either.

Couldnt agree more ,high unemployment why are they not advertising for people in the job centres and such.They most definitely should be fined or even give the operation to another company who can cope

Trouble is, TOCs have already made their own substantial contribution to the high unemployment figures by cutting down on their staff - they're not gonna be doing a u-turn as far as I can see. Services all over the UK are nowadays always in jeopardy because none of the TOCs want to pay any more than they can possibly get away with. They reckon that in recent years that they've had to make cutbacks in order to stay afloat. In actual fact, most of them are doing fine, but use any economic crisis to blame for their cutbacks, thereby increasing their profits. This recession was a green light for them to get rid of staff and make it look real. My brother was axed from a TOC control centre early this year, and was in a position to check figures & reciepts etc. Another con, and it's the travelling public, AND the poor unfortunates who've lost their livelihood, that pay the price. They should be FORCED to ensure there are always sufficient staffing levels to cover sickness etc.

Yep your spot on Dave .I was made redundant and they used the present climate as they called it as an escuse.I have since spoken to Drivers (HGV) and they are all doing extra work for the same pay and now no bonuses not like some other greedy sods and we know who they are