[reflector]

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.