Railway commuters in Britain are facing days of delays as ScotRail, the latest operator to change to a revised schedule due to staff shortages at Covid, returns them to work this week.
New figures show that nearly three quarters of all services at certain stations have been cut in the last few days as employees return to the workplace after the New Year and Christmas break.
Nearly one-tenth of all UK rail employees are suffering from sickness, including Covid. Major engineering work on commuter routes is scheduled to continue through the week.
ScotRail is making changes to its schedule starting tomorrow and lasting at least until January 28, following scores of cancelled services in the past few days, while its employees are on sick leave or self-isolating.
The reduced schedule will apply to nine routes between Glasgow’s two main stations and three from Edinburgh Waverley. According to the operator, 320 employees were missing as of Wednesday.
This comes at a time when the public sector was asked for plans to deal with a worst-case scenario that would see as many as 25% of its staff being absent from work. The Cabinet Office said that, so far, disruption caused by Omicron had been controlled in ‘most parts of the public sector’, but it said leaders had been asked to test plans against 10, 20 and 25 per cent workforce absence rates.
The graphic below shows the Southern closures planned up to January 4, a time that was extended now until January 10.
In recent weeks, rail companies across the nation have had to remove hundreds of trains from their schedules as Omicron isolate staffing crisis has deepened for the industries. This comes after days of cancellations on short notice.
There are 23 UK railway companies, including Southern to Merseyrail or Great Western Railways to Northern. They have all reduced their services in recent days to address staff shortages related to the pandemic.
The East Midlands Railway and Thameslink were also affected.
According to The Rail Delivery Group, nearly ten percent of UK staff (or 8.9%) were sick last week due to Covid. This is an increase from the previous week’s 8.7 and last month’s 7.6.
After analysis by ontimetrains.co.uk yesterday, it was found that Manchester Airport passengers were the hardest hit. On New Year’s Day, 30% of scheduled service at Manchester Airport had to be canceled.
31 percent were cancelled on New Year’s Eve, and 26% on December 30.
Manchester Piccadilly was also close by and a major north-south hub for the West Coast Mainline. On those days, 16 percent, 20%, and 15% of the services were cancelled.
Birmingham Moor Street also had 17%, 26%, and 22% of their respective cancellations.
Cardiff Central had the following figures: 14%, 19%, and 14%; Edinburgh, however, saw 23% of services cancelled on December 31st and 20% that day.
In some cases, less than 50% of the services arrive on-time at stations on certain days.
A staggering 39% of Manchester Airport services were cancelled on December 19. This was a drastic increase from the previous day, which caused havoc for passengers who tried to travel by train.
53% of Manchester Oxford Road services were cancelled on December 19, which was the most significant number of cancellations. Just 20% of all services reached their destination on this day.
It is not a good sign for commuters trying to get back on the network over the coming days. There are large numbers returning to work after Christmas, and the cancellation rate is high.
The Rail Delivery Group represents operators and insists only 5 percent of the services on the entire mainline network were eliminated in the New Year’s Day abolition.
Operator Southern announced that trains from London Victoria will not run until January 10, Britain’s busiest station. The reason is high levels of sickness and ‘coronavirus isolation’ in the staff.
Numerous other train operators cancelled their trains as staff were sick, or aren’t feeling well due to the rising Covid infection.
There are Avanti West Coast (Greater Anglia), London North Eastern Railways, Northern ScotRail Transit for Wales and TransPennine Express.
Covid-related illness is believed to affect at least one out of ten railway staff in all rail companies.
CrossCountry employees staged a 24 hour strike on New Years Eve, which was organized by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT).
In a dispute about guards, train conductors and managers were at odds.
Network Rail’s final 370 engineering projects over Christmas and New Years will cause further disruption.
Between tomorrow and January 12, West Coast Mainline Passengers will be inconvenienced while upgrades to flood protection are made between Rugby and Milton Keynes.
Northampton is the next stop for trains, adding 25 minutes to their journeys.
London Northwestern Railway’s services between Crewe, London Euston and Rugby will be reduced. Passengers will need to transfer trains at Rugby.
James Dean is Network Rail’s West Coast South Route Director. He confirmed that this would lead to fewer services, tighter carriages and slower journey times.
At the moment, upgrades to signalling systems and tracks on Transpennine Route services will begin in Manchester. This should be completed by at least tomorrow.
Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of Independent Watchdog Transport Focus called for operators to withdraw certain services in a temporary manner on a scheduled basis.
He stated this was to avoid last-minute cancellations that could cause chaos.
Rail Delivery Group spokesmen said, “Our colleagues, as well as those from other industries have been affected by the virus.”
“While we work hard to offer a reliable train service to key staff and other passengers with reduced staff,” some railroad companies introduce amended timetables to meet the lower demand.
Yesterday, France became the first country in Europe to institute a 5-day period of isolation for people with Covid. As pressure mounted on UK ministers to do so, they did.
French authorities have reduced the period of isolation for double-vaccinated individuals to five days. They also produce negative tests.
While England’s quarantine rules remain in place – negative tests on days six and seven mean you can leave the house – the number of NHS staff off sick or isolating continues to rocket.
The number of NHS workers who have stayed at home in recent times for Covid reasons has more than doubled.
NHS England data shows that 12,240 NHS England employees were missing due to Covid illness or self-isolation on December 12. Two weeks later, on December 26, this had doubled to 24,632, and by New Year’s Eve it had doubled again to almost 50,000 – accounting for nearly half of all staff absences, The Sunday Times reported.
Chris Hopson (chairman of NHS Providers) stated that the impact of staff absences was greater than last January’s Covid waves. His tweet said: “Staff flat-out, especially considering the level of staff absenteeism. They will be asked to continue performing flexible heroics if the hospital Covid population continues to grow. This is unacceptable.
America was the country that reduced the isolation period the longest, following France and Greece.
The Zoe Covid Study leader at King’s College London is Professor Tim Spector. He described the period of five days as “sensible” provided that the person has undergone two negative lateral flow testing.
Professor Spector explained that ‘a reduction in isolation days would benefit many frontline service by allowing low risk staff to get into work and avoiding people staying at home unnecessarily’.
However, allowing Covid patients to stop isolating after experiencing symptoms may spread the disease and increase the NHS staff shortages. This was stated by the UK Health Security Agency.
The report stated that 10 to 30% of infected people could still become infectious five days later, as opposed with 5% under the seven day rule.
Ed Argar from the Health Ministry stated that there had been no scientific guidance on the reduction of the period of isolation.