Train traffic affected by Covid staff shortage
Written byTimes Magazine
Rail travelers are faced with cancellations or fewer services as rail companies are faced with high staff absenteeism due to Covid.
The rail supply group said nearly one in ten railroad workers left. Rail companies including ScotRail, CrossCountry, and LNER announced schedule reductions and warned passengers to cancel.
Alex Hines, CEO of ScotRail, said the company had "hundreds" of unemployed employees due to Covid or isolation. He told the Today program that the company typically provides 2,000 services per day but will reduce it by 160 (8%) on Tuesday.
"In the last few weeks, we have canceled too many trains due to the record number of Covid cases, so we decided to proactively incorporate this revised schedule to give our customers more security about our service," he said.
Staff shortages further shorten the schedule in Wales.
Mr. Hines said the operator was "fairly confident" that the reduced schedule "will prove to be a stable service to customers in the coming weeks."
"We said we would offer this schedule at the end of the month, but one of the lessons we have learned from Covid, of course, is that it is stupid to predict the future," he added.
The increasing number of Covid cases has resulted in the self-isolation of many people and the inability to work, which has severely affected an industry where employees cannot work from home.
Rail operator CrossCountry said absenteeism was "getting worse every day," with more than one in ten employees now absent.
South Western Railway, meanwhile, said its services would be "canceled at short notice" before the company unveiled a "consolidation schedule" on January 17. LNER said it canceled 16 trains this week but warned passengers of "another unplanned change" to the schedule.
On Monday, there were widespread cancellations in UK rail traffic, with rail supply groups estimating more than 6,000 employees, including crew and drivers, currently absent.
The industry says there will be "some last-minute cancellations, so we encourage all travelers to check online before departing or sign up for automatic notifications from National Rail Alert Me."
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