How do "links" work?

[luke1420]

Right from what i can gather a link is a basically train crew rota? But i don't quite understand how they work. Do some links only work some routes? and do some links cross with other links E.G the 11:00 service one days is worked by one links and then different the next day?

Thanks in advance

 

[irish_rail]

Yes, you assume right. Varies greatly from depot to depot, but for example at Plymouth there are two links both do same routes and traction and share the jobs on different days of the week.

Other depots have multiple links and as you said, certain links only do certain traction or routes, usually based upon seniority (ie the longer you have been there the "higher" link you will be in, with associated additional routes and traction in "higher" links).

 

[A-driver]

Traditionally the higher the link, the better the work. More mainline work, less unsociable shifts, shorter jobs, longer breaks etc.

Kings cross, for example, had 4 links under BR I believe. Link 4 was basically 313s on inner suburban routes. Link 3 signed Cambridge and Peterbourgh on the outer suburbans. Link 2 went to Leeds and link 1 signed Newcastle.

Nowadays link system varies. Many depots just have a single link. Others have a few but the work tends to be of similar 'difficulty ' throughout with top links still often seeing more mainline work. Most southern depots have lower links with suburban or local work (seafords/worthings/south London metro etc) and top links with mainline work. However at some depots the top link work can often be worse than the lower links.

At a toc like east coast I believe that the upper links often do more shunting, standby, thunderbird work with the lower links doing more of the running turns.

 

[luke1420]

Will the crew diagram for a particular service change depending on the link? E.G if link 1 worked a service on Monday but link 2 worked the same service on Tuesday would that mean the servcies the train crew have worked prior or maybe will work later in the day may be different?

 

[IanXC]

Something I've wondered is how the structure works. Is it the case (or always the case) that one link has one Driver Manager/Guard Manager as applicable? Is there a practical limit to the size of any single link?

 

[306024]

For passenger work diagrams are generally made up of Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday work. (SX, SO, Su). In my experience it has never been the case for SX diagrams to be different just to fit in a different link on different days.

Night diagrams however can be different, as they work into the following day, so a Monday to Thursday (FSX) night diagram is usually different to a Friday (FO) night diagram, because the requirements of a Tuesday to Friday morning are usually different to that of a Saturday morning.

Hope that kinda makes sense.

Driver / Conductor managers usually manage around 25 staff each, although that is an approximate figure. The crew they manage could be in different links.

The biggest link I have seen is at Chingford, around 112 lines in the roster, takes over two years to work round. They make it work, you just need a big sheet of paper to hang the roster.

 

[A-driver]

Something I've wondered is how the structure works. Is it the case (or always the case) that one link has one Driver Manager/Guard Manager as applicable? Is there a practical limit to the size of any single link?

Not really. DMs have nothing to do with links. I believe that normally a DM can only have about 25 drivers allocated to them so a depot may have 3 DMs, 67 drivers with 7 in top link, 50in link 2 and 10 in bottom link. The managers will cover all links.

No limit to link size-depends on how much work there is and link size can change at 6month diagram changes. For example if top link are the only ones who sign the mainline and the depot is allocated extra mainline work then the link may be expanded so the most senior drivers in the lower link will move up.

 

[IanXC]

Not really. DMs have nothing to do with links. I believe that normally a DM can only have about 25 drivers allocated to them so a depot may have 3 DMs, 67 drivers with 7 in top link, 50in link 2 and 10 in bottom link. The managers will cover all links.

No limit to link size-depends on how much work there is and link size can change at 6month diagram changes. For example if top link are the only ones who sign the mainline and the depot is allocated extra mainline work then the link may be expanded so the most senior drivers in the lower link will move up.

Thanks - I'm not sure I could have been more wrong! Always imagined links would be broadly the same size, and that each link would have its own DM! Thanks for the explanation!

 

[A-driver]

Thanks - I'm not sure I could have been more wrong! Always imagined links would be broadly the same size, and that each link would have its own DM! Thanks for the explanation!

A link isn't like a team or shift- there are shifts within the links.

Links just group drivers in seniority to make it easier to divide work up. If you sign a route you generally need regular work to keep up the competency. If you have 100 drivers in a depot but only three rostered trains over a specific route then it wouldn't work to have 100men signing the route as they would only be rostered to work the route once a year or so. Therefore that work would be allocated to a small group (such as the 10 most senior men) who get a seperate roster which includes the 3 trips over that route. That way they all keep up their competency.

You will have a mix of links on shift at any time. So if you have 3 links and in the afternoon link 3 have 7 jobs, link 2 have 9 jobs and link 1 have 4 jobs then you will have 20 drivers in all from a cross the links (so 7+9+4).

Hope that makes sense, it's pretty simple but suprisingly difficult to explain! I think you may be thinking that you sort of get shift A with their manager in on Monday and the shift B in with their manager on a Tuesday etc but it's not that kind of system. Links relate to work content and route/ traction knowledge rather than shifts.

 

[luke1420]

With a company such as Northern rail will they be very little Differences between links other than shift times maybe being a little better? E.G All Links sign all routes?

 

[Moonshot]

With a company such as Northern rail will they be very little Differences between links other than shift times maybe being a little better? E.G All Links sign all routes?

Thats exactly how it works for us Northern Conductors.

 

[1D53]

With a company such as Northern rail will they be very little Differences between links other than shift times maybe being a little better? E.G All Links sign all routes?

Depends on the depots. Small depots tend to have all staff signing the full route card, at larger depots not all crew sign all the routes. For example At Leeds depot only the 'top' link sign Carlisle.

 

[badassunicorn]

At my depot, Link 3 is Depot Drivers, Link 2 do metro's, Link 1 do metro's but mostly mainline work.

 

[SEDriver]

At my depot we have 4 links. A supply link where the new drivers go until there's a vacancy in Link 3. Link 2 is filled on a seniority basis, with more routes and traction. Link 1 is 'the old mans link', which drivers have to apply for. They don't start before 06:00 and don't finish later than 22:00.

 

[whhistle]

But then to throw everyone out, links can work in completely different ways.

Link 1: All Platform Dispatchers
Link 2: Announcers / GPR
Link 3: Team Leaders
Link 4: Shunters

These links are specific to Annual Leave. One person from each link is allowed to be off at any one time (for up to two weeks). If nobody is off, two people from one link can be off together. A maximum of 4 people can be off at any one time.

The links are also worked into the rosta. They also apply for overtime (overtime is given out within the link first, then outside of the link).

 

[TDK]

Traditionally the higher the link, the better the work. More mainline work, less unsociable shifts, shorter jobs, longer breaks etc.

That was abolished a few years back and the unions are driving towards equal links with equal fatigue indexes however the seniority vane still continues with most depots unfortunately putting new drivers at a much higher risk of incident.
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With a company such as Northern rail will they be very little Differences between links other than shift times maybe being a little better? E.G All Links sign all routes?

It's good to see Northern are complying with the advisories sent out by ASLEF

 

[A-driver]

That was abolished a few years back and the unions are driving towards equal links with equal fatigue indexes however the seniority vane still continues with most depots unfortunately putting new drivers at a much higher risk of incident.
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I did say (and you quoted) 'traditionally' rather than state that that is how it works everywhere now. Only a few places still give the best work to the top links. Many top links still see more mainline work but mainline work certainly dosnt equal better work at all.

 

[Wolf]

At Leeds there are 3 main links and the supernumary link for drivers. Link 3 has most of the triangle and man Vic stopper work in, alongside night shifts and early starts/late finishers. There are about 51 link spaces in link 3. Link 2 is split 4 ways - a,b,c,d. This is basically just differnt routes split up into 4 groups but there is overlaps, for example at least 2 links do sheffield I believe. link 1 as previously mentioned is the only link to do carsile and generally has nicer shift times and jobs. Nottingham, originally a link 1 only job when the services first started is now covered by links 1 and 2 drivers, Goole is unique to one of the link 2s. supernumary link is reserved for drivers when they first pass out untill link 3 spaces come available. It really does vary depot to depot with northern , Sheffield I understand also had 3 links but the work is a lot more evenly spread with regards to routes and the smaller depots like Doncaster don't have more than 1 link.