Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm not sure if anyone here will know what happened but..

The 9.03 Maidenhead (non stop) to Paddington was showing as delayed on NR departures board this morning..

Journeycheck at 7.50 said that due to an earlier train fault it would be about 25 minute late and would miss out several stops but was still stopping at Maidenhead (and some other stations)..

Strangely enough the train left Maidenhead on time and arrived at Paddington on time (I nearly missed it as I'd believed journeycheck).. Whilst I as on the train journeycheck was still out of date as it hadn't been updated since the initial update at 7.50...

 

It did leave Banbury 21 minutes late, at 0749, so Journey Check was reporting correct information at the time. It left Oxford at 0820, 22 minutes late. It wasn't until it arrived at Reading at 0844 that it got back to time.

Presummably it made up  the 22  minutes from Oxford to Reading by running non stop?

Well yes.. the Journeycheck info was definitely out of date  after the one and only entry at 7.50 ( train due at Maidenhead about 9.25 I think from memory) but it was never updated after 7.50 so an opportunity lost I think.. As for the NR departures boards.. I think there was a more general problem with them today..

It wasn't out of date until about 0845 though, and with only a couple of stops left by that point. There was probably quite a high workload today because of all disruptions so it probably just slipped under the radar. There does seem to have been a problem with Live Departure Boards at the time as well, the train had no reports until it arrived at Reading.

Well yes I totally agree.. I am just glad I didn't miss it (although I nearly did) had I believed the out of date information on journeycheck..

Jo, you may find a website like: realtimetrains.co.uk to be of more use than JourneyCheck. It's not perfect but generally it's better than JCheck. :)

For reference, the site has been made by Tom Cairns (Clever guy) at Southants Uni.

Thats a new one on me!!

I translated it as the University of Southampton - which is not very new at all.  I do not suggest adding this to the list of acronyms/abbreviations though.

The decision to withdraw the Oxford-Rdg stops (i'm assuming those are the stops missed) from the late-running 0728 ex Banbury was sensible.  By Oxford it would be have been on top of the 0821 ex Oxford which calls at these stations (I'm assuming - again - that this train stopped additionally at Culham and Appleford), so giving the 0728 a run to Reading was a good move which was the best thing to do to provide the best overall service.

Shame about the Journeycheck info - I wonder if it was shown as cancelled at Pangbourne etc, or just vanished off the screen?

Indeed he does refer to the Uni. Southampton, i'm simply reacting to the fact that I have never ever seen it referred to as Southants. Uni! (and i'm a student there just for added interest)

Wouldn't Soton Uni be a better term?

As a past student I would agree with that.  Southants Uni sounds like a rebadged College to me. 

You assume correctly that 0821 made additional calls at Culham and Appleford.

It sounds like a perfectly sensible decision was made to amend the calling patterns, though it's a shame that journeycheck etc., doesn't seem to be able to factor in the potential time that will be recovered from missed stops at station further down the route.  If it's a case of one or two stations being omitted then the difference isn't too great, though if all stops from Oxford to Reading are taken out (including a potential layover at Didcot) then a train could potentially make back 25 minutes of that time.

Well yes and I guess the "25 minutes late" is open to interpretation.. Does that it will start 25 minutes late or arrive at it's final destination 25 minutes late?