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Just been told by a friend on board this train that it's failed to stop at Twyford tonight (indeed RTT shows it arriving 3 minutes early at Reading) - is there anyone here who could find out why that happened please? Thanks!

(Update: Just to add salt into the wound, apparently the next Turbo back from RDG to TWY was only 2 cars and was 8 minutes late)

RTT shows 3 late into Reading.

18:05 London Paddington to Frome due 20:06

This train will no longer call at Twyford.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

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Message Received :08/07/2014 18:49

 

RTT shows actual arrival time at RDG as 1833^ versus WTT scheduled time of 1836 (although GBTT is 1835).

Just realised I was looking at departure, it departed 3L.

That's probably whilst they established exactly what happened.

From various comments on Twitter it appears that this was simply a driver error.

This has happened before, a couple of occasions that I'm aware of, at Didcot Parkway.

In my experience the 1706 and 1805 HST's empty half their pax load at Twyford.

Surely, the drivers have a list of where they are supposed to stop?

 

Yes, but obviously they aren't going to look at it constantly whilst driving. Only a couple of fast trains a day call at Twyford so it must be quite easy for a driver to forget momentarily, or realise too late, that they are meant to stop. They're only human after all.

Genius log shows the following:

Incidents and Delays
Impact   Description
1 FTS   TWYFORD - FROME (Ref 655228)
TG DRIVER TWY 1J93 DRIVER TWY
4 mins   SOUTHCOTJ - NEWBURY (Ref 655273)
TO TOC UNEX SCOTEJN NBY 1J93 4 LOST SCOTEJN NBY
 
Incident 655228
Delays
FTS   TWYFORD   
Log
1J93 DRIVER TWY 18:42 Advised by FGW Duty Manager that 1J93 1805 Paddington to Frome had failed to call at Twyford as booked. The driver has admitted his error.

Exactly, it's very easily done and happens up and down the country on a daily basis.  On this occasion, it's on one of the few jobs at that depot, if not the only job at that depot, which stops at Twyford.  As a result you could get into a routine of leaving Paddington with the first stop being Reading.  There's a whole host of reasons why it can happen.

Put a smile on my face with passengers on Twitter complaining it was a safety issue and very dangerous.

Especially the ones who asked if any red signal was passed - somehow I doubt it if the train continued at 125 to Reading  ::)

Southern Stag said:


I wasn't suggesting it's necessary to look at it constantly. The driver would surely only need to look at it upon departure from PAD and mentally note that "I need to make sure I stop at Twyford".

Anyway, I wasn't there and am not an HST driver, so am not in a position to comment further.

A lot of things can happen between leaving Paddington and arriving at Twyford, problems with the train, signal checks etc which could easily push the Twyford stop out of your short term memory.

Sympathise entirely with the Driver. We are all only human at the end of the day... Well I'm not, I'm a fish I guess :P

I was talking to a Bus Driver on the 267 Route a couple of weeks back. One of the things he raised was when he left a 'Key Stop/Timing Point' 5 minutes early. This happened because "he read the sheet wrong" - Very annoying if you're waiting for that bus and you just miss it, but a simple mistake and is just one of those things. Not done deliberately.

It would not surprise me at all if the driver misread the diagram sheet and thought it said PASS Twyford and not to call there. There was a Signaller error a while back where The Cornishman had a Westbury Avoid line path set. Fortunately the driver was able to contact the signaller to demand a WTF explanation and be given the path to Westbury station.

If the train had passed a Red Signal then ATP would have done it's job and the train would have stopped. The train would probably then be cancelled due to "An operational incident." and the driver relieved from duty. I saw some of the comments on Twitter and I did remember thinking if some of the tweeters had any common sense.

ATP throws in an emergency brake application. If a HST is running at 125mph and the Emergency Brakes are applied, you'd know about it. First there is a violent jolt. Followed by a putrid smell from the brake pipe. Then if you're sat at the trailing bogie end of the carriage, you'll almost feel the carriage trying to bounce up and down as it judders along. Eventually the train will stop, but stop hard and suddenly and not 'gently' as if to stop at a station or signal the driver is expecting to see at Danger (Red).

---

In the IT Industry I see similar things happen all the time. It's amazing how just adding an extra 1 or another number to a firewall command can bring an entire network to it's knees.

Or the time you press send on an email without attaching that PDF you've just spent an hour working on to the document.

Then there is the classic, sending an email to your manager about an annoying/rude/irritating customer, too that customer...

If the same driver regularly failed to make a booked stop, that might call into question their concentration and suitability, but if it is rare event then it must be accepted they are human and make mistakes.