Great Western Coffee Shop

Ouch! - not a good start to the week! (....although Grahame may see some HSTs at Melksham!)

 Cancellations to services between Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-Super-Mare 

Due to engineering works not being finished on time between Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-super-Mare all lines are blocked.

Impact
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 14:00 15/02.

Funny how that was released yesterday, so it was already predicted.

plus (in off topic news) there is now a body found hanged at Mutley tunnel.

First of all to finish by 8am, then 11am and now 2pm.

Crikey, the Thames Valley seems to be getting bigger. Probably global warming  ;)

Did notice lots of cyan at Temple Meads this morning though - which is why I am on here reading about it  :(

How so? A problem that stops the work being finished in its predicted time plus margin can happen in the middle of a job. If it's bad enough there may be no way to recover the time. Even if it might be possible by abandoning the original work, having to repeat the possession later may be worse overall for NR and the ToCs, or even for passengers.

That doesn't really have anything to do with whether it's just one of things you only find out when you dig the hole, or is more "iatrogenic" - whatever the equivalent of that is (I'm sure the Greeks had a word for military, if not civil, engineers).

If the project scheduling followed the same logic as JourneyCheck then a delay of any duration will always be brought fully back on schedule within the next two scheduled stops, so even if the crew found themselves 4hrs behind schedule after working for 30mins the project will still be listed as expected to finish on time.   
That is unless of course the project delay becomes too bad in which case the crew will just go home, resulting in the project apparently finishing on time but in reality didn't actually happen.

 ;D

now extended to 4pm

Any reason for this being discussed here? I know 'Thames Valley Infrastructure' causes a lot of problems but I don't see how problems at Weston can be blamed on that. (Does make a change though)

I was at Bristol Temple Meads today and witnessed lots of unhappy people being shoved onto buses for their journeys westward. For the sheer length of overrun time I wonder if anyone on the forum can say what exactly the problem that caused it was?

I hope they all claim compensation as they'll all be an hour late I would think....

Now it's saying till the end of the day - has today been designated a void day yet?

It might for Bristol suburban....but usually takes a couple of days

Isn't this the second time in recent weeks that this possession has seriously overrun? ::) :P

I should imagine that this will cost NR (ie the taxpayer) a fortune in compensation to GWR?

The line reopened just after 4pm. I for one certainly feel a void day is appropriate.

Should be, after all the taxpayer sorry I mean Network Rail will be paying and not GWR.

I think TaplowGreen was responsible, presumably confusedly posted in this thread in a moment of shock and awe that it was the other end of the network that was disrupted for once!  ;D

My apologies for using the wrong thread & my sympathies to all those who have had a miserable day today thanks to all the chaos caused by this engineering overrun......It does make a change from the regular LTV problems & occasional meltdown however I'm sure none of us take any satisfaction from that.

Network Rail failed miserably today after overnight engineering works between Bristol and Uphill Junction, Weston-super-Mare overran this morning. Every milestone they set themselves was missed. Initially lines were to re-open at 1200. Then 1200 for the Up and 1400 for the down. Then 1530 for both lines. that was pushed back to 1600. Finally, the first passenger train ran at 1610 from Weston to Bristol and 1612 from Bristol to Taunton all stops.

Whereas Network Rail were a complete shower, GWR and CrossCountry coped admirably with the problems. Rail Replacement Buses and ticket acceptance on local buses was quickly arranged for start of service this morning. CrossCountry diverted services via Westbury and seemed to have arranged for nearly all services to run despite staff and sets being displaced. I witnessed plenty of XC staff in evidence at Bristol Temple Meads arranging things to ensure services continued to run. There were regular manual announcements at Temple Meads informing people of the disruption and plenty of GWR on hand to answer passenger queries.

My own chosen service to get me to Taunton was the 1445 XC from Temple Meads. Our TM was delayed on an incoming service but even then I witnessed him jogging to my train so as not to delay our departure any further. Left at 1502. TM was out of breath as he made his first PA on departure. Top marks for dedication to getting us on our way though. Had he just casually strolled we may well have lost another path to Taunton via Bath and Westbury. Clear announcements were made on board about ETAs down to Plymouth as well as answering individual queries about connections in Devon and into Cornwall

Your observations of the XC TM seems to be standard XC TM attitude, they always have a can-do and positive attitude and I've seen them go above and beyond duty on many occasions. The ones that cover through Cornwall always come across very cheerful- I only seem to see the same 3 or 4 TMs through Cornwall for XC.

XC staff makes good the experience of traveling on a Voyager.

Unfortunately I cant say the same about any of the other TOCs I've experienced.

It probably helped swift rail replacement services that North Somerset is on half term this week. So coaches would have been readily available, I'm guessing passenger numbers slightly down on normal, and also the roads would have been a little quieter in the rush hour with no schools traffic and some people taking holiday this week.

Yes John R, if there was ever a day to have a major engineering work overrun this was it with the schools being on half term. Not that would have been much comfort to those who experienced extended journeys or missed connections of course.

It appears the possession was to install the new bridge for the South Bristol Relief Road (that's the one that is all part of a public transport improvement if you remember, yeah, right...).  So a bit more complicated than the usual dig up the track, put it back, and sprinkle a few stones around the rails.  Without knowing exactly went wrong it's difficult to judge, but sometimes heavy engineering like this does go wrong even with the best laid plans.

In the interests of clarity and continuity, I've moved and merged a couple of related discussions into this definitive topic here.

Thanks to 'bignosemac' for making the suggestion.  :)

Also causing issues today at Bristol Temple Meads was a broken rail across a set of points. Near Barton Hill depot between the Up and Down Filton Relief lines. This caused some capacity constraints which didn't help matters with everything going in and out of Bristol the same way because of the line closure at Parson St.

I saw the broken rail from a passing train. About a foot long piece of railhead was missing. 

From the Noth Somerset Times (http://www.northsomersettimes.co.uk/news/no_delays_on_trains_to_bristol_1_4420353)

On Sunday, I went for  pint in Taunton, just to enjoy the ride along the diversionary route. It was fine as a choice - I would have hated to have the extra journey time forced on me.