Great Western Coffee Shop

From the FGW website :

Train services between Reading and London Paddington have been disrupted due to a problem with line-side equipment in the Maidenhead area.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Delays of up to 20 minutes may still occur. Only London-bound train services are affected by this problem.

A number of services are short workings/missing stops due to this.

There are now reports of a fatality in the same area - I sincerely hope it doesn't involve staff who are working to fix this problem?

From the FGW website :

Train services at Reading have been disrupted due to a fatality in the Maidenhead area.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations, cancellations and delays can be expected. London Underground and Chiltern Railways are accepting First Great Western tickets via all reasonable routes. South West Trains are accepting First Great Western tickets between Reading and London Waterloo in both directions.

A message from the front line:



Apparently there's also been a fatality on the SW Trains line into Waterloo this morning

From the National Rail website:

More lineside equipment problems reported from the FGW website :

Train services at Didcot Parkway have been disrupted due to a problem with line-side equipment.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 20 minutes may still occur.

Bad day in FGW Land :(

Currently on FGW no trains between Cardiff and Swansea due to trespasser that emergency services are dealing with.
Plus delays between Liskeard and Looe due to line-side equipment problem.

Cardiff-Swansea problem is said to be near Pyle.  That suggests a Stormy Down chicken runner for those of you familiar with the area.

Add to the above the following Bicester line trains that did not run due to a train fault :

1754 Oxford-Bicester Town.
1826 Bicester Town-Oxford.
1910 Oxford-Bicester Town.
1951 Bicester Town-Oxford.

Article link on the fatality.
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-8171-man-dies-after-being-hit-by-train-near-taplow/

As a result of the incident FGW has cancelled the opening of the ^1m new-look station at Maidenhead, which was scheduled for today. Another date will be arranged.

Article link on the points and track circuit failure at Didcot.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/3704339.Rail_problems_fixed/

I was stuck on a train in Maidenhead station shortly after the fatality happened (thankfully I wasn't on the train that hit that poor person!).. I have to say the information we were given was good and customer service people appeared on the platforms pretty fast.. Having discovered another colleague was on the same train, we went back to my car and drove up to London.. Not sure we got there quicker because the M4 wasn't the best, but it was a nice sunny day...

(As an aside I did wonder what would happen if I drove to Windsor and got the Waterloo train since tickets were being accepted on them.. would they have let me travel back there on my FGW ticket this evening?.. That is what stopped me doing that)..

Tickets would only be accepted on SWT whilst the disruption is on going. So by the evening you wouldn't have been able to use your ticket to Maidenhead from Waterloo.

Thanks Ollie.. That's what I guessed.. Which was why I didn't take my car down to Windsor and catch the train from there, as then I'd have had to pay extra just to get back to it... Mind you I had to pay the ^8 congestion charge instead.. Ho hum... :D

I Work For FGW blog post link.
http://www.iworkforfgw.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=131&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Jo ...As the fatality was probably a suicide how about a thought for the Poor Driver who could do nothing to stop, and is off work probably suffering flash backs etc and faces a driving assessment before returning to normal duties

Hello dog box.. Yes that was my first thought when it happened. Apologies that I didn't say that on here too though..

The man who committed suicide had been affected by the credit crunch in the city.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063356/Credit-crunch-banker-leaps-death-express-train.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063356/Credit-crunch-banker-leaps-death-express-train.html)

No mention of the Driver (or the poor guys who had to pick up the pieces or have to clean the underside of the train) of course in the Mail.

The line between Paddington and Reading does seem to have a huge number of suicides.  Perhaps its just the population density of the area, but there can't be many Turbo drivers who haven't had one of these unfortunate incidents.  I hope that they are well looked after when this happens whether or not they return to work. 

Welcome to the forum, disky - albeit on a rather sombre note.  :(

Yes, the train driver apparently did what he could - sounded the horn, applied the brakes.  However, the fact of the matter is, he couldn't have done more - an HST travelling at 100mph takes a mile to stop.

A sad day for everyone involved: they have my sympathy.