Great Western Coffee Shop

Haven't been on a train for a good six or eight weeks. Rocked up to Chippenham this morning to catch the 0725 to Paddington to find (a) APCOA still haven't finished putting new parking machines in and (b) all hell breaking loose on the platform, with the poor sod in the information booth batting of insults and ranting from a plethora of disgruntled punters who, to be fair, just wanted to know if there was any chance of getting to London today but really weren't going about it in a clever way.

So eventually we got on the Swansea service which had started from Swindon and went back to Bath, then via Westbury and Newbury up to Reading. Eventually into Paddington just after 1000. No idea what happened - was stated as an "incident" at Swindon, whatever that is. Presumably MTU scattering itself into oily bits all over the place or something.

i doubt it was an mtu exploding,being described as an incident i would hazard a guess and say either a spad,fatality or signalling/track circuit problem?

anyone able to confirm?

Showing as signal problems.

I heard a freight train fouled a set of points.

1A03 got to Paddington 90+ late, which then screwed up services to the South-West too.  1A86 sat at EXD for 45minutes waiting for a relief driver.  The driver for 1A88 was taken straight off a late running down PLY service to take 1A86 straight back up, which then delayed 1A88 17minutes (1140 fast from EXD) while a replacement was found for this service, and consequently 1A89 (slow 1154 from EXD) was held up by approx 15minutes also.  Services on the down were all running approx 45 late until 12ish.

Yes it was all a bit messy.

What's wrong with the Melksham route? Though presumably Swansea drivers wouldn't have route knowledge?

Whatever caused today's problems, it showed FGW in a very poor light.

From BPW there was no prior warning when I got the 07:01, and not announcement on the train until 07:25 when we stopped in Swindon near the station.

Then a series on announcements about short delays, signal problems, trains queueing to proceed, cancellations, etc where made whilst we waited outside Swindon Station.

We arrived at Swindon station at 08:00, the service was immediately cancelled and we were advised to wait on platform 1, or return to to Bristol via the Swansea train on platform 4.

I chose the Bristol option, and boarded the train a few seconds before the doors where locked. This 08:05 Swansea train was not the normal Swansea bound train, but the very late 06:40 Swansea train via BTM (Does no one at Swindon know, or care, that Bristol has two stations on different lines? or did the stress of trains queue and frustrated passengers cause a few mistakes?).  I eventually got back to BPW at 09:20.

Why was no prior notice given?
Why was the service not diverted via B&H?
Why where not clear updates provided on the train, or at Swindon Station?
Why advise passengers from the BPW service to return to BPW via the BTM-Swansea service?


 

Points run through by freight train at South Marston.

very inconsiderate freight operator, prehaps next time they should give everyone some prior notice

Not their fault, similarities with the derailment at Witham perhaps ;)