Great Western Coffee Shop

Is it just me or is there no coordination with major events/likely travel patterns that draw crowds on railway lines vs engineering works.

London Marathon today and anyone who wanted to travel to London via the Kennet Valley line was pretty much stuffed. Ended up driving to Basingstoke and using the very packed South West Trains service.

Having moaned about First Great Western - Southern had also scheduled engineering works between Haywards Heath and Brighton on what turned out to be a lovely sunny day - fights were nearly breaking out as hoards of travelers tried to get on to rail relief buses.

Add to this the fact that there seemed to be no service Reading to Gatwick which was causing chaos at Gatwick.

Not a day to try and travel by rail.

I don't think we can expect NR to abandon engineering work in the South East because of the London marathon, as people will be coming in to London from a very wide area.

I agree that where a specific traffic flow is known to be going to happen (such as an event at the Millennium Stadium) that an effort should be made to avoid work, and in most cases that seems too happen. Of course events where traffic flows that are dependent on a team qualifying are more difficult, such as when Cardiff reached the FA Cup Final last year and the fans had to travel via Gloucester. By the time the teams are known the engineering work is too far advanced to pull.

I guess my real complaint was that there was so much going on this weekend and from a traffic flow perspective this couldn't have been a good day to choose. Apart from the London Marathon there were a lot of people traveling - it was almost like a weekday rush hour at times. Surely the planners must have some idea that this was going to be such a busy weekend (or maybe I am being Naive) . Having so many stoppages just wasn't clever.

From what I remember, this happened last year too between Reading and Paddington.. I remember posters at Maidenhead telling passengers that the first train (as opposed to bus substitution) out of Maidenhead on Marathon day would NOT get the passengers to the marathon on time for the start..

I thought at the time how silly it was when there was SUCH a big event going on, that the engineering works were still going ahead..

But then I don't run the railways.. so what do I know?..  :) ;)

There were stories after the event of people who did miss the start as they weren't regular commuters (so hadn't seen the posters) and had relied on timetables rather than checking the national rail website as they hadn't realised the potential difference..

If we at Network Rail tried to arrange engineering works around every major event that happens in London the work would never get done.  The impact of engineering work is getting less and less as a) all the neglected work of the last 20 years is getting caught up, b) improved techniques, c) there is a determination by NR board that we provide infrastructure for trains and are not a bus operating company. 

In all the work I am involved with we go to great lengths to reduce the need for engineering possessions but some of the problems are working on a permanent way that was built nearly 200 years ago and that even our forefathers of as recently as 30 years ago have put bits of kit in places that todays H & S requirements for staff and traveling public prohibit working on or replacing it while trains are running, we often have no choice but to close a line.

Jo, I know there are two smily faces on the end of that one ... but I could start a whole separate thread along the lines of "if people who travel had some clout in running the railways".  FGW's customer representatives have a limited role; some are excellent, others are invisible, but I have a feeling of something of a PR excercise.  Passenger Focus is very limited with one DfT funded representative in the South West, and (as I read it) a role expanding to include buses and (according to a Geoff Hoon speech last week) air travel too. I expect he'll get ferries and taxis too.

I'm sure a passenger representative with a wide ranging role and a true ability to influence and change things (and goodness knows how that could be worked!) would make some mistakes, and would at time become "poacher turned gamekeeper" ... but I would love to see it.   Yes, I can think of some practical candidates (and, before anyone asks, the top ones on my list don't live on the TransWilts!)

While I was writing, Electric Train followed up.   Yes - I think everyone appreciates the need for engineering possessions under the current system that aren't suspeded for every Marathon, FA cup final and Bank Holiday; perhaps my "poacher" analogy. And yet there is this need and stated desire to run a 7 day railway. Isn't Sunday afternoon the busiest time of the week for long distance travel?

I accept the comment re it has to be done (and that there are many years to catch up on and you cant take every event into consideration) but as a ordinary member of the public who trys to use trains when possible rather than be a single passenger in a car, this weekend has done nothing to encourage me that I should (and I suspect there are a lot of fellow passengers today who feel the same).

My journey today Newbury to Burgess Hill.

No trains to Reading - option drive to Reading
No trains from Reading to Gatwick via Guildford - option go via Clapham Junction.
Decide to go Basingstoke - Clapham Junction to save some time (drive to Basingstoke)
First SW Basingstoke - Clapham Junction standing as full.
Train Clapham Junction - Burgess Hill given by rail enquiries not running. Alternative to Haywards Heath - just got seat
Rail Relief Bus Hayward Heath - Burgess Hill - not enough buses so queues and short fuses
Same return standing all the way from Clapham Junction to Basingstoke.

Next time I'll take the car.

Conclusion too many engineering stoppages in one day in a relatively small area of the South East and not enough capacity on the trains that did run for what ever reason. I know its not FGW but Haywards Heath was amazing with the number of passengers they were trying to cram on to too few buses - someone got it wrong and a goodly number of passengers had a very poor traveling experience which does the idea of leisure rail travel no good.

Thats my lot and end of my moaning.

Yes there is not only a desire in NR to run a seven day railway, much of the work going on now is trying to achieve just that, much of the 1980's, 70's 60's and in a lot of places even older equipment needs to be replaced to improve reliablity and maintainablity. Whether a truly seven day railway will ever be truly achieved time will tell but it comes with a price tag.