Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm putting this here as it could affect a sizeable chunk of the FGW network.

A fair bit of heavy snow looks very likely overnight tonight which will probably disrupt services into and out of London Paddington.

Does FGW have any contingency plans in place this time? Or will nothing be known until we know how 'heavy' this snow will be. I can imagine services from outside of London (Oxford/Reading) may be disrupted - and no doubt if that is disrupted it will also mean the Greenford line will be shut which would mean a day at home for me ('cos the Tubes will probably be screwed up too!) so I've prepared!

Unless its feet deep, FGW don't usually suffer too badly.

London forecasts predicting around 4-8in/5-20cm but where you are (ie Inner London, suburbs or outer counties) will depend on how much you get.

Then of course even if only a little bit falls there may be speed restrictions due to poor rail conditions.

Hummmm...... This year when we had snow the network fell apart in my view. There was little or no infomation and no one  knew what was going on. I should add that I travel between Reading and Newbury, and the snow was far from deep. I had the feeling the low service was down to the fact they didn't want to cause damage to the Turbo's which I guess is fair as damage will cause a shortage of units has a long lasting effect.

The third rail network tends to be badly affected, but all things considered the railways (at least in the south west) held up very well in February, certainly better than the road system. I made it from Oxford to Darlington via London at the height of the supposed "travel chaos" when the railway was running like clockwork - no delays or cancellations in sight on FGW, LUL or NXEC.

It has started snowing in West London in the last hour or so and is settling...

Notice has gone up on FGW homepage:

A couple of things that effect a train service when it snows overnight, the train crews have to get from their homes to their booking on points like the customers they serve many commute a far distance to work however they do it at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning before the roads are cleared.

Electric traction suffers, con rails can get iced especially if there is heavy snow which thaws and the refreeze this will damage collector shoes; better to suspend a service for one day than suffer canceling or reduce train length for a week while repairs are done.  Overhead Line also suffers from icing the eurostar route HS1 has a deicing system basically they force current to flow the heat the wire this is the only route in the UK with this.

Points can get snow bound if the points heating is in good order in the South UK the system is designed for light snow and frost.

But do remember for you to catch your train at 07:00 the train crew signalers will have struggled through the snow to get to work 3, 4 or more hours earlier

Hence I went UDI and I'm at home whether client likes it or not untiil 29th

Inclement weather just gave an excuse

Have to say that during the week in February when it snowed, FGW did me proud on the Cotswold Line. Bit late on the Monday (2nd??) both ways when it snowed in London and trains coming out of the capital were causing knock-on delays - but I think the 17.51's main problem was actually a broken windscreen forcing a set swap for a Turbo at Reading, not the weather.
The next morning and again on the Thursday or Friday when we got falls in the Cotswolds, trains were running almost to time all day, whether Turbos or HSTs.

From the excellent Oxford Mail (http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/4804188.Snow_alert__Rail_passengers_urged_to_check_services/):

It's not uncommon in rural Worcestershire for the trains to fare better than the roads when it snows heavily.

Not quite snow related, but it looks like they are going to be busy sorting out the Maesteg route again:-


2320 Cardiff Central to Cheltenham Spa (Arriva Trains Wales)

Expected to arrive Cardiff Central at 0201*.
Expected to depart Cardiff Central at 0202*.

This train has been delayed by a landslip
Last updated: 18/12/2009 00:09:36 

Will Call At:
                                 Timetabled Arrival Expected Arrival
Newport (South Wales)         2338                   0220*
Severn Tunnel Junction         2358                    0240*
Caldicot                              0001                   0243*
Chepstow                           0009                    0251*
Lydney                               0018                    0300*
Gloucester                          0040                    0322*
Cheltenham Spa                  0053                    0335*
Previous Calling Points:

                                    Timetabled Departure Expected Departure
Maesteg                                     2215                   Cancelled
Maesteg (Ewenny Road)                2217                  Cancelled
Garth (Mid Glamorgan)                  2220                  Cancelled
Tondu                                         2229                  Cancelled
Sarn                                           2232                  Cancelled
Wildmill                                      2234                   Cancelled
Bridgend                                     2221
Pencoed                                      2244                    0140   
Llanharan                                    2248                    0144   
Pontyclun                                    2252                    0148*

Well despite quite a lot of snow, the trains as far as Maidenhead (at least) were running just fine.. So well done to FGW. The taxis however weren't (understandably).. but having just spent 40 minutes turning into a snowman (lady?) waiting,  I'd like to praise the taxi drivers who did stay around at Maidenhead to help people home.. I'm hoping I'll warm up soon... :) :)

Yep. Trains running fine on FGW up to the close of service tonight, despite some fairly heavy falls particularly between West Drayton and Maidenhead - made worse by the strong winds. The roads not faring so well though as my g/f has had to abandon hopes of reaching Wycombe and is holed up at a friends for the night.

Expect delays tomorrow morning though as it's still coming down hard...

I remember trains coming down through Exeter back in February with huge chunks of ice/snow all over them.  Yes there were delays, (by the time everything's delayed an hour though you've still got a service at the time you'd expected anyway), and I think FGW were one of the better operators for keeping services running.

Its around 5 inches here in wycombe, and still falling. I would expect Chiltern to be affected.

Ahh sod it! Knew I should have got the earlier train @ AML, that seemed to run with no problems - the one I usually take doesn't look like it's going anywhere (no report from the monitoring point @ Twyford which should have come at 0519 and it hasn't got any actual departure time listed from Reading - significant snow in Reading according to FGW site.

Not much here in Acton though - seems a lot of the snow from last night that dusted pavements has blown away...

EDIT - train has been delayed due to no crew member.. not looking good!

Everything seems to be more or less running to schedule. Tavelled into Paddington from Reading and nothing around 07.00 was down as more than a couple of minutes late and once you get into West london the snow starts to disappear - there's none at all in central London (yet !) and all the tubes are running

Rather more problems being caused this morning by yet another failed train (how many in the past few day?)

Line problem between Reading and London Paddington.
Train services are being disrupted due to a broken down train between Reading and London Paddington.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Delays of up to 45 minutes can be expected.
Two of the four lines are closed in the Maidenhead area in order to attend to the affected train. All other services are having to share the remaining two lines which will lead to delays due to the resultant congestion.

Wondered why ther didn't seem to be many trains going past the the house (Taplow), although the snow does deaden the wheel noise.

Snow is very pretty when you don't have to go anywhere and being warbabies we have adequate tins under the stairs for emergencies.

it's a pity my garden railway is still in bits a it would be fun to try and run my live steam in the snow.

A lot of it must have melted overnight then, cause it was barely covering the platform this morning....and I mean the uncleared ends, not the (cleared) middle....

I win...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8422652.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8422652.stm)

Local news is reporting 10 inches and counting in Philly, still snowing heavily and not expected to stop for another 12 hours  :o Have just had the pleasure of wading to and from work in blizzard conditions the better part of a foot of snow. Bleaurgh.

Warning message has gone up on FGW website
Are FGW doing anything about icy conditions at unmanned/part time stations? I think I saw some grit at AML recently, but not sure who is responsible for it (station staff, Network Rail, the TOC or local authority). I'm sure a few stations must have grit bins nearby.

I think it's the TOC's responsibility. Unmanned stations tend to get checked by roving staff in vans fairly frequently, so I would suspect that, unless roads are not passable, they should be getting gritted.

I know Crowthorne last week was being gritted on the platforms but because the pedestrian steps I assume are NOT part of TOC land, they werent and they are absolutely lethal

From FOSBR:

I made a circular journey today from Bristol to Worcester, out via Newport and Hereford and back via Cheltenham. Despite the overnight snow all infrastructure things were fine except for a points failure at Hereford which delayed the 1511 to Paddington by 30 mins. I did notice though, that whilst most open platforms had been gritted, it had been done very perfunctorily, with just the odd patch gritted here and there.

Which is interesting...........I've spoken to a few facilities managers at various places in these parts about the increasing occurence of car parks etc not being gritted.

Been told by several that there was a case last year where the high court held the land owner responsible if someone slipped and got injured on gritted territory that just wasnt done properly but that if it was not gritted at all, they would not have been liable.

The people in question were not connected to the same organisation so were independent but their legal departments had all issued the same advice....

That differs somewhat from the legal advice outlined here: see http://www.theclaimsconnection.co.uk/slipping-on-ice.html

The no win no fee vultures must love weather like this.

For some reason, station car parks seem to be a popular example, used by such firms: see http://www.hinchliffes.co.uk/news/slip-sliding-away-snow-and-ice-related-accidents/

(Other 'no win, no fee' organizations are also available).  ::)

I've decided I don't like snow.. Not one little bit.. I had to leave my car at work today as it was just too dangerous on the roads.. So it took me nearly 3 hours to get home from Bracknell via a lot of walking and two trains (one of which was warm (SWT) and one which was freezing (FGW) - why oh why?).. So now I have another major trek in the morning via two trains and no doubt some very icy paths either end.. And it's only 10 miles away  :)

Sorry, Jo, but it doesn't look like it's going to get better - from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8424338.stm):

Excellent.. Something to look forward to tomorrow  ;D ;D

A lot more forecast i the next 36 hours across most parts of the FGW network.  ( yes, the sub tropics of devon & cornwall might see the whie stuff ).  If the forecast is anything to go by, there could be some serious amounts of snow in some places.

I do remember, being a Bristol commuter, the last time it snowed proper in Feb 09, the SVB line was closed for 2 days.  I expect the same to happen this time then.

Just a warning anyway, it could get very messy in FGW land in the next couple of days.

According to the Met Office's Chief Forecaster there is a 40% probability of more than 25cm of snow across a large part of central FGW land. I would think that's enough to cause serious problems...

To give an idea, local BBC forecaster Ian Fergusson gave a rough guide on how bad it will be. In some places it will similar to February 2009, in others the snow of 1981/82 might be a better guide!  :o

Ian's rather informative blog can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/weather/ianfergusson (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/weather/ianfergusson).

TLM

Hmmm - that doesn't look good from Oxford through Wilts / Hants to the south coast!

Update: An extreme weather warning has just been issued for Oxfordshire, Wiltshire (inc. Swindon), West Berkshire, Hampshire (inc. Southampton) and Dorset for between 2000 tonight and 1100 tomorrow.


TLM

there was about an inch or so on the platform and really chucking it down at St Austell this morning but apparently nothing at Truro, so it's patchy down here to say the least. Mid & east cornwall looks bad compared to the West

The Eden Project is closed and most buses have decide they won't be running by 19.00 today

No snow above 5 miles west of Penryn, where I am. Nothing at Penzance either looking on the webcams.

Oh dear.  I'm travelling from Portsmouth to Bristol TM tomorrow, then up the SVB line to Redland.

Not too concerned about the SVB line - I can always walk (albeit dragging my suitcase across Bristol) but I seriously need to get to Bristol before Friday.

Does anyone know what happens to Advance ticket holders when trains are cancelled due to snow?  My ticket is routed Great Western Only and validity Booked Train Only.  I only paid ^4.95 for my ticket, so don't want to be forking out ^17.50 to "upgrade" to an Off-Peak Single if I need to travel the next day or go by a different route.

I wouldn't worry too much Brucey, its raining in Bristol now.  Looks like the usual snow on hills in the countryside, rain in cities and towns.  These weather people always exaggerate.

just get the next train

If the train on which you are booked is cancelled, there will not be a problem if you catch the next one on the same route.  

If you want to travel a different route, then you may need to pay again.  If you need to take a different route because your route is closed the TOCs will probably agree to lift the routing restrictions and allow you take take the alternative route.  Check on the Nationalrailwebsite or ask at your starting station.  

I'd be surprised if important lines were closed.  I expect that there will be disruption but more likely cancelled trains cos of staff unable to get to work (by road) and frozen points, signal failures that sort of thing that will cause delays but be fixed by (cold) guys in orange jackets.

Outside of the third rail network, trains usually keep running just with delays and cancellation and are usually a better option then flying or driving.  

One bit of advice would be to wrap up very warmly.  Some of the rail commuters arriving in my office this mroning were moaning about the heating on some of FGW's DMU's not working very well.    

If you're train is cancelled, call their Customer Service line for info....

I think both of those are good advise in appropriate circumstances.  We have guest leaving by train tomorrow ... and we'll be keeping an eye on live updates so that we can help him on his journey in the statistically unlikely event of a cancellation.  I suspect he won't want to wait for the next train.

FGW statement:

And there isn't a flake of snow after all?.....it could easily be the case!

Grrr - this really makes my blood boil - in years gone by, BR just made as gallant an effort to run trains as possible, and every commuter chose whether or not to travel. No one complained about the eventual service - those choosing to turn up were grateful for efforts made.....

Why on earth can that not happen now???

You're right that the 'Dunkirk' spirit of old may have diminished a little, but having a prepared timetable is no bad thing. Warning the public that it might be in place is also no bad thing. What would be a bad thing is to impose it at the first sign of a flake of snow.

If it really is bad (which we'll see in good time of course) then a proper amended timetable with units, drivers and TM's allocated is a much better starting point than to try and run all the trains. In BR days, to give an example, what quite often happened was that the local service from Oxford-Paddington ran as two shuttle services every 30 minutes, one all stations Reading to Oxford and one all stations Reading to Paddington. That might be a sensible way to operate tomorrow if it's bad.

As is often the case, the biggest problem with resourcing a full service might not be the infrastructure or trains, but the fact that many staff might not be able to get into work.

Knowing FGW, an amended timetable in the case of the Greenford line (which includes trains from Oxford/Reading early in the morning and late at night) means shutting the line - just look at last February!

In my view FGW deserve credit for telling people now to expect disruption tomorrow. Everyone (rightly) moans when train companies don't communicate when there are problems. When they now let everyone know that there is going to be changes tomorrow, people moan again.

Watching the local lunchtime forecast on BBC1 West, it seems that the forecasters have a pretty high confidence in their computer models that are predicting a lot of snow. To quote Richard Angwin, "We are looking at a major weather event. There's no hype with this - this is looking like a really serious situation across our region."

As ChrisB says, there are very good reasons for running an amended timetable. Do all units and HSTs have snow ploughs fitted? I'm not sure, perhaps they want to ensure that those units with ploughs are used in the areas expected to have the worst snow fall. On the other hand, they may just be taking the easy way out - we won't really know until tomorrow.

TLM

I don't think there are any ploughs available these days - maybe the odd one that can be fitted to a loco....but it won't be south of Birmingham / Mancherster, that's for sure!

A major reason for the advance notification is that to avoid penalties on performance, a replacement timetable has to be in place and notified by 6pm. So it runs even with no snow.....

That is what needs changing!

It's one of the first services to go - perhaps understandably. If you're short of drivers because they can't get in to work, then if you're running an all stations shuttle from Reading to Paddington that would mop up Hanwell, West Ealing and Acton ML. Greenford itself is largely covered by the Central Line, and so that leaves just Castle Bar Park and Drayton Green both of which are on bus routes or within walking distance from West Ealing.


No HST's or units have snow ploughs. I don't think there are any dedicated snow plough trains in the south of England either. Luckily that probably won't be a problem tonight though as there is little wind in our regions so drifting won't be a major factor.


Yes indeed, as you say they might assume the worst and operate far fewer trains than they could do.

There have been two parked in a siding at Barton Hill near Bristol Temple Meads for ages. Big black things with 'Network Rail' logos. Look like the sort of thing that would be attached to a loco. You can even see them on Google Earth.

Pretty sure Bristol is south of Birmingham/Manchester.....

Good to hear it.....

It is now snowing (and has settled) here, just north of Portsmouth.  Probably about 1cm at the moment on our front drive.

Awaiting the timetable with anticipation.

Nothing as usual in "The English Riviera" however its going to be rather icy tomorrow"!! eek.

Just you wait and see - may well be snow in those palm trees yet!

Certainly lots of it falling on the Cotswolds right now. I have put a few snowy scenes taken this afternoon at Moreton-in-Marsh station here http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/)

The town was pretty much shut down by 4pm. The post office staff told me stuff I had posted wasn't going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest, as they weren't risking sending a van to Gloucester sorting office this evening in case it couldn't get back - entirely sensible looking at the state of the A429 at the end of my road right now.

As for snowploughs, I suspect what Last Minute meant, rather than a great big black loco-powered one, was something like these that were fitted to many older locos every winter http://www.trainweb.org/cfa/dalzell/history.html

I suspect the obstacle deflectors on 66s and some units, like a number of these 150s http://www.therailwaycentre.com/Pages%20DMU/Recognition%20DMU/IllusDMU_150.html will function as ploughs if the snow is deep enough, though I'm not sure what the fairings on the front of Turbos are like if they encounter deep snow.

See Stobart Rail have had a derailment incident with one of their freight trains, at Carrbridge between Inverness and Aviemore.

BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8441120.stm)

If I remember last February when London was hit by significant snow we had no buses as councils failed to grit roads that bus garages were on, nearly the whole tube system was suspended... meanwhile the Greenford branch was out of action for nearly the whole week - I can't remember if there were services going to Reading or somewhere that stopped at Acton Main Line, but certainly the Greenfords weren't.

I have heard all sorts of stories today saying stuff like the snow is coming down from the Midlands, there has even been snow in Devon today, but there seems to be certainty of the snow hitting Oxfordshire and Berkshire so I can see services from Oxford and Reading being hit tomorrow, and the first two trains of the day at AML come from Oxford and Reading, so I could be in for a day or two at home!

Incidentally, I must just say well done to the person(s) responsible for gritting at AML - it seemed very well covered on the platforms and footbridge tonight.

Amended timetable now posted at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4624 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4624)

Some lowlights:

From what I can gather - isnt that just normal service?

I was just thinking their usage of the plural of "service" was a little disingenuous

And unfortunately, they seem to have got the departure times of the cancelled services from London and Cardiff the wrong way round... should be 15 past from Paddington, 55 past from Cardiff.

The 55 minutes past the hour service to London is always the first to be cancelled from Cardiff, I guess because people can make do with the 25 minutes past the hour service.

Also because the xx25 services start back in Swansea at xx29 the previous hour, so cancelling the xx55 CDF-PAD inconveniences fewer people than the xx25.

I'll stick my neck out here, and say that the amended timetable might not go far enough come the morning - especially regarding the Cotswold Line, Oxfordshire and Berkshire services - as the white stuff really is starting to come down in hefty amounts.

I believe (anecdotally) the Cardiff services are a fair bit quieter than the Swansea services. In the same way trains from Exeter to London or the North are usually much busier if they started at Penzance than at Plymouth. People like their direct trains.

Snow coming down nicely where I am to, which Fallen Angel knows so good luck if she is coming in to work tomorrow.

Nope

I exited Reading on the 1348 this afternoon and plan to work from home in my jammies tomorrow!

Especially since some knob knocked me over in Reading station this morning and I can now barely walk!  It didnt seem too bad at the time.

From looking out the window I'd say that will probably be a good choice :P

I've cancelled all my plans for tomorrow.

I can't even get to the end of my road in the car, let alone make it to the station.  The nearest main road (which has a bus route) is completely impassible.

In addition, all services on the SVB line are cancelled and I assume most 8/9 buses will be cancelled so I don't really have any way of getting home once at BTM.

I'm assuming that as my connection to Redland is cancelled, I would be able to get a full refund on my advance ticket (which is from Portsmouth) as I'm not going to make any of the journey?

DB Schenker (EWS) - and apparently it is only their first few days of the contract.

Stobart Rail Blue is really just an advertising livery, they might by now be thinking EWS or DB would have been less embarrassing...

Paul

Well in Reading, the buses stopped running at 7pm. As for 'good old BR' the problem is, as they found, the damage caused to units (like traction motor blowers sucking snow in) means that it can take days/ weeks to repair them all meaning a large knock on effect. i'm sure DMU's also suffer (frozen doors for example) as well.

I would hope so.....

Train services seem to be holding up pretty well tonight - the Cotswold Line is up the creek but everything between Paddington and Oxford/Swindon/Westbury corridor is running fairly well.  The test will be when the services stop running in a couple of hours and if the snow keeps on falling throughout the night.  It looks like it's going to as the weather front that's come in from the north-west all day is now stalling and being forced slowly back in an anti-clockwise directon (as predicted) over the home counties as the colder air coming in from the north-east hits it.  As an amateur meteorologist my Dad is very over-excited!

We did have a little break from snow coming down in mid-evening, but it has started again and we have about four inches on the ground now.

And FGW are still managing to run some trains on the Cotswold Line, whereas I certainly wouldn't be venturing out anywhere on a road in the North Cotswolds right now, though there are inevitably a few 4x4 owners who seem to think that they are immune from any potential problems. Just hope the police don't have to go out to try to rescue any of them.

Should probably check first thing tomorrow but planning Leeds to Falmouth tomorrow, via Padd, any warnings at present?  :-\

Best advice would have to be see what they say in the morning. The area the Berks and Hants route runs through is expected to get a lot of snow overnight and into the morning.

BBC has a handy little satellite projection thing showing where they think the snow is going to be over the coming hours at http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209

PS Just noticed on national rail site that East Coast will be running a slimmed-down Leeds-London service on Wednesday.

PPS and for the record, the 21.48 from London to Worcester is running all of three minutes late approaching Evesham, and the last Hereford-London train was right time into Oxford, so congratulations to the FGW crews and the Network Rail signallers and any blokes with shovels who may have been deployed to keep points working in some pretty extreme conditions in the Cotswolds tonight. Hope they all get home safely.

And those with an iPhone might like to check out the WeatherPro App which if you buy and subscribe (both very reasonably priced) then you can get a 15 minute interval radar map (as well as lots more) showing what's happened the last 8 hours and a forecast for the next 2 hours. I was able to predict when the first flake would fall where I was to the nearest 15 minutes earlier. 

A comment from Driver Potter about the current operational difficulties on his blog (http://wimbledonparkdepot.spaces.live.com/blog/fakehandlerpage.aspx?sa=330582501)

Tis snowing in Bristol.  Nothing major, but a dusting nevertheless.

Very dissappointed to read of the SVB line closure though.  Apart from Avonmouth - SVB stretch, I don't understand why this line always shuts after a dusting of snow.  Was closed in Feb 09, the West Countries last snowfall.

Do not take thje BBC map to heart though as apparently it had passed where I live in West Wales yesterday with there being no snow in the area tonight. This however is not the case and it is worse tonight than yesterday when it was expected to snow so do not believe everything it says. Only trust your eyes and the window  ;D

thats correct matt unfortunatly the forcasters seem to be getting worse... or the weather more unpredictable!

Well they weren't wrong here in the Cotswolds - just stuck a ruler into the snow outside the front door - 10 inches, or 25cms - so pretty accurate predictions i'd say and the BBC map was spot on here yesterday too, showing snow from about noon, which was what happened. They also said Hampshire would cop it badly and it has.

Unfortunately the NR site has crashed...anyone recommend an alternative...would Leeds to Truro direct be better today? or just go back to bed!

Go to bed, go directly to bed, do not pass Truro and do not spend ^200 would be my advice.

It's not so much the snow that's out there (couple of inches in west Wilts overnight) but the snow that's to come...

Pretty much as predicted in my part of the world. Met Office said 10-15cm, just stuck a ruler in the snow on the path outside me front door - 11cm. And it's still snowing......

HaHa...thanks Phil...postponed ;D

One doesn't like to be critical of the hand that feeds it, you know...

About 12" snow here in the Cotswolds overnight, walked down to the station to find Teresa (cotswold stations manager) clearing snow and gritting paths and platform. Stopping service about 20min late after being started from Moreton. Trains being queued at Moreton due to frozen points. NR website not operating to be able to get updates and CIS screens useless due to no updates.

Individual TOCs appear to be doing their very best to marshal resources to provide as good a service as possible.

However if you want to check whether a particular service is running then you can't do so via the NRE website. As is usual during disruption the website cannot cope and is down at the moment. This has happened before and I think ATOC would've been wiser spending money to prevent this, rather than on a cosmetic change to the website's layout.

Pictures from within the last hour from Trowbridge (nearly full service) and Melksham (service suspended)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tr_0110_snow.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/mk_0110_snow.jpg)

Heading to Kent later and having compared websites, FGW are doing a damn site better than SET. I know FGW don't have third rail to contend with, but it isn't even snowing in Kent and unless you travel on HS1 (which is 3rd rail after Ashford), then you need to leave London by about 1900 tonight.

Third rail's problem isn't so much with snow as with ice freezing in the railhead.  I expect that they want to get most people home before the temperature really drops and ice becomes a big problem, although the best way to keep ice off the third rail is to run trains (IIRC, NR sometimes run some empty trains through the night for this purpose)

Well done to FGW I had a smooth journey from Henley to Reading this morning. In conditions like this the train really comes into its own. Although there are a few cancellations, by and large if you want to get somewhere by train you can although it will take longer. Weel done to all the staff for coming out today - your efforts are much appreciated!

I agree.  All the Portsmouth-Cardiff services have run with a maximum delay of 20 minutes.  The only problem I've had is that I couldn't get to/from the station to actually use the service!

Probably about an inch in Torbay, so we didn't fair too badly.

Just drove out of the drive and that was a little bit dodgy.

Though I note the press have often been talking as if the service was completely disrupted. Maybe it's time for the railway to highlight how well it's done today.

Do you really think that our wonderful truth telling press (sic) are interested in publishing good news

Spare a thought for a SE driver friend of mine. He's on  the first Victoria-Maidstone East via Ashford turn tomorrow. He's about 50% confident of getting there......Electrostars and iced 3rd rail are not a happy mix.

Sorry,  I was having a wildly optimistic moment again.  Don't worry, it's gone away now.

Not so much a complaint - more an observation. Why do FGW stick to using stock phrases when describing disruptions? The reasons given for no services on the SVB line and TransWilts are 'Line Problems due to poor weather conditions'. The reality should be 'FGW have cancelled all services on these lines in order to marshal resources to provide a better service elsewhere'

Definetely a big hooray to some of the staff.

My contact who works in Truro left his house at 4 this morning, walked 6 miles into StAustell to catch the overnight train from London to Truro just to sell tickets. Whilst waiting at St.Austell he helped the staff there to clear snow off the access to the station and the platforms as well as trying to get a stuck National Express bus out of the station forecourt.

When asked by a less enthusiastic member of staff why he had done it his reply was "I am a railwayman, it's what I do."

WOW!!

hhmm.. FGW website says it is operating an amended timetable tomorrow and I need to travel from Maidenhead to Paddington..

I'm hoping the information is incomplete at the moment as it doesn't really tell me much about Maidenhead.. It says that a full Oxford to Paddington service will be running but that Bedwyn trains will only go as far as Reading then back to Bedwyn again..Also Henley trains won't be coming this way as they will only be going between Twyford and Henley. Unfortunately I don't know which of those are trains that stop at Maidenhead or not.. I assume some trains will be affected and some won't.. I guess I'll have to get up really early to check the departures board to see what is running and want isn't before setting out..

Oh and also they say "Windsor to Slough - Services will terminate and start at Slough".. phew thank goodness for that unless they wanted to go through station buildings.... ;D ;D

<rant> ..... {expletive deleted} ..... </rant>  The roads are perfectly passable and the snow hasn't even reached the top of the rails. 

The actual reason is to stop the issue of points freezing in the position of the Severn Beach line or Melksham, thus causing much greater disruption.

K. kinda makes sense I suppose. But there are diverging routes off of mainlines all over the network.....

Sky have gone for the two-edged approach - their report being repeated every few minutes on Sky News includes this about the current train service "Much of the railway network has already given up the fight. Trains in sidings. Services wiped-out". Delivered in a suitably armageddon style voice by the reporter. Then on the horizontal 'breaking news' banner at the bottom it's saying something like "latest info from ATOC, 60% of trains on time, 35% running late, and 5% cancelled". 

Hardly being 'wiped-out' - and as for trains in sidings, you could get plenty of overhead shots of that any day of the week between the two peaks! ::)

Probably best to get down there in time to get a local train what would get you to Paddington in time, Jo. That was if any of the fasts aren't running or are delayed you'll probably be OK.

Not quite sure what time you're heading out, but the following fast trains from Maidenhead come through from Didcot/Oxford so should be OK; 06:31, 06:41, 07:02, 07:07, 07:17 and 07:59 (also note the 07:07 comes through from Worcester, so that'd be doing well not to be delayed).

Thanks for the info.. I was hoping to get a train between 7.30 and 8.00... Perhaps I'll aim for the 7.17 although it depends on how icy it is in the morning as I've a half hour walk to the station first which might take longer than that if I'm trying not to fall over (which, rather sadly, usually makes me laugh  ;D)

Gives a new slant to the phrase 'fall over laughing' I suppose!

Had no trouble travelling with FGW today... Westbury > Frome > Westbury... both outward and return bang on time ;D got some nice pictures of the snow i'll add tomorrow :)

I also had no trouble travelling with FGW today. I didn't travel  ;D

Trains on the SVM tomorrow....

Which just makes me think that the closure of the SVB line was an over-reaction. If pointwork really was the issue then it is likely to be more problematical tomorrow with much lower temperatures.

Thats what I used to think until it was explained to me that frozen points most often occur when it snows as it melts then freezes the points in the position they are in when there are sub zero temperatures. I'm sure someone could probably give a much better technical explanation than what I have just written.

I've posted a picture of Teresa and one of her helpers taking a break from snow clearance at Kingham while the 06.43 from Hereford called this morning, running 95 minutes late, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

I believe they were station-hopping by train, as the roads were none too clever. Moreton-in-Marsh also got a big clear-up later in the day. Returned home on the 17.22 from London, which was 23 late leaving Oxford. Not sure why, as it was only about three or four late from Paddington.

Many of the problems on the Cotswold Line today were down to good old-fashioned single-line knock-on issues, rather than the weather. The 15.51 to Worcester was terminated at Oxford, not sure why, but the HST was in good health and formed the 18.01 to London, complete with Worcester destination labels.

The points at Moreton were under a lot of snow, rather than frozen. Not sure whether Keith, who was providing updates from the signalbox on the 06.43's progress, or the track gang who were also in evidence, had done the digging-out and applied de-icer.

Reference the posts on the SVB line, various precautions like that were taking place all over the network.  At Oxford, for example, both through lines were closed will all freight being routed through the platforms to ensure that points didn't fail after a freight had roared through and thus leaving the platform lines inaccessible.  Most of the freight loops were also closed for the same reason.  That might also have something to do with the Bicester cancellations as well - they're all off tomorrow.

The deep levels of snow were also showing in graphic detail just how effective the points heaters installed on most sets of points are!

I really like that Old original...and they are spotted about, still, over the system. That is undoubtedly what the railway, and indeed public service, is about...something that seems to fall below the radar of certain political types!!

So thanks OO for just reminding us that it indeed still exists. :)

WillC is absolutely right about the closure of lines and loops to limit the use of points. The Didcot Avoider was closed for most of the day, and the branch line trains to Twyford, Marlow and Slough were "locked in" to the branches - so no through trains to/from Paddington. That's why the Melksham, Bicester and SVB services were cut. Don't forget that these lines are also used by freight services, which increases the dependency on reliable points.

The problem with the points in snow is about detection. Too much snow between the blades stops them from fully closing which stops detection of the safe closure of the blades. That stops the signalling, and it needs a human being to clear out the points. Network Rail position "snowmen" at the strategic junctions that have to be kept clear (e.g. Wolvercote), but don't have enough resource to staff every set of points.

Network Rail has a plan for extreme weather that includes all of the above and more (such as reduction in the number of services, cutting back of through services). It is Network Rail that decides when to implement the plan. FGW is required to go along with it, as are other TOCs and FOCs. The earlier suggestion that FGW had deliberately implemented a reduced timetable to avoid PPM failures is complete nonsense.

The 1551 to Worcester terminated at Oxford today because it was nearly 30 mins late and there was no space on the single line for it, for the up Cotswold service that forms the 1736 from Oxford to Padd, and for the 1731 all stations Oxford to Worcester. The latter is normally a two car DMU and forms a connection off the 1723 arrival into Oxford from Padd. Something had to give, so the decision was made to terminate the 1551 and use the HST off the 1723 arrival to form the 1731, vice the two car turbo. In the circumstances, it was the least worse solution! The stock off the 1551 was then used to form the 1801 to Padd, as you say, vice the HST that had gone to Worcester.

Thank-you for that Oxman, it's all becoming clearer now. I refer to my knowledge of pointwork and not the weather of course!

Wasn't me - devonmetro and Insider noted those issues.

Thanks Oxman for your post.

I took the 18.36 HST (to Exeter St Davids I think) from Paddington to Reading last night and the train ran slow all the way to Slough along the relief lines before switching to the main lines.  The train manager said it was due to a revised timetable being in place.  I was confused at the time as this didn't explain why we couldn't run on the main line all the way but your post probably explains why if the points were locked in and that effectively only one set of tracks was available for Paddington <-> Reading.  Does that sound right?

Boppy.

Help please!!

SVB Line, alledgedly an hourly service today but I can find no accurate departure information for Shirehampton. NRE (website and telephone) useless. No amended timetable on FGW website. Anyone out there know what the ammended departure times are for the service today. I don't wanna be walking to the station to discover nowt is running, I won't be a happy bunny.

Oh, it's nice to know that the 1715 AVN-BRI is cancelled. Any chance of some more current information FGW?

BNM, have you tried the following?

FGW tweets on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NRE_FirstGW (latest update: No trains between Cheltenham Spa / Gloucester and Bristol Parkway until further notice - 30 minutes ago)

National Rail updates on Twitter http://twitter.com/nationalrailenq (they're posting something every minute or so at the moment)

The ever relieable and brilliantly designed Chester-le-track site: http://www.chester-le-track.co.uk/ (takes feeds from National Rail but seems to have a back door in, as reports are coming through even when the National Rail site is showing as down - currently all trains out of Shirehampton appear to be cancelled)

National Rail mirror site: http://ow.ly/TAF0

Recorded info:  0845 301 7641

Thanks Phil. I've exhausted all information feeds, that's why I asked here for possible 'insider' info. Giving it up as a bad job. Have to be the bus instead. First Bus in Bristol's info appears to be up to date an accurate.

Thanks for that, Oxman.

Explains a great deal.

It would be nice if it could be included in a "this is what we have to do in bad weather" page on the National Rail website.

Hi peeps

In Windsor at the moment, looking at FGW website as trying to get to work in Newport South Wales tomorrow and don't drive. Conditions look appalling, are any trains running to South Wales for as far as I can see they're either severely delayed or cancelled. On FGW website it says this:

South Wales to Paddington - All services to and from Swansea will operate. Services from Cardiff to Paddington at 55 minutes past the hour and from Paddington to Cardiff at 15 minutes past the hour will be suspended. What does this mean as it bears no relation to the liveboards departure?

Going to call to say its extremly doubtful whether I can make it. At least the cricket is exciting!

There appears to be an incident somewhere between Newport SW and Bristol PW which may not be weather related:

You won't have any problems.

The following trains will run (only 1 per hour)
Paddington xx45
Reading xx 11
Swindon xx38
Bristol Parkway xx07
Newport S Wales xx31

In the other direction
Newport xx39
Bristol Parkway xx01
Swindon xx28
Reading xx02
Paddington xx30

running an hourly service tomorrow according to this on severn beach line.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4624

I went from Plymouth to Paddington yesterday and arrived 40 late and Paddington to Plymouth today (Via Bristol) and arrived 10 late.  Passing through a blizzard at Pewsey yesterday the train conductor mentioned over the PA that you couldn't travel at this speed on the roads (we were doing normal speed at this point 110mph) :D  There were smiles all around.

A couple of interesting things:  Have HST drivers been instructed to test the brakes every 15 mins or so (to prevent ice build up in the air pipes?) and found the vestibles full of snow (more of a slipping hazard than some station platforms).

Any way well done to FGW and its staff :D :D

WARNING.....rant ahead.

Exactly as stated TODAY!!! I am aware of this, others are aware of this, but only FGW appear to be aware of an actual timetable. They singularly failed to publish one today for the SVB line. Journey Planners continue to show all services as cancelled tonight and all services subject to disruption tomorrow. It just isn't on to tell us that an amended timetable will be in place and then not bother to tell the travelling public what this timetable consists of.

Today I decided against walking to Shirehampton and instead got a bus (nearly 3 times the cost for me) as I could not be sure when or if a train was due to depart. NRE were no help, FGW Customer Service were no help, even a call to FGW Towers in Swindon was no help.

Now, I do appreciate the current operational difficulties but an 'amended timetable' and 'services are subject to delay' gives the impression that despite problems, trains are actually running. I suspect the reality today was that nothing was going up and down the SVB line. Anyone know different, because I sure as hell don't?

Rant over.

sorry, was only trying to help, although it does have times of the trains does that not help?

My apologies clevedonian. Sorry. In my anger I didn't re-check the link whilst typing. It was amended as I posted. I'm a bit happier now I know the times, would've been nice to have had them for today as well.

Also Oxford-Bicester Town services resume tomorrow

I checked the NR departures board this morning before leaving home (since there was little other information for Maidenhead to Paddington anywhere) and even that bore little relation to what was actually happening on the trains when I got there 25 minutes later... One example was the Henley trains which the FGW website said (quite rightly) were only doing Henley to Twyford and back.. The NR website had them as running until they became late and then obviously not running.. It made me wonder where I could actually look for accurate information?

I notice the services at Melkshem today is only a slight improvement on yesterday when nothing ran...


 :P

Yes standard procedure when it is snowing


It would help if people shut the windows !!

I have just travelled down to Plymouth. I have hand it to the two teams on the Taunton train and the connection onwards - they were really excellent. Plenty of updates and really helpful TM's both trains. Despite points failure and frozen water so they could not top up the water tanks on the toilets - the delay was only 30mins.

[/quote]

It would help if people shut the windows !!
[/quote]

I always shut the windows when I walk through an HST ::)  The snow appeared to be coming up throughthe corridor connection ;)

Well have just got the bus back from Temple Meads as services on the SVB line have been cancelled all day as far as I can tell. The amended timetable looked good on paper but staff at BRI told me that nothing has been on or off the branch since this morning. With tomorrow's journey into town that'll be ^16 in bus fares this week as opposed to ^6 if I'd been able to catch the train. Ho hum....shouldn't moan to much I guess. Those at the coalface are doing a sterling job and I witnessed some excellent Customer Service at BRI today. However both staff and the travelling public have been badly let down by those responsible for co-ordinating train running information. Again today I was told on the phone that a service was running 10 minutes before departure time only to discover on arrival at BRI that it had been cancelled, with staff telling me it was cancelled well over a hour ago.

I've been keeping my eye on JourneyCheck all day and the only service that appears to be running is the Weston to Avonmouth service.

From railnews.co.uk (http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/general/2010/01/08-the-freeze-goes-on-signal.html):

Proper rush hour at the Cotswold Line halts tonight: 10 got off at Finstock (the most I've ever seen there), half-a-dozen at Ascott-under-Wychwood (about usual) and a dozen at Shipton (equalling the most I've ever seen), where we also picked up one person - something of a novelty. Not sure about Combe, as I was sat on the far side from the platform and the lighting is no great shakes. Saw two get off there from the coach I was in.

Finstock and Shipton outdid the numbers leaving at Kingham, but the roads around there are still pretty bad, as far as I can tell, so getting to and from the station must be very difficult.

The trains are the only public transport in the Evenlode Valley right now - all the railbus links and other buses are suspended until further notice due to the snow and ice - so it is to be hoped that FGW can attract a bit more long-term custom from some people who may well have been trying the trains for the first time.

From the Oxford Mail (http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/4842632.SNOW__Weekend_train_services_update/):

More heavy snow is expected Tuesday and Wednesday over the west Country, the South West and South Wales.  Up to 20cm locally.

In parts of the country that rarely see snow, I expect more disruption this week.   :-X

Yes, that Atlantic Front is likely to disrupt Cornwall & Devon particularly.

Just watching to see how far north-east it is going to get - I suspect further than forecast. Let's hope it's not as active either!

Credit (to FGW) when it is due...since the 17th December I have had to abandon my daily 5-mile cycle commute and use a combination of WFH and the Avocet Line between DIG & EXC; in that time I have completed 8 return journeys using the 0703 / 0733 ex-DIG and 1654 ex-EXC and the maximum delay has been 5 minutes. To provide such a reasonable service when many of the local roads were unusable is I think pretty good.
On one particularly icy morning the FGW white van man was at Digby & Sowton station very early in the morning treating the platform and approaches with de-icer.

Oh THAT'S where he was! Explains why Melksham station didn't get treated then.  ;D

And the Network Rail 4x4 white pick-up men were out in force in the Cotswolds today, replacing the gas bottles for the point heaters and tackling some problem at Ascott-under-Wychwood - described as signalling-related, points or axle counter? - which caused 45-minute delays to several services, including the 09.29 Moreton-London and 08.22 London-Hereford. The 8.58 from Malvern was terminated at Oxford, also 45 late, and I think a Malvern-bound working was stopped there too, to avoid further single-line knock-on problems.

Thought it was worth putting a weather update on here...


TLM

Brilliant!

Our snow is forecast around 1400/1500 and I have to drive at this time. Might be interesting what with the bitter easterly wind.

Indeed. I am on this afternoon (trundling round the Brizzle - Westbury area) and don't finish until 01:00 tomorrow morning. Might get to use the 'extra' gear lever on the Fourtrak later on for getting home then....

Perhaps Network Rail might find a use for 37706 (mini snow plough fitted) they have hired in from WCRC and stabled at BK then.

Typically its falling as rain! (In torbay at least - no doubt its hellish on Dartmoor)

The forecast was always for rain on the coast....

Light snow falling in Nailsea now - outside temperature is 0^oC.

Light dusting of snow here in Redland too - about half a centimetre but it is still snowing lightly.

Just spoken to somebody who is trapped in their car on the A380 between Torbay & Exeter, and are likely to have to stay their all night. Fun.

we came back from bridgewater, heavy rain some sleat, exeter and east devon apart from honiton are heavy rain,honiton up the a30 towards chard and yeovil heavy snow,as you now telegraph hill closed, diversion via dawlish gridlocked with heavy rain and flooding predicted,if it freezes its looking bad!

Torquay seafront closed due to the large waves. I couldn't even see the sea today due to the density of the rain/sleet

14.06 pad - pnz got a salty rinse at dawlish this afternoon

From the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8454406.stm):

i gather several busses are stuck on the A38 / A380 also busses stuck in Oakhampton, will be intresting to see how deep it does get in the bath area its been snowing since 5pm all be it light its causeing lots of problems on the roads hopefully trains will run okay

More "global warming" being moved at Warminster !

(http://i50.tinypic.com/2ptc3yb.jpg)

Top work done here, clearing the 'global warming'  :D

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/Picture015a.jpg)

 ;) :D ;D

Visited Bodmin Parkway today (thick fog & still icy).
Platform 2 has been badly affected by the frosts, the paving slabs are at all sorts of odd angles - platform 1 being mostly tarmac is OK.
 

Had the following email from FGW this morning. Seems they are quite happy with how they fared during the wintry weather. I've think that with a few notable exceptions (i.e. the Severn Beach & Swindon to Westbury lines) FGW did deliver a very good service and on several occasions last week it was the only public transport still running. Well done to all the staff involved!


TLM

I got an explanation re the Severn Beach line's service cancellations and it's down to the 4 sets of points that Network Rail wanted to pin to Main Line operation, hence isolating the line.

I'm not an expert on pointwork, but do the points at Narroways Junction onto the SVB line not have points heaters fitted?

Apparently not.

And point heaters keep frost at bay, buty aren't designed to melt snow.

Yep, that confirms what's written elsewhere - thanks, Chris.   Did you get an explanation re: the TransWilts, which they were suddenly able to reopen when they wanted it as a diversiionary route?

No, but I can ask.....

Thanks, Chris!

I think you probably answered your own question Graham.

And coming next, flooding. The Thames is now on Flood Watch through Oxford, with a lot of melted snow heading downstream from the Cotswolds, so probably touch-and-go time again at Kennington junction. The Environment Agency did a fair bit of clearance work on the river channels through Oxford last year so we shall see if that helps keep the track and signals dry.

 First two X/C's started at Exeter this morning, not much good if you are stood at Totnes.

 High Tide at Dawlish.

With a S/Westerly Wind?? eh ???

 Yeah , checked journey planner.

 But forgot to check the Tides Table and Shipping forcast - blame myself completely.

Barnstaple line flooded and landslide around Liskaerd was delaying trains 60-90minutes.

Was at Bodmin Parkway awaiting an HST.... CIS says train arriving but all unreserved seats are occupied - I'm thinking what's happening in Cornwall today that I don't know about ??

Eventually in rolled a 150 !!!!...inside was wet with condensation from many bodies.

CIS didn't show a delay till well after the train was late, staff knew nothing about the landslide, no apology or mention of connecting services.

 

Was at Lelant Saltings today as Network Rail arrived to look at the frost damage - a large boot managed to dislodge flakes of paving from the platform edge.
It hasn't been that cold here and the Saltings are right by a warm mass of water - hardly surprising then that the inland elevated station platforms have been so badly affected - I gather most of Liskeard is unusable.

sounds similar to the shocking state of the local roads!

Don't know about Platform 1 at Liskeard (didn't notice major probs), but the access from Plaftform 2 to the branch platform was fenced off when I was there last week. I had to hike up the switchback (!) and then wander down the car park to get to the branch line. Weren't travelling to Looe, just wanted a couple of pics!

More snow forecast for Tuesday night / Wednesday in Oxfordshire, according to the BBC weather site (Banbury / Oxford).

Haven't explored to see how far south / southwest it'll start...

Same reason - clipping the points for mainline working. Once the diversionary route was needed, the points were simply clipped for working in that direction. THe requirement bbeing that the points were only being changed when it was absolutely necessary.

I received my refund today from The Train Line (bought on FGW website).  They didn't even ask for the tickets back - just sent them an email to say the service was cancelled and I chose not to travel.

'Heavy snow' forecast for Bristol tonight: outside temperature here is 4^oC.

Rain/ Sleet now for Oxfordshire.....

Light rain here - outside temperature still 4^oC.  ???

Photos of icicles inside tunnels on the Settle & Carlisle:
http://therailwaycutting.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-snow-pics.html (http://therailwaycutting.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-snow-pics.html)

You never know, we may need this topic again this year.

Saw the first grit of the season on the bridge at Acton Main Line this foggy Tuesday morning, although the ground wasn't particularly icy (walkable in normal shoes!), but the handrails on the stairs were slightly icy!

Winter's comin'!

Our station car park was like an ice rink this morning - so correct to put salt down, I reckon

even in the far west of cornwall has been freezing, sunday night i finished work at 2am, and leaving work had to heavily de-ice the car, the traction control light then kept flashing trying to get out the car park, vauxhall in there genius on the newest Vectras put full time traction control without a button to deactivate when conditions require!

Early morning class 319s struggled on the Catford loop line in London early today and yesterday,presumably due to ice on conductor rail, first time Ive noticed it this year.

Lots of weather services seem to be in agreement that many areas of the UK could see the first snows of the winter by late next week - FGW be advised!

Eastern areas mainly

Snowdon had a light covering of snow yesterday. Overnight from Saturday.

The Brocken has 27 cm from the webcam

http://webcam.netco.de/hsb/webcams/brocken/brocken_bhf.php (http://webcam.netco.de/hsb/webcams/brocken/brocken_bhf.php)

Note run round points cleared.

Mainly, but not exclusively. According to BBC West weatherman Ian Fergusson's Twitter feed...


How much snow does it take to bring this country to a standstill? Although, to be fair, FGW was the most reliable and quickest way to get into Bristol during the snow last Feb.

TLM

Similar suggested by my local weather forecast...

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l50/liamy_2006/Capture.jpg)

humm im sure i will see some this week across exmoor, im just glad i dont have to do porlock this year

It is now snowing here in Cotham (Bristol).  Starting to lay on the car roofs but not cold enough to lay on the ground yet.

Perhaps it's a bit colder here, outside Bristol: snow is now settling quite thickly on grass, gravel and untreated road surfaces.  ;)

It's snowing in Frome and settling slightly here in Frome too...!

It's a bit of a bummer because my Mother has decided to exploit my railcard privilages and has ordered me to travel to Cardiff to collect her best friend, who shall we say, is having a few issues in the home with her partner :-X

Then i'm off to Essex immediately after that... ;D

Probably not the best day to be travelling ::) :o ;D

But i'll charge my camera and post a quiz as I haven't done one in a while... ;) :)

I'm told there is a light covering in Congrebury (nr Weston)

Nothing down here in Southampton...yet

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11844563):

I've seen reports suggesting areas like South Molton and Witheridge had snow today, so I'm guessing Tiverton Parkway might have seen some - just seen some quite snowy footage on Spotlight via the Sky box too.

The Met Office says London may see some snow over this weekend, and also has an advisory of BLIZZARDS for Tuesday!

So, snow plus a tube strike could be fun on Monday - NOT!

Not really railway related but after being parked up in a broken down van for 3 hours hit watchet once up and running again and was greeted by a blizzard then when I finally finished nearly got stuck in luxborough ... 45 min detour ... I hate vans I hate parcels I hate snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To Chesterfield tomorow so will give you all a railway related snow story tomorow fingers crossed it's a hst

Ian Fergusson's latest twitter message is a worry...


Definitely worth keeping an eye on!

TLM

Think north somerset was spared and it went down the coast

We've had a light flurry here in north-west Bristol, this am. Nothing to write home about.

Seems to concur with my quote from yesterday.


Interestingly, looking at the forecast on the BBC website, it doesn't mention anything about snow for London on Tuesday, it seems this weather is unpredictable, or the person writing the forecast for the BBC doesn't agree with the Met Office!

Light dusting of snow at Moreton-in-Marsh since last night but have yet to venture further afield so don't know what it's like on the highest bits of the Cotswolds.


The Met Office's warning for Tuesday is advisory at this stage, as it depends on the track taken by rain moving up from the south-west and hitting cold air blowing from the north. But the BBC is currently forecasting light snow in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Bucks and Berks on Tuesday, so not that far from London...

The advisory for blizzards for Tuesday and Wednesday has now been removed from the met office website and replaced with an advisory for heavy and drifting snow for the North, East and South East. The low pressure system that was due to bring the blizzard conditions is now forecast to stay further south over France than originally thought. The Southwest has no advisories for the next 5 days but that will probably change at some point.

Feel a bit sorry for Ian Fergusson as he has been quiet on both his blog and Twitter for days about the wintry weather. When he does mention something the forecast weather pattern changes.

Nailsea looks white

Advisory of snow, which may be heavy for a time, in London tomorrow. Could see disruption to FGW services. Keep an eye out!

Beginning to think portishead is in a protective bubble - yes its cold, but looking over at the M5 the hills over to nailsea look snow covered - I'm hearing about snow around the SW but not a flake has fallen

heres a couple of pictures i took this morning from my bedroom windows near Camborne in cornwall,
I got the vectra out without so much of a wheelspin or slide despite being a fair distance from the road, as for the corsa its well and truly stuck in depsite being on a drive way directly onto the lane,

First of the problems on our region's train due to the snowAlso affecting SN and FCC.

And sounds pretty grim in those parts again today


FGW service is thinned out and those Turbos that are running making extra stops between Reading and Redhil. Pattern both ways includes the following calls:


Southern's website says it isn't running Redhill to Reigate due to signalling problems and no through Brighton services at the moment due to a crippled train at Gatwick standing across the main lines (presumably during a shunt) caused by ice on conductor rails. Rescue loco on scene.

Overheard Mark Hopwood on the phone this morning (sat nearly opposite him) getting a little bit irate with a control room somewhere- whether it was his own or Network Rail's I don't know. Comments along the lines of "well why can't we get a second train per hour down there?" "Is the line completely blocked?"

should imagine it was reading to reigate.  Hourly service for most of the day.

Oh you never know, he might have been talking about Melksham....

Strictly speaking, it's the same control room - but with different teams (hopefully working together!)  ::)



Nice one, Phil!  ;) :D ;D

Weather radar at 0045 on Thursday morning looks worrying...

TLM

nope - portishead is stil spared

Maybe this should be in 'The Lighter Side'...

On the BBC R4 Today programme this morning short interviews were conducted with some members of the (supposed to be) travelling public on the subject of travel disruption. One of the responses was 'it (the weather) is not that bad. The Tube is OK, so why can they not keep the trains running?'.

Probably not scheduled for an appearance on Mastermind any time soon.

Latest update for our region appears to be mainly problematic around Gatwick Airport again
Particularly bad for Southern trains.  All their services were suspended until about 5 minutes ago, when they started operating a half hourly service between London Bridge and East Croydon.

I want snow - there is snow at the old house - waaaah!

There were also helpful comments about how much better prepared they are in Canada and Sweden... well I think we'd expect they would be!

But on the lighter side they quoted a Greman headline. To the effect

"Berlin Snowbound"

Hope they clear it by February the 7th.

Trains running through Southampton albeit with delays, despite 4 - 7 inches in places

Having partly read up, partly visited and enquired, of the Countries (like Canada, Sweden, Germany etc) that are said to cope so well with snow, I conclude that they all generally have similar problems to us with snow and do not get main roads and railways clear (like us) for 12/18 hours after snow  ceases to fall.

The difference is that they expect snow and winter to be a problem, we think we should be exempt.

OTC

Sorry, but having lived in Norway through a winter, I can assure you that they get things clear long before that unless there is a huge amount of snow in a very short period. And even in those conditions, there would be hell to pay if it did take 18 hours to get things moving again.

In January last year, after some of the heaviest snow around Oslo for many years, the airport at Gardermoen was only shut for five hours, and that was exceptional. They take on 130 extra staff every winter for snow and ice clearing (which does not include the plane deicing crews) and operate a one-hour cycle when snow is falling to plough and salt both of the runways and all the taxiways, which is repeated hour after hour as long as required. From the opening of Gardermoen in autumn 1998 until February 2008 they never closed because of snow (though planes might be told to go round again while they finish ploughing) and only got caught out in 2008 because of a big dump (6in falling in just two hours) coinciding with two snowblowers being sidelined needing urgent repairs. So they bought two extra snowblowers just to be on the safe side.

The metro, railway and roads around Oslo struggled for periods in january last year as well, but nowhere near 12 hours or more. And in normal snowfall conditions there, the idea that major roads would be blocked or trains grind to a halt for any extended period simply wouldn't arise - in large part because they are tooled up to deal with it, or try to design out snow-related problems, such as providing a third rail electric supply for the metro with the third rail elevated, so it's out of the snow (unless you get a huge dump) which is also bottom contact, not top contact like we use south of the Thames and on the Tube, and with a snow cover over it as well. I was there in what was a pretty average winter and the only delays I ever suffered on the metro were down to train faults and a major power supply failure one evening - never the weather.

I've just been looking at some of the norwegian news websites and there are one or two tart remarks from Norwegians stuck at Gatwick about the apparent inability to deal with the snow there - one reckoned a Norwegian airport would be back open in half-an-hour...

Sweden:
http://www.thelocal.se/30572/20101202/

Poland:
http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Big_Delays_in_Train_Traffic,id,445332.htm

France:
http://www.france24.com/en/20101202-france-snow-weather-europe-travel-updates-rail-air

Germany:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101202-31547.html

Admittedly I couldn't find any problems in Norway, but then onthecushions didn't mention there specifically.

A nice picture from the BBC. Somewhere in Surrey apparently.  :)

I travelled from not very snowy Bristol to very snowy Portsmouth today.

Journey was fine - 8 minutes late on arrival into Portsmouth.  Slowed down quite a bit whilst passing through Dean and Dunbridge.

No EMUs appeared to be running round Southampton/Fareham.  SWT were offering an hourly service between SOU and PMH - I believe this was run by a DMU.  No Southern services on the West Coastway between Southampton and Chichester.

The normal SWT service is only hourly normally, but using DMUs for the day is a new one on me.  Makes sense though, as the last time they had major snow fall on the Netley route they had big problems with stuck 450s.  They are also only running a Portsmouth - Eastleigh service connecting there with the mainline Waterloo services, I wonder if that's been changed to DMU too?  I know they've thinned the Exeter services out to 2 hourly, perhaps that's where the 159s have gone?

Paul

Interesting to read in the latest RAIL magazine that NR have been trialling heating strips on the 3rd rail at a few locations in the south-east. They've only installed 16km of these strips. Let's hope the trial is a success and they roll it out as soon as.

There quite a few locations where conrail heating has been installed during this summer in readiness for this winter, obviously the whole network can not be heated and it will take a while to fit heaters to all of the hot!!!! (cold) spots where trains have a history of having problems mainly in stations, junctions and certain signals.  The levels of snow that has hit the Sussex patch BML (Brighton Main Line) has been extreme well above what has previously hit the area in recent years

Trains are running around Southampton, EMUs rather sparky though, obviously due to formation of ice.

Snowy Swaythling yesterday...
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l50/liamy_2006/DSCF0669.jpg)

From Dorking to London (I know I'm off territory here), SWT has been performing far better than Southern. Yesterday though was a bit annoying when SWT ran trains to London as per normal, only to suspend trains beyond Leatherhead to Dorking from early afternoon. With no buses, and no Guildford/Gatwick trains, Dorking had no public transport and I had to walk back from Leatherhead (one and three quarter hours).

One of the problems delaying the trains has been snow getting caught up in the runners of the doors and the doors not closing properly.

Yes there are problems, but most of those parts of Germany affected are not the ones that usually have heavy snow, even Bavaria (with the obvious exception of the Alpine areas). The approach to winter precautions in many of the places mentioned is not dissimilar to that in the UK, with similar results - I really don't know where otc gets the idea that the Germans are great at dealing with snow - even the Germans don't think so. And certainly not six inches of the stuff in short order.

The areas of Sweden mentioned are those least likely to be hit by severe winter weather, being in the south-west (with the exception of Stockholm airport, which was still operating, at reduced capacity, not shut for two days like a certain airport south of London).

The conditions in Poland sound pretty extreme for a winter there, especially at this time of year.

As for Eurostar and winter conditions, the less said, the better...

Interesting story in today's Irish Times about how well Iarnrod Eireann has performed this week and describing the effort put into keeping trains moving around the Dublin area.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1204/1224284777616.html

Thanks for the quotes, bignosemac and for the comments, willc.

I didn't raise Norway's performance as it is an immensely rich country floating on oil with a tiny population. Evidently it can still be caught out on occasion.

Central Europe, amongst others regularly gets down to -20 Celsius when the UK is statistically borderline freezing and I have seen modern German houses constructed with 300mm insulation (i.e 12"). I don't remember writing that Germany is good at snow clearing - I imagine that the more of the stuff that falls, the more practised those in receipt of it are at dealing with it but the downtime it causes probably works out much the same.

Perhaps another UK problem is the constant management revolutions we seem to have. A railway that has seen grouping, nationalisation, regions, sectors, privatisation, re-franchising etc probably doesn't build up much corporate memory of how to cope with occasional (even annual) events.

OTC

What you wrote was


I'd agree entirely about the cold being a key characteristic of German and Central European winters, more so, much of the time, than snow.

I'm not sure how much the structure of the industry has to do with the railway's ability to cope - the biggest problem, certainly in southern parts of England in the past couple of years, is that there hadn't been harsh winters and heavy snow since the early 1990s (I think 1991 was the year of 'the wrong kind of snow'). A lot of rail staff simply hadn't faced anything like this before. Then there's the fact that old-fashioned third-rail emus which merrily sparked and arc-ed their way along in ice and snow have been replaced by computer-laden things which treat every voltage surge and dip as a potential fault and shut down the train.

Network Rail owns two snowblowers bought by BR in the 1980s. Both are now based in Scotland but one was bought for the South East after severe disruption in January 1987 (when Kent was so badly hit that the original Scottish machine was brought south to help) and was delivered in Network South East livery, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/4438495448/

Time to bring it back south?

Better to have the train shut down than catch fire, which was a not too uncommon occurrence with the sparking and arcing 'old-fashioned' 3rd rail EMUs.

So every time it snows now Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset should just forget about having a rail service? Hmm...

I wasn't suggesting that at all. I was merely pointing out that older units were more prone to catching fire as they did not have the computers to protect the traction motors from power surges, sparking and arcing.

I know which type of failed unit I'd rather be on. I may keep warmer on the older type, but that warmth could be terminal!

And incidentally, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset did largely go without a rail service during the 'wrong type of snow' winter of 1991. And that was with the old EMUs.

But also in the BAD old days of BR, those units were dragged with any diesel knocking about, and no problems with driver route or traction knowledge.

I believe that's called running a service  :o

From my own observation, a 73 running on the diesel engine can be surprisingly feisty!

Good morning from an increasingly snowy Moreton-in-Marsh.

FGW has just posted the following notice

Major disruption this morning due to the snow that fell last night/is still falling right across southern England...

Saturday 18th December 10:15

I was going to get the train down to Reading this afternoon.. but looking at maidenhead departures boards i think i'd probably get there but not so sure about getting back.. They do still seem to be managing to run a service at the moment tho.. just lots of delays..

Full marks to the FGW and Network Rail staff keeping something moving on the Cotswold Line. We now have getting on for a foot of snow in Moreton-in-Marsh, of which 9in or so have fallen since 9am. Still coming down at a great rate and already more than we got in January.

The Marlow donkey is running to time  ;D

Looks like all of the Weston Super Mare - Bristol Parkway services are going to be canceled all day and the Cardiff - Taunton service providing the  local stopping services. This should be ok if there are not many people braving the weather.

Not heard anything about the severn beach line so i am guesing that is running ok.

Heard  that some Swansea - London services suffered major problems this morning, although when i checked at 03:30 this morning there was nothing listed on FGW's website so i couldnt check if the 03:30 Swansea- London Paddington train was running.

Trains in south wales seem to be coping with the weather better than last year with only the Cardiff - Ebbw Vale trains not operating.

They seem to have finally abandoned the struggle on the Cotswold Line. Although the FGW home page says a reduced service is running live departures is now showing all services cancelled. National Rail says trains currently unable and the 18.22 is going to Worcester via Cheltenham.

Hardly surprising, as it's still snowing here, although easing off the past hour or so, 14 or 15 inches deep, more where it's blowing about, sounds much the same across the rest of the Cotswolds and down into Cheltenham. Forecast says we could go down to -10C tonight. Very deep, crisp and even.

Seem to be some website issues, a note saying Oxford-Worcester services suspended has now appeared on the FGW home page but is timed 16.00.

Jo you would have been alright with the locals, I didn't have any issues when I went to do some shopping in Reading. Only coming back was there a delay, but nothing severe. :)

My youngest son has just arrived home from Lancaster University having travelled LAN-BHM with Virgin, BHM-EXD with CC and EXD-DIG with FGW.
Under the circumstances arrival at Digby at 1945 instead of the intended 1903 should probably be regarded as pretty good.
When asked VT staff at Lancaster arranged for Advance ticket validity to be ignored so that he could still make the Birmingham connection despite the services from Edinburgh/Glasgow being seriously delayed.

Thanks Ollie.. In the end I walked into Maidenhead and shopped there.. I wasn't 100% sure it would be ok on the train so decided to be safe and stay local.. Mind you walking back with heavy bags wasn't the best idea as it's a 30 minute walk (altho that would have been the same distance walking back from the station had I gone to Reading).. I'm very tired now but all Christmas shopping done.. yay  ;D

Aww okay, what did you get me? :P

The last service to run was the 11:21 Paddington to Great Malvern which terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill over 2 hours late around 4pm.  Keeping the points at Evesham clear being the biggest headache.  I believe there are two Turbos and one HST that have been abandoned in the sidings at Worcester.

Other than that, given the amount of snow that's fallen (Moreton one of the worst areas, but Oxford/Bicester/Banbury - basically anything FGW wise North or East of Swindon also getting an absolute carpeting), I think that the service held up very well indeed.  Practically all routes maintained some sort of service in conditions that were worse than January.  It will take a long while to get everything back in full working order though - I dread to think what state those trains stabled at Worcester will be in come tomorrow, so expect disruption to continue well into next week.

It's a surprise  ;D ::)

Some trains were coming in with a sheet of ice on the front and the connections between carriages frozen solid.
Several trains with cracked outer skins on windows. One had a cracked inner skin as well, which resulted in having a TSR slapped on it and the coach being completely locked OOU.

Other sets had the normal toilet pipes frozen solid.
I dread to think what tomorrow and next week is going to bring.

 never mind ...just fast forward 10yrs when we have new electric hybrid trains or whatever and nothing is running at all

Yep the trusty HST has gone through many a harsh winter since it came onto the Western Region in the 1970s.

Cotswold Line service still suspended but while outside shovelling snow 10 minutes ago heard what I'm pretty sure was a Class 37 working south out of Moreton-in-Marsh but I live a few hundred yards from the line, so don't know if it was relying on its mini-ploughs or propelling an independent plough.

Looks like the Class 37 got through to Oxford without problems. Services will resume with a 16.51 from Oxford to Worcester, running in the path of the 15.42 from London. Tickets dated for today will be accepted on the Cotswold Line tomorrow.

Services between Oxford and Worcester have been reinstated, with departures from Oxford to Worcester at 16:51, 18:52, 20:52 and 22:51. Departures from Worcester to Oxford at 18:26 and 20:28

Sadly while Worcester to Oxford is back on FGW Worcester to Bristol is now suspended for the rest of the day

FGW still running Worcester-Gloucester.

More snow forecast for tomorrow, across West Country first thing, then spreading across the rest of FGW land during the day.

If snow stays on the ground, it's waiting for more.... old 'un but a good 'un

Looks like it will hit Bristol by lunchtime, could be an interesting afternoon with Met Office warning of ~10cm with more on high grounds etc

A quick local update for you: the outdoor temperature is now minus 3^oC in Nailsea ... and still dropping ...  ::)

I'm still praying my flight goes tomorrow

So glad I did not rely on the sleeper after all!

Could be interesting, I had planned on driving to Weston, perhaps I might have to reconsider.

I've just moved and merged the three previous posts into this topic, as they offer a wider view of the current weather conditions, and their implications.

By the way: it's approaching minus 5^oC here in Nailsea, now.  :o

will probably be several degrees warmer in Portishead

CfN.  ;)

My phone reports that it is -7c in 'Banwell' wherever that is!!

My car told me it was -8.5c when leaving Twyford.

Banwell is a village just to the east of the M5 as it passes Weston.  ;)

yeah - mom got confused the other day and thought it said backwell and wondered why she had no idea where she was when she ended up there

My thermometer - "A Gift From Mevagissey" is registering -7^C here in North Bristol which is pretty close to what the Met Office station at Filton is registering, -6^C

I predict some minor (ahem!) routes locked out of use tomorrow morning to keep junctions set for mainline services.

It's forecast -8 overnight here tonight.. and -5 at 9am.. so when I'm walking to the station at 7.30 (I'm not driving in these conditions) I'm thinking it's gonna be pretty cold... bbrrr... ;D

Germanic precision technology, possibly?  ::) ;D

Yes :P and despite what people were saying to me about how rubbish BMW's are in Snow, it has done really well, and hasn't let me down so far :)

Now reporting -8 in 'North Someret'. Chilly stuff, I certainly had plenty of ice forming on my windscreen wipers driving up the M5 earlier...

my flight is cancelled

Very sorry to hear that, Mookiemoo.  :(

Do you have a 'Plan B' ?

booked premiuum

will get there some how

Speaking of flights, does anyone have any feeling for what's going on at heathrow currently? Very difficult to get a handle on from here as most news websites only seem to be interested in the old journalistic clich^s about "travel chaos/misery" (delete as applicable). Plus the Heathrow website flight information simply says "contact airline" for nearly everything, and my bleedin' airline's arrivals and departures page seems to have given up the unequal struggle.

I'm booked on BA68 from Philly to LHR on Wednesday night, which operates out from Heathrow lateish on Wednesday afternoon as BA69. What's giving me some cause for concern is that the last flight out of here heading for London operated on Friday night and that's still stuck in Shannon  :o

Has the snow stopped falling or is there more of the stuff forecast between now and Wednesday...?!

BA website currently only confirmed their schedule for part of today..nothing else confirmed as of yet.

But doing a flight check currently shows your flight as operating

From: http://www.heathrowairport.com/


And twitter feed from Heathrowairport ( http://twitter.com/#!/heathrowairport (http://twitter.com/#!/heathrowairport) ), 3 hours ago:



-8.5 in Melksham at 18:45 yesterday evening as I did a pickup run to the station; train virtually on time.  My biggest decision was whether to risk driving down the station approach and risk getting stuck there ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nbeeve.jpg)


Not *quite* Heathrow but a town some 80 miles to the West  :D - they keep telling us "it's hard to know where snow will turn into rain" but at current temperature levels I think the answer is "1000 miles south":

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wfore.jpg)

From http://www.wellho.net/melksham/climate.html and http://www.wellho.net/melksham/travel.html

Morning all,

The Met Office have just taken unusual step of releasing an "Emergency Weather Flash" for Devon and Somerset (inc. N & NE Somerset):


Please take care everyone.

TLM

Got the train into Oxford from the cotswold line this morning, the delays were due to points/signal problems at Oxford.

Temperature measured outside my door at 0800 this morning was -12C, overnight low of -14C. Beard completely frozen
by the time I got to the station at Charlbury.

Devon and Somerset have been badly hit. Live departure board for Nailsea @ 10:13:

09:46	London Paddington	Delayed - last report depart Taunton @ 09:20
10:02	Cardiff Central	Cancelled
10:03	Plymouth	24 mins late
10:28	Bristol Parkway	Cancelled
10:38	Weston-super-Mare	Cancelled
10:57	Cardiff Centra	Cancelled
11:03	Taunton	On time
11:29	Bristol Parkway	Cancelled
11:38	Weston-super-Mare	Cancelled
12:02	Cardiff Centrall	On time
12:03	Taunton	On Time

TLM

well im in london

At the moment am rebooked onto a virgin flight on wednesday!!!!!!!

think I may pass you over the north atlantic - lets hope we both manage to get in the air

I see a lot, if not all, the xx55 services from Cardiff-Paddington have been cancelled. I guess this makes sense if the lots of the xx25 services are delayed due to disruption between Swansea-Cardiff too.

Said on ATW facebook page that Valley Lines and Cardiff local routes are suspended until further notice. Not sure if they have restarted now, but there cant be too many trains in Cardiff today.

Believe it or not... Weston super mud seafront...

(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs473.ash2/74607_10150345569120584_813115583_16368374_7533386_n.jpg)

There was disruption on the line between Cardiff Central & Queen street. I think there was a shuttle on the coryton line between Coryton & Heath Low Level

Surprised it hasn't happened sooner, but there are now problems on the Severn Beach Line.

For passengers in South Wales, looks like the following have been cancelled tomorrow (info from ATW facebook page)
 

Depart   From         To          Arrive

04.25    Holyhead   Cardiff   09.18

05.32    Holyhead   Cardiff   09.58

06.29    Holyhead   Cardiff   11.14

07.50    Holyhead   Cardiff   12.24

08.05    Holyhead   Cardiff   13.17

10.33    Holyhead   Cardiff   15.18

14.32    Holyhead   Cardiff   19.18

16.36    Holyhead   Cardiff   21.14

 

05.10    Cardiff       Holyhead 10.01

07.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  12.09

09.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  14.11

11.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  16.11

13.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  18.16

15.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  20.13

16.15    Cardiff       Holyhead  20.44

17.20    Cardiff       Holyhead  22.19

18.17    Cardiff       Holyhead  22.35

19.34    Cardiff       Holyhead  00.52

 

11.10    Swansea     Cardiff     12.16

15.10    Swansea     Cardiff     16.13

17.10    Swansea     Cardiff     18.18

 

09.14   Cardiff         Swansea  10.17

11.14   Cardiff         Swansea  12.17

13.14   Cardiff         Swansea  14.17

15.14   Cardiff         Swansea  16.17

Its now only saying the Swansea-Cardiff's are cancelled not the Holyheads! Also an amended service on Valley Lines. Prob best just to check what is running in the morning!

Not much fun on the buses today either.

First Bus in Bristol, Bath and the West (http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/southwest/bristol/service_disruptions/) have suspended all services in Weston-super-Mare, Yeovil, Bridgwater and Taunton. There is disruption and cancellations in Bristol and Bath. First Bus' Customer Service centre has closed early at 1600.

First Bus in Devon and Cornwall (http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/southwest/devon/service_disruptions/?item=14091&show=1) are also experiencing problems with some cancellations.

Stagecoach in Devon (http://www.stagecoachbus.com/serviceupdatedetails.aspx?Id=2040) are running limited services but may suspend all services if conditions deteriorate.

An insane amount of snow fell in Exeter this morning between 0430 & 0900.  Only the first train of the day made it to Barnstaple (arriving back in Exeter over 2hours late) due to frozen points at Crediton before 1030.  Apparently you couldn't actually see the rail head at all, and snow was drifting too.  Staff & passengers had to be dug out of the car parks at EXD too.

Dare I attempt the 01:15 to Bath Spa - Cardiff Central Tomorrow Morning?? Need to be at Cardiff Airport for 5AM...! :o ::) ;D

Despite in the process of recovering from Glandular Fever, I have been persuaded with some brute force and ignorance to go on Holiday this Christmas, in return I will receive a nice shiny new piece of equipment... ;D

Shame FGW don't offer complimentary Mince Pies in First Class... :( XC Do ;D

FGW do offer mince pies on first class trolley.....unless i am going mad because there were some circular pastry things in tin foil cases on the trolley today

No such decision required tonight:


Given my upcoming travel plans, I do hope that's a one-off...

And you didn't snaffle one?!  ;)

Journeys from Maidenhead today were not good. If there had been a departure board (!) it would have been a sea of delays and cancellations. However the 07:41 ex Bourne End was bang on time. A bit of a pity that a late running stopper hampered our progress at West Drayton. I wonder why the signalmen doggedly keep this train on the slow lines, even when there's not a great deal happening on the fasts?

This evening was potentially a disaster- all the Maidenhead fasts had either been cancelled or severely delayed. I decided to go via Reading (ticket not valid to do so, but who's going to check under the circumstances?), and actually managed to get home only 10 minutes late. Not bad.

A more restricted and detailed service plan has been released for tomorrow.  Today would have probably been the same had their been enough time to plan a detailed one, but the run-nearly-everything-late approach held up pretty well to be honest.

Tomorrow sees a thinning out of the service between Reading and Paddington, with the off-peak Cardiff to London trains cancelled (as today), the Bedwyn-Paddington services only running as far as Reading, and a significant reduction in the Oxford to Paddington fast services with at least one of the two trains an hour being cancelled.  Perhaps the only area that I think they might have gone a bit too far with as it means pretty much the only trains running are those coming through from the Cotswold Line.  So, for example, that's only five trains between 9am and 5pm - perhaps some more of the xx:31 departures should have been spared to give an hourly service?

There's also the usual precautions on the Marlow and Henley lines with through trains from/to London removed.  Also, two late evening Cotswold Line services will run 'if the weather doesn't improve' which I read to mean 'If the engineering possession can't be taken'!

Details here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=5012 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=5012)

Lee, there's only been about 2 inches of snow in the area today - so there really shouldn't be a problem.   I'm not sure why the 16:49 off Malvern failed to make it - said "poor weather" but I suspect that was up near Worcester as things were running Gloucester and south.  Northbound evening service not shown as cancelled:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/evetr.jpg)

... but I find that a bit odd.

I don't see why not, it really isn't that bad out there. If you listened to the news you'd think we were living in the Arctic circle...

So.. much much worse than today then? sigh...

I like it when they come out with a "Plan". You can throw that out the window at the slightest hint of trouble.

Several sets at PAD failed badly today. They just kept falling over, refusing to start up, air pressure leaks, ATP set up errors, smashed windows, CDL issues.

So Id love to know how they expect to run the plan tomorrow with several power cars already out of action.

But the plan tomorrow seems like very few trains.. It's hard to work out QUITE what is going to run.. But FGW site suggests consulting NR site.. Which I just did.. That suggests all ok but to click on the ! button against each train which refers me back to the FGW update I didn't totally understand in the first place.. nice.. if not a little disorientating

In other words, we haven't got the foggiest what the hell we are going to run tomorrow. I suspect there's gonna be a lot of mass fixing and warming up of sets tonight/tomorrow at the depots.

The temperature in Pershore, Worcestershire failed to get above -8^C yesterday, with a low recorded of -18^C. For comparison, Troms^, Norway, inside the Arctic Circle had a best of -5^C and a low of -13^C.

So pretty Arctic in that part of Worcs. yesterday.  ;)

Maidenhead to London I presume?  As far as I can see, AM peak wise it's a normal service except for these three which come from Oxford departing Maidenhead at 06:31, 06:42 and 07:59, and the two which come from Bourne End are probably not worth risking at 07:41 and 08:41.

Apart from that it's a normal service - though expect delays, because as SDS Pad commented, other things are bound to go wrong.  Temperatures are far warmer tonight than last night though - it's 0.1 degree above freezing where I am at the moment (last night at this time it was -5).  And a plan is far better than no plan!

Yes from Maidenhead.... It also mentions Henley services not coming this far so looks like the 8am and 8.04  fast service are cancelled for us... altho its hard to tell.. does anyone know?

Yes, that looks correct too.  In a quick glance I thought I saw they were starting at Tywford, hence not mentioning them.  Sorry.

I'm therefore struggling to find any trains around about 8am that might get me to work...???

I'd probably cut my losses and go for the 07:45 stopper.

hhmm that's not appearing on the NR journey planner at all? Maybe because it's so slow? Not sure I can be there for 7.45.. and to be honest if I got there it would probably be in vain.. excuse me while I just go off and regain the will to live  ::)

Currently subjected to an agonizing wait to find out from BA what on earth's happening on Wednesday... At the moment my flight still shows as operating, but the Monday and Tuesday services were cancelled. If my flight runs as scheduled than that's great, but if not then it's game over as far as Christmas is concerned.

Need a "biting nails" smiley!

Me too.. I know it's only work I need to get to.. But they got me there today (a tiny bit late).. no more snow tonight.. yet the promise of a much reduced service tomorrow.. With not enough information for me to work out what trains are actually running..

Hope you get back ok inspector_blakey..I suspect/hope it might be easier for you than for me to get the 30 miles to work (well at least information wise.. shame on you FGW)..

My Flight out of the UK is showing as Check In Open, so all I can assume is it is running...!

The rest of the family are coming out from London Gatwick on Wednesday... I'm wondering if they'll make it out there at all... :o

Well as long as I get there, then my Mum will be somewhat happy that my Grandfather isn't on his own :) ;)

I wouldn't count on it! BA's website has spent much of the day either down or running glacially slowly and unstably (although seems to be better now), whilst when I call their US phone number it's either engaged or tells you it's a 100 minute wait to speak to anyone. I would guess that their UK call centre is under even more pressure.

I'll race you then  ;D

Seriously tho... FGW tell me to contact NR.. who tell me all ok but might be problems so to contact FGW.. FGW customer services close at 10pm.. NR I guess are 24 hours but will only be able to tell me what their site tell me.. And in fact I called them a while back but all the up front recorded messages about disrpuption and 5 minute waits made me feel guilty for bothering them..so I hung up..

So.. I guess.. I get up tomorrow.. Check NR departures which will then show the true situation when I regret getting up as there are no trains...

Deep deep sigh... to the lack of proper understandable info...again.....

Well mine is showing as going and sinc VS003 went today and is due to go tomorrow - I am hoping!

Well I just spoke to someone at NR info... They basically read me a lot of the info I can see on FGW website (which doesn't tell me the Maidenhead timings of any of the trains. just the time of where they start and which I was perfectly able to read myself and had done several times).. I was told however that at the moment the 8.11 getting in at 8.50 should run (it comes from Banbury it seems) although could change tomorrow.. How three trains worth of people will get on that I don't quite know and not sure if I want to go and see.. But it seems I have no other choice...
I am not a happy customer... ??? :(

Well my train has departed PAD ontime :) fingers crossed it gets here :)

Good Luck thetrout  ;D ;D

3 mins early into Reading!!!  :o ;)

Thanks Jo and BNM ;)

I think more miracles are needed here as apposed to luck... Lone traveller, terrified of flying and the only bit of spanish I know is how to ask for where the nearest bog is ::)

Hope all goes well with your journey.. well I'm off to set my alarm really early.. to get up and.... most likely find there aren't many trains to get me to work.. At least tomorrow I'll know how it's going to be since it's not too clear tonight.. oh well.. who needs sleep.. oh.. me...

^nde est^ el tocador?

CfN.  ;)

I do have a smattering of Spanish that I remember from my GCSE (I got a B-), but currently only one phrase comes to mind from a mini-play wot I wrote for a parent's evening back in 1988:

^nde est^n mis pantalones verdes?

Dunno how useful that will be for you though.  ;D

Where are my green pants/panties

/ depending on whether american or european

Trousers if you're British.  :P

De todas formas, deja vuelta a discutir el tiempo.

Well since you want to split hairs it should be!

^nde est^n mi pantalones verdes?

Although why you wanted to know where your green trousers were is beyond me

And I was on it :P

If I'd have known before I'd have warned the TM you were joining him :P

Well I am happy ;D

Ok so the train is 20 minutes late... But I got on just as the Buffet was closing, but the Customer Host was more than happy to serve me some Coffee and Shortbread...!

We're sat in Temple Meads now waiting for something or other... I don't mind though... also long as I get to Cardiff before 5AM ;D


I'm not that bad surely...?? ;)

And for BNM I agree with Mookiemoo, why would I want to know where my trousers were?? I should hope they are firmly attached to my lower half ;)

Nah - you ain't THAT bad :P

Hope you enjoy your hols :)

Ok i'll admit it, when you hear that the buffet has no First Class Complimentary stock... it's normally because i've eaten it all :P ;D :D

Thanks... Have a most acceptable Christmas to yourself sir ;)

I shall try :)

On another note folks: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=5012 has a full list of the planned cancellations for tomorrow.

In case anyone is remotely interested... I got into Cardiff Central 2 minutes early ;D

I made it to the airport for 3:15AM ;) :o :( >:(

And now to relax in the executive lounge before 3 hours and 30 minutes of PURE HELL!! 8)

I am SO glad I got up early  >:(.. 8am and 8.04 departures are indeed cancelled even though the weather conditions are infinitely better than yesterday..
I've decided to save myself the pain of going down to the station to see three trains worth or people (one of which is usually an intercity) cram onto a three car turbo.. I'm pretty sure it won't be pleasant..

I can work from home fortunately so will work here for an hour and then go and get the 9.03 which (at the moment) is showing as running...

Confusingly, that list says the 05:34 Hereford - Padd'n would be cancelled, whereas the the FGW 'liveupdate' page has it as merely "revised" - an extra call at Didcot to compensate for the cancelled 05:17 Malvern - Padd'n.

0726 CBY to PAD Showing on NR departure boards as cancelled, but did in fact run (10min late).
0835 from CBY running very late after leaving Hereford 2min late but arriving Ledbury approx 30 late.

Are the loadings on the Cardiff-Pads quite light as they are usually the first trains to be canned at times of disruption?

Of course that's three trains worth on a normal working weekday, numbers are well down due to it being so close to Xmas and the bad weather as well.  I'm sure those remaining trains would still have been busy though.

Regarding the amended timetables, click on this link to see how it should be done. http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/sites/default/files/Special%20timetable%20Birmingham%20to%20Marylebone%20Tuesday%2021%20December.pdf (http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/sites/default/files/Special%20timetable%20Birmingham%20to%20Marylebone%20Tuesday%2021%20December.pdf)

Courtesy of our neighbours at Chiltern Railways who are also operating a reduced service.  In FGW's defence it it easier for Chiltern only having two routes as such and a far easier job of amending timetables on the fly due to the lack of other TOC's on most of their route, but still, how hard would it have been to amend the base files for the FGW timetables and put them up as PDF's in a similar way?  The likes of Jo would find it far easier to work out what is and isn't running without the need to cross-reference to different routes.


Comparatively speaking, yes.  Hence the threat of there very existence a few years ago.

There is certainly less loading London-South Wales than there is London-Bristol.  London-far west is pretty busy too and services are less frequent anyway so London- South Wales services are a sensible first candidate to be CAPED.  Of course it causes problems for people from Bristol Parkway, but some of them mights fuind it easier to connect at BTM  Makes more sense to do this as a planned cancellation and release  sets and staff to allow the other HSTs to run reasonably normally than have everyone's jounrey delayed. 

Slightly OT - does anyone know if someone is likely to make it to Weymouth from Nottingham tomorrow

By road - hence OT

Do more people tend to travel on the xx25 Paddington from Cardiff rather than the xx55 Cardiff-Paddington service then? Is there a need for this service to be half hourly?

To answer your question yes i think it does need to be half hourly, especially as trains can be very busy trains at xx25 from Cardiff are more busier because they are coming from Swansea.

On weekends the service is mostly hourly apart from the early morning.

The Cathedrals Express became the Cathedrals stopper this morning, after the halts Turbo was cancelled. Left Moreton-in-Marsh 50-plus minutes late, shed more time to Oxford, including the crawl through the cutting near Stonesfield, as landslip repairs have yet to be done. Was about 80 late into Oxford. Rather quiet as far as Charlbury, where the platform was packed (100+ people, I'd guess), partly as people aiming for the 08.35 had been joined by those for the 09.52 but also because the local roads are still tricky and Stagecoach has still not resumed buses to the town. Picked up four people at Shipton, eight at Ascott and two at Finstock. Not sure about Combe, one guy was on the platform as we arrived, but I think one or two more had been waiting down on the road in a car.

What I assume were the two Turbo sets Insider mentioned being stranded at Worcester on Saturday appeared to be on their way back to Reading depot tonight. The 17.00 from Malvern arrived about 25 minutes late, trailing two snow and ice-encrusted sets behind it - think it must be the first nine-car Turbo formation I've ever seen. Train was terminated at Oxford, with passengers being transferred to a reinstated 19.31 from Oxford. The nine-car rake then disappeared towards Didcot.

Still long delays both ways on the Cotswold Line, as I saw the above working while waiting for the 18.54 (17.50 PAD) which was about 45 minutes down leaving Oxford.

Three snow pics from Moreton-in-Marsh yesterday at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009

Poor effort information-wise about the Cotswold Line today. Very heavy snow in Worcester was causing problems there but at 9.45 a notice appeared on the FGW home page saying all services on the line were suspended until further notice due to "extreme snowfall". Not out as far as Moreton-in-Marsh it wasn't, just the odd flurry here.

The 06.48 and 08.22 from London were indeed stopped at Oxford but the 05.48 was turned back at Evesham and ran in the path of the 08.58 from Malvern. It had yet to call at Moreton, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough when that notice appeared. How many people took it at face value and didn't bother going for the train?

Next, the 09.21 set off west from Oxford and its progress could be tracked on National Rail, even though all the other information available said no trains were running. Finally, at 11.43, FGW live updates and journey check admitted the train had got through and that it would run back from Moreton in the path of the 12.06 from Worcester. However, the FGW home page notice at present is still the one from 09.45 saying services are suspended.

How is the average passenger supposed to work out what on earth is going on?

Time for me to finally set off to work...

Poor information continues, 'due to signal failure', or 'due to adverse weather conditions'. One might be fixed in time for those trying to get home, the other is less likely as the day goes on.

Original line problem between Oxford and Worcester fixed, trains now running normally, now emergency engineering works between Worcester and Hereford, delays of 60min may occur. Not been a good day!

10 min ago, all showing as clear with no line problems, now showing line problem between Oxford and Worcester due to obstruction on the line. The landslide again?

Several Portsmouth-Bristol/Cardiff services are showing as being started/terminated at Southampton due to poor weather conditions.

Not sure what the weather conditions are, but Southern also have a broken down train at Swanwick.  Probably a related issue.

SWT were reporting it as a broken down train affecting east bound services only, so it makes sense for FGW to turn round at Southampton, and wait for their diagrammed return working in due course. 

NR can't divert the whole Netley line service round via Eastleigh as there isn't line capacity on the singled sections, so it's better to divert SWT's stopper (which they have done) with its much higher passenger capacity.

There were no weather issues when I came home via Swanwick a couple of hours ago though, so that aspect may be duff info...

Paul

Just spoken to my dad, who is trying to get home from Swanwick.  Weather is fine, albeit a little cold.  16:29, 16:50, 17:11, 17:33, 17:50 all not stopping (or diverted).  He is now eligible for the 50% compensation level - yet another Rail Travel Voucher coming his way.  I believe he is now cycling to Fareham to attempt to take the next service.  No replacement road transport, as usual (not that it would be any good with a bike anyway).

The regularity of problems between Swanwick and Cosham is starting to become a bit tiresome now.  Every 2 weeks there appears to be some disruption, with Southern's response of simply terminating the services early (at Barham or Havant usually) or skipping out stations (Swanwick and Cosham being the two favourites), leaving South West Trains to take the passengers and deal with them at the station (and expect the passengers to cough up excess fares when they have SN only tickets).  The problems aren't Southern's fault, but their handling of the aftermath (e.g. replacement road transport or arranging ticket acceptance) could be much better.

Thank goodness FGW seem to have recently conquered this customer service malarky :)

Some delays on FGW out of Paddington tonight due to 'lack of available rolling stock' - so presumably a lot of failed HSTs today which is most probably weather related in some way.

A difficult day to say the least...

Frozen points at Evesham during a heavy snowfall this morning meant some trains terminated at Moreton-in-Marsh and Oxford.  Information on the FGW website was woeful and confusing with the mixed messages in the Live Updates and front page.

This afternoon there was a broken rail at Ledbury which caused delays and cancellations between Worcester and Hereford.

Then 1P61 from Great Malvern hit several icicles inside Chipping Campden Tunnel and was disabled. It limped into Moreton-in-Marsh on a single engine and had to be pushed to Oxford by the Turbo that had arrived from Oxford to form the 1614 to Didcot Parkway, which was then cancelled.  The whole 6-car ensemble got to Oxford just before 1800 and terminated.  Passengers went forward on the delayed 1707 fast which was held ^ the 1607 Oxford to Paddington had earlier failed at Radley causing delays to services south of Oxford.

Thanks for the update and explanation, more fustration later, the 1731 OXF to Worcester was cancelled at 1729 (appeared on the website then and also announced at the platform at that time). Many passengers were waiting for this train which was advertised as being on time until 1729.

But I really wish FGW customer service would simply put 'broken rail', 'frozen points' or train damaged by overhanging icicles! Much better than hiding behind the ever present signal failures, emergency engineering works or obstruction on the track?

There were also problems with the points at Norton Junction and I gather that one of the signals at Moreton was stuck for a while as well.

Not that it was the end of problems for the day. Leaving the office in Oxford at 7pm, the 18.22 was shown running on time. Needless to say, by the time I was at the station that had slipped to five late, then nine or 10 late, which was the case when it reached Oxford.

After an extended stop the train manager came on the PA to announce that a safety system was faulty, which he told me later was the AWS. The driver managed to reset it at Oxford and off we went 20 late. At Hanborough the stop became interminable and it transpired the AWS had gone again and efforts to revive it were fruitless. The driver was eventually given permission to isolate it and proceed at a maximum of 40mph all the way to Worcester, where passengers for Malvern and Herefordshire would be transferred to the following 19.22. We left Hanborough 50 late and reached Moreton-in-Marsh 70 late, inclusive of an extra stop at Shipton due to the cancellation of the 17.50 from London.

In contrast to the contradictory picture being painted online this morning, the announcements on the train throughout all this were a model of clarity and ensured everyone knew what was going on and what was being done to get them to their destinations, even if the circumstances were difficult.

Not all weather related. A down PAD-WSM HST struck a shopping trolley (according to a TM I spoke with) and the service was caped at Bristol Temple Meads. There was then a knock on delay for the subsequent up service (1A27 1730 ex BRI - on which I, and Chris from Nailsea were passengers) whilst the fitters sorted out problems caused to the power car involved. Told by the Train Manager that striking the shopping trolley had led to damage to the compressed air system. Our initial attempt at departing from Temple Meads resulted in a journey length of, according to a PA announcement by the TM, one inch! We got going eventually but were further delayed by stoppers between Bristol and Bath, arriving into Swindon over 30 mins late. A 'severe delay' according to Phil Sayer, but fairly minor compared to what others have experienced on the rail network in recent days. His apology was welcome though.  ;) ;D

The delay to this up service caused a further knock on to the scheduled down service this HST set was meant to run from Paddington. Fairly certain that's what happened as we had the same set (and TM) back to Bristol from Swindon later in the evening, still delayed by over 30 mins.

According to trust, the driver reported "a Trolley being thrown at him". Will dig out some more details tomorrow.

Trolley thrown at train as it came out of a tunnel.

Shame the cold weather doesn't deter the morons.  Glad to hear that the trolley didn't hit the front window.  Hope the driver isn;t too shaken up by his/her experience. 

I was on 1022 Padd - Hereford yesterday. Touch and go whether we'd set off west from Oxford, but our Train Manager kept us informed that he'd just spoken to Control at Swindon, and it had been decided that despite heavy snow and frozen points etc we would attempt to go all the way to Hereford! We got regular updates, and were confident of getting through to Hereford until we ran into Worcester SH to hear the platform announcement that "the train on Platform 1 was not for public use." Apparently there was a broken rail at Ledbury.

Swindon hadn't told our Train Manager, who I think was quite upset that he had to abandon us all.  He continued to give us information, and apparently tried to persuade Control to agree onward road transport to Hereford.  This was declined.  He was an excellent Train Manager and I hope someone can give him a pat on the back.

I was heading for Ludlow via Hereford, so got a LM train to Kidderminster and the 292 bus to Ludlow. It's always a good idea to have a Plan B, and don't forget the bus especially if you've got a bus pass.

 

You know what - the movie rights to that story could add up to a successful "triumph over adversity" blockbuster...

Our hero (Gordon) really wants to get to Ludlow for Christmas, but it looks like his hopes will be dashed. However, his determination/frustration makes an impact on the grizzled, world-weary railway employee (our TM). Infused and emboldened with the spirit of the season, he pleads with his sceptical/cautious boss (Swindon control) to "Just give me one chance to take my people home!!" The boss eventually agrees but "If just one thing goes wrong on the way, I'm pulling you out."

Cue Gordon/TM triumphant shouts of "Hold on people, we're going to Hereford!!" Much cheering celebration etc..

All smiles as the train arrives at Worcester, only for our principals to be told "The darn track has gone up ahead - not even you could get that train through on no rails"

Swindon Control duly pulls the plug, despite much pleading by TM. This ends with "Just one bus, I can still pull this off if you give me just one bus", to which Control replies, "You gotta accept its over, son, just let it go."

TM says his heartfelt goodbyes to his new best friend - "I'm sorry I've gotta leave you here Gordon, but it was a hell of a ride, wasnt it?!!"

Gordon is about to give in, but he spots a bus parked up and a thought enters his head.

Next scene we see him pull up in the bus, and shout to his fellow passengers, "It aint over yet, we'll drive this thing home ourselves!!"

Swindon's local deputy shouts at the TM - "Stop them!!" but the TM replies "Do I look like a damn Bus Manager?? Look at my badge!!"

Gordon shouts back "It's always a good idea to have a Plan B!!"

As we know, our hero eventually makes it back to Ludlow to a heros welcome. Merry Christmas everyone  ;D

Someone get me my agent, and a decent scriptwriter...

Some themes in your potential movie have already been done by Hollywood in the film, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" with Steve Martin.

I was tempted to post a youtube link to a clip of a classic scene in that movie, but it is extremely sweary! Those who have seen the film will know which scene I'm on about!

Lee, but that's exactly how it was, no kidding.  .....  AND the 292 was a First Bus!!!! (perhaps in that case I should have had a Plan C!).

The FGW website home page this morning carries the message "We expect to operate the full planned service on Friday 24th December."

And yet, there are already 13 train cancellations, nearly all due to "a member of train crew being unavailable."

 ::)

Perhaps they had a full compliment of staff until they started phoning in sick on xmas eve!

Last month it was snow, now it's rain:


Cheers,
TLM

PS I did think about starting a new thread, but heavy rain is a type of weather during winter. Actually, spring, summer and autumn as well come to think of it.

It was quite damp here in Bristol overnight. My jacket still hasn't dried out!  ;) :D ;D

The weather was very bad yesterday when i was on the 22:45 London - Swansea service which was diverted via Bath .

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12462517):