Great Western Coffee Shop

I gather that as a result of engineering work between Plymouth and Liskeard on Sundays. most services formed of HSTs on Monday morning will now be replaced by Sprinters.  This is because Network Rail will not be re-opening the line until around 0530 Monday morning preventing FGW from sending HSTs to Penzance first thing to form the morning services.

This morning the 0505 Golden Hind and the 0738 Penzance to Paddington was formed of two car Class 150 until Plymouth.  Severe overcrowding by Redruth on the 0738 as it is the main commuter service to Truro in the morning.  The 0702 Plymouth to Penzance was also formed of a Class 150 instead of normal HST with bus back up from St Austell.  This is because the HST was required at Plymouth for a Paddington service to replace a displaced HST due to the Liskeard engineering work.

Discussions with FGW staff indicates that this situation will continue each Monday until Network Rail finishes Sunday engineering possessions between Plymouth and Liskeard. You have been warned.....   

Thanks very much for that information, StuartStIves - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!

Chris.  :)

Now that really must be a joke! Please tell me you are winding us up.

These services this morning were BOTH failures at Penzance AFAIK...!!

Thanks, Jester!  ;)

The suggestion that this morning was unlucky and there happened to be 2 HST failures at Penzance makes slightly more sense I think. Normal practice in the past in situations like this has tended at the very least to involve "marooning" a few HSTs in the section that is cut off to allow for some kind of shuttle service during the engineering work and also the restoration of full services the following day.

One example of this that I have come across fairly frequently is, slightly bizarrely, a FGW HST shuttling between Carmarthen and Swansea during Cardiff-Swansea weekend closures, which certainly provided plenty of seating capacity but did look like a rather "gold plated" solution...anyone know if that still happens?

Definately train faults.

One had a reverser fault, one had a dead powercar.

The 0505 may have been to cover an HST failure but the 0738 Penzance to Paddington will definitely be a Class 150 as far as Plymouth on Mondays up to and including the 8 November.  The busiest train of the morning in Cornwall.  Plymouth-Saltash possession is not re-opened until 0530.

Is 2 hours not enough to get an ECS HST from Plymouth to Penzance? Seems utter madness to me! There are lots of HST's sat around doing very little on a Sunday - surely one could be left in Cornwall.

I rather suspect that Long Rock doesn't have the room.

I rather suspect Long Rock would have room owing to there being no Sleeper and no Voyagers in the locality due to the above mentioned blockade.

I've received a reply from FGW that reads as follows:

"I can confirm that this was not a planned change as a result of engineering work. It was due to two separate HST problems at Penzance. 

It is possible that the confusion at St Erth around the cause was because we suffered a failure over the weekend with a power car not starting. It was then ^trapped^ in Cornwall due to the engineering work.  Despite our efforts to restart it, including renewing a starter motor, the fault remained and the set was unavailable for service on Monday morning. This was a train fault however and not the fault of the engineering works per se. 

We then suffered a power problem on another power car during train preparation at the depot. This happened not long before booked departure time.  Fortunately we were able to rectify the power problem on the second power car in time to work the 10.00 Penzance - Paddington service.

I can appreciate however that this was not of any help to you. We are looking at the way we dealt with the situation, and [FGW's Engineering Director] and his team are looking specifically at how we deployed the rolling stock that was available to us.

However I trust you are reassured that this is not something that we planned to do, or indeed intend to do again in future weeks"



However, the staff at St Erth told me the 0738 from Penzance to Paddington  was a planned substitution not an emergency replacement due to HST failure  So we'll see what happens on Monday.

Good to see a detailed honest reply.

This morning Monday 25th All Sprinters allocated to Sprinter turns at Penzance including 2x150s on the 0600 Exeter and a full compiment of HSTs at Long Rock, so all should have been ok barring any failures ::)

...all of which would suggest that the FGW staff cited, and the assertion that the 0738 PNZ-PAD will "definitely be a 150 as far as Plymouth on Mondays" were a little wide of the mark!

there were hsts shuttling up and down in cornwall this sunday, i saw 2 within a short time of each other in opposite directions down near Gwinear!

Yep - we seem to be back to normal this morning. Long may it continue.