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Journey by Journey / London to Reading / Re: Maidenhead station: where is the common sense gone?
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on: May 26, 2015, 14:10:58
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Hi Froggycat, If you think that's bad you should try getting on a train home from Ealing Broadway in the evenings! The announcer constantly shouts "Please allow passengers OFF the train before attempting to board! Once you are on board, please move right down inside the carriages, do NOT stand near the doors blocking the doors!" but there are always certain passengers that take not a blind bit of notice, barging their way on to the train while people are still getting off, and then proceeding to stand in the lobby blocking the way for the rest of us who do want to move down inside because unlike them, we are not getting off at the next couple of stops! The best bet at that time at Maidenhead is to wait for the 8:41 (which usually leaves from Platform 5) - yes it is only a semi-fast, stopping at Slough & Southall, but you will at least get a seat. No idea why they only have 3 cars on the fast trains from Maidenhead in the mornings, IMO▸ it is completely ridiculous.
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Delays across the West, due to person hit by train at Twyford - 17 May 2015
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on: May 19, 2015, 13:31:43
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I was unfortunately caught up in this. Arrived at Paddington @8pm, finally got on a train @ 9:35pm. Had assumed that stopper to Oxford would be started from Reading (were all cancelled from Padd) but when I got there @ 10:30ish, was nothing scheduled until 23:48!
Eventually (with help of the duty police, who were very sympathetic to a group of passengers frustrated by total lack of announcements and asisstance from staff) we got put into taxis.
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Reading Station improvements
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on: May 15, 2015, 20:53:11
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Back on an old hobby horse, sorry.
It will come as no surprise to Tilehurst/Pangbourne/Goring/Cholsey commuters that the completion of the new layout west of Reading has made little difference to the congestion on the RL^s between Reading and Didcot. Yesterday I caught 2N30, 1153 Reading ^ Pangbourne. We left on time and then stopped at a Red at Reading West J. The Driver made the familiar announcement that a freight train was being crossed over in front of us. We were 5L at Pangbourne.
The offending freight was 444V from Hams Hall ^ Soton. It had left 100 minutes late. Now I would have thought that in a situation like this it should have been held until the next available Q path, but I^ve noticed that freights, whether running early or late, just seem to ^blag^ it. So my point is that freights should run to a proper path, or else signallers get put in impossible situations re regulation and punctuality suffers.
Yes this is one of my hobby horses too! In particular the 19:19 from Reading to Tilehurst is nearly always delayed by a freight train. Since the 19:27 is generally right behind it, surely no freight train should EVER be allowed to hold this first train up? It would make much more sense for the freight train to be made to wait until the 19:19 has left and therefore widen this already ridiculously small gap, instead of almost completely closing it? I too had thought that the new track layout would have solved this problem, but it hasn't changed a thing. :-(
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Toilets, platform 1, Paddington Station
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on: May 15, 2015, 20:29:22
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One of the things we found for newcomers to rail travel was that they expected toilets at all of the smaller stations, and failed to realise that they're available on the trains, Apart, of course, from when they're out-of-order! The single toilet on my half of the service home the other night was out of action - and there were two different "desperate" gentlemen in my carriage who definitely did not see the funny side! Seriously, something that has always irritated me is that the toilets at busy stations like Southall & Hayes are closed at a ridiculously early time in the evening. I asked why and was told that they had to be closed when the station was unmanned. (This would have made sense apart from the fact that they were actually being closed considerably earlier than the advertised time and a good HOUR before the staff member in question was due to go off duty. Another reason why toilets at stations need to be kept open is at times of disruption. If you have been kept waiting for 2 or 3 hours with no information, the lack of a toilet could be a major additional stress factor!
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Today's MAJOR failure (30/04/15)
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on: May 02, 2015, 11:14:26
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Would prefer to take my chances on the tracks than be trapped on the train personally (provided of course that the power was turned off)- I think 2 hours is the maximum time anyone should have been left trapped in these conditions before evacuating the train, or at least giving people an option of whether to walk to the nearest bus stop or wait it out. (if the more impatient/intrepid had been given the chance to walk, conditions would be much better on the train for the remainder!)
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Easter engineering works and subsequent ongoing disruption - April / May 2015
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on: April 14, 2015, 21:21:26
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OK so what was the problem this time then?
Ridiculous scenes at Ealing Broadway tonight where everyone was trying to cram onto the 18:23 (3 cars instead of the usual 6) because the 18:33 AND Heathrow Express were cancelled.
I was one of the lucky sardines, but many furious commuters were left behind - there was nothing else that the platform staff could do but make them stand away to let the doors close - there was simply no more room.
Stupid thing was that the train had almost emptied out after Hayes, because most of the people that did manage to get on had been going to there or Southall, while probably a lot of the people left behind on the platform had been wanting to go on to the stations further down the line.
This is just getting beyond a joke now.
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Journey by Journey / London to South Wales / Re: 1B46 14 45 Paddington to Swansea 13/4
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on: April 13, 2015, 23:03:56
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Yes and it caused chaos for hours - the stoppers (including the one I was on) had to run non-stop (not "fast" BTW▸ , it was a crawl!) between Slough & Reading because the HST▸ 's had to be switched on to the relief lines to get around it.
Saw it there as we passed with the rear unit detached - then a few minutes later the truncated front section passed us going towards Reading. Don't know what they did with the back bit!
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Easter engineering works and subsequent ongoing disruption - April / May 2015
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on: April 08, 2015, 19:34:23
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Now I'm scared! If it was a SPAD▸ the driver certainly didn't seem aware of it at least initially - his exact words at the time were "the signal just turned back on me". It was a very sudden stop though! Last time I experienced one as bad as that was the terrible dual fatality at Slough (we had already gone past before the incident, but there was an "all stop" in the area). I did see the freight train as it passed us to our left and wondered if it may have had anything to do with the problem. Timings would have made it a fairly close call I'm thinking.... Explains why the driver seems to have got replaced at Southall though, hence the long wait & why the platform staff were "cagey" - didn't make any sense at the time but totally does now. Reminds me of a rather amusing incident a few months back where our driver completely overshot the up relief platform at West Drayton (seemingly thinking it was level with the down one!) and had to reverse, then got stuck at a red signal as presumably it thought we had already cleared the platform.
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Easter engineering works and subsequent ongoing disruption - April / May 2015
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on: April 08, 2015, 13:50:37
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Hi,
Amazed to find it so quiet on here after all the disruption last night & then again this morning!
Does anyone know what was going on? Last night information seemed to be in very short supply. All trains at Ealing Broadway were shown as "Delayed" until a few minutes before arrival. I got the late-running 20:35 at about 21:07, which was due to be closely followed by the 21:05 3 minutes later, so a toss-up as to which was the better option. I chose the first one which ran well all the way to Reading, where the passengers duly got on as it was scheduled to continue as a stopper to Oxford. Only once everyone was on board did they suddenly announce it was running fast to Didcot, cue a lot of very angry passengers!
Then the second train arrived, initially advertised as the next stopper, but which turned out to be a fast train to Oxford instead. Third time lucky? It would appear so and we all got on - but then were held at Reading for about 20 mins waiting for the driver to turn up (he was still on another train somewhere apparently!) and then a further 10 min delay just outside Reading waiting for an express train to go ahead of us. Finally got home @ 22:50pm.
Then this morning I was on the 7:51 from Tilehurst and changed at Slough on to the 8:39. All was well until after Hayes, where we suddenly did an abrupt emergency stop. The driver said the signal had turned red but could not get any info from the signaller. Another half-hour wait, then a slow roll into Southall (we were told we would have go in signal by signal under caution as they were all red) where the train was terminated. We were sent to platform 2 (the only train from there was a non-stop to Paddington so no use to me). No-one at Southall station seemed to have any idea what was happening. Eventually we were told that the train we had got off would now run. The man at the station said it was a fault on the train, & NOT a signalling problem! We finally arrived at Ealing Broadway just after 10.00am, leaving a trail of queued trains behind us.
Can anyone shed any light on the causes of either of both incidents and why none of the station staff seemed to know anything about what was happening? (Not their fault if no-one had told them BTW▸ , they were doing a great job in trying to pacify a siege of stressed commuters!)
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Is your journey symmetric?
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on: October 29, 2014, 13:03:43
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Option 4 - neither is. I go the "longer" way round when I drive to Tilehurst station in the morning so that I am facing up the hill as I seek a parking space. That way I can park in the first available space from the bottom of the hill, and if there aren't any, I can turn into the next road & look there. If I face down, I either have to "play safe" & choose a space nearer the top of the hill & have a longer walk, only to then find there were free spaces further down, or even worse, not find a space at all & have to waste time turning round & risk missing the train. On the way home I can just drive straight up the hill & go home. In the mornings I usually catch the 8.08 from Tilehurst and change onto the stopper at Maidenhead. This is because the time is convenenient and also because the train is less crowded than the 7:49 (which would still involve a change at Slough). Obviously the fact that no direct train exists from Tilehurst to Ealing Broadway between the 7:23 (which is too early) and the 8:53 (which is invariably late-running making me 10 mins late for work) affects my choices in the morning (WHY is there such a lack of trains during peak hours?) in the evenings I generally get a direct train home, i.e. the 17:33, 18:23 or 18:33 from Ealing Broadway (again there are far fewer options in the peak than during the rest of the day - WHY? )
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2014
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on: October 10, 2014, 10:43:48
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It was a complete fiasco this morning so I don't think anyone has learnt from anything!
JoHoare you were so right to stay at home!
I had to change at Reading on to 8:31 Ealing Broadway stopper. I was sitting comfortably in the rear coach of 5 at 8:29 when I heard platform - NOT on-train - announcements that the front 2 coaches only were going to Ealing Broadway and the rear three were now going to Oxford. After quickly checking with someone who had just got on, I got off & sprinted up the platform & got on the rammed 2nd coach getting the last seat. The doors soon shut leaving those less quick on the uptake than me standing outside.
Since this was patently unfair due to the lack of on-train announcements, they eventually had to open the doors to let these people on, causing a delay. After further delays between Twyford & Maidenhead we then proceeded getting later & later & later due to the sheer impossibility of trying to cram at least 3 full trains-worth of people onto 2 coaches.
The platform at Slough alone was still heaving when they shut the doors, a situation repeated at West Drayton, Hayes & Southall. We eventually arrived at Ealing over 20 mins late (having strated off only 5 mins late).
Whoever decided to split that train at Reading and send us forward with only 2 coaches has some SERIOUS explaining to do! It is just taking the proverbial - if you cancel more than half the trains, the ones that do run MUST be full 5 or 6-car sets - no ifs, buts or maybes.
It is never acceptable at any time to run 2-car trains in the peaks on this route, let alone when it was the first stopper through in some time as it was this morning.
I had just got off the stopper from Oxford that had terminated at Reading - surely they could have turned this around to form the service to Oxford instead of splitting the 5-car set! It's simply beyond a joke.
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Major delays/cancellations, Paddington to Reading, 20 December 2012 and ongoing ...
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on: December 27, 2012, 10:00:23
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Well here we go again!
^$%^& unbelievable!
NO announcements on train whatsoever about the fact we were terminating at Slough or what to do when we got there (which turned out to be go to Windsor and transfer to SW trains at Windsor ER).
if they'd said that was what was going to happen at Reading, would have got off there & got on Waterloo train then, but NOTHING!!!!!!
And on the website, it says the problem is at Maidenhead, but how can it be when trains were running between Reading & Slough but not further in?
Grrrrr!!!
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Major delays/cancellations, Paddington to Reading, 20 December 2012 and ongoing ...
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on: December 24, 2012, 16:47:59
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Like I posted above, Jo, they certainly weren't running during the morning peak either!
BTW▸ I did (eventually) manage to get to Brighton on Friday - Southern was managed a lot better than FGW▸ with informative announcements on trains & at stations about which trains/connections to get, stopping shuttles to Brighton, services held for connecting trains, even a chatty driver who suggested that if we were interested we could look out of the window now so we could see the damage which had caused all the disruption! (Apparently it was thought to be arson).
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