NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are trying to obtain the land beyond the current car park at Goring so that they can move their stuff further up, and add additional spaces at Goring - or something along those lines, was in the Goring Gap magazine this month, but I don't have it anymore. I think that land acquisition is tied to several others, so its probably all tied up in tape like usual.

They were there on Platform 4 when the 0715 arrived.

I've only been on one service when its happened (not long after the 387s started service from Reading and someone pulled it just as we left because the train was going the wrong way, if I recall (no, you were on the wrong train!).

But what I do see, a lot, is passengers walking up to the cab doors and banging on them or hanging around like they think its the toilet! Happened just a couple of days ago. I did notice of all the warnings on the door, nothing immediately obvious says its the drivers cab and not to disrupt them - which I'm sure I have seen elsewhere in the past (maybe the turbos?).

Perhaps a huge DRIVER CAB, DO NOT DISTURB or THIS IS NOT A TOILET would help!

That used to happen all the time, any delays and the Didcot/Oxford stoppers would dump you at Reading and run (pretty much empty), non-stop to Didcot. Several years ago it was very frequent, but has been vastly improved in recent years - can't remember the last time they did that, thank fully.

I'm sure you'll find some old posts about it, I know I complained enough times when it used to happen!

Isn't that the idea? Cancel the big bad GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) services, so that the oh-so wonderful Crossrail to Reading can be justified... 

Well here are my thoughts on Delay Repay, its a waste of my sodding time.

NOT GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) related, as this is Great Northern. Basically all their trains out of Kings Cross were cancelled on December 28th, so we were told to put a claim in. I then travelled to Liverpool Street to go via an alternative route and ended up missing my connection at Cambridge and being over an hour late at my final destination.

Having never made a claim before, I put in for the leg that was cancelled (seems completely illogical to me to claim from the start when the bit that was cancelled was in the middle), and so they rejected the claim and told me how to correct it, and to put in the claim again, selecting Re-submit and to provide the reference number in the comments. All of which I did.

Today they reply and said its declined as there is a duplicate claim in the system and if I feel they have made an error, yep you guessed it, re-submit and mention the reason and reference in the comments.

I really can't be bother doing it a 3rd time given they are incapable of reading and following their own instructions....

As I said, not GWR related but I needed to vent somewhere, so please forgive me :-)


Edit: OK, I take it all back - just received another email to say they agree and are refunding me £34 after all! Either someone pressed the wrong button, or as it possibly appears, there was some confusion at their end. I submitted the claim at Greater Northern. Greater Northern rejected the first claim for being incorrectly entered (gtrailway.com email address). The second one was declined by ThamesLink (thameslinkrailway.com) - but signed Greater Northern & ThamesLink Delay Repay Team. The last email was also from ThamesLink, so I guess ThamesLink did not realise Greater Northern originally replied?! No idea. Very confusing. Anyway all sorted! 

Security. I thought it was BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) at first (same type of uniform), but when they turned it had Security across their backs (white text on blue background if I recall)

I also note it must be so bad at Maidenhead now, there are 2 security guards on the platforms! I saw them yesterday and assumed they were catching the train (I walked past them before everyone had boarded at the door they were standing by), but they were there again today and after the train left, they wandered over to another platform.

I had that the other day - picked a route on NRE^‡(resolve), when it went through to GWR it said it was not available. Went back to NRE, selected GA^▸ (Greater Anglia) and purchased it from them no problem what so ever.

When I tried to pick the route myself on GWR rather than on NRE, it refused to offer it to me. When I selected something close, it insisted on me having a Single Advance rather than the Return I wanted - stuffed if I could work out how to get the return. The GWR site really is absolute shite.

BIM = Building Information Modeling. I guess S could = System? :-) I've always known it as BIM.

Best use I saw was combined with A/R = when the device was waved around infront of the wall, you could see all the utilties behind it on the screen, very impressive - I think it was on a documentary about Crossrail stations actually.

I know we get a lot of requests for BIM data at work - anything from cable trays/racking through to valve and actuator data, but I've never really seen how that resulting data is used.

Not that it is any consolation, but all the Great Northern trains from Kings Cross to Cambridge were also cancelled due to lack of train crews today, so its not just GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). Did mean I got to experience a different route out of Liverpool Street with Greater Anglia, but thats not something I wish to repeat, the train was so old I was surprised it didn't fall apart on the way...

Thanks for the info, as always II. Thankfully I am not coming in anymore until the New Year, so will see what its like then!

I was on this from Goring at 06:32 due to the 06:45 being cancelled past Reading (why?). I was in carriage 1 and seating wise, it was 50% full when it left Reading. At Twyford, was as good as 100% full - I could only see 2 empty seats.

As it left Maidenhead, it was full and standing in all carriages, the ones towards the back which stop next to the stairs being very full as every one tried to cram on.

There were several people waiting for the following service on Platform 2, and did not even attempt to board.

Any why did they only extend the platforms to take 10 carriages, when they obviously knew they would be increasing to 12?! The front 7 already suffer extra loading due to mainly being the ones most accessable at the prior stations, and then at one of the busiest loading points, they can still not get into all carriages from the platform.

I've avoided coming in all week so far, because I just knew it would be a mess. On Monday I wanted to get a train to Pangbourne, but the one I would have gotten back was cancelled. Yesterday I tried to get a different train to Pangborne - it was cancelled. Today I tried to get what will be my usual train to Maidenhead, it was cancelled past Reading. So much for progress....

Why does it even need all the waffle? "Next Stop Didcot" simple. Works on Swedish trains just fine.

A colleague in Chicago just asked me about this, apparently doing the rounds on the news over there!