Poor reliability of 05:48 London to Worcester

[whole diary]

[bashby]

Hi,

Is anyone aware of why there has been a recent drop in the reliability of the 05:48 from London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street? The service has been particularly bad over the last 3 months, with frequent cancellations or delays of over 30 minutes (e.g. cancelled last Thursday and again today).

I've been told that these problems may be due to overrunning engineering works, but that doesn't explain why it often terminates at Oxford. Is this just to give priority to the London-bound services on the single line between Charlbury and Oxford?

Thanks for any info!

[IndustryInsider]

Is this just to give priority to the London-bound services on the single line between Charlbury and Oxford?

In a nutshell, yes.

It needs to reach Charlbury before the 07:15 from there coming the other way gets held up too much otherwise there's deemed to be too much of a negative impact on that and the following London bound trains.  Another reason to question the need for that additional morning train from Charlbury.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hi, bashby, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum.