28/12/08 - Bad evening train service or problem with NR Journey planner?

[whole diary]

[johoare]

I am travelling into London today and will be travelling back mid evening.. FGW^▸ (First Great Western) web site says there is minimal engineering work..

There appears to be a half hourly train going into London, and similar coming out...

...except for when I want to travel home..

there are departures at 18.44, 19.15, 19.44, 20.15.. all take about 40 minutes... As I would have expected today..

And then there is a big gap.. the next train is 20.37 which requires me to go to Reading and then get another train back to Maidenhead, but I assume a travel card from Maidenhead to London will not cover that..so I can't get that train.. and the next train after that is 21.15 which takes a whole hour to get back to maidenhead because of this...

21:24  Ealing Broadway     <====
21:46  Southall                <====
21:52  Hayes & Harlington
21:56  West Drayton
22:01  Langley (Berks)
22:06  Slough
22:10  Burnham (Bucks)

.. a whole 22 minutes to do the usual 5-10 min journey between Ealing Broadway and Slough..

After that it gets back to the half hour timetable of earlier in the evening (21.44, 22.15 etc)..

I just wondered if anyone knew if there was a reason for this? Or if in fact the National rail journey planner is wrong?

Thank you
 

[johoare]

OK, so no one knew in advance.. However I got the 20.15 home in the end, to avoid the uncertainty over the timetable.. The 21.44 did run, despite it not being on NR^» (Network Rail - home page) journey planner.. The 21.15 does indeed appear to (NR departures board) take an hour with the supposed 22 minutes between Ealing broadway and Southall.. Looking at arrivals/departures for Southall now, it seems that this train is arriving there at 21.29 and leaving at 21.46...I would love to hear if anyone knows why that train has to sit at Southall for that amount of time?

[Ollie]

It may just be a problem but the 21:15 is timetabled to take 53mins to Maidenhead

Timetable to arrive Maidenhead at 22:08.

Timetable shows it as having to wait at Slough for 14mins.

[johoare]

It may just be a problem but the 21:15 is timetabled to take 53mins to Maidenhead

Timetable to arrive Maidenhead at 22:08.

Timetable shows it as having to wait at Slough for 14mins.

Interesting, that isn't what the arrivals/departures boards were showing..They were showing 17 minute wait at Southall and arriving(or departing?) Maidenhead at 22.15..... Maybe we'll never know..

Also, if the timetable is right, who wants to sit at Slough (or anywhere else for that matter) for 14 minute when really they would like to get to their destination that much faster...

[Btline]

...who wants to sit at Slough...