Ramblings on a rover

[whole diary]

[rogerw]

A great start to the final day. My train into Paddington arrived 15 late and I missed my proposed 1000 to Edinburgh by 1 minute. Now travelling north on the 1030. My plan was to travel out via the east coast returning via the west coast. Unless I want to be travelling back by the last train of the day (not really  ) it looks like east coast both ways

[rogerw]

A quick check of the timetables showed that a return by the west coast was not an option.  The journey north went well as far as Newcastle. Then  the wind struck! A stop at Belford was followed by the news that a speed restriction was in place as far as Berwick due to high winds. A further stop at Berwick followed by further slow running saw us 16 late through Dunbar.  With a 16 minute connection into my preferred southbound service the spectre of the last train home was looming large.  However a helpful dose of recovery time saw us into Edinburgh only 13 late and a quick dash between platforms 2 & 19 (one long platform) saw me on board with less than a minute to spare.  A straightforward trip south with delays caused by the winds recovered by Kings Cross allowed an easy connection into the 2045 from Paddington and home.
When I have the time I will post a full analysis of the week.

[grahame]

Roger, huge "Thank you" for the log / descriptions;  so useful to have a comparative picture from across the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) rather that purely in our own region.   What can you tell us about train loading (though I suspect you'll be giving us a first class view)?  How do on-train announcements, and seat reservation systems, work across the companies?

[rogerw]

Loadings in 1st class were mixed although generally as expected with peak workings busier than off peak.  I did not visit standard class except when moving down the train to a more advantageous position towards the end of a journey to make tight connections so cannot comment on loadings.  However on more than one occasion there were announcements on trains telling standing passengers where seats were available. Two of my reservations did not appear, but on the whole reservations seemed to be working well although I did not notice any on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  On one TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) service the lack of reservations was apologised for with the explanation that the late running of the inbound service did not give time for the reservations to be put in place unless the departure of our service was delayed by 10 minutes. In my view a sound decision.  On board announcements were generally good although there was the annoying mixture of 24 hour and 12 hours clocks on more than one service.  Some quite jovial announcements on TPE where the usual list of things not to leave on the train was extended to include things like your nearest and dearest.

[rogerw]

Now for the statistics. 
As my intention this year was primarily to sample long distance travel my use was weighted quite heavily in favour of the major operators.  I travelled a distance of 5807 miles with 38 journeys, using 8 TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company).  One journey was cancelled, operated by Hull Trains who seem to be having reliability problems again with their 180s.  The breakdown was GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) (16), LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) (11), VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchise (or, possibly, in a France context, Versement Transport - a payroll tax on employers to fund local transport) ) (4), GTR & TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express)(2), ScR & ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) (1).  Problems during the week resulted in the number of LNER journeys increasing by 3 and those by VT decreasing by 2 and loss of the HT^▸ (Hull Trains) journey and a Northern Trains Journey.  In addition the strike on Northern meant I used 2 less of their trains and another additional LNER train.
Punctuality was generally acceptable with 26 trains arriving on time or up to 5 minutes late (67%), 6 trains 6 - 10 minutes late (15%), 4 trains 10 - 20 minutes late (10%) - 2 GWR, 1 LNER & 1 ATW, and 3 more than 20 minutes late (8%), all LNER.  One of the latter I would have missed had it departed on time as my incoming service was 42 minutes late.  The greatest delay was 62 minutes.  Delay claims have been submitted to LNER (2) and GWR(1) where a 16 minute late arrival at Paddington made me miss my service from Kings Cross and resulted in a 66 minute late arrival in Edinburgh.
Overall, an enjoyable but tiring week with few major issues that could not be worked around.