Operating incident at Liskeard tonight

[whole diary]

[smokey]

Swindon Control, AKA^▸ (also known as) the "Black Hole"*

Taking in Mind that Thursday's derailment meant a lot of Stock shortage in Penzance, the lack of arranged 'bus on Friday Morning was Just POOR  sorry VERY POOR work by FGW^▸ (First Great Western).
Considering the amount of regular travellers effected it's a very poor show.

And if CONTROL were in CONTROL any controller with half an ounce of Brain would have used the Spare class 150 sitting on the blocks at Penzance (to strengthen the 08.57 to St Ives) on additional Penzance to Truro workings reunning in the path of the Canned HST^▸ (High Speed Train) services.
Lots of Train Crew sat in Penzance as there working were Cancelled.

* "the Black Hole as Lot's of GOOD Ideas are sent to Control by Train Crew & Station Staff effected when things go ***'s up, to be meet with "WE'RE^▸ (Religious Education) CONTROL & we will tell you what to do"

[Ollie]

smokey - on Thursday I was in control until about 22:15 observing, and I can assure you they did what they could to get road transport, I even witnessed the request for road transport the following morning.

However do take into account - Fridays are likely busy for coach/bus operators just like for the train. Friday mornings - well, lots will be out on school runs.

[fatcontroller]

I suggest Smokey needs a visit to Control to see what goes on when it's busy!

[willc]

Working back to Plymouth as passenger train seems good use of stock.

I agree that stock should be used to best advantage but there is an interesting mathematical trade off between hours in use/miles run and time between failures. When Hull trains had 5 Meridians and used 4 then their
 reliability as measure in miles per 5 minute failure was the best of the modern DEMU^▸ (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) fleet Roger Ford Modern Railways annual survey). After they dropped one on the floor and wrote it off, and they were down for 4 for 4 the following year the relaibility plummeted.

That's why I'm not sure about about many of  what I call stock move diagrams like Great Malvern to Brighton which in my book is really two separate services. Which means if a unit is unavailable you lose two trains rather than one had there been two units on the diagram. One doing Great Malvern Bristol and one Bristol Brighton.

It would only require a few extra units which would have two benefits trains could be stengthened in the peak and a more frequent and reliable service could be run to many stations such a Melksham during the Off Peak.

So we should forget about having extra trains up the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh from September, should we? These will almost all be provided by rediagramming Turbos that would otherwise be sitting in the sidings at Oxford. I feel pretty confident their reliability will not plummet, despite putting another 60 miles each round trip.

Trying to draw comparisons between maintenance needs on a very small fleet of high-speed rolling stock and a rather large fleet of dmus that have a rather less stressful life is a pretty dubious exercise and I think the depot staff at Bristol might be surprised to learn that if a Malvern-Weymouth train hits trouble, you lose two workings, given the number of times it is obvious from posts on the website about trains being restarted at Bristol that a dmu has been mustered from St Philip's Marsh to pick up a duty when there are problems.

It would only require a few extra units

And when a few extra units finally do turn up from LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise), they will be used to ease overcrowding around Bristol, not allow Cornish branch dmus a rest stop they really don't need.

[JayMac]

London Midland's fleet introduction of 172's (further delays) begets:

LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) 150s to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) = FGW 142s to Northern + LM 150s to Northern = Northern 180s to FGW = who knows what!

[smokey]

I'm sure it gets busy at Control when the Brown stuff hits the Fan.

However as the 06:45 and 07:41 from Penzance were Both cancelled on the 8th July, and the first Road transport turned up at 08:20, a total waste of time with XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))'s 08:28 about to leave, why wasn't the Class 150 unit awaiting to strengthen the St Ives pushed into Service.

It could have left PNZ at 06:45 all stations to Truro & still been back in PNZ for the 08.57 working to St Ives.

Well Control !

[vacman]

Ummm smokey, where are most bus/coach operators using their busses in the morning peak? i'll give you a clue, SCHOOL and COLLEGE's, now with the best will in the world the bus companies aren't going to drop their school contracts in order to ferry a few rail passengers, as for not using the St Ives unit one assumes that the train crews who work from PNZ to EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) in the mornings still had to work their booked trains from Liskeard/Plymouth to the North so possibly no spare crew to work it.