Delays near Hayes and Harlington 21/01/2013

[whole diary]

[thetrout]

Just been informed that the lines between London Paddington and Reading are closed and that contingency plan 2 is being considered.

I boarded the 15:43 Bath Spa - London Paddington and it's being held at Chippenham (We're still here). The First Class Host told me about 10 minutes ago it's because of the delays in the "Slough" area...

Now if we've been stopped at Chippenham for signalling issues in the Slough area, A Safe assumption I'll be here for a while and it's stopping fairly serious?

Possibly unrelated but there had just been a call for medical staff on this train...

[thetrout]

From National Rail Enquries

A signalling problem is causing disruption in the Hayes & Harlington area.
Because of this, there are delays of up to 45 minutes to trains between London Paddington and Reading. These delays will continue until further notice.
Passengers may use:
South West Trains services between London Waterloo and Reading / Windsor & Eton Riverside
CrosCountry between Reading, Oxford and Banbury
Chiltern Railways between London Marylebone and Banbury
London Underground via any reasonable route

Twitter hashtag: #HayesHarlington
To find out whether this will impact your journey and to get alternative options planned for you, please use the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50.
For the latest rail travel news, why not follow National Rail Enquiries on Twitter, or find us on Facebook.

[Jason]

And from http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Train-times-and-tickets

Signalling Problems between London Paddington and Slough.   

Monday 20th January 2013. Update : 17:00.

We are experiencing signalling problems between London Paddington and Slough. We are working with Network Rail to have access to all four lines but we are currently continuing to only be able to operate over two lines.

Services will be reduced to accommodate this reduction in lines available to us.

[thetrout]

I'm on 1A23 (15:30 Bristol Temple Meads - London Paddington) which has just departed Reading at 17:36 - Some 52 Minutes late!

I just wish the TM^‡(resolve) wouldn't refer to the delays as "Earlier Signalling Problems in Hayes and Harlington". They are current and we haven't even reached Hayes & Harlington yet!

Other than that an excellent service onboard. The First Class Host came through with the trolley several times and made sure we were all fed and watered. So Top Work there Gov'ner!

[TaplowGreen]

....another farce after the chaos before Xmas caused by the signals nr Hayes and yesterday's at Ealing......got to Reading at 1715 to find everything all over the place, most of the stoppers cancelled, managed to get as far as Maidenhead but no chance of anything to Taplow/Burnham for at least an hour so gave up and got a cab.....when are these signals going to be sorted out???

[thetrout]

Well NRES^▸ (National Rail Enquiry Service) is now showing 1A23 is due in at 18:34 meaning a Bristol Temple Meads - London Paddington journey is going to take over 3 hours! (80 minutes late)

We're currently traveling at 8mph <-- Not a typo! and passing Langley station...!

The Buffet has closed. Now I do think that's naughty considering we've practically not moved since Slough!

[ellendune]

Twitter @First_GW says

All lines through Hayes and Harlington are now open. Disruption will continue due to displacement of trains and crew. Sorry for delays.

[John R]

The First Class Host came through with the trolley several times and made sure we were all fed and watered. So Top Work there Gov'ner!

Isn't that otherwise described as doing their job?

Though, come to think of it, as the CH on the 1630 Paddington to Taunton made no attempt to come through between Swindon and Nailsea tonight, maybe you are right to praise yours.

[johoare]

I saw the disruption on Journeycheck and chose to wait a while before going to Paddington.. Though there were still delays gone 7 when I got there..

My favourite thing (and it's not limited to today) is when asking for information from the information people.. The very first thing they do is look up at the departures board as if I've not seen it says delayed myself.. And in today's instance could give me no further information as to where that particular train was or when it might run...  I feel sorry for them in a way if they can give passengers no further information than they can ascertain for themselves...

[thetrout]

The First Class Host came through with the trolley several times and made sure we were all fed and watered. So Top Work there Gov'ner!

Isn't that otherwise described as doing their job?

Though, come to think of it, as the CH on the 1630 Paddington to Taunton made no attempt to come through between Swindon and Nailsea tonight, maybe you are right to praise yours.

Well yes and no. I personally think he did more runs than he would do normally. When we stopped at Chippenham for 51 Minutes, he came through Twice during our "Standing" time. Then further trips between Chippenham and Reading.

What really pi**ed me of was when they closed the buffet just before Slough. Where we picked up a further 50 odd minutes delay there! (That's delay, not including journey time) So sat on a train running over 90 minutes late and couldn't even get a bottle of water to take some tablets (Sadly I saw that one coming so got a bottle of water at Chippenham)

Eventually 1A23 arrived at Paddington at 18:57 some 1 Hour 43 Minutes late!

My cynical side is just waiting for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to say the Signal Failure was weather related. So no compensation is due!

My blame doesn't lie with FGW though. I blame Network Rail. 3 serious failures within 2
Months. IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) Someone such as the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) or DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) needs to address this. Such major cockups in such a short space of time surely cannot be considered as MTBF? (Mean Time Before Failure)

It's now 21:05 and I'm only as far as Shenfield! I'll be over 2 hours late by the time I get to SOV!

[thetrout]

Oh and to throw the toys out the pram r.e. Buffet. Both members of staff took residence right at the end of coach H between Slough and Paddington once they'd shut up shop!

[EBrown]

Oh and to throw the toys out the pram r.e. Buffet. Both members of staff took residence right at the end of coach H between Slough and Paddington once they'd shut up shop!

Report them, it's against FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) 'rules' to shut up early unless they've been displaced by disruption or need to access that part of the train for their duty etc.

When I first wrote to GW^▸ (Great Western) about this and stated that the two members of staff repeatedly do this (on days where there was near 0 disruption [on the same trains]) - they still felt the need to tell me that they could be displaced by disruption. Sadly lazy people seem to be habitually lazy, so it truly wouldn't surprise me if it's the same people (On which note, I've dropped you a DM).

I told FGW that it would be suitable to prosecute them for fare evasion...

What is of greater concern to us is their behaviour. After all, it just isn't acceptable for us to have our Catering Crew closing up ahead of schedule, or for negating their duties in any way.

There are times when our crew have to terminate their duties en-route; such as if they have been 'displaced' by earlier disruptions and their scheduled duties now finish part-way through a journey. However, even in that scenario we accept that there's still a customer-focused and professional way of behaving. After all, as a customer-centric entity, we do expect our representatives to remain mindful of just how their actions come across to our customers at all times. So, what you've reported is of genuine concern to us, as there's just no excuse for ineffectual behaviour of any kind.

All complaints of this nature are taken very seriously, and your comments will be forwarded to the Head of Train Crew, for further investigation. As I am sure you can appreciate we have a duty of care to both our customer's and our colleagues so a full investigation will take place before any action can be taken.

We will request a statement from the crew, asking for their version of events, and based on our findings the line manager will make a recommendation. If further action is deemed necessary this could range from additional training through to dismissal. For reasons of confidentiality we do not make any details of our internal investigations, or of actions taken public and therefore I can't advise you of the outcome, but you have my assurance that we will take any necessary measures to prevent this from happening again.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Oh and to throw the toys out the pram r.e. Buffet. Both members of staff took residence right at the end of coach H between Slough and Paddington once they'd shut up shop!

Report them, it's against FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) 'rules' to shut up early unless they've been displaced by disruption or need to access that part of the train for their duty etc.

I'm posting this in a personal capacity, so as not to compromise my impartiality as an administrator on this forum, but I do agree with EBrown's suggestion there.

[grahame]

Oh and to throw the toys out the pram r.e. Buffet. Both members of staff took residence right at the end of coach H between Slough and Paddington once they'd shut up shop!

Report them, it's against FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) 'rules' to shut up early unless they've been displaced by disruption or need to access that part of the train for their duty etc.

But surely they have been displaced by disruption - they could probably have been home and asleep in bed by the time they got to Paddington if they were London based and they probably shut up at exactly the right time - just in the wrong place. Having said which, it says nothing for a positive customer service approach.

It's around 10:30 p.m. here in Melksham, and I have just come back on duty to await a very late checkin who we understand has got held up. The first 90 minutes of the overshoot is covered routinely by the afternoon shift person staying on duty late, and we then make a decision as to who covers on a case by case basis.  It's called "looking after the cuatomers" and remembering that without customers buying from us we wouldn't have jobs!

[ellendune]

Message on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website

Disruption on the Great Western route

I am very sorry if you experienced disruption to your journey on the evening of Monday 21 January. Services were severely disrupted due to a signalling failure between West Drayton and Hayes & Harlington in west London.

As a result, from 15.00, for almost two hours, all lines into and out of London Paddington were closed, and from 17.00 only two out of four lines were fully available. This severely affected our ability to operate services into and out of London Paddington in the evening peak and had a substantial knock-on effect across our network, resulting in long delays and cancellations.

I recognise how much the impact of flooding and other delays will have affected all our customers over the past few months. The level of service disruption you have been experiencing is unacceptable and we are working very closely with Network Rail, which manages the track and signalling, to understand why there is a recurring problem in the west London area. My team is giving them every support while they work to establish the root cause of these problems.

I am very sorry you've experienced disruption once again. We know it's not good enough and our focus is on working together to put it right. I am grateful for your continued patience and know we need to give you the service you rightly expect and deserve.

Mark Hopwood
Managing Director