Delays near Hayes and Harlington 21/01/2013

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

[HexDriver]

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

Theres not really anything else he can really say, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are Network Rails customers so i assume he's been putting pressure on Network rail to find a solution to this problem. Similarly i know the HEx MD has been putting a lot of pressure on Network rail as its not Network rails reputation thats suffering

[swrural]

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

With respect, I don't understand why you think writing to us will provide an answer to your question.  Clearly Mark Hopwood is not in a position to deal with the issues as they are beyond his influence, other than complaining to NR^» (Network Rail - home page) which he states he is doing (constructively).  Can he withhold payment to NR?  In fact does he actually pay them anything physically?        I thought not, the way the finance is arranged.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is supposed to be the NR customer but I don't think it has the power that I have,or you have, TG, over our suppliers. 

[IndustryInsider]

One of the railway magazines suggested that Network Rail need to send someone with real weight and credibility within their ranks to specifically oversee the Great Western route.  Given the current disruption, and the massive programme of improvements over the next 7 years, that seems like a very good idea to me!

[Southern Stag]

..........pretty much a cut and paste from the last "apology", when is it going to improve?

With respect, I don't understand why you think writing to us will provide an answer to your question.  Clearly Mark Hopwood is not in a position to deal with the issues as they are beyond his influence, other than complaining to NR^» (Network Rail - home page) which he states he is doing (constructively).  Can he withhold payment to NR?  In fact does he actually pay them anything physically?        I thought not, the way the finance is arranged.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is supposed to be the NR customer but I don't think it has the power that I have,or you have, TG, over our suppliers. 

FGW have to pay track access charges to use the track but it isn't as if there is a competing organisation FGW can take all their trains off to if the service provided by Network Rail isn't up to scratch.

[Chris from Nailsea]

One of the railway magazines suggested that Network Rail need to send someone with real weight and credibility within their ranks to specifically oversee the Great Western route.  Given the current disruption, and the massive programme of improvements over the next 7 years, that seems like a very good idea to me!

Dave Ward. 

[TaplowGreen]

I'm sorry but if Mark Hopwood, as Managing Director of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is "not in a position to deal with the issues as they are beyond his influence" then there is no hope for anyone.....he clearly can't change it overnight (although God knows they've had many years of trying) but he should be demonstrably and visibly all over NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to make a difference and stop these pathetic failures which seem to be happening on an increasingly frequent basis - if he has no influence, get someone who has.FGW are in a Client/contractor relationship and in any such business relationship there should be KPIs/SLAs which are rigorously enforced.....it is simply not acceptable to make overt or veiled implications (as there seems to be in every "apology" that "it's NRs fault not ours" - passengers pay FGW to deliver a service, it is they who have to front up and feel the pain from the passenger, and translate that into actions for their contractors/suppliers......as a starting point there should be information on what went wrong with the signal, why it happened, who is responsible for maintaining it and ensuring that it doesn't happen again - that is, at a minimum, what I would expect and I speak as someone who has operated on the client side as well as the dark (contractor) side in a Construction/Civil Engineering environment.

[swrural]

I must admit, I thought FGW^▸ (First Great Western) paid its fees to HMG , who then distributed the monies to NR^» (Network Rail - home page) included in one lump, together with the subsidy, but that is relatively academic.  In any case FGW is as much in hoc to HMG at the moment as NR is under the arrangements following its handing back of the franchise back along.

FGW will have access to the fault finding and it has offered to help.  There would be no point in making the offer that Mark Hopwood made unless that were possible - they would only get in the way of the job of putting it right.  Does FGW have signal engineers for instance?  If so, why do they have them? 

[Andy W]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2266892/Network-Rail-executives-given-125-salary-bonuses-700-000-leaked-memo-suggests.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=

OK not the best source - but it's good to see Network Rail executives are not being rewarded for all the problems that passengers are encountering (not).

[bobm]

.. hate to say this but there's a problem at Acton tonight affected one of the lines away from Paddington.....

[Electric train]

One of the railway magazines suggested that Network Rail need to send someone with real weight and credibility within their ranks to specifically oversee the Great Western route.  Given the current disruption, and the massive programme of improvements over the next 7 years, that seems like a very good idea to me!

Dave Ward. 

I think you will find Patrick Halgate is the RMD for GW^▸ (Great Western)  (RMD Route Managing Director)

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

I think there are two separate issues here.  One is the fault that causes the closure or reduced capacity of one or more running lines in the first place, the other is how FGW^▸ (First Great Western) responds to this and runs the best possible service it can - and keeps the passengers informed.  How well FGW responds comes down to its resources in Control and elsewhere.

As disucssed elsewhere, FGW has cut back on train crew supervisors and other key posts and probably doesn't have the necessary resources to deal with major disruptions as well as say, Thames Trains did a few years ago.  What they manage to run, and what information they get out to their own staff and the passengers, will probably be less than what they could have delivered if they had sufficient resources.  So FGW need to be careful about putting all the blame for passengers' disrupted journeys on to NR^» (Network Rail - home page).   

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Mrs GTBE was on the 1736 Padd - Oxford this evening, coming home to Pangbourne.  Because of the Acton aftermath it was about 20 late at Rdg, whereupon it was announced that it would run non-stop to Didcot and not stop Tilehurst/Pangbourne/Goring/Cholsey.

Now the only people on the train at Rdg would be for those stations.  So they were all turfed off and had a 30 minute wait at Rdg for the late running 1856.

Not the best decision I suspect - yes I know I don't know all the facts etc. But I think it supports my point above.

 Mrs GTBE is now well in to her second glass of wine.....   

[eightf48544]

A very good summary of the railway managers dilemma. When things run well then you can get away witht teh minimum of staff. however. once things start to go wrong you need everyone you can get to to tackle the problem. Sorry Mrs GTBE had to wait 30 minutes.

One of the problems of runnig a railway is that you are operating in real time and over a large geographic area thus a 30 minute day at Hayes will affect Bristol in an Hour Cardiff in 2 hours and Swansea in 3 hours and Penzance in 4 hours. i know for experience the pressure staff are under to sort such delays. I remeber we manage to lock up the junction at Sutton one morning peak it was only for 15 minutes at the most as we had S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) technitians on site with a club hammer (useful tool for manual siganlling), however we still had 4 trians waiting at the home signals and others blocked back behind them.

So what is the optimum staffing levels? Do you have enough staff on to cope with a fairly major disruption? If you do to have that number of staff available what do you do with them the bulk of the time things are running smoothly?

However, one thing I would say is that the railway needs it's NCOs and possibly not so many Officers. The railway is definitely an organisation that requires MBWA (Tom Peters' Management By Walking About)

[johoare]

Mrs GTBE was on the 1736 Padd - Oxford this evening, coming home to Pangbourne.  Because of the Acton aftermath it was about 20 late at Rdg, whereupon it was announced that it would run non-stop to Didcot and not stop Tilehurst/Pangbourne/Goring/Cholsey.

Now the only people on the train at Rdg would be for those stations.  So they were all turfed off and had a 30 minute wait at Rdg for the late running 1856.

Not the best decision I suspect - yes I know I don't know all the facts etc. But I think it supports my point above.

 Mrs GTBE is now well in to her second glass of wine.....   

That will be so "the train" gets to it's final destination on time.. As for the passengers, they are less important... Hhm maybe that is why wine was invented? ;-)