Flooding Disruption January 2014

[whole diary]

[didcotdean]

And Culham Centre for Fusion Energy had only thanked them for the service this afternoon too 

[SDS]

Principles of service WEB    2   Flooding Train Plan Thursday 9th January 2014    Sent 09/01/14 14:41
 
Class 1 Paddington/Oxford/North Cotswolds
All Class 1 services between Paddington ^ Oxford/Worcester/Hereford and v.v cancelled with the following exceptions;
 
[...]
1W08 1822 Paddington ^ planned for booked route SSO Didcot Parkway
1W09 1922 Paddington ^ Hereford diverts via Kemble
 
Class 2 Paddington/Oxford
All Class 2 services between Paddington ^ Oxford and v.v operate between Paddington and Didcot Parkway only.
 
A shuttle service will operate between Didcot PW^▸ (Permanent Way - the railway track) and Oxford using a fleet of 3 dedicated turbos to prevent vast majority of fleet passing through flood water. The 3 turbos will end at Reading TCD Wednesday night for inspection if required.
The shuttle service will operate at xx26 and xx57 from Didcot PW ^ Oxford (with the intention of connecting with the services ex Paddington). They will operate at xx07 and xx37 from Oxford ^ Didcot (with the intention of connecting into the services to Paddington).
 
NBN if delays start to accumulate between Oxford and Didcot, then the xx37 ex Oxford to be withdrawn and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to put SSO for Didcot PW into their xx43 departure ex Oxford.
The xx10 XC departure ex Reading to have SSO put in for Didcot PW.
 
Oxford ^ North Cotswolds
The service will run with current headcodes and be timed to depart Oxford as they currently do in the advertised times shown. These services will run as far as Worcester Shrub Hill only to form return workings.
The exception from Wednesday 8th, being that we will also run the Morton In Marsh services, starting from Oxford and terminating at Oxford.
 
Oxford ^ Banbury
Services will operate as booked between Oxford and Banbury and v.v. Services will not operate South of Oxford

[johoare]

Looks like the 19.48 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill ran even though that suggests it shouldn't have?

[grahame]

Looks like the 19.48 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill ran even though that suggests it shouldn't have?

That's a Cheltenham Spa train that gets extended, I think

[johoare]

Looks like the 19.48 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill ran even though that suggests it shouldn't have?

That's a Cheltenham Spa train that gets extended, I think

It usually goes to Worcester Shrub Hill (every day) and still is as far as I can see even though the information suggests it shouldn't be running. I can't  complain.. If it runs today I hope to be on it

[BBM]

0654 from Twyford was cancelled again, but I was in time for the 0643 (the 0609 from Newbury). However the 180 was failed after the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) spent 20 minutes trying to close an errant door so everyone had to run over the bridge for the 0705. I'm now wedged onto that train with everyone off the 0643 and 0654 and we haven't reached Maidenhead yet...

[BBM]

...and at Maidenhead the whole length of Platform 4 was about 5 deep, many couldn't board. Now at Slough, looks like no one can board. Oh well, TGIF!

[ChrisB]

The 1822 HFD^» (Hereford - next trains) shown all day as running via Stroud, finally went booked route - if only they'd told people....

[Southern Stag]

Looks like the 19.48 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill ran even though that suggests it shouldn't have?

That's a Cheltenham Spa train that gets extended, I think

It usually goes to Worcester Shrub Hill (every day) and still is as far as I can see even though the information suggests it shouldn't be running. I can't  complain.. If it runs today I hope to be on it

Yes it does, but it runs via Swindon and Gloucester rather than Oxford so there are no problems with it running despite the flooding.

[didcotdean]

Earlier today there was a confidence that normal services would be resumed on Saturday. However, recent communications are far more guarded.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Not a lot of news in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land about this of course, but XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) began running through Radley at 3 pm yesterday (Friday). I caught 1745 northbound XC at Bournemouth which had arrived from Manchester and going back to Manchester (not just Reading) which had come through Oxford southbound at about 1515 hrs. 

When we arrive at Reading P8 at 1910 the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) was saying it was the 1919 to Cheltenham.  Nothing on any screens anywhere saying there was a XC going through to Oxford and Manchester (we've talked about rubbish CIS at Reading before).  But must pay credit to the train announcer who was valiantly trying to keep passengers informed of what was going on.

If XC can run their Voyagers through Kennington, why can't FGW run a half-decent service?


edit:  minor syntax

[didcotdean]

With XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) running, there would be a reasonably fast service in theory to Oxford from London with one change at Reading and no other stops. XC is only running one service an hour though; the other is still terminating in Birmingham.

[IndustryInsider]

If XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) can run their Voyagers through Kennington, why can't FGW^▸ (First Great Western) run a half-decent service?

XC didn't run anything at all Wednesday and Thursday and started (as stated) an hourly service yesterday afternoon.  The flood waters have now receded slightly meaning that rather than single line working with a Pilotman, both main lines were open yesterday with a 5mph restriction and trains being 'talked' by one signal.  That means more trains could run so XC were allowed their one path an hour in addition to the one path an hour for FGW that has been running the last couple of days.  Personally I think that more passenger trains could and should have operated.  Not many more trains in total could have run through the area than were actually allowed to, but freight services appeared, to me at least, to get an inordinate slice of the pathing pie, with the passenger operators getting a very rum deal!

Botley Road and Abingdon Road remain closed today.

Once more though the lack of planning on the ground was shockingly bad on occasions.  This can be excused, to an extent, early within the incident, but several days in and trains running to the amended plan are still being cancelled at very short notice (and in some cases then hastily reinstated last minute when a driver unexpectedly turns up!), or running short-formed when there's a depot full of sets doing nothing at Reading - the response seems very much on a reactionary basis rather than a proactive one.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

I arrived at Hanborough station at around 17.15 for the Down stopper that was starting from Oxford instyead of Didcot to see around a dozen people who had arrived for the Up train from Hereford that was showing on our new screen as cancelled. I asked some if they werewaiting for this train as the next Up train was considerably later at 18.44 and it seemed that was the case. I pointed out that this train had been identified as cancelled some hours before and asked if they had seen this message on the internet at their office and it would seem that most had seen this.

However the complaint among them was that the information on trains being issued by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was very inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate. It was also
confusing because the internet displayed information on trains being cancelled together with special trains that were partially replacing the
cancelled services and some readers did not connect the two. It was said that over the past few days some had travelled on trains that had been shown
as being cancelled but for which there was an actual service when they got to the station. One person said that he had come to Hanborough on both
Thursday and Friday mornings on trains that had been posted as cancelled and that as on Thursday, he had had a train home at around 17.15 (a 2-car turbo instead of the HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))) he had come to the station hoping the same would apply on Friday. I have however been unable to verify the accuracy statements made to me.

On Wednesday, by mid-morning FGW had set up the hourly Oxford/Worcester SH shuttle and this seemed to me a most suitable solution to the flooding
problems south of Oxford and the FGW web site suggested that this arrangement would continue until at least Friday. In deed, ignoring the peak
hour problems due to the cancellation of the HSTs, it seemed almost an improvement on our normal service in that there was an hourly Up departure
at 7 minutes past the hour throughout the day. It seemed however that one of the people waiting at the platform was most annoyed that he had missed his
train home as, he said, it departed early on Wednesday, so I assume he had been unaware of this special hourly shuttle that only became clear to
internet watchers at around mid-morning on Wednesday. I wonder whether this confusion had caused FGW train schedulers to abandon the hourly shuttle on Thursday and Friday with an attempt to run just some of the normal scheduled
services along the line.

The net result seems to be that there is a widespread impression that FGW had not handled the Cotswold Line rail services at all well over the admittedly very severe operating problems of recent days.

[Electric train]

The net result seems to be that there is a widespread impression that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) had not handled the Cotswold Line rail services at all well over the admittedly very severe operating problems of recent days.

It's not only the Cotswold Line rail services where FGW handling the situation very well; FGW ability to effectively communicate with its customers over the last week is laughable.

I am not knocking the staff on the ground or the train crew as they are doing the very best they can however somewhere even they are being let down to quote Hale and Pace by "The Management"