Weather disruption caused in 2014, and how to prevent it happening again - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Electric train]

Attached to this post is the full train plan, for services affected by problems at Maidenhead, for Friday 14th February.

At last someone has woken up

Inner Thames Valley stopping services.
This service pattern has been changed from previous days to try and better cater for
customer demand and make use of an additional train path made available by use of the
relief lines.
All services MUST be formed 5 cars minimum.

It has been totally absurd for the last few days running the Padd - Maidenhead shuttles with 3 and even at times 2 car units.  I have been using the 06:45 from Maidenhead (starts from here) a 3 car unit; most seats taken and then after Burnham some standing room left; from Slough ............. well some passengers get left behind and then its the odd soul that gets on for the rest of the stops.  West Drayton, Hayes, Southall most get left standing on the platform.

I know these are difficult circumstances and the staff on the ground are working flat out, finally though someone in the back office has done some working out.

[NickB]

Quite.

Thanks for the timetable though - most useful.

[BBM]

I've just passed through the affected area again and to my eyes there seemed to be less water than there was yesterday - was I seeing things or is that indeed the case?

[Electric train]

I've just passed through the affected area again and to my eyes there seemed to be less water than there was yesterday - was I seeing things or is that indeed the case?

Water levels on the Thames have been dropping over the last 24/48 hours.
The cause at White Waltham is the high level of ground water any significant rain will push the level back up again, the problem is the local drain the River Thames and the Loddon (which flows through Twyford to the Thames near Henley) cannot take any more water.

[bobm]

When I first looked at the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News app on my phone this morning the headline was "Stormy weather returns to sodden UK^▸ (United Kingdom)".  In my half awake state I read that as "sodding" UK. 

[Pb_devon]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have done a major refresh of the website overnight, and suspension of Pullman & sleepers are now clearly stated (including the specific pages for the service).

[TaplowGreen]

I've just passed through the affected area again and to my eyes there seemed to be less water than there was yesterday - was I seeing things or is that indeed the case?

I went through this morning about 0700 (heading towards Reading) and if anything I thought the water looked a little more widespread in the affected area - nothing on the tracks but certainly in the area of the signal cupboards.

Problem is it's groundwater which is if anything less easy to deal with - chances are as fast as you pump it, more will bubble up as the ground is saturated - that said there was no sign of anyone doing anything nearby, and the diesel pump I noticed yesterday seems to have disappeared.

Still plenty of saturated sandbags around doing nothing useful - that said, 0654 from Taplow-Reading was bang on time with 6 coaches and got into Reading only about 10 mins late so no complaints there.

[BBM]

I went through this morning about 0700 (heading towards Reading) and if anything I thought the water looked a little more widespread in the affected area - nothing on the tracks but certainly in the area of the signal cupboards.

Yes, there didn't seem to be any water on the tracks this morning. I was on the UR on the right-hand side of the train and the water in the downside cess seemed lower and it didn't seem to extend as far towards Maidenhead. However I didn't have a view of the upside cess which I think is where the most problems are with signalling cabinets. Of course with heavy rain forecast today it may well mean a rise in groundwater levels anyway over the next 24 hours.

[a-driver]

I've just passed through the affected area again and to my eyes there seemed to be less water than there was yesterday - was I seeing things or is that indeed the case?

I went through this morning about 0700 (heading towards Reading) and if anything I thought the water looked a little more widespread in the affected area - nothing on the tracks but certainly in the area of the signal cupboards.

Problem is it's groundwater which is if anything less easy to deal with - chances are as fast as you pump it, more will bubble up as the ground is saturated - that said there was no sign of anyone doing anything nearby, and the diesel pump I noticed yesterday seems to have disappeared.

Still plenty of saturated sandbags around doing nothing useful - that said, 0654 from Taplow-Reading was bang on time with 6 coaches and got into Reading only about 10 mins late so no complaints there.

The water levels rise and fall during the day,  last night when I went through it was nearly at the top of the rails but Network Rail where then starting the process of what looked like pumping some water away.

Attached to this post is the full train plan, for services affected by problems at Maidenhead, for Friday 14th February.

We've actually had a train plan pretty much since Day 1 of the flooding and then one published every day since with minor tweaks and alterations where things haven't worked or needed improving.  We still don't know what we are doing until we book on but have managers in the messroom with a laptop and printer who are assigning work on a daily basis.  Our workloads have not yet been planned in advance as yet.
The problem comes late evening when there are fewer staff rostered and drivers can't complete turns within their booked days.

Here's a question that we've been discussing in the office today and I'm hoping someone on here can answer...........in times such as these with only 20% or so of trains running, what do all the "spare" train drivers do?

Are they temporarily redeployed in Customer Service or similar roles, or is it just a case of waiting around for a train that they can drive?

Thanks

We haven't had many "spare" drivers.  Yesterday the messroom was virtually empty apart from managers running around!  We have a lot of new trainee drivers starting with the company so they've basically used this time to get experienced drivers in classrooms to train them to become instructors, we've got drivers learning new traction, safety briefs, assessments, simulator training and other bits and bobs going on.
Sitting around for a whole 10 hour shift is a lot harder than it sounds!  The majority of drivers would rather be doing something as the day goes a lot quicker.

[bobm]

I was due to travel on the Sleeper last Tuesday night (4th Feb).  As we know it was cancelled.

I sent my tickets in for a refund and just had an email to say the refund has been processed and is on its way to my bank.  I must admit I am impressed, I fully expected it to take a lot longer considering the number of claims that must be flying around.

Not only did they refund the sleeper but also my ticket from Swindon to London which I had bought so I could board at a sensible hour and not hang around in Reading til half past midnight.

[bobm]

The Newton Abbot bound line is now closed by flooding at Hemerdon between Plymouth and Ivybridge.  Line still open in the other direction.

Also a blanket 50mph speed limit for all services west of Taunton until tomorrow morning due to high winds.

[Pb_devon]

The Newton Abbot bound line is now closed by flooding at Hemerdon between Plymouth and Ivybridge.  Line still open in the other direction.

Also a blanket 50mph speed limit for all services west of Taunton until tomorrow morning due to high winds.

at 1341 JourneyCheck reports all lines (Plymouth - Newton Abbot) now open, but with residual cancellations and delays.

[Electric train]

Currently there are 13 locations in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that are shown on an internal feed as "route blocked" and 4 location "significant disruption"

7 of the 13 and 3 of the 4 are South of a line Bristol to Watford

I suspect there are many other locations that are under severe stress

[ChrisB]

I think the point that is being made is that a train plan at the moment has a lot fewer trains that require a lot fewer drivers. The drivers not rostered *for the whole turn* can easily be assigned elsewhere as they won't be needed for driving.

At the moment that is a brave gamble to decide that. I'm not aware of any drivers that have done absolutely no driving at all during a turn in recent days.

PDAs etc can always be loaned. They will be to other staff volunteering. And 2 doesn't apply if not driving. voila!

Chris, do you know something about Hidden 18 that the rest of the industry does not then? Any time "working" counts towards a drivers hours, be that driving or some other task. If a driver spent four hours on the concourse they are clearly not then going to be able to spend six hours driving as well.

See the first quote. The second was referring to the first :-)

[ChrisB]

There's a lineslip north of Banbury now too. Not (yet) on the tracks....but threatening & NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have closed the lines until full inspection.