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

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Engineers are due to inspect homes in Dawlish that were evacuated on Friday night when massive waves crashed over a temporary breakwater.

The breakwater - made from containers - was put in place after serious storm damage last week.

Julian Burnell from Network Rail said the tops of the breakwater containers at Dawlish had been "peeled back like banana skins" and some looked like they had been "beaten with a gigantic hammer".

However, liquid concrete sprayed on to the damaged cliff wall appeared to have "held" and a scaffolding bridge erected for repair engineers' access did not appear to have been affected.

"Obviously we have to inspect these things, but fingers crossed, things are looking relatively good," Mr Burnell told BBC News.

[thetrout]

If only this was the Night Riviera...

[johoare]

Yesterday's  journey was by far the worst this week.. In the morning I got to the station for the 7.24 Maidenhead non-stop to Paddington.. They got everyone onto platform 2, then about the time the train would have been due (were it on time) we all got moved to platform 4 (it passes the time I guess and apparently it wasn't the first time this week it had happened).. It finally arrived at Maidenhead half an hour late..It was therefore rather full when it left.. I imagine we left people behind.. I am quite disappointed that 7.24 is the first HST^▸ (High Speed Train) that is stopping additionally at Maidenhead as lots of people travel a lot earlier than that these days.

Going home I was on the 7.48pm departure. It left Paddington 20 minutes late which wasn't too bad and was very fast until just before Taplow where we stopped.. We spent around 35 minutes sat there and finally got to Maidenhead an hour late..

I think next week I might try travelling earlier and go for one of the stopping services..

[BBM]

I think next week I might try travelling earlier and go for one of the stopping services..

Probably your best bet. On Thursday I planned to catch the 0643 stopper from Twyford but it didn't appear and none of the staff there knew when or even if it would arrive, so most people went on the rail replacement bus to Maidenhead. I stayed on platform 4 and eventually the train arrived some 25 minutes late. Arrival at Maidenhead was about 40 minutes late where there was a huge crowd on platform 4 and I recognised many of the people who had been at Twyford an hour earlier! As far as I could see everyone at Maidenhead managed to get a seat.

[BBM]

Just been browsing Real Time Trains and I see that today's 0820 Swansea-Paddington took TWO HOURS and 23 minutes to get from Twyford to Maidenhead - anyone know what happened? It's just arrived at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) 198 minutes late.

[SandTEngineer]

Looks like the sea wall at Dawlish has been breached even further .......http://www.siteeyelive.com/monitor/bbcdawlish/camputerb86.jpg

...and hey there is now a Lobstervision camera there https://www.lobstervision.tv/home
Username: dawlish
Password: dawlish

You can see the new breach in the wall if you zoom in.  Some of the containers look extremely bent and battered 

[JayMac]

Looks like the sea wall at Dawlish has been breached even further .......http://www.siteeyelive.com/monitor/bbcdawlish/camputerb86.jpg

...and hey there is now a Lobstervision camera there https://www.lobstervision.tv/home
Login: dawlish
Password: dawlish

You can see the new breach in the wall if you zoom in.  Some of the containers look extremely bent and battered 

Thanks for those links SandT.

I note that the first one refreshes every minute. The Lobster Vision camera doesn't appear to offer a real time feed.

[insider]

Just been browsing Real Time Trains and I see that today's 0820 Swansea-Paddington took TWO HOURS and 23 minutes to get from Twyford to Maidenhead - anyone know what happened? It's just arrived at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) 198 minutes late.

A tree came down on the line blocking the Up Relief and required cutting up. Due to local road closures it took staff a long time to get to site as nearest point road access that was available (due to floods) was 2.5 miles walk along the track from the fallen tree.

[lbraine]

Visit to Reading today saw a quieter station.

Cross country only running as far as Banbury.

TV shuttle from Oxford to Reading shown at local stations with follow up information that Reading was the location to change to trains to London Waterloo.

Seems FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are trying to filter as much load into Waterloo.

Direct trains to Paddington full and standing at 2pm - 3pm, which does not bode well for Monday. One saving point is Monday is Half Term around TV/Reading so less commuters ( but maybe more families planning days out will suffer)

[insider]

Techs have been working around the clock and at last some good news......

As of 17:21, the Up Main Twyford to Maidenhead has full normal signalling restored without any restrictions!!!!!!!!

The down main is being worked on as I type this....some ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) chips for an EROS^▸ (Emergency Restriction Of Speed) 30/60mph, due to tamping that was done other night to drain water, still need to be installed. And then a test train will run, and hopefully fingers crossed that will be good as well.

The relief lines remain flooded and still broke but open for now.....

[insider]

and now @ 18:07

The Down Main is now open under normal signalling just talking by one signal (DM28), and one ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) fault, but drivers can override this.

The Up relief is still talking by two signals.

TBW^▸ (Temporary Block Working) is in operation over the Down Relief from Maidenhead Station to Twyford East.

[phile]

Completely off topic but just touching on what Electric Train has said.

Take my favourite train, the 23:20 Bristol Temple Meads - Frome. Once the train terminates at Frome, It runs Empty Coaching Stock back to Westbury to be cleaned etc.

Now assuming I am the only passenger on this service (not that uncommon) the train runs to Frome. So that's often a 3+ Carriage Train (sometimes 7 or , 1 Driver and 1 Guard just to take thetrout back to Frome

Now lets assume everyone has gotten off at or before Westbury and the train is now empty... What happens? FGW^▸ (First Great Western) run the empty train to Frome, terminate it and conclude with the empty coaching stock manoeuvre back to Westbury

Why? Because if the service is terminated at Westbury, that's classed as a Cancellation in the eyes of Network Rail and FGW get invoiced for the cancellation of the service...

So what about the waste of fuel, wear on the tracks/points, wear and tear on the trains themselves etc etc...

I wonder how many other niche services like this exist just to save on the cancellation fees instead of using common sense and saving fuel, wear & tear on the track and trains...

  I came across this on an occasion on a Bank Holiday when a Cheltenham train (I can't recall the details at this stage) which was returning ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) to Gloucester was allowed to leave Gloucester empty and run empty back because of the cancellation penalty.     Common sense and logical reasoning don't enter into it.

[SDS]

I was bored (okay very bored) and came across this old piece of legislation which I am wondering would apply to this case at Dawlish???

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/5-6/55/section/14

[insider]

As of 21:50 last night.

NORMAL WORKING on both up & down main lines (apart from a 60mph EROS^▸ (Emergency Restriction Of Speed) on DM)

Talking by 2 signals on both up & down relief lines.

[Timmer]

I see on Real Times Trains that despite engineering work between Bristol and Trowbridge there are XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services booked to run through Bath due to flooding in the Bridgwater area. Can anyone confirm this is the case? If they are running through Bath then surely FGW^▸ (First Great Western) can run a normal timetable today instead of buses.