poor weather conditions???? 26/7/14

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

This is not helping the public perception of the railways in the South West. After a winter of seemingly continual disruption, now a summer storm brings the entire service to a halt. Meanwhile, traffic flows freely along the roads, as it did all winter, too.

Yes, I understand what happened, but the vast majority of passengers care not a jot for the finer details, they just see yet another disruption.

Yes.
This is doing West country tourist businesses no good at all. Not easy to state that the "west is open" when you cant get there reliably or in comfort by train.
I don't think that the recent scenes at Paddington (gross over crowding, multi hour delays, BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) threatening passengers etc.) are going to encourage rail travel.

In years gone by, both road and rail links were affected by adverse weather, railways however often remained open in conditions that closed nearby roads.
These days moderately adverse weather can seriously disrupt hundreds of miles of railway whilst roads often remain unaffected.

[Worcester_Passenger]

With regards to the above. Anyone travelling beyond Par should be bustituted. Allowing those on intermediate stops to board.

Only going to Par or Penzance then travel by rail should be allowed. May need bus from Liskeard too

The intermediate stops between Par and Newquay aren't served on Summer Saturdays.

The 11:30 only stops at Par, Plymouth, Exeter St David's and Reading. Which probably says something about the loadings.

Nothing to do with loadings.  The same in reverse leaves PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) for NQY^▸ (Newquay (Station)) at 0736 on Summer Saturdays.  Penzance leaves 0730, you don't need 2 trains stopping everywhere within a short space of time.  You might as well have some 'fast' services where practicable.  The same applies for this 11:30 to PAD which is only 14mins behind the PZ-PAD at Plymouth.

But the 07:30 from Paddington to Penzance goes by way of Bristol.

Of the two trains from Plymouth to London, the 13:00 has stopped at major stations in Cornwall and then does five major stations to London. The 13:14 has picked up at Newquay and Par, but then only does Exeter and Reading on its way into London. If it's not carrying as many passengers, then it'd make more sense to run the Penzance one as the fast and let the Newquay do the extra stops (at Totnes, Newton Abbot and Taunton).

[bobm]

I was told by a train manager this morning that 17 HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) sets ended up in the wrong depot last night.

[Timmer]

Going by road to the SW for your summer hols really any better? Tweet 1hr ago from BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Points West:

Holiday traffic at a standstill - police report that vehicles on the M5 southbound are now static between junction 14 and junction 23.

[LiskeardRich]

And the ultimate train formation update being reported on JourneyCheck:

11:30 Newquay to London Paddington due 16:33
Will be formed of 1 coach instead of 8 to Plymouth.
This is due to poor weather conditions earlier.
Show Further Information
Last Updated :26/07/2014 05:36

Should be cosy!

What would be wrong with "This is due to trains being out of position after last night's massive lightning strike on signalling equipment near Twyford, which wiped out our peak-hour services to and from Paddington"?

Should be Ok, going against flow on first summer Saturday.
I ended on the 0751 from redruth which stops all shacks to London, a large number joined at St Germans which surprised me

[ChrisB]

Port Eliot Festival methinks....

[a-driver]

I was told by a train manager this morning that 17 HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) sets ended up in the wrong depot last night.

Believe at least 2 Class 180s ended up at being stabled at Oxford and Worcester overnight.  Normally they all go back to Old Oak every night and none are used at the weekends. They worked scheduled services back this morning!
Caused a bit of a crewing headache and a few taxi journeys because what should have been an HST was a 180 and the booked crew from Bristol don't sign 180s!

[TaplowGreen]

I was told by a train manager this morning that 17 HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) sets ended up in the wrong depot last night.

Believe at least 2 Class 180s ended up at being stabled at Oxford and Worcester overnight.  Normally they all go back to Old Oak every night and none are used at the weekends. They worked scheduled services back this morning!
Caused a bit of a crewing headache and a few taxi journeys because what should have been an HST was a 180 and the booked crew from Bristol don't sign 180s!

Quite a few customers were caused headaches & endured lengthy and very expensive taxi journeys in order to get "stabled" too! 

[Electric train]

I was told by a train manager this morning that 17 HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) sets ended up in the wrong depot last night.

Believe at least 2 Class 180s ended up at being stabled at Oxford and Worcester overnight.  Normally they all go back to Old Oak every night and none are used at the weekends. They worked scheduled services back this morning!
Caused a bit of a crewing headache and a few taxi journeys because what should have been an HST was a 180 and the booked crew from Bristol don't sign 180s!

Quite a few customers were caused headaches & endured lengthy and very expensive taxi journeys in order to get "stabled" too! 

That was not the fault of the train crew ............. more the fault of divine intervention Friday afternoon

[a-driver]

I was told by a train manager this morning that 17 HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) sets ended up in the wrong depot last night.

Believe at least 2 Class 180s ended up at being stabled at Oxford and Worcester overnight.  Normally they all go back to Old Oak every night and none are used at the weekends. They worked scheduled services back this morning!
Caused a bit of a crewing headache and a few taxi journeys because what should have been an HST was a 180 and the booked crew from Bristol don't sign 180s!

That was not the fault of the train crew ............. more the fault of divine intervention Friday afternoon

Quite a few customers were caused headaches & endured lengthy and very expensive taxi journeys in order to get "stabled" too! 

They should all write in and complain though, just because they say they don't pay compensation because it's an act of god or outside of the railways control doesn't mean to say they wouldn't get a gesture of goodwill, however small, it's better than nothing.

I can imagine it was more than quite a few though.  Some of our traincrew had to get taxis home because they got back after the last trains had departed,  some even slept in the messroom although that's because they don't enjoy weaving down the motorway at 3am with the taxi driver drifting in and out of consciousness at the end of their 13 hour shift!!
We went right up to our 12 hour legal driving limit though.  We even had a crew change taking place at Slough during the evening. 

[Super Guard]

With regards to the above. Anyone travelling beyond Par should be bustituted. Allowing those on intermediate stops to board.

Only going to Par or Penzance then travel by rail should be allowed. May need bus from Liskeard too

The intermediate stops between Par and Newquay aren't served on Summer Saturdays.

The 11:30 only stops at Par, Plymouth, Exeter St David's and Reading. Which probably says something about the loadings.

Nothing to do with loadings.  The same in reverse leaves PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) for NQY^▸ (Newquay (Station)) at 0736 on Summer Saturdays.  Penzance leaves 0730, you don't need 2 trains stopping everywhere within a short space of time.  You might as well have some 'fast' services where practicable.  The same applies for this 11:30 to PAD which is only 14mins behind the PZ-PAD at Plymouth.

But the 07:30 from Paddington to Penzance goes by way of Bristol.

Of the two trains from Plymouth to London, the 13:00 has stopped at major stations in Cornwall and then does five major stations to London. The 13:14 has picked up at Newquay and Par, but then only does Exeter and Reading on its way into London. If it's not carrying as many passengers, then it'd make more sense to run the Penzance one as the fast and let the Newquay do the extra stops (at Totnes, Newton Abbot and Taunton).

It does go via Bristol, but is booked only 25 mins behind by Exeter, with local services and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) too, the fast NQY does not need to be all stops.

I understand your logic, but on the down trip it may be a case of needing to get the set to NQY as quick as possible for its return trip, and pathing may be an issue RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context)-PAD if you quicken the PZ and slow the NQY.

[The Tall Controller]

Regarding the 153 operating the 1130 from Newquay. The decision proved to be well made as reservation systems showed that only 67 people were booked from Newquay. A PNZ-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) was stopped at Par to pick up anyone waiting. A coach was also ordered to take any surplus from Newquay but this was not required as everyone got on the 153. I observed it coming through BOD and although it wasn't spacious, there was no one standing.