Failed freight train, Reading West - 20 August 2014

[whole diary]

[insider]

This is a basic extract of the internal messages sent to staff during the disruption yesterday. Forgive the format as a quick copy/paste job!! You have to read from the bottom up, to get time order correct. these messages purely relate to the state of the line blockage and not to individual train services.

Update at 10:40 : Both lines between Reading and Basingstoke are now open.

Update at 10:06: Major congestion is still being experienced following this mornings broken down Freight train. All lines remain open(except Basingstoke). Delays and cancellations to be expected until further notice.

Update  at 09:10 : freight train is on the move but running on emergency brake

Update at 09:01: Failed freight has now been moved onto the Down Basingstoke and therefore all lines (except Basingstoke) have now re-opened. Delays to be expected.

Update at 08:52 : The shunt is now taking place after building up air pressure.

Update at 08:50: Issues shunting freight. Passengers advised not to travel.

Update at 08:24: Congestion is being experienced at Reading Station as platforms are blocked with trains awaiting route to be cleared via the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury). Coupling of freights has now been completed, to now be shunted onto Down Basingstoke.

Update at 08:11: Freight shunt currently in progress. Swindon standby bus en route to Pewsey.

Update at 08:04 : 4018 has been talked past signal TR145 on to the back of 4O22.

Update at 07: 54: 4O18 to attach to 4O22 to push through on to the Down Basingstoke. RRS being sourced for Pewsey to Swindon.

Update at 07:16: Due to failure of 4O22, 4O18 remains on the Up Relief West of Reading stations blocking the line. This leaves 1P06, 1P08 and 2P20 queued behind.

Update at 07:12: 4O22 having moved down onto B&H line has declared a repeat failure and is now blocking Newbury and Basingstoke bound lines from Reading.

Update at 07:00: 4O22 observed having moved having rectified fault with loco.

4O22 service to Southampton has failed at Reading West curve. Up and down mains are blocked. Up relief is also blocked by 4O18.

[a-driver]

Yes, the west end of the station will be unlocked massively next year, and will allow the full benefit of the changes at the eastern end of the station and the new platforms themselves to be realised at Reading.

Definitely, especially when it comes to the routing of XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services as they will be able to access the Up/Down Westbury lines via Plat 12-15 (I think!!) this will effectively give us another through platform.

Returning to the issue of information to passengers during disruption.

Would it not be possible for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to have staff dedicated to customer information (for example the social media team) based in the same office as those who are making the necessary adjustments to train running?

Train control is based in Swindon, with social media staff either in (I believe) Plymouth or Paddington.

Obviously the train controllers and planners need to able to get on with the job of returning things to normal, but if there was someone briefed to give out information during disruption from the same location, it may help give a much better understanding to the travelling public of what is causing delays and how things are being worked on to resolve them.

And I'm not just talking about social media, those same people attached to train control and planning (or whatever its actually called) could also be relaying information to station staff across the network, so they don't have to bother the controllers and train planners directly.

One small point from the larger issue of information to the public. All the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) announcements I heard yesterday referred to 'a broken down train'. To the ears of the average passenger this is likely to make them think of a passenger train. Why can't the the announcements include the word 'freight'? Why, as a passenger train operator, should you give your customers the impression it is one of your trains that has broken down? This isn't just assumption on my part. After arriving at Bristol TM^‡(resolve) yesterday I overheard someone grumbling, "Typical. Great Western's trains are always breaking down."

within the control centre there are 3 members of staff (1 for each area LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley)/WEST/HSS^▸ (High Speed Services)) that are dedicated to getting the information out....it should be noted that the information sent out from control is the information that the twitter folk use, they don't have a special crystal ball to get anything extra. Again staff on the ground may have issues such as signal problems getting that information or just user error / training needs in actually understanding it or how to get it?

Recently within the control there is also an extra person on shift, that supervises the above staff and assists them in major disruption, with getting the info out.

With regards to the automatic announcements, and "a broken down train", these options are set by ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here), and are agreed by the entire industry, same applies to messages that would be seen on Journeycheck etc... Technically by the rules station announcers should also use the exact same script, but in reality they say the actual problem.

The hardest task I think is getting information out to DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) drivers.  Our only point of contact really is with the signallers.  Yesterday it took them over 30 minutes to broadcast a message to all trains in the area to advise briefly what the problem was.
I'm not knocking the signallers in anyway because there main priority is with the freight drivers and safely getting them back on the move.  There aren't enough signallers to handle the volume of calls they receive if every driver who was stationary tried to contact them.
Our control won't contact drivers directly.  They have no way of guaranteeing the train is stationary first of all.  All contact from control to drivers is made through platform staff.
Yesterday, the only way I found out what was going on was to leave the cab, turn on my mobile phone and access FGW Twitter feed!!

[John R]

Update at 09:01: Failed freight has now been moved onto the Down Basingstoke and therefore all lines (except Basingstoke) have now re-opened. Delays to be expected

I think most people can understand that if a freight train sits down and blocks all lines then disruption is inevitable. However, having been on a service (0740 ex Paignton) that arrived into Reading over 2 1/2 hours after the lines had reopened to be told that it was being terminated there due to the disruption and congestion at Paddington, one can question the ability of the railway to recover from the incident in an efficient way. When we finally got to Paddington, there appeared to be more than a couple of spare platforms, indeed the station seemed strangely empty.  Has any thought been given to curtailing the Greenford service to the branch in such circumstances, to release an extra platform at Paddington?

[SDS]

Where would you dump the Greenford carriages?

There are 3 perfectly good platforms that are being wasted during disruption. 6/7 & 12. All because BAA/HAL are paying stupid amounts of money to NeR they get to keep their platforms.
Should say to them, ur going down to 30min services and 1 platform.... deal with it.,

[John R]

I'll presume that the facility to turn them around at West Ealing hasn't been constructed then - I assumed it was an existing facility.

[IndustryInsider]

I'll presume that the facility to turn them around at West Ealing hasn't been constructed then - I assumed it was an existing facility.

Not yet - work should be starting shortly though.

[a-driver]

Update at 09:01: Failed freight has now been moved onto the Down Basingstoke and therefore all lines (except Basingstoke) have now re-opened. Delays to be expected

I think most people can understand that if a freight train sits down and blocks all lines then disruption is inevitable. However, having been on a service (0740 ex Paignton) that arrived into Reading over 2 1/2 hours after the lines had reopened to be told that it was being terminated there due to the disruption and congestion at Paddington, one can question the ability of the railway to recover from the incident in an efficient way. When we finally got to Paddington, there appeared to be more than a couple of spare platforms, indeed the station seemed strangely empty.  Has any thought been given to curtailing the Greenford service to the branch in such circumstances, to release an extra platform at Paddington?

I heard that they did get severely congested at Paddington once the route reopened as they were sending HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) through from Reading one after another.  Someone said at about 1030-1100 they had trains queuing outside Paddington for around 15 mins.  Sounds like they may have curtailed a few too many at Reading!!

We have used platforms 6 and 7 recently during disruption.  HSTs using platforms 6 and 7 need additional staff to meet arrivals to warn passengers of the considerable gap there is between the train and the platform.  Providing the additional staff might not always be possible if they are trying to clear other platforms especially when you have HSTs going empty to the depot.

Greenford services always use Platform 12.  Platform 12 is only 6 or 7 carriages in length so you can't fit an HST on there anyway.

Agree with the comments about HEx.  A train every 15 minutes is excessive at the best of times, given a lot to seem to cart fresh air!  Aside from the main subject.  Have noticed HEx have shortened their sets to 4 or 5 cars throughout the day, a cost cutting measure??

[BBM]

Agree with the comments about HEx.  A train every 15 minutes is excessive at the best of times, given a lot to seem to cart fresh air!  Aside from the main subject.  Have noticed HEx have shortened their sets to 4 or 5 cars throughout the day, a cost cutting measure??

I think it's a cost cutting measure during the summer holiday period. Presumably HEx relies more on business passengers than leisure ones?

Earlier this year I did see an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) in one of the HEx platforms, and one evening back in June following a fatality at Southall I caught the 1735 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) Turbo from platform 7. However I've also seen HEx sets simultaneously occupying three different platforms on at least a couple of occasions in the past year or so!

[a-driver]

I think it's a cost cutting measure during the summer holiday period. Presumably HEx relies more on business passengers than leisure ones?

Earlier this year I did see an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) in one of the HEx platforms, and one evening back in June following a fatality at Southall I caught the 1735 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) Turbo from platform 7. However I've also seen HEx sets simultaneously occupying three different platforms on at least a couple of occasions in the past year or so!

I remember seeing someone tweet a picture of that HST in 6

True, I forget about the Summer hols!  Travelling on Heathrow Express with your family isn't going to be cheap is it?!  ^21 per adult single and ^10.50 per child. 

[eightf48544]

As I understand it was a Class 70 that failed. Considering these are the latest "imports" until the Class 68s enter service they seem very prone to failure, but at least it didn't catch fire.

Perhaps more attention should be paid to ironing out their faults before they are let out on trains!

It was very fortunate that the following train on the Up Relief was also a freight train as it was available to push the failed train out of the way. Although I believe there was further delay when the it was found that the assissting loco could not release the brakes on the failed train.

If it had been a Turbo or Voyager think how long it would have taken to get a loco to the front of the failed train it would have had to come from Bristol/Westbury or Southampton assumming there were any spare locos in these places.

No amount of investment is going to stop this happening.

Won't the flyover stop this happening?

Don't forget, as has been pointed out earlier there will still be flat junctions at Tilehurst on the Relief lines and at Oxford Road and Southcote Junctions on the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury). But the Mains should be open.
 
Also don't forget that there has been a considerable disinvestment in freight loops and sidings so there are a lot less places to shunt a failed train.

[JayMac]

I've heard from another forum that the driver of the 0730 from Paddington only became aware of the changes to his service headcode and destination when he saw the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Taunton, showing a call at Tiverton Parkway and a destination of Newquay. I expect he was only due to take the set as far as Exeter where there's usually a driver change, but had he not seen the CIS the call at TVP would have been missed.

[a-driver]

Had a taxi in connection with work this morning,  got talking to the taxi driver about the disruption on Wednesday. 
FGW^▸ (First Great Western) gave the taxi company a job to take a passenger from Reading through to Holyhead!  5.5 hours apparently and he estimates the cost to be around ^400!

The taxi driver was more than happy with it. 

[SDS]

Agree with the comments about HEx.  A train every 15 minutes is excessive at the best of times, given a lot to seem to cart fresh air!  Aside from the main subject.  Have noticed HEx have shortened their sets to 4 or 5 cars throughout the day, a cost cutting measure??

I suspect its a cost cutting measure and also the fact they would only need 1 dispatcher instead of 2/3 when running with double sets.

Remember HAL/BAA is loosing money and they want to claw it back anyway and everyway they can.

[a-driver]

Agree with the comments about HEx.  A train every 15 minutes is excessive at the best of times, given a lot to seem to cart fresh air!  Aside from the main subject.  Have noticed HEx have shortened their sets to 4 or 5 cars throughout the day, a cost cutting measure??

I suspect its a cost cutting measure and also the fact they would only need 1 dispatcher instead of 2/3 when running with double sets.

Remember HAL/BAA is loosing money and they want to claw it back anyway and everyway they can.

This weekend the HEx service is suspended.  They're advising passengers to travel to Hayes and then catch the number 140, a London transport bus service, to Heathrow. Not even a dedicated replacement coach service. 
Not exactly good if they're still charging their normal expensive fare!!

[didcotdean]

As it is down to Crossrail, maybe they should be providing one?