Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2014

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Some of us are working over Christmas to build a better railway ...................

Which can do best when no trains are running a whole 52 hours (and more in some places) to take things to bits and put new stuff in

Merry Christmas ET, when you get time to celebrate!

The figures show that the rail service is quieter over holiday periods, although some may say that is because of there being fewer trains. That makes it the best time to carry out major work, and I don't mind not being able to take a train on Boxing Day in exchange for the removal of the mail conveyor at Temple Meads and all the other pre-electrification work being done over Christmas.

[broadgage]

Not looking very good this morning with numerous cancellations and many other services delayed or diverted or not serving the whole route.

Looks like a mixture of the expected over running engineering works outside Paddington and signal failures around Southampton.

[TaplowGreen]

Not looking very good this morning with numerous cancellations and many other services delayed or diverted or not serving the whole route.

Looks like a mixture of the expected over running engineering works outside Paddington and signal failures around Southampton.

It's the same every year so I don't suppose anyone is really very surprised.....first Penzance service of the day cancelled, next few (assuming they run) will be hideously overcrowded........first Penzance to Paddington starting from Plymouth too.....due to....yes you've guessed it......"a member of the train crew being unavailable"

[bobm]

Advice for passengers from Reading and west thereof intending to use the first Penzance was to travel to Temple Meads where an additional train will run to Cornwall.

[TaplowGreen]

That one will be nice and cosy especially as the next PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) is also cancelled.

[ChrisB]

"Additional train".... Likely to only be carrying those transferring from PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) as few others will know its running

[TaplowGreen]

"Additional train".... Likely to only be carrying those transferring from PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) as few others will know its running

probably immaterial now.....latest from Journeycheck.....

Due to over-running engineering works between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington all lines are closed.

0900 to Exeter cancelled, as is 0928 to Penzance - best advice, give up and go home? (unless that's what you're trying to do?)

What a farce.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Looking at the bbc news web site it's not just FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services being hit by overrunning engineerng works

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30607689

Personally I am not affected by either dispruptions But it doesn't stop me feeing sorry for those who need access to the transport system today

[Worcester_Passenger]

Currently sitting in sloe at pad, having arrived to catch the 1106. Too much luggage to consider going to Marylebone. Nothing in the station.

[grahame]

In that link, it says:

A Network Rail spokesman said the work was "a small part of a massive amount of engineering investment taking place over Christmas".

He said 4.5 million passengers use the railways on average every day, compared with two million a day over the Christmas and New Year holiday.

Whilst I agree that the Christmas and New Year period is a wholly excellent time to close some lines to undertake major works on them, I can't help feeling they the "two million a day" average over Christmas and the New Year is to some extent caused by the almost complete absence of trains on 2 of those days.   Kinda pushes the average down.   If we call the Christmas / new year period 10 days (24th Dec to 2nd Jan) and say that trains only run on 8 of them, then would the average over the days they run be 2,000,000 / 0.8 = 2,500,000 passengers.   Is Mr Network Rail being naughty with his use of statistics, or has he already and correctly discounted the 2 shut days?

I'm afraid I've learned to be a cynic over the years - long experience of messages like "fill the existing trains and we'll provide more" which were pretty darned hard to do in the days when there was a choice between the 06:12 and the 18:44.

[johoare]

Journey check is now saying no trains into Paddington until 13.30

[johoare]

And now it's disruption until 6.30pm at least...   Oh well it's not like there are any big sales on that people might want to get to  (not me btw - I don't like shopping!)

[broadgage]

This though predictable is a very poor performance from network rail (and/or contractors whom they chose to appoint) and whilst I presume that another review or enquiry will be announced, does anyone think that it will be better next time ?

Electrification, new signalling and other preparations for the new shorter trains are expected to take some years so this is unlikely to be a "one off"
And of course events like todays will discourage train travel at holiday times.

I recently met, at a social event, a West country MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) who stated that a massive road improvement and road building programme was needed in the West because "the railway always closes at Christmas and Easter, and in bad weather, and you never know in advance if the trains will be running"

[tomL]

Following along on Twitter things still look far from finished.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PaddingtonTrains&src=hash&mode=photos

[NickB]

I'll be fascinated to see if this warrants a void day. If it was a regular day and no trains ran into Paddington then I'd be confident of it being void, but will fgw just chance it and not declare a void.
IMO^▸ (in my opinion) the void/no void decision needs to be taken out of the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s control and awarded by a regulator.