Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2014

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Can we remember to record whose ownership each fault lies with when pisting them here?

Officer Crabtree is alive and well. 

The information on fault ownership is available via links from the First Great Western website. One doesn't need to guess a percentage split or record it here. There's also a daily list of main disruption reasons covering the previous three days.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/About-Us/Our-business/Performance
http://www.firstgroup.com/uktrain/kpi/gw/recent-performance.php (recent)
http://www.firstgroup.com/uktrain/kpi/gw/ (daily)

In the past 12 months delay minute responsibility has been:

63.47% Network Rail
24.43% First Great Western
12.11% Other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)

In the past 12 months full cancellation responsibility has been:

67.68% Network Rail
27.82% First Great Western
4.5% Other TOCs

Somewhat shy of a 90/10% split.

[ChrisB]

Clicking on the middle link on an iphone, the web page is blank

[JayMac]

Clicking on the middle link on an iphone, the web page is blank

I don't use Apple products so can't suggest a workaround. However, the figures from that middle link on delay attribution are the ones I reproduced in my previous post.

[a-driver]

I've never seen the delay minutes before, I knew Network Rail were useless but not to the tune of 855,228 delay minutes over the last 12 months.  That's disgusting. 

[NickB]

I presume that that figure is in train delay minutes and not passenger delay minutes? What figure would you get if you multiplied the figure by the number of passengers affected?
It would probably account for >1% of GDP!! 

[TaplowGreen]

Really interesting figures - thanks BNM.

So whilst Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) "cause" the majority of delays/cancellation, it's by a ratio of roughly 2:1 compared to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/Other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company).

Judging by the expert comment on here most of the time, I had got the impression that it was more like 10:1

The cost to the economy overall if you extrapolate these delays/cancellations must be phenomenal.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[stuving]

I assume these are the standard internal attributions of delay minutes, so Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) carry the can for all those external causes that can be excluded from compensation. So that includes severe weather, external fires, fatalities, trespass, trees on the line, etc. etc. '

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[tomL]

Clicking on the middle link on an iphone, the web page is blank

It's a lovely Adobe flash application. Which, unfortunately, is not supported on any Apple devices.

[a-driver]

I assume these are the standard internal attributions of delay minutes, so NR^» (Network Rail - home page) carry the can for all those external causes that can be excluded from compensation. So that includes severe weather, external fires, fatalities, trespass, trees on the line, etc. etc.

Fatalities, no.  It depends on the circumstances and location as to who picks up the delay minutes.

Really interesting figures - thanks BNM.

So whilst NR "cause" the majority of delays/cancellation, it's by a ratio of roughly 2:1 compared to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/Other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company).

Judging by the expert comment on here most of the time, I had got the impression that it was more like 10:1

The cost to the economy overall if you extrapolate these delays/cancellations must be phenomenal.

It would be interesting to know if they could pinpoint those delay minutes to a certain geographical area ie. the amount of NR & FGW delay minutes on the stretch between Paddington to Reading.
As for the figures, nationally Network Rail account for 62% of all delay minutes.  http://www.networkrail.co.uk/about/performance/
Some more interesting figures provided by Network Rail especially if you download the sub-operator performance which breaks down punctuality between High Speed, LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) and West.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Oxford Times:

Rail company offers refund after delays


Rail company offers refund after delays

First published 08:00 Tuesday 25 November 2014 in News
Last updated 09:58 Tuesday 25 November 2014

First Great Western has announced a full refund for some commuters who experienced severe disruption last month.

On Monday, October 6, a signalling problem between Slough and West Drayton caused major delays and cancellations to services from Oxford to London Paddington.

The rail operator apologised and said its services ^fell well below^ acceptable standards. It promised a full refund for monthly and annual season ticket holders.

Season ticket holders can redeem the cost of travel as a cash refund at their local ticket office or as a one-day extension when they renew their ticket.

[stuving]

I assume these are the standard internal attributions of delay minutes, so NR^» (Network Rail - home page) carry the can for all those external causes that can be excluded from compensation. So that includes severe weather, external fires, fatalities, trespass, trees on the line, etc. etc.

Fatalities, no.  It depends on the circumstances and location as to who picks up the delay minutes.

So it does: in the delay Attribution Guide the distinction is whether the incident is recorded as happening on the track (even in a station) or on a platform. I'd guess most are on the track so NR's. 

There's another breakdown: the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about)'s - which is not terribly helpful. For FGW^▸ (First Great Western), 2013-2014, this gives:

External	111736.5
Network Management / Other	225431
Non-Track Assets	237929.9
Severe Weather, Autumn, & Structures	212239.1
Track	62042.3
NR-on-TOC▸ (Train Operating Company) Total	849378.9
TOC-on-Self Total	334010.9
TOC-on-TOC Total	142066.2
First Great Western Total	1325456

Of course that's only delay minutes - up to 30 minutes late maximum, I think. Over that it counts under "cancelled and significantly late". There are ORR figures for that, but I can't make a lot of sense of them. For FGW, in quarters, it did go up to 4.6% in 2014Q1, but was higher on several previous occasions - including 4.8% in 2012Q4, 7.0% in 2002Q4, and 8.8% in 2000Q4. Of course East Coast was much worse at those last two times - like 15.6% and 25.6%. Ah, the good old days ...

[TaplowGreen]

I think all this has been brought sharply into focus by the recent dramatic deterioration in performance, attributable to both NR^» (Network Rail - home page) & FGW^▸ (First Great Western), it would be interesting to know (other than the odd grunt cutting through a cable) if any proper analysis has taken place to establish exactly why this is happening, and hence the title of this thread, to which December will shortly have to be added if current "form" is maintained! 

[ChrisB]

I'm sure FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have done this internally & probably talking to Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) constantly

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[SandTEngineer]

I use this site to check the performance of the services I normally use.  Sometimes very depressing reading 
http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk/

[stuving]

I'm sure FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have done this internally & probably talking to NR^» (Network Rail - home page) constantly

I fear it's worse than that. I am sure Network Rail (NR) have devoted a great amount of engineering management and planning effort to the parallel signalling/electrification/other works programmes, specifically to ensure this kind of self-inflicted damage does not happen. But it does. So there must be something wrong with the linkage between knowing what and how to do it and actually doing it that way. Or - which is not quite the same - writing your plan on the assumption something can be done this way, when in reality (at night at trackside in too little time and without the right staff) it can't.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym