Easter engineering works and subsequent ongoing disruption - April / May 2015

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

It wasn't great last night - apology on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s website but no void day it appears;

Wouldn't expect one - not sufficient disruption to warrant it - that & NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be paying!

I thought the criteria was "a period of sustained poor performance on peak services" - surely yesterday afternoon/evening meets that definition?

.............and here we go again....

Alterations to services between Hayes & Harlington and Ealing Broadway

Due to signalling problems between Hayes & Harlington and Ealing Broadway some lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be delayed or revised. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

[bobm]

Problems between Bourne End and Marlow too.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Are these signalling problems as a result of the Easter works or just a continuation of the ones we have learnt to love ?

[ChrisB]

I thought the criteria was "a period of sustained poor performance on peak services" - surely yesterday afternoon/evening meets that definition?

"Sustained" means more than an hour or so of no movements I think

[tomL]

Are these signalling problems as a result of the Easter works or just a continuation of the ones we have learnt to love ?

I'm sure many people have and will continue to hastily point the finger regardless of the cause. 

[jane s]

Hi,

Amazed to find it so quiet on here after all the disruption last night & then again this morning!

Does anyone know what was going on? Last night information seemed to be in very short supply. All trains at Ealing Broadway were shown as "Delayed" until a few minutes before arrival. I got the late-running 20:35 at about 21:07, which was due to be closely followed by the 21:05 3 minutes later, so a toss-up as to which was the better option. I chose the first one which ran well all the way to Reading, where the passengers duly got on as it was scheduled to continue as a stopper to Oxford. Only once everyone was on board did they suddenly announce it was running fast to Didcot, cue a lot of very angry passengers!

Then the second train arrived, initially advertised as the next stopper, but which turned out to be a fast train to Oxford instead. Third time lucky? It would appear so and we all got on - but then were held at Reading for about 20 mins waiting for the driver to turn up (he was still on another train somewhere apparently!) and then a further 10 min delay just outside Reading waiting for an express train to go ahead of us. Finally got home @ 22:50pm.

Then this morning I was on the 7:51 from Tilehurst and changed at Slough on to the 8:39. All was well until after Hayes, where we suddenly did an abrupt emergency stop. The driver said the signal had turned red but could not get any info from the signaller. Another half-hour wait, then a slow roll into Southall (we were told we would have go in signal by signal under caution as they were all red) where the train was terminated. We were sent to platform 2 (the only train from there was a non-stop to Paddington so no use to me). No-one at Southall station seemed to have any idea what was happening. Eventually we were told that the train we had got off would now run. The man at the station said it was a fault on the train, & NOT a signalling problem! We finally arrived at Ealing Broadway just after 10.00am, leaving a trail of queued trains behind us.

Can anyone shed any light on the causes of either of both incidents and why none of the station staff seemed to know anything about what was happening? (Not their fault if no-one had told them BTW^▸ (by the way), they were doing a great job in trying to pacify a siege of stressed commuters!)

[TaplowGreen]

Getting ridiculous now - did they do the work over Easter with sticky tape and string?

One issue gets fixed, another pops up elsewhere.........

Another miserable evening peak is looming........


Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Slough Due to signalling problems between London Paddington and Slough some lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed by up to 30 mins. Disruption is expected until 15:30 08/04.

[TaplowGreen]

Hi Jane - you'll find it in the "Easter Engineering works" thread - Admins is it worth a merge

[lordgoata]

Looks like my call to work from home this week was the right one then - at last I am learning the ways of our rail network :-D

Feel for those of you stuck in all the issues, here is hoping they are resolved in a timely manner.

[grahame]

Hi Jane - you'll find it in the "Easter Engineering works" thread - Admins is it worth a merge

Not sure if it's "merge" ... or splitting off from Easter Engineering as it's no longer Easter and this isn't Engineering.   As I'm only on the briefest of swing-by-s, suggestion noted but I'm not going to try to do it in the time I have - otherwise I'll overrun ...

Seriously, until all the old "stuff" has been replaced, aren't we going to see problems where new interfaces to the fading-out old and the now-fragile old has to interface to the sophisticated new for a while?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, grahame. 

As it's a very topical / ongoing discussion, I've now merged both topics here - in the interests of continuity, at least in the short term.

I'll review the situation in a few days, to see if there's a better way of documenting what's happening.

CfN. 

[IndustryInsider]

Can anyone shed any light on the causes of either of both incidents and why none of the station staff seemed to know anything about what was happening? (Not their fault if no-one had told them BTW^▸ (by the way), they were doing a great job in trying to pacify a siege of stressed commuters!)

The train you got from Slough this morning was involved in a Category 'A' SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) at Hayes, whilst a freight was crossing into the Tarmac sidings ahead, so it wasn't an issue with the signalling as such.

There's been a lot of SPAD's for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) this year, especially from the LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) depots - in all cases the safety systems have prevented anything nasty happening as a result, though they do cause disruption as the driver has be relieved ASAP pending an investigation.

[a-driver]

I think to say there has been a lot of SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger)'s for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) this year is a bit of an over exaggeration.

[TaplowGreen]

I think to say there has been a lot of SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger)'s for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) this year is a bit of an over exaggeration.

It certainly sounds a bit alarming! 

[a-driver]

The risk is certainly higher for us on LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley).  We've got so many new drivers and there's been a significant amount of signalling changes recently, signals that have been moved, new signals, shorter sections and the whole Reading redevelopment certainly increases the risk but up until recently, one depot has been SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) free for a considerable period of time so there's not alarming trend.