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

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

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.

Yes, I suppose it might be, though we're ahead of the total we'd had this time last year and (I think) that's the fourth FGW SPAD in the last three weeks between Reading and Paddington.

[Jason]

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.

16:00 (the start of my alerting window) and my phone lights up with SMS...

Delays to and from London Paddington expected until 16:30
A signalling problem at Southall is causing delays of up to 20 minutes to trains to and from London Paddington. This is expected to continue until 16:30.
Some high speed services between London Paddington and Oxford will not run.

[jane s]

Now I'm scared! 

If it was a SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) the driver certainly didn't seem aware of it at least initially - his exact words at the time were "the signal just turned back on me". It was a very sudden stop though! Last time I experienced one as bad as that was the terrible dual fatality at Slough (we had already gone past before the incident, but there was an "all stop" in the area).

I did see the freight train as it passed us to our left and wondered if it may have had anything to do with the problem. Timings would have made it a fairly close call I'm thinking....

Explains why the driver seems to have got replaced at Southall though, hence the long wait & why the platform staff were "cagey" - didn't make any sense at the time but totally does now.

Reminds me of a rather amusing incident a few months back where our driver completely overshot the up relief platform at West Drayton (seemingly thinking it was level with the down one!) and had to reverse, then got stuck at a red signal as presumably it thought we had already cleared the platform.

[grahame]

If it was a SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) the driver certainly didn't seem aware of it at least initially - his exact words at the time were "the signal just turned back on me". It was a very sudden stop though!

Signals can be passed at danger for a variety of reasons - there are 4 classes
- where a train proceeds beyond where it should
- where a signaller puts a signal back to danger in front of a train
- where a signalling system goes wrong and goes back to danger in front of a train
- where a runaway passes a signal at danger
Technically (according to the authority  of Wikipedia) only the first is called a SPAD and the others are called SPARs these days.

From the description, could this not have been a SPAR being reported as a SPAD.   Such incidents would often shake a driver so that he could not continue.  But I should not be speculating ...

[Oxonhutch]

Taking his words at face value: His comments were "went back in my face".  Suggests the system threw all to danger and he was presented with the impossible - stop at the red just presented. There are many reasons that can happen.  Someone else SPADing - the system should cause it - or a general alarm and a hit of the (red) button. I can well understand how such a circumstance could unsettle me, as a driver.

BTW^▸ (by the way), I am not a driver. At least not on the big railway.

[stuving]

Wasn't there a declared problem with signalling at Southall most of the morning? If there was, it was that train that was the first to come across it.

[a-driver]

It could still be under investigation.  Even if they couldn't determine what happened at the time, they wouldn't let the driver continue

There is nothing to be scared about though.  We have TPWS^▸ (Train Protection and Warning System) over speed and TPWS stop equipment on the track.  Both will apply the trains emergency brakes.  Overspeed will stop the train if approaches a red signal too fast, stop loops will stop a train that has past a signal at red within the overlap of the signal.  The overlap is a distance, typically 200 yards (I think) after the signal, which is kept clear so the chances of a collision occurring are very very remote.

I doubt very much wether anyone would admit over the PA^▸ (Public Address) they've just had a SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) though. Last thing you'd want to do is worry or alarm passengers on the train, plus a drivers pride is severely dented.

[JayMac]

There is nothing to be scared about though. We have TPWS^▸ (Train Protection and Warning System) over speed and TPWS stop equipment on the track.

Unless you have a charter train's crew allegedly overriding/isolating these safety systems, passing a signal at danger and fouling a high speed junction...

[Jason]

Track circuit failures between Slough and West Drayton this morning. We've just been informed of approx 10 minute delay to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) but that's on top of leaving RDG^‡(resolve) late.

[lbraine]

Person hit by train North of Oxford. Relief line services being cancelled from Oxford to Reading.
On going issues at Slough - making it a very slow transit to London this AM.

On a positive note : signs have gone up saying remaining Cow Lane underpass / bridge is being demolished week beginning 12th April. Closed for 4 days

[Electric train]

There is nothing to be scared about though. We have TPWS^▸ (Train Protection and Warning System) over speed and TPWS stop equipment on the track.

Unless you have a charter train's crew allegedly overriding/isolating these safety systems, passing a signal at danger and fouling a high speed junction...

Agreed, however a "work safe" system has kicked in and that train operator currently is not allowed to operate its own trains on the National Network.


Passing signals at Danger (red) has been with the railways since day one, over the years many devices / systems have been developed to eliminate human error, interlocking of signals, track circuits, ATC^▸ (Automatic Train Control) (AWS^▸ (Automatic Warning System)) TPWS etc etc.    The fallibility of all the systems is when human intervene i.e over ride them, switch them off or set them / maintain them in correctly.

[TaplowGreen]

...........another day......another signalling problem


Cancellations to services between West Drayton and Maidenhead Due to signalling problems between West Drayton and Maidenhead the Reading bound main line is closed.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 45 mins or revised. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

[NickB]

I am very much looking forward to the Meet The Manager at Paddington next Thursday (16th)...

[a-driver]

I'd love to listen in on the next meeting between FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page).  Rumours were filtering down through the ranks to us at the bottom that the proverbial came very close to hitting the fan yesterday!

[BerkshireBugsy]

I'd love to listen in on the next meeting between FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page).  Rumours were filtering down through the ranks to us at the bottom that the proverbial came very close to hitting the fan yesterday!

I met one of the managers when they were at Reading a few weeks back. When I asked about the realistic possibilities of normal (good) service being resumed on Tuesday following Easter the answer was "maybe an hours delay but nothing major"

I'm glad I took the week off now!