Delays across the West, due to person hit by train at Twyford - 17 May 2015

[whole diary]

[Palfers]

Some big delays tonight due to person being hit by a train. This one caught my attention by how much it's delayed!!!

20:57 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids due 23:19

This train will be starting late from London Paddington by 100 minutes and will be further delayed between Reading and Exeter St Davids.
This train will be diverted between Reading and Exeter St Davids.
This train will no longer call at Taunton and Tiverton Parkway.
This is due to a person hit by a train earlier.

Message Received :17/05/2015 22:30

 Time Destination
 20:57  London Paddington  22:37
 21:31  Reading  23:11
 23:19  Exeter St Davids  01:49

[Adelante_CCT]

01:15 arrival in Exeter, not too bad then

[Southernman]

Diverted via Yeovil. Appears to have free run down, crossing the up sleeper between Pinhoe and Exeter Central.

Lost 7 minutes (only) on the schedule between Castle Cary and Exeter despite the trundle down to Yeovil Pen Mill. Running time between Yeovil Junction and Exeter St Davids approx. 43 minutes.

All it needs for double track to be re-instated and then you have a fast line alternative from London to Exeter (and whisper it, perhaps to Plymouth via Okehampton)!! Wonder if the new Government will deliver on some of the proposed improvements...

[TaplowGreen]

I did hear that the person hit by the train has survived, but that's unconfirmed.

[bobm]

The person, a 54 year old man, was taken to hospital by air ambulance but, sadly, later died.

[jane s]

I was unfortunately caught up in this. Arrived at Paddington @8pm, finally got on a train @ 9:35pm. Had assumed that stopper to Oxford would be started from Reading (were all cancelled from Padd) but when I got there @ 10:30ish, was nothing scheduled until 23:48!

Eventually (with help of the duty police, who were very sympathetic to a group of passengers frustrated by total lack of announcements and asisstance from staff) we got put into taxis.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Purely in the interests of clarity and ease of future reference, I've amended the heading of this topic.

Another sad story from the railways: our thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased. 

[PhilWakely]

Forgive me for being somewhat dim    The OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) refers to 1C98 delayed from 20:57 to 22:37 and I can understand the unfortunate reason for said delay. However, according to Real Time Trains, there was an additional service (1Z98) which departed PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) at 21:30 for Plymouth via Newbury, Westbury and Taunton which was only 15 late at Exeter, so was there another reason for the huge delay to 1C98?

[Godfrey Tables]

I too was caught up in the disruption on the Sunday. I went to the station earlier today, only to find it's happened yet again. That's the same place twice in one week. What a tragedy, and thoughts go to all those involved

[Western Pathfinder]

Yet again it would seem that the actions of one sad person have caused major havoc to thousands of people who at the end of the working week now face hours on the journey time before they can start the weekend my thoughts go out to all that are caught up in this mess and especially the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and the other services who have the task of clearing it up hope the driver will be ok.     WP.

[Oxonhutch]

It was my train that struck the person and I knew immediately what had happened - I won't elaborate.  I got up as we ground to a halt on the country side of Twyford and caught the initial conversation of the lady train manager with the driver.  Her face was was one of shock and after listening to the driver said "how are you?".  Nice concern from a team.  No mention on board of person-hit-by-train - standard operating procedure but I knew we were going to be there  for the next few hours.  BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) x 2 walked down from TWY^▸ (Twyford station) with fitter and driver relief.  Carriage and wagon inspection, BTP walk-through and phoning ahead for an unaccompanied minor on the train and we set off under caution clear of Twyford West Junction and set back - bang road - to the up main to Twyford p2 where the train terminated. The passengers were picked up by a Bristol now running on the down relief. 

I have been delayed many times at Paddington as a consequence but never on the train involved.  Not nice.  Sympathies to all - not least the driver and the family of the person hit.

[phile]

It was my train that struck the person and I knew immediately what had happened - I won't elaborate.  I got up as we ground to a halt on the country side of Twyford and caught the initial conversation of the lady train manager with the driver.  Her face was was one of shock and after listening to the driver said "how are you?".  Nice concern from a team.  No mention on board of person-hit-by-train - standard operating procedure but I knew we were going to be there  for the next few hours.  BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) x 2 walked down from TWY^▸ (Twyford station) with fitter and driver relief.  Carriage and wagon inspection, BTP walk-through and phoning ahead for an unaccompanied minor on the train and we set off under caution clear of Twyford West Junction and set back - bang road - to the up main to Twyford p2 where the train terminated. The passengers were picked up by a Bristol now running on the down relief. 

I have been delayed many times at Paddington as a consequence but never on the train involved.  Not nice.  Sympathies to all - not least the driver and the family of the person hit.

What was the train ?

[bobm]

14:45 London Paddington to Swansea

[John R]

I was caught up in this trying to get from SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) to NLS in the early evening.

What struck me was the poor decision by control to run the 1630 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) to TAU^» (Taunton - next trains) non stop from BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) to TAU. Yes, it was running 45 mins late, so needed to make up time if it were to have a prompt departure on the return trip, but just about everyone on the train would be travelling to the intermediate stations. 

Whilst they held the 1855 BRI to TAU for 15 mins to make sure people got the connection, the result was that the 2 car 150 was crushed to capacity and many people were not able to board.  A more sensible approach would have been to have retained a couple of stops on the 1630 to keep on board enough pax to enable the local unit to cope.   As it turned out the 1630 arrived in TAU only 8 mins late. A couple of intermediate stops would still have enabled an arrival within 15 mins of booked time, and probably removed over 100 people from the local.

Appreciate that control have a lot of things to manage under such difficult circumstances but it did appear that in this instance they put the priority of punctual timekeeping over the needs of passengers.   

[TaplowGreen]

Still having an impact this morning with the first PNZ-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) cancelled.