More dangerous overcrowding to the Westcountry

[whole diary]

[LiskeardRich]

Surely First (oops, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) knows they should run extra train every evening Friday out of London, and every bank holiday Monday out of Plymouth.

They had a coach on standby unused at Plymouth this afternoon. The coach operator gets paid the same whether he runs a route or sits in the bay outside the station, is it would have been a smart move to use him. Even if the train wasn't heavily loaded off Plymouth, it would have left more space for those boarding at the next station, send say fifty passengers for stations Plymouth to Exeter or Taunton, that's fifty extra spaces at totnes or Newton Abbot that will be less cramped.

[John R]

Surely First (oops, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) knows they should run extra train every evening Friday out of London, and every bank holiday Monday out of Plymouth.

They run every train they have available on peak days. The problem is (as has oft been discussed in great length) that they don't have quite enough for the peak days, and especially not for the ultra-peak days (e.g. Maundy Thursday).

[simonw]

Yes, but can they sacrifice one of the early trains the following day to run a late train on the previous evening?

I know this compromises the schedule for the following day, but is probably better to lose one train the next day that trying to load a a train 2(+)x seated capacity.

[John R]

That may already be happening. Maundy Thursday is followed by a BH, so quite likely that one of the extras was found in that way. And the Friday evening peak extras may also be covered in a similar way. Speculation on my part but I think you can take it as read that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will be juggling all options (including maintenance schedules) to release as many trains as possible at peak times.

[TaplowGreen]

14:07 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:33


14:07 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:33 has been previously delayed, has been further delayed at Reading and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to overcrowding.


.............wonder what it'll be like this evening heading West if it was this bad this afternoon?

[IndustryInsider]

Probably about the same as every year.

[TonyK]

Gosh, is it that time of year again already???

[TaplowGreen]

Probably about the same as every year.

With fewer options and additional disruption tomorrow/Sunday, I'd say it'll be worse, as more people will be heading West earlier than usual.

[IndustryInsider]

Probably about the same as every year.

With fewer options and additional disruption tomorrow/Sunday, I'd say it'll be worse, as more people will be heading West earlier than usual.

It looks to be the opposite with more spreading of journeys than usual. 19:03 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) left Reading with a few seats still available.  19:33 PAD-PNZ only had 20 people in Coach A. Long distance services on other routes mostly looking reasonably loaded, but by no means packed out.

Quieter than a typical Friday I would say, and good to see no infrastructure issues causing any problems.    Coming home will probably be a different story as many will choose the 27th.

[Henry]

  With Cross-Country services starting from Exeter St Davids, the sparse GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services leaving Totnes
  yesterday were 'cosy' to say the least.

[Kernowman]

The 10am Penzance to London Marylebone  8 coach HST^▸ (High Speed Train) today was truly astonishing. Full and standing throughout the whole train from Mid Cornwall to Marylebone.
Limited buffet facilities in Cornwall due to 'heavy demand on the way down on Christmas Eve' and, despite promises of new stock being loaded on at Plymouth, none materialised for the whole of the journey. Not that you could get to the buffet anyway, or the toilets, or the luggage rack or anywhere. Useful PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements also seemed quite sparse. I felt truly sorry, particularly for the elderly and those with small children, and for passengers who spent nearly 8 hours on this service (yes 8 hours, Marylebone was reached just before 6pm, the train was losing time almost from the beginning due to passenger numbers).
Still nice to have an HST into Marylebone.
Btw Anyone thinking that 5 coach bimodes will suffice on London services in Cornwall is in for a shock, in one direction or the other, or both, you'll probably need 2 X 5 or 1 x 9 sets - preferably with station platforms lengthened to accommodate the services that serve them.

[grahame]

The 10am Penzance to London Marylebone  8 coach HST^▸ (High Speed Train) today was truly astonishing. Full and standing throughout the whole train from Mid Cornwall to Marylebone.

Scheduled departures from Penzance to London yesterday were at 05:32, 07:40, 10:00 and 16:00.

As the only through train from Penzance and other cornish stations to London that left after breakfast and arrived at an hour decent enough for people to complete their onward journeys, running on the day after holidays and the rail shutdown, this was always going to be a prime candidate for overcrowding with long distance travellers well endowed with luggage. 

[TaplowGreen]

The 10am Penzance to London Marylebone  8 coach HST^▸ (High Speed Train) today was truly astonishing. Full and standing throughout the whole train from Mid Cornwall to Marylebone.

Scheduled departures from Penzance to London yesterday were at 05:32, 07:40, 10:00 and 16:00.

As the only through train from Penzance and other cornish stations to London that left after breakfast and arrived at an hour decent enough for people to complete their onward journeys, running on the day after holidays and the rail shutdown, this was always going to be a prime candidate for overcrowding with long distance travellers well endowed with luggage. 

............perhaps it would have been sensible for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) not to leave a 6 hour gap between the latter two services in order to at least partially mitigate the overcrowding caused by the factors you mention?

[grahame]

............perhaps it would have been sensible for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) not to leave a 6 hour gap between the latter two services in order to at least partially mitigate the overcrowding caused by the factors you mention?

I would suspect that the 13:00 from Penzance - which ran as far as Reading - was intended to mitigate. I suspect it was "too little, too late" for most people and a 12:00 Penzance to Waterloo would have been more effective - but that suggestion assumes all sorts of stock, staff and route availabilities.

[IndustryInsider]

If one more WoE train ran into Marylebone then another busy route would have had one less as it was handling as many as it sensibly could.  Was there a reason Waterloo wasn’t used this year?

Good to see no substantive engineering overruns and comparatively few tails of woe regarding crowding.  Friday night was ridiculously quiet and yesterday was busy but much better than I was expecting.  Perhaps punters are finally getting the message we don’t want their custom...  

So, terrible from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in the run up to the big getaway, but well done for their handling of the big event itself.  Just the new timetable launch to deal with now!