Thoughts of our traffic surge last week

This forum's been a busy place for a number of years, and remains so. Not only do we have dozens of contributions every day, but we're very widely read by guests too - something that's brought home to me from time to time when I get feedback (directly or indirectly) from some of the people involved in issues we're discussing, but not signed up as members.

Looking back over the past year or so, the number of posts has been a little down - not dramatically so, but still worth asking "why". Then over the last few days the number of daily posts has more than doubled. And again - "why"?

Much of the answer, I believe, is that posting here is very much governed by what's going on in the transport world that may effect us - and we're something of a leaf caught in the wind. Sometimes theres's no more than a gentle breeze of day to day issues, and at other times there's a veritable storm of news. So in many ways I actually celebrate the fact that we often tick over at a lower level - discussing on going developments and smaller issues - as we can celebrate some achievements of growth right across the area over the past few years, and a relationship with the TOCs^▸ that has come forward so much over time ... and is so much better with our TOCs that work primarily to the west and south of London than I hear reported from other parts of the UK^▸ . That's very encouraging.

But the last week has been a storm.

Electrification program delays - the longer distance stuff far less of a problem than it would have been had there been lots of electric-only IEPs^▸ rolling off the production line, but the Thames Valley cutbacks / delays giving serious concern about the potential lack of cascade of some 15 to 30 diesel enabled vehicles to help ease overcrowding on west regional and local services, which have grown so much more than was predicted in passenger numbers, and where the growth is now restrained by lack of capacity. On the line I use the most, a new train was introduced in December 2013 as a trial - objective to get the peak 17:36 about 50% full by 2016; alas, it's more like 120% and been up to 150%, with passengers adjusting their days to travel on the 15:12 instead ... from where I've also heard "full and standing" reports (yeah, seen it too).

Then last week there was the dreadful incident at Croydon, in which a number of people lost their lives, and which has raised concerns as to how on earth it could have happened, with the investigation spotlight turned onto various aspects of the system. One horse may have metaphorically bolted in Croydon, but systems and checks need to be made to ensure that it's not to be followed by lots of other horses.

Smaller and more specific issues are raising their head too - a consultation paper suggests that the first train in the morning from Bath to Bristol may be withdrawn at the end of next year, taking with it the ability of people whole live in the city of Bath (or travel from there) to get to Bristol for an early work start, or to Exeter of Plymouth for regular work. Thames Valley equipment reliability remains rather below what passengers would like to see, and capacity out of Paddington on Friday evenings continues to be a concern.

So I celebrate that this forum's an active place ... yet this week I don't celebrate quite so much the boost in traffic - and I look forward to our leaf flying free and high in a breeze, and not being quite so blown around in a storm, over coming weeks.

Attachement - daily post numbers so far this month