Are the UKs railways falling apart?

[whole diary]

[eightf48544]

In no particular order.

Signalling problems at Bourne End no Marlow service
Cancellations Paddington Reading stoppers
Southern cancellations strikes etc.
Major disruption Euston Milton Keynes
Derailment at Eccles (yesterday)

 I am sure there are more.

[ChrisB]

a part possibly. discuss

[John R]

And the 1736 Swindon to Westbury cancelled too. 

[Electric train]

They are not falling apart as such, they are creaking at the seams.

The age of some of the equipment and the skill base and resources to maintain and repair it, the response times to faults is a major concern in the Route I work in.

There are more and more trains running, faster, longer trains and less and less time to get onto the infrastructure to maintain / repair.  The rules for working on open railways are a lot tougher now so it is difficult to do work "between trains"

A number of the problems on the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) Mainline currently may be down to some staging / temporary works in readiness for Christmas which might have compromised some of the stability.

Also the weather has gone from being quite mild and benign to wet and windy with all the leaves knocked down last week to cold this week, yes I know its just British weather

[grahame]

And the 1736 Swindon to Westbury cancelled too. 

Yep ... been a poor month.

I'm currently on an Arleen Coach (rather nice) which is running the service this evening in place of the 153377.  Information fed in well at staffed stations .. help point at unstaffed MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) telling people or the 16:27 to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) to wait for the next train at 19:47 and that the problem is an effect of major issues at MKC^▸ (Milton Keynes Central) (Milton Keynes Central).

[ChrisB]

I thought that unit's next round trip also cancelled? Was on journeycheck last time I looked?

MKC^▸ (Milton Keynes Central) was a fatality I heard...was the driver there at the time? Otgerwuse why would it affect just one unit 100+ miles SW? Odd

[bobm]

I thought that unit's next round trip also cancelled? Was on journeycheck last time I looked?

18:32 and 20:06 were initially cancelled but re-instated around 18:20.

[John R]

And the 1736 Swindon to Westbury cancelled too. 

Yep ... been a poor month.

I'm currently on an Arleen Coach (rather nice) which is running the service this evening in place of the 153377.  Information fed in well at staffed stations .. help point at unstaffed MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) telling people or the 16:27 to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) to wait for the next train at 19:47 and that the problem is an effect of major issues at MKC^▸ (Milton Keynes Central) (Milton Keynes Central).

How well did that work?  I'm guessing if a coach is ready and waiting, and leaves on time the time penalty or inconvenience may not be too great.  Although from the time you posted, I'm guessing you were at least 20 late arriving at MKM?  And other passengers have to go the long way round of course.

[ellendune]

How does an incident in Milton Keynes cause a cancellation on the trans Wilts?

[PhilWakely]

The cancellations on the TransWilts earlier this evening may have been as a result of a bridge strike at or near Hungerford causing West of England services to be diverted ?? ??

[ellendune]

The cancellations on the TransWilts earlier this evening may have been as a result of a bridge strike at or near Hungerford causing West of England services to be diverted ?? ??

Sounds more likely

[grahame]

How well did that work?  I'm guessing if a coach is ready and waiting, and leaves on time the time penalty or inconvenience may not be too great.  Although from the time you posted, I'm guessing you were at least 20 late arriving at MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains)?  And other passengers have to go the long way round of course.

Should have left CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains) at 17:53 arrived MKM 18:03. Coach arrived CPM at around 18:10, left about 18:20 after waiting for the next train from Swindon for extra passenger(s) and arrived at MKM Station at about 18:45.    Around 12 passengers on the coach - mostly arrived at CPM on the 17:32 from Swindon (which left there at 17:36  ) - only one extra passenger off the following train from Swindon.   Quite  a few lost to lifts with friends, and some grabbed a shared taxi rather than wait as we didn't really know how long it would be before the  coach arrived.  So 40 late or so but still a lot better than waiting for the next train which would have been a further half hour.

General reaction / feeling - grateful for the coach, understanding that things will go wrong occasionally but not very thrilled by the service unreliably recently, but utterly committed to it as part of their daily life and very happy with what it offers.   Clearly that's a generality of comment / flavour and may not be shared by all.

[grahame]

How does an incident in Milton Keynes cause a cancellation on the trans Wilts?

I suspect this story came from a call centre operative confusing MKC^▸ (Milton Keynes Central) and MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains)!   

The cancellations on the TransWilts earlier this evening may have been as a result of a bridge strike at or near Hungerford causing West of England services to be diverted ?? ??

Possible, but I actually doubt that in this case; decisions to cancel the TransWilts are not taken anything like as lightly as seemed to be the case in the past.  I'm pretty sure it was a train fault that lost the round trip. 

[Worcester_Passenger]

Today (Monday December 5) I'm on the 15:22 from Paddington to Worcester Foregate St. We sat at Charlbury for 30-odd minutes as a result of the train in front of us (the 14:21 from Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill) having brake problems.

Eventually passed the offending train at Moreton-in-Marsh.

But now we're 40 late away from Pershore and we're being told that this one will terminate at Shrub Hill.

[Worcester_Passenger]

And we've just waited at Norton Junction while the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train from Warminster to Great Malvern, which would have been a useful connection, is sent in front of us.