Major alterations to services, 16-17 Sep and Sunday Mornings September-November

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Late notice work taking place this weekend between Paddington and Reading. Please check carefully if you are travelling to/from London  this weekend.

From Journey Check:

Due to urgent repairs to the track between London Paddington and Reading all lines are disrupted.
Train services running to and from these stations may be revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Due to additional engineering works on Saturday 23rd September 2017, train services will be running to a revised timetable between London Paddington and Reading in both directions. The train times may differ to those previously advertised and may be different to times that you have reservations for. The amended timetable was uploaded to journey planners on Thursday 21st September so if you booked or checked your journey plans before that date please double check as the times of the trains are likely to have been revised.

Departures from London Paddington on long distance services will be up to 12 minutes earlier than the previously advertised times. During the main part of the daytime service the following long distance timetable generally operates, but please check individual journey times and plans.

The XX.00 Bristol Temple Meads departures will depart 12 minutes earlier at XX.48
The XX.06 departures towards Devon and Cornwall will depart 9 minutes earlier at XX.57
The XX.12 Swansea departures will continue to depart at XX.12
The XX.21 departures to Oxford and beyond towards Worcester/Great Malvern/Hereford will depart up to 6 minutes earlier at XX.15 note these services will also be departing Slough up to 6 minutes earlier than usual
The XX.30 Bristol Temple Meads departures will depart 3 minutes earlier at XX.27.
The XX.50 Oxford services (which call at Slough and Reading only) will depart at XX.51.

The Paddington to Cheltenham Spa service will not run today, customers should see staff or consult the journey planners for more information regarding these services.

All services may arrive in to London Paddington up to 10 minutes later than originally advertised, with some also departing Reading earlier than advertised as well.

During the main part of the day the London & Thames Valley local services between Paddington and Oxford will operate as two individual services, half hourly Paddington to Maidenhead Electric service calling at Ealing Broadway, Southall, Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Iver, Langley, Slough, Burnham, Taplow and Maidenhead and a half hourly Maidenhead to Oxford local service. The same arrangements will apply for journeys travelling towards London.

The Greenford branch line will not be operating any service.
Heathrow Connect will not be operating any service.
The Paddington to Hayes stopping service will not run.
No services will call at Acton Mainline, West Ealing or Hanwell

All times above are the standard service pattern and individual journeys may vary so please check your journey plans carefully, the timetable that is now available on the online journey planners is showing information for the service that will be running today.

Customers with advance purchase tickets, may travel on their original trains even if they depart earlier. Customers who have missed their train due to an early departure may travel on the next available train service.
Arrangements have been made with CrossCountry to accept GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) tickets via any reasonable route as well to assist in customer movement.

Customers using the Greenford branch and also Hanwell, West Ealing and Acton Mainline are advised to use TfL^» (Transport for London - about) services to complete their journey.

[TaplowGreen]

Any idea what happened to the tracks to cause this? Problems on late night Friday services too.

[phile]

According to Journey Check, Swansea to Paddington (already diverted) also are calling at Gloucester to compensate for the Cheltenham cancellations.

[grahame]

Late notice work taking place this weekend between Paddington and Reading. Please check carefully if you are travelling to/from London  this weekend.

Because these are "late notice" changes and not cancellations / changes during operation, they do not appear on the maps at the top of our pages - just the extra stops on the South Wales trains, as it looks like they got overlooked on the late notice!!

I suspect "late notice" means that changes are in the system early enough not to count against the performance figures of the operator concerned, even though tickets and reservations will have already been sold for services that aren't running - or am I too cynical at the moment?

[John R]

Let's hope nobody arrives at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) between 1948 and 2000 hoping to travel to MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains).

Hopefully GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would put on a taxi from CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains)?

[IndustryInsider]

Relying on the goodwill of drivers to come in early as adequate notice has not been given to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to produce amended diagrams on time.  Given the recent removal of any incentives to do so, I would expect a few drivers to say no which might mean a few late starts and/or cancellations.

[ChrisB]

Late notice work taking place this weekend between Paddington and Reading. Please check carefully if you are travelling to/from London  this weekend.

Isn't this discussed elsewhere & going on some some weeks?

[grahame]

Have heard on very good authority that the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") commissioning work for this blockade has NOT taken place. A source has claimed that the safety case paperwork was not completed in time. Or something to that effect. Decision was made to run the advertised service and not attempt to run trains even though this may have been a possibility.

Again Source says is that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is fuming at NR^» (Network Rail - home page). And the upcoming planned sunday morning blocks may need to be changed. The techs will still need a repeat block of this weekend but no one has any idea when this will be?

Sounds line the weekend of 14th / 15th October has a very similar block.  Oh dear ....

[insider]

Have heard on very good authority that the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") commissioning work for this blockade has NOT taken place. A source has claimed that the safety case paperwork was not completed in time. Or something to that effect. Decision was made to run the advertised service and not attempt to run trains even though this may have been a possibility.

Again Source says is that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is fuming at NR^» (Network Rail - home page). And the upcoming planned sunday morning blocks may need to be changed. The techs will still need a repeat block of this weekend but no one has any idea when this will be?

Sounds line the weekend of 14th / 15th October has a very similar block.  Oh dear ....

Yes another total block All Day Saturday / Sunday

https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/reading2017