Cotswold Line services autumn 2017

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

Monday November 27

Not a good day.

14:25 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 16:59 was started from Worcester Foregate Street and will be terminated at Oxford.
It will no longer call at Great Malvern, Malvern Link, Honeybourne, Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury, Hanborough, Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
It is being delayed at Evesham.
This is due to a fault on this train.

realtimetrains is reporting it as having left Evesham 34 minutes late at 15:36 - and having passed Ascott only 8 late at 15:43.

7 minutes for 26 miles is impressive, but unlikely.

[Worcester_Passenger]

It was unlikely:

14:25 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 16:59 was terminated at Evesham.
It will no longer call at Honeybourne, Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury, Hanborough, Oxford, Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
This is due to a fault on this train.

[Worcester_Passenger]

And the 15:49 Paddington - Moreton-in-Marsh is being terminated at Oxford, "due to a broken-down train".

Return working, 17:32 to Paddington, being started from Oxford.

[charles_uk]

and:

15:21 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington expected to be 67 late at Oxford
15:50 Worcester Foregate Street to Paddington "delayed" atm

and

17:49 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 20:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken down train. (is this the same unit as the 14:25 Great Malvern to Paddington?)

[Worcester_Passenger]

16:22 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 19:26 has been reinstated.
It will be terminated at Oxford.
It will no longer call at Hanborough, Combe, Finstock, Charlbury, Ascott-under-Wychwood, Shipton, Kingham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Honeybourne, Evesham, Pershore, Worcester Shrub Hill, Worcester Foregate Street, Malvern Link and Great Malvern.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.

That's "reinstated", but not as we know it, Jim.
And the return working, the 19:44 from Great Malvern, will be started from Oxford.

Meanwhile, my other half, who is on the 14:25, has just rung to tell me that they've come back to Evesham, where they have transferred to what is the 15:14 Hereford, formed today of a Turbo.

The 15:14 from Hereford is not simply the train behind them. The current situation is:

Train
1P57 14:25 GMV-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) 15:02 at Evesham.
Left Evesham 34 late. Returned to Evesham at 16:52.
Has now gone to Worcester, empty.

1P61 15:21 WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains)-PAD 15:35 at Evesham.
Left Evesham 12 late. Left Moreton 72 late.
Terminated at Reading at 18:20, some 85 late.

1P63 15:50 WOF-PAD 16:08 at Evesham.
Left Evesham 8 late. Left Moreton 55 late.
Arrived Paddington at 19:06, some 67 late.

1P65 15:14 HFD^» (Hereford - next trains)-PAD 16:25 at Evesham.
Left Evesham 45 late.
Arrived Paddington 19:41, some 72 late.

Edited later to add final arrival times.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Presumably the 15:49 Paddington - Moreton has been truncated at Oxford so as to allow all three late-running up trains to get out through the single line between Charlbury and Oxford and get back to Paddington as fast as possible.

[charles_uk]

So, in effect, three out of four down services from Oxford along the Cotswold Line have been cancelled between 16:30 and 19:00?

16:46 Oxford to Moreton-in-Marsh
17:25 Oxford to Great Malvern
18:50 Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill

[Adelante_CCT]

and:

15:21 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington expected to be 67 late at Oxford
15:50 Worcester Foregate Street to Paddington "delayed" atm

and

17:49 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 20:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken down train. (is this the same unit as the 14:25 Great Malvern to Paddington?)

15:21 from Worcester forms the 17:49 from Paddington.
14:25 from Malvern forms the 17:22 from Paddington

[Worcester_Passenger]

Madame, who was supposed to arrive at Paddington at 16:59, eventually got there at 19:41.

It's impressive, being 2:42 late on a journey that is scheduled to take 2:16.

Meanwhile, just to complete the record of today's disasters,

18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:36 will be started from Reading.
It will no longer call at London Paddington.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.

20:22 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 23:05 has been delayed at London Paddington and is now 21 minutes late.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

[1st fan]

Madame, who was supposed to arrive at Paddington at 16:59, eventually got there at 19:41.

It's impressive, being 2:42 late on a journey that is scheduled to take 2:16.

Meanwhile, just to complete the record of today's disasters,

18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:36 will be started from Reading.
It will no longer call at London Paddington.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.

20:22 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 23:05 has been delayed at London Paddington and is now 21 minutes late.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

Shambles doesn't quite cover it really. My mum was due to be coming back on an afternoon service today. Fortunately she switched to a morning service because she was looking after the grandchildren after school.

[charles_uk]

One observation from yesterday's chaos: how is it possible that a single train breaking down mid-afternoon can cause major disruption for the rest of the day? Slightly rhetorical question as I understand that adding stretches of single track and resulting stock displacement into the mixture, you are going to get a lot of knock-on problems but, even so, the impact did seem excessive.

[Worcester_Passenger]

My interpretation would be that it was a 'perfect storm' situation - that the 14:25 GMV-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) broke down at exactly the wrong time and place.

The afternoon timetable from Worcester towards Oxford is a bit odd - the vagaries of the timetable mean that there's departures from Shrub Hill at 14:43, 15:21, 15:54 and 16:05 (all HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)). Our usual timetable is hourly-ish - in the morning we get London-bound departures at 05:36, 06:19, 07:32 and 08:39 (with the 'halts' train at 06:55).

Now, the 14:25 GMV-PAD got to Evesham but had some sort of a problem there. It eventually left 34 late at 15:36. In which case it should have arrived at Moreton at 15:55.

Presumably everybody thought that it was now OK, so the 15:21 WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains)-PAD followed it, passing Norton Junction (according to realtimetrains) at 15:30. It arrived at Evesham at 15:44 and left at 15:48.

Now, I don't know how the signalling is organised between Evesham and Moreton, but evidently it's possible for this train to leave Evesham heading east before the one in front has reached Moreton.

Meanwhile, the one in front is having problems - "limping along" according to my other half. And eventually it grinds to a halt in the middle of nowhere and (presumably) the driver gets on the phone to the signallers at Evesham and Moreton, who (presumably) tell Control. Let's suppose that Control find out about this at 16:06.

At which point, whoever is on the Control desk looks to see what's happening behind the dead train, realises that the 15:50 WOF-PAD passed Norton Junction at 16:05 and utters [expletive deleted] - they've now got two trains trapped behind the dead one.

The driver manages to get the dead one going sufficiently to be able to go back to Evesham, using the crossover at Honeybourne to get over to the down line and out of the way of the two that are trapped behind it.

At this point, the sensible thing to do would've been to get the passengers off the dead train while it reversed at Honeybourne, so that they could be picked up by the next one behind. But that one isn't due to stop at Honeybourne, so Control may have decided that that plan wouldn't work. And indeed, the one behind that isn't due to stop there either (though you would think that the Evesham signaller could instruct the driver). Either way, the passengers are taken back to Evesham.

And by the time they get there, the two trains behind have got going and have cleared off towards Oxford. You now have a pile of (grumpy?) passengers at Evesham.

But, we have a third train behind. It's the 15:14 from Hereford to Paddington, departing Shrub Hill at 16:05. Under normal circumstances I would expect that one to have been sent round by way of Cheltenham and Swindon so as to avoid the whole grisly mess. But these aren't ordinary circumstances. This train should be an HST but has been replaced with a Turbo - and I'll bet you're not allowed to send Turbos round by way of Cheltenham and Swindon.

So the 15:14 from Hereford gets sent into the trap as well. It passed Norton Junction at 16:14 (so the idea of going the long way round may not have had a chance anyway). But at least it was available at Evesham to rescue the stranded passengers.

I do hope that Control is conducting a proper post-mortem - and I do hope that they don't just shrug their shoulders and pass it off as a 'perfect storm'.

[martyjon]

Two suggestions:

1. More redoubling of line needed;

2. ROSCO^» (Rolling Stock Owning Company - about)'s to have 'spot hire' stock available.

[ellendune]

Two suggestions:

1. More redoubling of line needed;

Yes

2. ROSCO^» (Rolling Stock Owning Company - about)'s to have 'spot hire' stock available.

A few questions come to mind

a) How many?
b) Where would they store them?
c) Who would have both the traction and the route knowledge to get them to the right place and then use them on the service?
d) What sort of notice would be required to get them to the right place - would it be too late?
e) How much would the ROSCO have to charge to make them pay?
f) Would that be too much for TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s to hire them

[jmc85]

what I don't understand with the lack of available trains (HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)) is that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are introducing new trains so surely there is some excess capacity? I know some are moving to Scotland - but these are short formed units?

I am fed up with having 7 carriage HSTs - what is going on? At least they used to substitute a 1st class carriage - much better than nothing, and much better when no one else knew it was freely available!