Cotswold Line - 2018 cancellation and amendments log

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

17.52 appears to be a 3-coach Turbo west of Oxford. Currently waiting on Oxford P4 for it to arrive. 16 coaches down to 3 is not going to be pretty.

Edit: Yup... extremely cosy. A pair of lovely Chiltern 168s have just drawn into P3 to taunt us...

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't believe that there are any passengers on their trains:

21:51 Hereford to London Paddington due 01:18 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Hereford, Ledbury, Colwall, Great Malvern and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.
Additional Information
Road Transport (minibus) is being sourced to operate between Hereford and Worcester Shrub Hill.
Last Updated:13/04/2018 18:40

[charles_uk]

Seems to be a much better Saturday than recent ones:

Realtime Trains tells me the 06:17 Hereford to Paddington was "cancelled throughout due to a problem with the train (M8)"

and from JourneyCheck:

12:18 London Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh due 14:00 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

14:50 Moreton-in-Marsh to London Paddington due 16:38 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

So - so far - just a light trimming rather than the wholesale butchering of the day's service.

[IndustryInsider]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't believe that there are any passengers on their trains:

21:51 Hereford to London Paddington due 01:18 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Hereford, Ledbury, Colwall, Great Malvern and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.
Additional Information
Road Transport (minibus) is being sourced to operate between Hereford and Worcester Shrub Hill.
Last Updated:13/04/2018 18:40

To be fair a minibus would be more than adequate in terms of replacement capacity for that train, which is a total waste of an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)).  More than 10 passengers between Hereford and Worcester is rare, maybe up to 20 between Worcester and Evesham, back to single figures to Oxford, and then maybe 30 or 40 on board through to London (a few more revellers on a Friday use it between Oxford and Didcot).

One of many services that will be much better when operated by a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)).  Or even a Class 153. 

[grahame]

One of many services that will be much better when operated by a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)).  Or even a Class 153. 

Until you find what services that same set of carriages operates in its "diagram" early in the day.

It's incredibly difficult to get overall seat occupancy during the day over 30% ... even though there is so much talk of overcrowding!

[charles_uk]

Ah, a little more "trimming" now:

17:18 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 19:44 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:14/04/2018 12:36

20:04 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 22:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:14/04/2018 12:36

Just what you want to see when you get to Paddington after a nice day out in London.

[IndustryInsider]

One of many services that will be much better when operated by a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)).  Or even a Class 153. 

Until you find what services that same set of carriages operates in its "diagram" early in the day.

It's incredibly difficult to get overall seat occupancy during the day over 30% ... even though there is so much talk of overcrowding!

Yes, indeed.  It's an ideal diagram to have as a 10-car up until Worcester as it works the 17:22 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-HFD^» (Hereford - next trains), detach the rear five there to stable for the night, and run it as a 5-car for the rest of the diagram.  Or detach it at Hereford and stable there overnight for one of the morning trains.  There's never any need for more than 5-cars on any of the trains between Worcester and Hereford, even on the busiest trains of the day, but of course operationally it might still make sense to run some as 9-car or 10-cars still.  I await with interest how the Cotswold Line new timetable shapes up.

[Worcester_Passenger]

The 17:22 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-WOF has only operated once in the last seven weeks.

[charles_uk]

And another pair:

from Realtime Trains - 13:18 Paddington to Great Malvern

This service was cancelled throughout due to an issue with the train crew (TG)

and the return working

16:35 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 19:37 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train drivers.

Last Updated:14/04/2018 13:47

I'm not sure which is preferable - a menu of cancellations announced first thing or the gradual chopping throughout the day. Either way, the services are cancelled.

[charles_uk]

And for the fourth working day running:

15:52 London Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh due 17:26 will be terminated at Oxford.
It will no longer call at Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham and Moreton-in-Marsh.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

Last Updated:16/04/2018 15:08

Hopefully not the same reason as last week...

And in case anyone decides to go for the 15:22 Paddington to Great Malvern instead, it's just two coaches instead of its long-term three coach short-formation today.

[IndustryInsider]

Hopefully not the same reason as last week...

I bet it is!  Also, the very busy 15:22 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-GMV^▸ (Great Malvern station) is only a 2-car Turbo, vice a 3-car one (which is a medium term vice 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) anyway!).

[charles_uk]

Hopefully not the same reason as last week...

I bet it is!  Also, the very busy 15:22 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-GMV^▸ (Great Malvern station) is only a 2-car Turbo, vice a 3-car one (which is a medium term vice 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) anyway!).

In which case a whole week of cancellations beckons. This service is now running the 16:22 Paddington to Great Malvern close in terms of cancellations along the Cotswold Line.

[charles_uk]

Hopefully not the same reason as last week...

I bet it is!  Also, the very busy 15:22 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-GMV^▸ (Great Malvern station) is only a 2-car Turbo, vice a 3-car one (which is a medium term vice 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) anyway!).

In which case a whole week of cancellations beckons. This service is now running the 16:22 Paddington to Great Malvern close in terms of cancellations along the Cotswold Line.

Just picked up from Twitter:

...it is likely to be cancelled all week due to a problem currently under investigation. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

If it's still last week's issue, it was that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are unable to turn HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) around at Moreton-in-Marsh. That being the case, is a Turbo substitution possible? GWR have had no problems replacing the 07:10 Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington, 15:22 Paddington to Great Malvern and 17:52 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill HST/IETs with Turbos.

[charles_uk]

Related to this morning's problems already reported in Across the West:

07:10 Moreton-in-Marsh to London Paddington due 08:51 will be started from Oxford.
It will no longer call at Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

[Later edit]

A few residual delays plus:

09:50 Moreton-in-Marsh to London Paddington due 11:30 will be started from Oxford.
It will no longer call at Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track earlier today.

[charles_uk]

Me again!

Absolutely nothing on JourneyCheck as at 14:35 but the 15:52 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains):MIM will be terminated at Oxford for the fifth day running, and the preceding 15:22 PAD:GMV^▸ (Great Malvern station) which has been running as a long-term three car short-formation will be just two coaches again.

[ChrisB]

If it's still last week's issue, it was that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are unable to turn HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) around at Moreton-in-Marsh. That being the case, is a Turbo substitution possible?

It is. Drivers are refusing to change ends on HSTs. NR^» (Network Rail - home page) need to upgrade the path from the off-platform end to the platform before Drivers will change ends ends again. The current 'walkway has been condemned since NR moved a signalling cable.

As turbos fully fit on the platform, they are unaffected.