Friday 16th Feb 2018: Delays on Berks & Hants

[whole diary]

[Trowres]

1C89 Paddington-Exeter has apparently died near Heywood Road Junction and not moved for 30 minutes.
1C90 Paddington-Penzance has now caught up with it.

[grahame]

1C89 Paddington-Exeter has apparently died near Heywood Road Junction and not moved for 30 minutes.
1C90 Paddington-Penzance has now caught up with it.

1J91 sat at Pewsey
1C91 sat at Bedwyn

[grahame]

and

19:10 Reading to Newbury due 19:42
19:10 Reading to Newbury due 19:42 will be starting late from Reading.
This is due to a fault with a swing bridge over a river.

[JayMac]

When was a rail swing bridge installed on the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) then?

[Timmer]

Not a good evening to be travelling to the South West. I see later services are being diverted between Reading and Westbury via Swindon.

Has the broken down train been moved yet?

[JayMac]

Failure with the leading driving cab.

Set is being propelled at 5mph into Westbury with driver in rear cab and TM^‡(resolve) up front. Just arrived Westbury 2 hours late.

[Trowres]

As I write this, 1C89 has finally limped into platform 1.
The 1J93 Frome service used platform 2 (having run via Melksham)
The 1C90 Penzance train has arrived at platform 3, following the removal of a unit from Brighton that had failed at Westbury with (according to the online info) a brake fault (although it has cleared off ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) in the Bristol direction)
1F31 (Cardiff-Portsmouth-ish) has arrived in Platform 2 following departure of the Frome HST^▸ (High Speed Train).

[Timmer]

Thanks for the updates BNM and Trowres.

Plenty of HST^▸ (High Speed Train) action at Westbury this evening then.

[AMLAG]

The 'Mega' chaos this evening on the South West's main line caused by the failure
(anyone yet know the reason?) near Heywood Rd Jn of the 1633 Padd/ Exe HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and knock on disruption and delays to many other trains and many hundreds of passengers has NOT been helped by the congestion at Westbury station where urgent MANAGEMENT attention is needed to restore the now Freight only line and adjacent disused face of the Down Island plaform to passenger use.

[ellendune]

The 'Mega' chaos this evening on the South West's main line caused by the failure
(anyone yet know the reason?) near Heywood Rd Jn of the 1633 Padd/ Exe HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and knock on disruption and delays to many other trains and many hundreds of passengers has NOT been helped by the congestion at Westbury station where urgent MANAGEMENT attention is needed to restore the now Freight only line and adjacent disused face of the Down Island plaform to passenger use.

In our current structures that is not a MANAGEMENT decision that is a political decision by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).  That is because there is too much micromanagement from DfT by people who have little or no understand of how to run a railway. 

[grahame]

attention is needed to restore the now Freight only line and adjacent disused face of the Down Island plaform to passenger use.

Totally agreed that the fourth platform is needed!

In our current structures that is not a MANAGEMENT decision that is a political decision by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).  That is because there is too much micromanagement from DfT by people who have little or no understand of how to run a railway. 

And to ensure that the message reaches the right people, let's tell Network Rail, the DfT, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ... and WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) if they want to terminate more trains there and Wiltshire Council rail experts to to press the case!

[Trowres]

The 2O98 Bristol-Weymouth is showing as cancelled between Westbury and Weymouth. Together with a cancellation of the 1A98 Exeter-Paddington, there's plenty to make life tough for the duty staff at Westbury Station this evening.

[rogerw]

Stock from 1C89 now heading back to Bristol (5Z70). 1C90 running 132 minutes late. 1J91 terminating Westbury platform 1. 1C91 now arrived platform 3 105 minutes late. 1L51 is still waiting outside the station, currently 42 late and counting. 2C30 11 minutes late. Not a good night

[Timmer]

Agree AMLAG, the reopening of the currently disused platform at Westbury would be really useful especially at times of disruption. It only takes one train to be delayed coming into Westbury at a busy time for a knock on effect to cause delays to other services.

[Timmer]

Looking like those on the 1633, 1703, 1706 and the 1733 have suffered the most this evening with services thereafter able to be diverted via Swindon allbeit with delays.

The 1703 currently running 137 minutes late ouch!