Cracked points at Wokingham 1/3/2018

[whole diary]

[Adelante_CCT]

They have an awfully long turnaround time at Blackwater, sticking to the timetable but missing out the to/from Reading part. I assume its partly to do with pathing through Guildford, though a re-written timetable could get you an hourly Blackwater to Gatwick using 3 units

[stuving]

They have an awfully long turnaround time at Blackwater, sticking to the timetable but missing out the to/from Reading part. I assume its partly to do with pathing through Guildford, though a re-written timetable could get you an hourly Blackwater to Gatwick using 3 units

I think they are using three units - it's roughly an hour each way before adding dwells. For once GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s words are more accurate than mine:

GWR is operating a revised hourly local stopping train service between Blackwater and Redhill.

(At least that bit is - the other words are still misleading; e.g. saying the buses run to Guidford.)

So they are using their usual paths for the stopping trains, fitting into their usual gaps at Ash-Guidford and Reigate-Redhill. After about 20:00 tonight they run to Gatwick, again in the usual paths - but that's roughly when the Redhill trains stop running normally. I'm not sure if they want the extra layover time at Blackwater, that being "home from home". While it may help to cover for travelling delays on crew changes, crews who are not changing over might not enjoy almost an hour of "time off" at Blackwater.

When I looked at lunchtime, the afternoon's schedule was showing alternate trains running semifast and extended to Gatwick. I'm not sure if that was ever going to work, but it's been removed anyway. Someone thing aloud on paper (or on TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS)) perhaps?

Having to change at Redhill is a disadvantage, but only for passengers from Guidford and the other stops on the semifasts from Blackwater. From minor stops you always needed to change, and from Reading-Wokingham you'd be better off using an alternative route by train than the (rather slow) buses. I found one of GWR's instant posters at Wokingham, complete with pretty coloured map showing all the options.

The words don't actually mention routes you can use a "via Gomshall" ticket on specifically, just "valid tickets can be used on alternative routes via Ascot or Basingstoke".  The route diagram shows alternative routes are available via Paddington-Victoria, Basingstoke-Farnborough Main, Ascot-Aldershot for Ash Vale and Ash/Wanborough, and "To London Waterloo Change and Clapham Junction for trains to Gatwick Airport".

That's "valid" in what sense, I wonder? Surely they don't just mean tickets normally valid for those routes? GWR JourneyCheck still says:

South Western Railway are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys. If you are travelling between Reading and Wokingham you are advised to travel with South Western Railway.
South Western Railway are conveying passengers between Reading and Farnborough or Guildford via Basingstoke to connect with GWR train services, also between London Waterloo and Dorking to connect with GWR services at Dorking Deepdene.
Southern Railway are conveying passengers between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport via Redhill in both directions until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys. Travelling from Reading to or from Redhill and Gatwick Airport, you are advised to travel via London Paddington and London Victoria.
London Underground are conveying passengers between London Paddington and London Victoria via London Waterloo in both directions until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys.

So that does explicitly say "GWR tickets" are being accepted via Basingstoke, but still refuses to say that for travel via Clapham.

[stuving]

(At least that bit is - the other words are still misleading; e.g. saying the buses run to Guidford.)

Correction: there are direct Reading-Guildford buses too - not visibly at Wokingham or Blackwater, obvoiusly.

[Fourbee]

Apparently NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have enlisted the help of London Underground (!) to effect a temporary repair. Normal service hopefully to be operated from tomorrow albeit with a TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) at Wokingham.

[stuving]

Apparently NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have enlisted the help of London Underground (!) to effect a temporary repair. Normal service hopefully to be operated from tomorrow albeit with a TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) at Wokingham.

Well, I believe LU have the odd point or two - though not, I thought, old mechanical ones like those at Wokingham.

But is this the result of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) rattling NR's cage by going public about their dissatisfaction? They were even reported as "calling for an independent inquiry".

[stuving]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) South revised their item to say (with an NR^» (Network Rail - home page) spokesmouth to do it) that they would fit their borrowed bit tonight, but still needed to replace "track" at the weekend. SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)'s last two trains into Reading will terminate at Ascot, with buses onwards, though what's showing on NRE^‡(resolve) is a bit last-minute - the trains are described as "delayed" and the service update is still as it was. Neither those  nor future normal running of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains is yet in schedule.

The BBC report still showed the TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) signs for 30 mph to the left towards Bracknell (really an extension of the PSR^▸ (Permanent Speed Restriction) of 30 for the station and crossing) and claimed that it was due to this cracked whatsit. In reality it's been there for weeks, except for most of February it was only 5 mph.

The last train to run tonight has gone through, so I guess (I don't intend to go and look) work is now underway. If it's a really small widget that's involved, is there a special fate reserved for whoever drops it in the ballast in the dark? Ah - a Transit pickup (which was here last night too) has turned up. So The Part must be smaller than that, anyway ...

[stuving]

And the current situation is ... hard to tell. I think they are in the process of moving stock and staff tto restart the normal service, but have not yet told the system what's going to run when. Certainly there are more service updates needing revision that normal - this is JourneyCheck:

Cancellations to services between Reading and Gatwick Airport
Due to urgent repairs to the track between Reading and Gatwick Airport fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
Train services running to and from these stations have been cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 02:00 10/03.

Customer Advice
Passengers for Gatwick Airport should change at Redhill for Southern services to Gatwick.

Passengers from Gatwick Airport should catch a Southern service to Redhill and change there for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services to Reading.
Southern Railway are conveying passengers between Redhill and Gatwick Airport in both directions until further notice.

Additional Information
Emergency engineering work is taking place at Wokingham affecting journeys between Reading and Gatwick Airport until the end of service on Friday 09th March 2018.

Further Information
An update will follow within the next 2 hours

Now, would you know from that that there is a train shuttle from Reading to Blackwater (i.e. a rail replacement bus replacement train (though the buses are probably still running too)), and hourly stopping trains to Redhill? Until further notice, anyway.

[Fourbee]

It certainly doesn't look very clear. When I looked at the online departure boards, services were showing from Blackwater-Reading (not sure if that tied in with the Redhill-Blackwater ones, so effectively a through train).

Oh well, a slight improvement on yesterday.

[stuving]

The last train to run tonight has gone through, so I guess (I don't intend to go and look) work is now underway. If it's a really small widget that's involved, is there a special fate reserved for whoever drops it in the ballast in the dark? Ah - a Transit pickup (which was here last night too) has turned up. So The Part must be smaller than that, anyway ...

As to what the job was - it needed two Transit pick-ups, a dozen people, and lots of metal things that go 'clunk' when unloaded. Then there was a big RRV^▸ (Road Rail Vehicle) crane, such as a Komatsu PW^▸ (Permanent Way)-160 (other big yellow toys are available). And my last look out of the window showed a road low-loader, which may (or may not) have brought the RRV - hardly necessary if they got one from Readypower, based within a mile by road (far less along the railway). Of course the key missing bit they 'borrowed' from LU could still have been very small.

[Fourbee]

Now, would you know from that that there is a train shuttle from Reading to Blackwater (i.e. a rail replacement bus replacement train (though the buses are probably still running too)), and hourly stopping trains to Redhill? Until further notice, anyway.

I think the buses are still running (at the time of writing at least!) **25 from Guildford (straight to Reading) and **36 from North Camp (all stations to Wokingham, then Reading).

[stuving]

It certainly doesn't look very clear. When I looked at the online departure boards, services were showing from Blackwater-Reading (not sure if that tied in with the Redhill-Blackwater ones, so effectively a through train).

Oh well, a slight improvement on yesterday.

The ':04' Reading departures, which are the Redhill stoppers, have been shown as Reading-Blackwater but then have continued as the scheduled temporary shuttles. They are a few minutes late, perhaps due to the current TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) at Wokingham (I'll look at that later). They are now showing on the departures board as "Continues to Stations to Redhill. " No sign of the semifasts yet.

[stuving]

The ':04' Reading departures, which are the Redhill stoppers, have been shown as Reading-Blackwater but then have continued as the scheduled temporary shuttles. They are a few minutes late, perhaps due to the current TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) at Wokingham (I'll look at that later). They are now showing on the departures board as "Continues to Stations to Redhill. " No sign of the semifasts yet.

By "showing on the departures board" I meant those able to show the second, text, line - essentially platform displays. The main station displays can't do that.

As of now they have started showing the semifasts to Gatwick as running, though they have not yet had a chance to not do so. And through Redhill services are starting to take over from the split ones, at least in today's schedule, though I'm not sure how they are advertised.

At Wokingham station just now, there was no free-text notice (like an old blackboard) and yesterday's posters were still up inside and out. I think there were buses too. The TSR now says 5 mph on the Up Main and Up Guildford, and 5 mph on the Down Main too. I think that means the track at that point has been lifted and messed around and needs to be tamped and checked.

[stuving]

Now JourneyCheck roughly confirms what I observed:

Emergency engineering work has taken place at Wokingham Junction to replace the junction points, this work was completed for the start of service Wednesday 07th March, two days earlier than planned.

Our trains and crew were in place to reflect the requirements of the emergency timetable to respond to the line being closed. As the line has now reopened we have updated our plan in order that local stopping trains are able to run between Reading and Redhill. As and when additional resources become available we will seek to run further services and to restore the full timetable between Reading and Gatwick Airport.

The 13:34 did run to Gatwick (just arrived now), but the next one at 14:34 didn't. So still work in progress.

[stuving]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are still bleating about disruption due to those points, and running only a limited number of Gatwick semifasts. Journeycheck ha:

Alterations to services between Reading and Gatwick Airport
Due to urgent repairs to the track earlier today between Reading and Gatwick Airport fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
Train services running to and from these stations have been revised. Disruption is expected until 02:00 10/03.

Customer Advice
The replacement road transport which had operated for the past two days has been suspended now that train services have resumed.

Stations (Crowthorne, Sandhurst) that were previously served solely by replacement road transport will now have a train service.

(plus what was posted yesterday.)

NRE^‡(resolve) says it's a 15-minute delay. In fact it's only a minute or two on the Up, nothing on the Down, even with the TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) reduced to 20 mph for today. RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows some buses still running, though I'm not sure they were as the trains they'd connect with didn't. The absence of any signs saying "to the buses" proves little, as there never were any local signs.

So what are these "additional resources"? The trains allocated to this service, which someone had stolen to use elsewhere when the suspension started and refuses to give back?

[stuving]

Today was another day with the same fictitious 15 minute delays (repeated on the TV news this morning) and missing "resources". The other part of those misexplanations was that it would all end by tomorrow - more specifically by 02:00 tomorrow (a very odd choice of time, even if it was a weekday). So at least we'll see if that bit's true (though maybe not at 2 am prompt).

I imagined the track needs tamping and levelling, and  I did see a bunch of the lads out looking at that area today. I also say a stone blower come through, though at just after 11 it was a bit early. Its passage is not reported in RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) or OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website), for some reason.

But while last time the possession started just after midnight, with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)'s last two trains cancelled at about two hours' notice, this time they are still in the schedule.