What's happening on 15th December 2019?

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

I've been sent a screenshot from a rail website which suggests that the 1010,1315,1615,1815, 2015 Plymouth - Paddington will all be cancelled tomorrow - and the sleeper too (cue sarcastic comments from rail staff on said website)

If that's the case, in that region alone the timetable launch will be a complete farce.

With months/years of warning that this was coming on this date, the inability to resource enough staff to run services points to nothing more than total and utter incompetence on behalf of management, and intransigence on behalf of the workforce.

"Train companies must have plenty of visible staff on hand to guide passengers, to answer questions on how these changes will affect them, and to explain what travel choices they have." - I'll say.

[SandTEngineer]

Well, according to Real Time Trains, the Up services from Plymouth to London Paddington are curtailed to 1010, 1315, 1615, 1815 and 2015.  It should be every hour from 0832 to 2015........

[Timmer]

There was always the concern that if GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) couldn’t always manage to operate the existing Sunday timetable due to staff availability, what hope would there be of running a much enhanced timetable? Sadly we’ve got our answer, certainly as far as the crucial first day of the new timetable is concerned. I know some will say that the Monday is the more important day of the new timetable launch.

Okay so these may be ‘exceptional’ circumstances, but if this continues into the New Year then questions may need to be asked if the company was ready staff resource wise to operate the new timetable and was it pushed into doing so by Dft?

[TaplowGreen]

Well, according to Real Time Trains, the Up services from Plymouth to London Paddington are curtailed to 1010, 1315, 1615, 1815 and 2015.  It should be every hour from 0832 to 2015........

Happy to stand corrected - albeit that's an even worse scenario!!! 

[SandTEngineer]

Well, according to Real Time Trains, the Up services from Plymouth to London Paddington are curtailed to 1010, 1315, 1615, 1815 and 2015.  It should be every hour from 0832 to 2015........

Happy to stand corrected - albeit that's an even worse scenario!!! 

Appologies, it wasn't intended to be a criticism, just pointing out what RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) says, which is usually very accurate.  Hope its all fixed in the next two weeks as I'm booked on the 0832 Up and 1903 Down on Sunday 29th December.

[TaplowGreen]

Well, according to Real Time Trains, the Up services from Plymouth to London Paddington are curtailed to 1010, 1315, 1615, 1815 and 2015.  It should be every hour from 0832 to 2015........

Happy to stand corrected - albeit that's an even worse scenario!!! 

Appologies, it wasn't intended to be a critisim, just pointing out what RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) says, which is usually very accurate.  Hope its all fixed in the next two weeks as I'm booked on the 0832 Up and 1903 Down on Sunday 29th December.

No apology necessary - thanks for the accurate information.

One wonders if it'll be even worse next weekend when the main Christmas "getaway" is underway.

[Adelante_CCT]

A lovely start to the new timetable day for some. The 00:05 from Paddington this morning didn't stop at Burnham or Taplow when apparently it was supposed to, over carrying some passengers to Maidenhead who then taxied themselves home

[Marlburian]

Just done a retrospective, unscientific glance through the National Rail website for today's Paddington-Reading services and performance seems to be just about average - an occasional cancellation and a few trains running up to eight minutes late.  There are several blue triangle notifications indicating "Amended timetable  This service is not part of the normal timetable and may only be running on the date shown."  As a relatively casual observer, I don't know the reason for these?

Marlburian

[didcotdean]

Those with a blue triangle will be the additional Paddington-Reading-Didcot shuttles running just today. Seems to be an 8 carriage 387.

[Marlburian]

New rail timetables off to disastrous start with widespread cancellations and delays

[Timmer]

Mixed review of my experience of the first day of the new timetable.

First the positives. As mentioned earlier found out Thursday that the train we were due to travel on would be cancelled so we travelled back via Bath changing there. This gave the opportunity to see what the new IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) could achieve with the new times. Could an IET really do Paddington to Bath in 1hr 15 stopping at three stations en route? Well it did for which I’m extremely impressed.

Arrived on time into Bath so we made our connection which was also on time and not too busy despite it being the last day of the Christmas market.

On the not so positive front. I didn’t appreciate being challenged by the Train Manager as to why we were on this train. I said because our train had been cancelled and had been since Thursday. He didn’t believe me and went to look it up.

Eventually accepted our train had been cancelled. I told him I too wasn’t pleased our original train had been cancelled and would have preferred to have been on it and will be late home because it was cancelled.

Was he completely oblivious that trains were being cancelled today due to last night’s Christmas parties?

Did Control inform train crew that tickets were available for travel yesterday, today and tomorrow because of the cancellations today?

I will be raising a complaint with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) about this because I didn’t appreciate being made to feel I was in the wrong because they cancelled my original train.

I’ve never had a problem with any GWR train managers before who are usually very friendly and helpful at times of disruption and a credit to the company they work for despite everything they have to put up with.

I consider we got off lightly compared to those travelling to/from the South West and Wales today. One decision I have made though that if we have to travel on Sundays in future it won’t be by train until they sort out this issue with Sunday working.

[grahame]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Monday ...

Today saw the start of our new timetable; which has been 10 years in the making following major investments in brand new trains and modernised infrastructure.

This included SuperFast non stop services on some routes, improved frequency and better timing for others, and it meant thousands more seats, up to 10,000 more in the morning peak into Paddington.

Overall the timetable worked well. It wasn’t perfect as there were problems in the morning caused by failed signalling equipment on the main line into Paddington. This led to delays and cancellations.  We have apologised to customers and as with any infrastructure delay we will be reviewing the root cause and the time it took to repair.  It was very disappointing that this coincided with the start of the new timetable and very frustrating for our customers, some of whom faced long delays and crowded services.

However, despite the problems, the new timetable is now operational. We would not have reached this important milestone without the help and support of our partners and stakeholders, so we just wanted to close the day by saying thank you for being part of this historic moment in the life of Great Western Railway.

We would be very happy to talk to you about your individual experiences, or to offer more information about specific routes. Let us know on this email and we will reply as quickly as we can.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Mike and Mark

Mike Gallop | Managing Director Western | Network Rail
Mark Hopwood | Managing Director | Great Western Railway

[TaplowGreen]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Monday ...

Today saw the start of our new timetable; which has been 10 years in the making following major investments in brand new trains and modernised infrastructure.

This included SuperFast non stop services on some routes, improved frequency and better timing for others, and it meant thousands more seats, up to 10,000 more in the morning peak into Paddington.

Overall the timetable worked well. It wasn’t perfect as there were problems in the morning caused by failed signalling equipment on the main line into Paddington. This led to delays and cancellations.  We have apologised to customers and as with any infrastructure delay we will be reviewing the root cause and the time it took to repair.  It was very disappointing that this coincided with the start of the new timetable and very frustrating for our customers, some of whom faced long delays and crowded services.

However, despite the problems, the new timetable is now operational. We would not have reached this important milestone without the help and support of our partners and stakeholders, so we just wanted to close the day by saying thank you for being part of this historic moment in the life of Great Western Railway.

We would be very happy to talk to you about your individual experiences, or to offer more information about specific routes. Let us know on this email and we will reply as quickly as we can.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Mike and Mark

Mike Gallop | Managing Director Western | Network Rail
Mark Hopwood | Managing Director | Great Western Railway

"Today"? I thought it started on Sunday? I wonder why they missed that bit out? 🤔

[SandTEngineer]

Sad I know, but I watched the evening peak at Paddington last night (16/12/2019) on Open Train Times maps.  I know it was the first evening peak of the new timetable, but my initial observations are/were:

1. Now only one platform (No.7) is being used by Heathrow Express, with a 5-6 minute turnaround, means that any delay quickly escalates to involve an incoming service being held at the home signal gantry with following inbound services gradually stacking up and being delayed behind.

2. Main Line Departures at two minute intervals doesn't work unless dispatch is absolutely bang on time (in lots of cases it wasn't and trains thus got delayed as they caught up at Ladbroke Grove).

3. One service got cancelled (a Hereford train) and the unit blocked the platform for at least 3/4 hour.  This disarranged all subsequent arrivals and departures.  There didn't seem to be any spare capacity allowed for, or any contingency for such events.

4. Key evening departures seemed to be timetabled to leave from the higher numbered platforms in some cases then having a delayed departure due to inbound services having to cross their scheduled path to reach the lower numbered platforms.

5. The 'pinch point' in the track layout on the Relief side didn't help with the increased number of arrivals/departures (this will of course be relieved somewhat when CROSSRAIL eventualy opens).

6. Joining up units in the platforms in the peak is not a good idea, as the 'Calling On' movement from the home signals is carried out at a much slower speed than normal and occupies the station throat much longer, thus causing delay to departures.

7. Full use of the reversible signalling between Ladbroke Grove and Paddington wasn't being utilised, so instead of conflicts being resolved further out from the platforms they occured at the station throat and quickly escalated.

These are just my personal observations based upon 50 years experience of managing such issues in designing schemes to cope with such aspirations.  I have no inside knowledge, of course, of what contingency planning NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has.

[Oxonhutch]

I left Paddington quite early yesterday and the despatch was snappy and bang on time out of platform 9 with a simultaneous parallel departure of a TfL^» (Transport for London - about) service from 11. The class 345 showed our 80x a clean pair of heels despite some spirited accelaration from our driver who built up enough speed for the mandetory, and very positive, brake test opposite Royal Oak. By Westbourne Park we had started to claw back some advantage from the TfL, but it remained pretty neck and neck until approach to Acton.

Certainly different to the previous, more pedestrian, exits from the Big Smoke. I think a larger fuse has been inserted in the Kensal Green substation.