Overrunning Engineering works - 26/09/2021 ??

[whole diary]

[johoare]

I can't see anything else on here about this but does anyone know how long the engineering works were supposed to go on and at what point they became overrunning?

My son went to Maidenhead station about 11.15ish. Apparently at that time the trains were all showing as going to Paddington and there was no information (that he saw) to suggest anything was different to normal.

He spent at least an hour at Slough where apparently the information was sadly not forthcoming (again his opinion)

**update** I have just seen online that Paddington was due to open at 12

He got to Ealing Broadway at about 1.50pm.. Kind of missed his booked activity in Vauxhall at 2pm but fortunately that was able to be  rescheduled until later.

[ChrisB]

I think I saw notification that Padd was shut until 1230

[johoare]

That doesn't totally explain him not getting to Ealing Broadway until 1.50pm then.

As a non commuter now (and my son isn't either) it's obvious how much information is missing for people who only occasionally get the train. On this occasion particularly when he got to the station and was allowed and able to board a train to Paddington. Then everyone had to get off at Slough and couldn't go either way.

[stuving]

This was on the National Rail site, though not as soon as you might like. If you follow the Rail News link at the top of the forum pages to NewsNow, and page down to see reports from earlier today, there are links to out-of-date information pages there that still work for a while (but are presumably not accessible by links on the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) site itself). The first one was still active earlier today, but has now gone. Its headline on NewsNow reads:

No Great Western Railway service to / from London Paddington until 12:00 on Sunday 26 September National Rail (Press Release) 00:41

Then there is this one timed at 14:04 (note there will have an earlier one, presumably timed at 12:32):
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/280202.aspx

Incident created
    26/09/2021 12:32
Last updated
    26/09/2021 14:04
Route affected
    All routes to / from London Paddington
     
TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)(s) affected
    Great Western Railway;Heathrow Express;TfL^» (Transport for London - about) Rail;

Description
    All lines have now reopened following overrunning engineering work between London Paddington and Slough.

    Trains between London Paddington and Slough may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

    Disruption is expected until 15:00.

[ChrisB]

That was accurate - I found a National Rail tweet timed at 1457 that indicated the line had just opened

[johoare]

So it appears to be the usual amazing lack of information and cover up when things went wrong.

I've now seen him and apparently at Maidenhead, as mentioned before, no mention of an issue, all trains showing on the board as going all the way to Paddington

He got a train to Paddington to change at Slough to a faster one. As at Maidenhead, no sign of any issues at Slough, his next train showing as on time (all the way to Paddington), then eventually delayed, then cancelled. After this lots of announcements about "the next train to Paddington will be from platform 3/5" and as only people who travel from stations with two lines heading in the same direction can vouch for, the announcers kept the waiting passengers amused by moving them from platform 3 to 5 and back (repeat as many times as possible) promising them a train which never arrived on each occasion.

Eventually having shuffled everyone back to platform 3 a train came and went from platform 5

Then eventually another train but this was too full for anyone at Slough to get on.
Eventually a train appeared he was able to get on hence arriving at Ealing Broadway at 13.50 (10 minutes before a booked activity in Vauxhall).

Not once was overrunning engineering works mentioned.

Customer Service lesson learnt? Or lack of information to the poor station staff lesson learned?

[bobm]

There was an incident near Newbury which required an emergency switch off of the overhead lines.  As it was unplanned this also affected the line from Reading to Didcot.  Apparently the works in the Paddington area had involved some changes to the feed arrangements and an incident at Newbury would not normally have affected Didcot.

This took manpower away from restoring the supply to the overhead lines east of Reading and so delayed the final testing and restoration of services.

I was told this second hand but that was the basic gist.

[Electric train]

There was an incident near Newbury which required an emergency switch off of the overhead lines.  As it was unplanned this also affected the line from Reading to Didcot.  Apparently the works in the Paddington area had involved some changes to the feed arrangements and an incident at Newbury would not normally have affected Didcot.

This took manpower away from restoring the supply to the overhead lines east of Reading and so delayed the final testing and restoration of services.

I was told this second hand but that was the basic gist.

This is the problem with current power supplies to the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line), the Grid sites are 50 miles apart!  On older 25kV electrification it is typically 20 or so miles and certainly somewhere are critical as Reading there would be an alternative supply.

GW^▸ (Great Western) electrification was designed to save money on "expensive" power distribution assets like grid connections.

The scenario could have been -

The work in Paddington area was apparently for HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) enabling, Old Oak Common where HS2 is located is West of Kensal Green Grid site, so if an all line Isolation was need for this work the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") west of Acton would be from Didcot. 

Emergency switch off has to be between Neutral Sections, currently there are no Neutral Sections between Reading and Newbury, the emergency switch off would therefore be between Maidenhead Neutral Sections and Didcot Neutral Sections, this would render the OLE dead between Maidenhead and Acton due to the all line isolation at Kensal.

The planned Grid feed from Bramley to Reading will alleviate this risk

[johoare]

All very interesting but shouldn't have affected Mai to Pad at that time.. or the (in)ability to provide proper information to passengers so they could make informed decisions rather than playing the platform shuffle game for an hour for no apparent reason.