The passengers are BACK!

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Saw this on another forum....how on Earth can this be allowed to happen in the current climate?


"Yesterday, in what was widely trailed in media as the biggest event in Wales since pre-pandemic, there was an international test match in Cardiff between Wales & NZ. We made our way out there on the 12:48 Paddington-Cardiff and, with a reasonable expectation that the train would be full, had made seat reservations in advance.

What we found on boarding was that full did not begin to cover it. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) provided a 5 car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) rather than the planned 9 car, so the reservations had been cancelled and 9+ cars worth of pax^▸ (passengers) had to cram into all available space. Those unlucky enough to remain standing by and large did so all the way to Cardiff, myself included. I haven't seen crowding like it on an Intercity train since Virgin West Coast on a Bank Holiday Friday eve in the before times.

How does this self-inflicted issue happen? It can't exactly be a surprise to GWR that thousands wish to travel from London as the ticket sales for the 30th in the weeks prior must have been significant. The emails from the event organisers even mentioned that they were in contact with GWR. While the rest of the day was fantastic (as a NZ supporter!) and it was great to see Cardiff buzzing with energy, the journey was really not a good advertisement for the railway. The non-rugby passengers were especially irate"

[ellendune]

Saw this on another forum....how on Earth can this be allowed to happen in the current climate?

Yes I quite agree. England has the highest rates of Covid since the start of the pandemic and AIUI^▸ ('as I understand it') Wales is not far behind. Why therefore would anyone in their right mind why anyone is organising such an event at the moment?

All this, back to normal stuff while we have the highest Covid rates in western Europe by far is of course government policy of ignoring the problem and that we have around 50,000 new cases a day with 1000 people a day being admitted to hospital and 1000 deaths a week. They won't even require the minimum levels of precautions and actively prevent schools from introducing them.  Add to this the fact that much of region has twice the number of cases because of the debacle at the Wolverhampton lab.

How does this self-inflicted issue happen? It can't exactly be a surprise to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that thousands wish to travel from London as the ticket sales for the 30th in the weeks prior must have been significant. The emails from the event organisers even mentioned that they were in contact with GWR. While the rest of the day was fantastic (as a NZ supporter!) and it was great to see Cardiff buzzing with energy, the journey was really not a good advertisement for the railway.

As I said on another thread recently those high cases will be having an effect on staff availability as although the age group most affected is children it also affects their parents and in addition many of their parents will be self isolating because their children have Covid. 

I am sure GWR would have provided a 9 car train if they could. Somehow then you expect like magic GWR can rustle up a more than normal service despite all the problems just because someone thinks getting thousands of people together in close proximity at a rugby match is a good idea in the middle of a pandemic.  Oh and the small problem with the trains has not gone away!

The non-rugby passengers were especially irate"

I am not surprised they have every right to be, but it is not GWR's fault. 

[Timmer]

Doesn’t appear that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ran any extra services between London and Cardiff yesterday. I know the long term plan is to use 387s when there are events at the Principality Stadium. Sure would have been useful yesterday.

[Bmblbzzz]

Why would lack of staff mean they could only run a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) and not a 9-car? I'm assuming that the driver of a 5-car can also drive a 9-car, or indeed a 2 x 5, as they're variations on the same train – but maybe not? Or is it not to do with drivers but some other type of staff, and if so, what?

[TaplowGreen]

Doesn’t appear that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ran any extra services between London and Cardiff yesterday. I know the long term plan is to use 387s when there are events at the Principality Stadium. Sure would have been useful yesterday.

Yes apparently they will be able to run 387s from December......after the 4 International matches at Cardiff but in time for the next 6 Nations I guess?

[Marlburian]

On Wednesday I made my longest rail journey since March 2020 - an epic Trans-Reading trip from Tilehurst to Twyford for an environmental task opposite Ruscombe Church and close to the railway line. There was a time  when for a 1000 start to the work I could buy an off-peak ticket and use my Senior Railcard (which I haven't renewed), but with the 0915 (?) no longer running I had to buy a peak fare and take the 0856.

Tilehurst Station's car-park was two-thirds empty, but Twyford's appeared almost full.

For my return journey, I took my first-ever TFL^▸ (Transport for London) train and plonked down on a seat, to find that it was very hard. About half the passengers were wearing masks.

The deck at Reading seemed less busy than in days of yore, though I did pause to allow several people to pass in front of me. One was a lady in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) uniform with a very warm smile; I thought that she was welcoming a friend, though then I realised that she must be a customer-relations person.

[Wizard]

Doesn’t appear that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ran any extra services between London and Cardiff yesterday. I know the long term plan is to use 387s when there are events at the Principality Stadium. Sure would have been useful yesterday.

There was definitely at least one extra - I think it departed Paddington at 09.18. I nearly jumped on it to go to Bristol Parkway before I noticed it was advertised as calling at Cardiff, Bridgend and Port Talbot Parkway only. It was a 9 car.

A quick check on realtimetrains shows there was another extra at 10.18. I don’t know what time kickoff was but I would guess GWR expected most passengers to travel earlier so short forming the 12.48 was the least worst option.

[TaplowGreen]

Doesn’t appear that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ran any extra services between London and Cardiff yesterday. I know the long term plan is to use 387s when there are events at the Principality Stadium. Sure would have been useful yesterday.

Looks like the weekend rail COVID variant has spared Wales this week and it looks like the Cardiff services are intact for this afternoon's match at the Principality stadium.......so far!!!

A big day of rugby ahead - a great shame so little of it is available on free to air TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context).

[TaplowGreen]

A candidate for a 5-car train then, TG?  First class 60% full and standard class 30% full according to the loading monitor - I appreciate you can’t see the other two first class sections in the other unit.

How are others finding their journeys this week?  I’ve seen mostly busy trains and bustling platforms so far.  Pretty near a normal bank holiday week.

K & L completely empty apart from me and a very underemployed customer host! Most of the platforms seem pretty empty heading West.....then again it's raining.

Got the same train from Reading to Plymouth again today, and the loadings seemed pretty similar, perhaps a smidgeon busier but not much.

One pleasing thing however, more of those on the train and the staff seemed to be wearing masks.

[IndustryInsider]

I caught it last week myself, on a jolly to Taunton.  Just six people in my carriage which was towards the front.