2023 Delays and Cancellations

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

The 11:52 to Hereford has not had a good week:

Friday July 28
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot, departed 31 late. Held at Wolvercote. Lost more time at Shrub Hill and Malvern Wells. Arrived Ledbury 67 late and cancelled after that.
1P05 15:18 Hereford - Paddington : started from Ledbury.

Thursday July 27
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot, departed 42 late. Lost more time at Shrub Hill. Arrived Great Malvern 60 late and cancelled after that.

Wednesday July 26
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot (+15), departed 8 late. Lost more time at Shrub Hill. Arrived 15 late.

Tuesday July 25
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot (+49), departed 44 late. Lost more time to Reading (+56). Arrived Shrub Hill 59 late and cancelled after that.

Monday July 24
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : everything worked OK.

[ChrisB]

With nearly three days down to signal failure outside Paddington, no surprise & others will have faired similarly this week

[grahame]

With nearly three days down to signal failure outside Paddington, no surprise & others will have faired similarly this week

About half of tomorrow's services to and from Paddington cancelled compared to a normal Saturday - counting lines on real time trains for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) gives me 184 movements tomorrow and 367 for 5th August.

Moreton-in-Marsh shows a single train tomorrow at 00:36 to Worcesteshire Parkway.  It shows 36 departures for 5th August, half to Hanborough and most of the rest to Worcester or Great Malvern, with one each to Hereford and Worcestershire Parkway.

[ChrisB]

Block at Oxford for the next 9 days. Nothing between Didcot & Hanborough until August 7

[Witham Bobby]

The 11:52 to Hereford has not had a good week:

Friday July 28
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot, departed 31 late. Held at Wolvercote. Lost more time at Shrub Hill and Malvern Wells. Arrived Ledbury 67 late and cancelled after that.
1P05 15:18 Hereford - Paddington : started from Ledbury.

Thursday July 27
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot, departed 42 late. Lost more time at Shrub Hill. Arrived Great Malvern 60 late and cancelled after that.

Wednesday July 26
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot (+15), departed 8 late. Lost more time at Shrub Hill. Arrived 15 late.

Tuesday July 25
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : late arrival from depot (+49), departed 44 late. Lost more time to Reading (+56). Arrived Shrub Hill 59 late and cancelled after that.

Monday July 24
1W02 11:52 Paddington - Hereford : everything worked OK.

I wonder if the performance of 1W02 is irredeemable?  Got to Hereford today 9 minutes late after starting (only from Hanborough on time), and then losing minutes here and there all the way onwards from Kingham to it's destination.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Presumably losing time slowly but surely is down to the low power issue being discussed in the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) topic.

Meanwhile, it's noticeable that the problems with 1W02 were not experienced last week with the two later trains to Hereford. 1W03, the 17:34 Paddington - Hereford, arrived 9 / 65 / -1 / 95 / -1 minutes late on the five days, while 1W05, the 19:53 from Paddington arrived 0 / 5 / -1 / 5 / 0 minutes late.

I'd suspect that the problem with 1W02 is down to the fact that its previous journey was empty from North Pole.  That's a conflicting movement out of the depot, which has the potential to cause delays.  Now some trains that have spent the previous night at the likes of Worcester or Hereford will have to go to North Pole during the day for fuel and for the toilets to be emptied. If the signalling problem had gone on longer, then the diagrams would have been reorganised so that nothing went to and from North Pole during the middle of the day.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Wednesday August 2:

15:17 Worcester Foregate Street to Hanborough due 16:22 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken windscreen on the train.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 14:44

16:54 Hanborough to Great Malvern due 18:26 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a broken windscreen on the train.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 14:45

19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 22:08 will be terminated at Swindon.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 11:05

20:55 Hanborough to Hereford due 22:58 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 11:02

Hanborough is not a good place to wait for an extra hour.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Getting worse:

19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 22:08 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 17:05

But somebody is being sensible:

17:34 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 19:37 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 10:22

17:31 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:26 will call additionally at Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse and Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to the train making extra stops because a train was cancelled.
Last Updated:02/08/2023 16:22

... unless you're wanting to go to Gloucester.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Thursday August 3:

05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:20 was started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:03/08/2023 06:56

Now, here's a curious thing. I looked to see what the alternatives would have been from Great Malvern, and I get the attached. Which wants me to get off my direct train at Swindon and change to a Swansea that doesn't stop at Reading and so saves four minutes.  OK, the direct train appears as well, but you do have to ask why bother?

[stuving]

Thursday August 3:
Now, here's a curious thing. I looked to see what the alternatives would have been from Great Malvern, and I get the attached. Which wants me to get off my direct train at Swindon and change to a Swansea that doesn't stop at Reading and so saves four minutes.  OK, the direct train appears as well, but you do have to ask why bother?

You don't have to - but the OJP^▸ (Online Journey Planner) has to select on the basis of what it's been told to do, and (in most cases) that is earliest arrival for any departure time. Adding other filter rules, like offering direct trains as well (probably with the same selection metric among them) should be OK in some cases. Of course every complication adds scope for mistakes and, given the complexity an inconsistency of the fares and timetable data it's fed on, weird results.

But if you expect the thing to know how big a time difference you think would make switching trains worthwhile, bearing in mind that someone else might have different views on that, is problematical. If you think about it, even deciding how much choice to offer, as opposed to providing the one and only answer, involves pre-judging the user's level of understanding of the system.

Adding lowest cost as an additional selection comes up frequently in users' comments, but has proved tricky. Of course sellers may not be motivated to try very hard; NRE^‡(resolve) has a cheap fare finder, but they hardly promote it.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Thursday August 3:
Now, here's a curious thing. I looked to see what the alternatives would have been from Great Malvern, and I get the attached. Which wants me to get off my direct train at Swindon and change to a Swansea that doesn't stop at Reading and so saves four minutes.  OK, the direct train appears as well, but you do have to ask why bother?

You don't have to - but the OJP^▸ (Online Journey Planner) has to select on the basis of what it's been told to do, and (in most cases) that is earliest arrival for any departure time. Adding other filter rules, like offering direct trains as well (probably with the same selection metric among them) should be OK in some cases. Of course every complication adds scope for mistakes and, given the complexity an inconsistency of the fares and timetable data it's fed on, weird results.

But if you expect the thing to know how big a time difference you think would make switching trains worthwhile, bearing in mind that someone else might have different views on that, is problematical. If you think about it, even deciding how much choice to offer, as opposed to providing the one and only answer, involves pre-judging the user's level of understanding of the system.

Adding lowest cost as an additional selection comes up frequently in users' comments, but has proved tricky. Of course sellers may not be motivated to try very hard; NRE^‡(resolve) has a cheap fare finder, but they hardly promote it.

You are of course quite right.

Adding the fares, as attached, is even better - it's cheaper to change at Swindon. Though should you be offering cheap Advance tickets on a train that arrives at Paddington at 08:16?

[Mark A]

Though should you be offering cheap Advance tickets on a train that arrives at Paddington at 08:16?

Especially if it will fill a seat left otherwise unsold and bring in revenue. Not a great fan of advance tickets at slightly reduced prices (or which are actually more expensive than walk-up tickets, though)

As a passenger booking advance tickets, I'm now in the habit of finding the cost, for a particular journey, of an "Annual season ticket divided by 365". Like the annual season ticket holder, in the past having been committed to using rail for many journeys, it's a useful figure to have in mind as a floor for the price of a ticket.

Whether it then has any basis in reality to consider that "Anything below that floor feels like a distress sell for the railway, while anything above it is a distress purchase for me" is another matter...

Mark

[Worcester_Passenger]

Monday August 7:

07:13 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 09:40 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:06/08/2023 22:26

09:54 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 12:22 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Last Updated:07/08/2023 09:07

18:57 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 21:21 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:07/08/2023 07:04

Train 1W13, 06:50 Paddington - Great Malvern, which forms the 09:54, was cancelled after Shrub Hill this morning. Stock is returning to North Pole empty.

[Witham Bobby]

Monday August 7:

Train 1W13, 06:50 Paddington - Great Malvern, which forms the 09:54, was cancelled after Shrub Hill this morning. Stock is returning to North Pole empty.

[/quote]

You have to wonder why it's returned ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) to London.  The only thing I can think of is that it would get the driver back to depot sooner, and therefore may have been before the "overtime" length of the shift had been reached?

Who's thinking of the passengers and growing the railway in all this?

[Witham Bobby]

1W01 0952 Paddington to Hereford today

On time to Oxford, 8 late off there, now 9 late off Evesham

Will it get to Hereford today?

Why is train travel in these parts such a lottery?

So far, 1W02, the 1152 to Hereford is on time