London - Edinburgh with Avanti: coherent account of a disrupted journey.

[whole diary]

[Trowres]

I don't have sufficient information to be able to comment on whether or not better arrangements could have been made this week, for passengers to reach their destinations.

So, I will recount my experiences during the days of the much-mocked British Rail, at a time when there was such a thing as a Taunton-Inverness service. I caught this at Crewe, on what was a challenging day for BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)).

Firstly, although the train was on time at Crewe, it was formed of a scratch rake of Mk1 compartment stock; apparently the train had started at Bristol instead of Taunton due to an unspecified fire (not, I may say, the tragic Taunton sleeper fire).

Next, due to a freight train derailment at Weaver Junction (where the Liverpool route diverges from the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line)), the train was diverted via Stockport. A diesel was waiting there to drag the electric loco and train through the suburbs of Manchester, then Bolton, as far as Preston. Something over two hours late, so far, and the train proceeded with its electric loco.

South of Carlisle, the train stopped. In the days before P.A. was universal, the guard poked his head into the compartment to inform passengers that the overhead wires were down just north of Carlisle. Power was off in the station. After a while, the train was dragged into the station by a humble class 08 shunter. A class 47 was waiting to attach to the rear of the train in order to continue the journey via Hexham and Newcastle. A further delay followed as the driver didn't know the route into Newcastle Central; only Tyne Yard. Someone with route knowledge arrived (by taxi?). Off the train went, up the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line).

The train was now over 5 hours late, but somewhere unseen people were busy planning. On arrival at Edinburgh Waverley, the train was met by trolley loads of sandwiches and drinks, dished out gratis. As this was in the days before the ubiquitous mobile phone, railway staff took messages off anyone who wished to send news to persons at their destination (in my case a B&B in Inverness). The train arrived in Inverness after 02:00, over 5 hours late, but I was not an unhappy passenger, especially as my fantastic B&B host had received the message and waited up to provide me with further refreshment!

So, while BR shouldn't have been having derailments and wires-down incidents, I remain impressed by the resourcefulness used in dealing with multiple problems. I see the modern railway and weep.

[Mark A]

Thanks for putting that together, it's useful.

It's an issue that even where there are diversionary routes available, the decisions having been taken with regards to route knowledge, a certain amount of standby capacity, motive power and increasingly tight staffing - and also decisions that limit the capacity of the diversionary routes themselves - results in the sort of issues met with by passengers on Avanti last week.

Mark

[Mark A]

Today, the whole kit and caboodle generated an article in the Guardian newspaper.

Mark

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/30/not-magical-certainly-a-mystery-my-five-hour-train-trip-became-an-11-hour-viral-ordeal-no-wonder-people-fly

[TaplowGreen]

Today, the whole kit and caboodle generated an article in the Guardian newspaper.

Mark

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/30/not-magical-certainly-a-mystery-my-five-hour-train-trip-became-an-11-hour-viral-ordeal-no-wonder-people-fly

This absolutely nails it and sums it up - this and so many other similar (and too regular) occurrences over the years - no Business continuity or contingency plan, just wait for it to happen and hope for the best.

And in the aftermath we look for answers, but still nothing adds up. Despite the national discussion of our marathon, no one from the rail network has quite managed to explain how a 5h 41m direct route ended up taking 11 hours via an extra city and a couple of service stops. (An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said the cancellations were due to a “track defect” – must have been a biggie.) No one has quite managed to explain why, despite previous cancellations at Preston, a more organised contingency plan was not in place to support passengers and staff – one that didn’t involve a baffling taxi ride throughout the night.

[GBM]

Going off topic (but still on thread). We've heard of a few instances where passengers are kept on a train far too long.
Where passengers self disembark.
And so on.
Perhaps the needs of passengers need to be considered as well as the incident itself.

[TaplowGreen]

Going off topic (but still on thread). We've heard of a few instances where passengers are kept on a train far too long.
Where passengers self disembark.
And so on.
Perhaps the needs of passengers need to be considered as well as the incident itself.

The needs of the passengers should be the first consideration, at all times.

Culturally though, that's been a difficult concept for the railway to grasp for a long time, and is why we (too) often find ourselves reading accounts of incidents such as this.