North Cotswold Line delays and cancellations - 2024

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Nothing running at all this afternoon or evening.

More canopy problems.  Shrub Hill this time.  Control completely overwhelmed as usual so contingency arrangements virtually non-existent.

[grahame]

More canopy problems.  Shrub Hill this time.  Control completely overwhelmed as usual so contingency arrangements virtually non-existent.

Why is it all the station canopies - have they not been specified / maintained to a standard that's needed to withstand the weather?   Do Network Rail have some questions to answer, or is this level of failure reasonable?

[ChrisB]

Reasonable, in this weather instance. And only three in the West.

[ellendune]

Reasonable, in this weather instance. And only three in the West.

Given the exceptional weather - yes entirely reasonable. 

Of course it may beg the question as to how much more as a country we need to do by way of climate change adaptation works to make structures more wind resilient in future.  You may ask at what cost but one opposition politician suggested that that might be cheaper than carbon net zero, but then I get the impression they meant leave it for the next generation to pick up the bill rather than thinking  it needed doing now. 

[Richard Fairhurst]

A shame that services couldn't run to Worcestershire Parkway and reverse there. I see an ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) made it through Shrub Hill earlier: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:36768/2024-12-08/detailed

[ChrisB]

I suspect it's crew facilities?....otherwise they surely could run at least to Evesham where turn-back ability is present?

[Worcester_Passenger]

Cancellations to services between Oxford and Worcester Foregate Street
Following severe weather between Oxford and Worcester Foregate Street all lines have now reopened.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
Disruption on Saturday 7 December 2024 and Sunday 8 December 2024
Following red and amber weather warnings in relation to Storm Darragh on parts of our network, we are advising customers to change their plans if possible this weekend. Strong winds mean speed restrictions will be in place across the network, increasing journey times. Fallen trees and other debris may also impact services causing severe delays and cancellations.
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Ticket Easement;
Customers with tickets for travel on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 December can be used on Monday 9 December. If you no longer wish to travel this weekend you can claim a full refund at GWR.com/help-and-support/refunds.
-
Passengers can use their GWR tickets on the following bus services:-

Stagecoach 33 - Gloucester Bus Station - Hereford
Stagecoach 71 - Gloucester Bus Station - Ashchurch for Tewkesbury Station

Replacement road transport will be very limited with no confirmed times due to weather and road conditions

Passengers are advised Not to travel.

We're sorry for the delay to your journey.

We will update this message with more information when we have it.
Further Information
An update will follow within the next 2 hours.
If you require further information please speak to our staff at the station or on the train, use the Customer Help Point, tweet us @GWRHelp or call National Rail Enquiries on 03457 484 950.

If you arrive at your destination 15 or more minutes late because your GWR train was delayed or cancelled, you can claim Delay Repay compensation. Please keep your ticket and visit GWR.com/DelayRepay
Last Updated:08/12/2024 18:24

[Worcester_Passenger]

A shame that services couldn't run to Worcestershire Parkway and reverse there. I see an ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) made it through Shrub Hill earlier: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:36768/2024-12-08/detailed

Control has been listening:

18:48 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:55 will be reinstated.
It will be terminated at Worcestershire Parkway Hl.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 17:16

Later (21:20), this train, 1W08 18:48 London Paddington to Hereford, made it to Worcester Shrub Hill OK, but was cancelled thereafter.

And later trains from London are explicitly listed as cancelled on JourneyCheck:

19:48 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 22:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 17:16

20:48 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 23:00 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 17:16

21:48 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 23:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 17:16

19:58 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 22:35 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 15:30

20:46 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 23:40 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 15:30

Having got the 18:48 to Shrub Hill, there is at least one 9-car unit there for Monday morning. Some of the morning peak is already cancelled:

09/12/24 05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:24 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 20:10

09/12/24 07:25 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington due 10:00 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Last Updated:08/12/2024 20:10

The 07:25 is the one that goes via Stroud.

Meanwhile, the 21:48 from Paddington did operate after all, so there's now two 9-car units for Monday.

[Witham Bobby]

19:05 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:09/12/2024 09:46

22:51 London Paddington to Worcestershire Parkway Hl due 01:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:09/12/2024 04:16

[Witham Bobby]

Reasonable, in this weather instance. And only three in the West.

Given the exceptional weather - yes entirely reasonable. 

Of course it may beg the question as to how much more as a country we need to do by way of climate change adaptation works to make structures more wind resilient in future.  You may ask at what cost but one opposition politician suggested that that might be cheaper than carbon net zero, but then I get the impression they meant leave it for the next generation to pick up the bill rather than thinking  it needed doing now. 

Without wishing to sound like a character in "The Vicar of Dibley", The Great Storm of 1987 saw higher wind speeds than were brought by Darragh.  There was significant damage to trees, power lines and buildings.  But I don't remember station canopies being blown off.

There is nothing new about the sort of weather we experienced last weekend, other than that storms get given names and our institutions seem less capable of coping than they used to be

[ChrisB]

Your memory is faulty....just some that are listed on Wikipedia -

The roofs and canopies at Limehouse and Benfleet stations were destroyed, and £300,000 of damage was caused to construction work on a new train ferry pier at Dover Western Docks station.

[Witham Bobby]

That's me put in my place then

[Witham Bobby]

I'll just stick to reporting on the bits I notice of the shockingly poor performance of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) in future

17:34 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:09/12/2024 15:50

[IndustryInsider]

I'll just stick to reporting on the bits I notice of the shockingly poor performance of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) in future

17:34 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:09/12/2024 15:50

That ended up being reinstated.   You’re not having a good day!  .

It did run quite late though, and a subsequent train has been cancelled.

[Mark A]

The Great Storm of 1987 saw higher wind speeds than were brought by Darragh.

Agreed, a different animal, and terrible in different ways. I was asleep but am led to believe that in many places the high winds were experienced for only a quarter of an hour and then it passed. A feature was that, again in certain locations, the winds above the ground but at no great height were very much stronger than those experienced at ground level - and concentrated in gusts, and the real mayhem was caused when a gust happened to briefly descend to ground level - think 'Catspaw' but even more murderous - we certainly saw that locally as, whereas a lot of structures and trees were generally roughed up and there was felled stuff all over the shop, something on a different scale had simply taken the tops off most of the trees across a swathe of a small wood in the local park and there, it looked as if a giant lawnmower had been at work.

The other odd thing was the previous evening: we walked home around 10:30 pm, the air very still, remarkably warm for October and frogs for some reason vocal to the extent that anyone passing froggy environments had cause to wonder 'What on earth is making that racket?'

For all I know they were saying to humans: 'You don't know this yet but tomorrow morning you'll all be staring puzzled at the kettle while the people in charge of the National Grid are busy organising a black start of the south east of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s grid'.

Not sure what would have been involved in restoring power to the south east's railways that day, or the underground for that matter.

Mark