Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2015

[whole diary]

[lordgoata]

1653 Reading to Banbury stopper cancelled.  1723 Reading to Oxford stopper is about 40 late at Reading.  1755 Reading to Oxford stopper is 10 late.  So nothing from Reading to Tilehurst, Pangbourne etc for about 90 minutes.  Truly awful ^ but it^s good news for taxi drivers as Mrs GTBE (and others I^m sure) give up on FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

Last night was ridiculous. The 17.05 from Maidenhead was showing as delayed due to problems with a previous service, EXACTLY the same as yesterday, whilst both trains either side were running (albeit late). I decided to work late as "delayed" means absolutely sod all to anyone, and I wasn't hanging around at Maidenhead all night again.

I got a lift to Twyford. Waiting on the platform at 17.50-ish and they decide to inform all the Regatta visitors waiting for the train to London to come to platform 3, go to Reading and get a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) directly to Paddington. So Platform 3 went from the handful of regular commuters to scores of Regatta visitors.

Then what arrives ? The delayed 16.57 (I think it is) from Maidenhead, reduced from 5 to 2 carriages. Cue the insane crush while everyone tries (and fails) to get on. And they were still telling customers on platform 4 to go to 3 and get the train to Reading even as the 2 carriage service was pulling in! Utterly insane.

Thankfully I avoided that fiasco and waited for the next service which was at least the full compliment of 3 carriages this time, but when that left Reading it was horrendous, just lucky most people got off at Tilehurst so was at least not too bad for everyone over that short distance.

Plan to leave early tonight as I worked later yesterday, so lets see what joys await tonight....

[Jason]

The current announcement is thus:

Cancellations to services between Acton Main Line and Slough
Last updated 09:37
Due to signalling problems between Acton Main Line and Slough some lines are disrupted.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 mins or revised. Disruption is expected until 10:30 02/07.

[rower40]

... this recent FGW^▸ (First Great Western) advert for Ribena Girls (ie Customer Ambassadors):
^You^ll cover every inch of your station to go the extra mile for our customers.

<Extremely off-topic...>
Remind me, when did we start using the metric system?

[ChrisB]

Still using Chains for measurement aren't we?

[TonyK]

Quality of input from TM^‡(resolve) today was laughable. 
"We are delayed due to congestion" - nope, congestion is a symptom not a cause.  Its like saying that the patient died because his heart stopped.

Same excuse given at Newton Abbot for the 16:04 to Plymouth (not what I was catching). Delay due to earlier delays? Same as overcrowding due to more passengers than the train will hold.

[stuving]

I'm sure some of you will feel better to know that the French are also feeling the effect of the heat on their trains ...

• SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) has declared its "plan canicule", imposing speed limits as low as 40 km/hr on some parts of the network. This is partly about rails that may buckle, but also about catenary droop when the weights hit the deck.
  
• On Line L out of St Lazare the overhead line was brought down by this droop yesterday, with all the chaos that causes. The linked delays across the whole Paris network led to passengers getting out of a stopped train on a Gare du Nord line, closing that line for over an hour.
  
• SNCF president Guillaume Pepy was busy apologising, but claiming that over 70% of trains are air-conditioned. Of course that means nearly 30% aren't. For Paris suburban trains, however, 59% are uncooled.
  
• Oh, and there was a strike on one of the RER lines ... but only locally.
  

There have also been several big electricity supply failures, attributed to the heat. The biggest took out a whole region - 1 milllion customers - but was overnight, so had limited impact on the trains. What's odd is the explanations. One is that underground cables are overheating - surface heat is not meant to penetrate far into the ground, is it? The other is that high daytime humidity, followed by a large temperature fall, has led to condensation inside monitoring circuits attached to grid transformers. Four of these transformers, including one key big one, were damaged by fire in on Tuesday night alone.

The context is the same as here - temperatures at record levels; as high relative to "as hot as we expect" as they are here. And a railway system with some parts showing their age and lack of maintenance and investment. 

(canicule = heatwave)

[IndustryInsider]

The context is the same as here - temperatures at record levels; as high relative to "as hot as we expect" as they are here. And a railway system with some parts showing their age and lack of maintenance and investment.

Thanks for posting those details.  It's reassuring to see the European network suffers in much the same way ours does during extremes of weather, partly dispelling the myth that we're the only network in Europe that suffers delays.

[broadgage]

Underground electric cables are only very slightly affected by ground surface or air temperatures provided that they are buried at a reasonable depth.
However underground cables are vulnerable to failure caused by overheating if overloaded by increased summer refrigeration and air conditioning load. PROLONGED heavy loading heats up the soil surrounding the cable and dries it out. Dry soil is less effective than damp soil at removing heat leading to still higher temperatures.

A combination of high surface temperatures, high load, cables buried not deeply enough, and soil that starts dryer than normal due to a drought, or soil with a greater than expected thermal resistivity can have serious consequences.

The text book case was a huge power failure some years ago in Auckland, New Zealand.
A combination of higher than expected load, soil of greater than assumed thermal resistivity, non optimum cable type, delays in installing extra cables, and other factors resulted in one of the worst ever power failures in the developed world.

[stuving]

The context is the same as here - temperatures at record levels; as high relative to "as hot as we expect" as they are here. And a railway system with some parts showing their age and lack of maintenance and investment.

Thanks for posting those details.  It's reassuring to see the European network suffers in much the same way ours does during extremes of weather, partly dispelling the myth that we're the only network in Europe that suffers delays.

I don't think you can generalise to the rest of Europe - each country's current state will be dictated by its own  history. The French 'classic' network happens to have ended up in a state rather like ours, but because the priority given to building the LGV^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle) network stole all the money.

[Chris from Nailsea]

At least ladies only glow while us men perspire. 

Ha ha there was no glowing or perspiring on that train.. Just lots of sweating...

One of my female delivery driver colleagues, on returning to the store in the height of the heatwave, announced indignantly that 'her trousers were sticking to her @rse'.  I agreed with another male driver, this was 'too much information!' 

[Jason]

Last updated 14:37
Alterations to services between Slough and London Paddington
     
Due to signalling problems between Slough and London Paddington the London bound relief line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:30 06/07.

[IndustryInsider]

This will be interesting if it continues into tomorrow with the Henley Regatta starting however I think there will be extra services on that branch anyway to allow for this.

Good to see the Regatta passing off pretty smoothly this year, no doubt helped by a cooling of the temperature at the weekend.

From what I saw the train plan worked very well, the best for several years, with what appeared to be much more strengthened trains on the relief line services, especially on the Sunday which has been a big problem in the past!

[FremlinsMan]

File on Four this evening covered Network Rail's problems in many regions, including the Thames Valley. The programme page is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060zvnd

[JayMac]

Off topic visit to Punsville has been moved to The Lighter Side:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15920.0

[ChrisB]

there was this post that you've included in that move....

File on Four this evening covered Network Rail's problems in many regions, including the Thames Valley. The programme page is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060zvnd