Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2017

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Aren't Network Rail picking up these delay minutes? Hardly fault of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

Whilst the initial course of the disruption my well-being Network Rail's fault, GWR are responsible for minimising the resulting delays.

How do the "financials" stack up?   Is the system set up so that it's in a TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) short term financial interest to minimise NR^» (Network Rail - home page) caused delays?

One can imagine a scenario (surely not the case?) where a delay that a third party such as Network Rail leads to increasing compensation payments to the TOC the more minutes that can be attributed back to it.  If compensation received is more than compensation paid out, this would lead to an accountant's temptation to discourage measures that would get things back on schedule quicker.

I can recall a number of discussions on this topic, GWR have been asked on several occasions for the figures as to compensation received from NR v compensation paid out to customers for given incidents and whilst they have always refused to disclose it there is little doubt that the former massively outweighs the latter - for one thing, the compensation from NR is contractual and doesn't rely on individuals claiming it (and being prepared to wait for weeks/months for a reply) - so whilst GWR are perversely indirectly incentivised to string out delays  I wouldn't suggest that they do that, good old fashioned incompetence/inefficiency is the main reason, however resting easy in the knowledge that they are going to be compensated by NR certainly takes the commercial heat out of the situation for them (whilst their customers melt in the heat!)

If you hit GWR with a Customer satisfaction KPI on which senior management bonuses/salary increases were dependent, then you would see some more urgency, it tends to concentrate minds wonderfully if the Boss thinks he's going to take a hit to the pocket.

[IndustryInsider]

There's certainly a marked difference in the approach of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to an NR^» (Network Rail - home page) caused delay and one they've caused - that's nothing new.  Though as TG says the systems in place are woefully inadequate to deal with either.

[NickB]

This was a quote on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) Forum:

Just to sum up how awful yesterday was:

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) evening peak PPM^▸ (Parry People Mover, or Pence Per Mile, or Public Performance Measure - depending on context) was just 1.6%
High Speed Services evening peak PPM was 3.8%
London/Thames Valley evening peak PPM was 0%
West evening PPM did better at 12.5%

A shocker of a day with just one train arriving into Paddington making PPM!

But obviously no danger of a Void Day being declared to ensure that all passengers affected receive something approaching adequate compensation??  No, no danger at all. 😒

[charles_uk]

But obviously no danger of a Void Day being declared to ensure that all passengers affected receive something approaching adequate compensation??  No, no danger at all. 😒

"Unlikely" according to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter team.

[ChrisB]

The magic word is 'day'. If that had happened at start of service, I suspect the Thames Valley & High Speed Train (HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))) charter grouos may have got one, but not for less than a full days disruption.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[ChrisB]

And also morexlikely when the delay minutes are atributable to themselves, rather than some other, like Network Rail in this case, who will fully refund GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for all costs/compensation for each & every minute atributed

[eightf48544]

And the money goes round and round and the train service doesn't improve.

[Sixty3Closure]

But obviously no danger of a Void Day being declared to ensure that all passengers affected receive something approaching adequate compensation??  No, no danger at all. 😒

"Unlikely" according to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter team.

Is this the same Twitter team that were too busy to do updates on Monday due to individual queries? I think most of us can accept delays happen but GWR need to talk to their customers.

My train home was on time today except the usual 8 coach (or maybe 7) 125 was replaced by a 2 coach Turbo. On the train I did catch there was an announcement that air con was only working in one or two coaches and passengers should move to one of these coaches. Great advice except there's people standing in the aisle and others running up and down the platform trying to get on. It may have been well intentioned advice but it was met with withering scorn where I was standing.

[TaplowGreen]

Sounds truly horrific....the 1736 is packed at the best of times....suspect the High Speed Train (HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))) was nicked to transport the great unwashed to Glastonbury.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[Adelante_CCT]

17:29 from Swansea
17:45 from Paddington
18:31 from Oxford
18:50 from Paddington

All cancelled and the 17:49 from Paddington is 5 car instead of 8, and 17:36 2 car instead of 8
All the units for the above services have failed apparently, that's quite a large proportion of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))

[IndustryInsider]

Surprisingly good performance today from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  A few delays/cancellations/short forms, but overall not too bad given it was the hottest day of the four day heatwave (hottest June days in over 40 years), the disruption of the previous three days (especially Monday) and sets being nicked for Glastonbury.

[bobm]

I've just taken a quick peek at Open Train Times - there are currently 9 trains queued on the UM between Hayes and Burnham but then you have to go back as far as Cholsey to find the next one - so I'd say the rush hour is most definitely not looking good.

A word of warning for those who may be relying on it for information, OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website, or possibly 'over the top', depending on context) appears to be suffering from the heat as well as it seems to be lagging by over 5 minutes on the actual position of trains.

Just for interest there is a detailed explanation of the problems which affected OTT on Monday here - https://blog.opentraintimes.com/2017/06/19/post-incident-review/

[Trowres]

So other than someone having a pre-cooked meal, and some feathers for a new hat to go to Ascot with, do we actually know what happened last night, and why on earth it took so long to sort out?

There is a 1967 British Transport Film called "Second Nature". The main theme of the film concerns repairs to the catenary wire following a flashover under a bridge triggered by a crow.

Fifty years on...

[IndustryInsider]

Perhaps ElectricTrain can elaborate on whether the new electrification equipment provides any extra resilience against this rare but potentially very disruptive bird risk?  I believe Monday's incident occurred near West Ealing so that's obviously an older section done in the mid 90s.

[grahame]

Just for interest there is a detailed explanation of the problems which affected OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website, or possibly 'over the top', depending on context) on Monday here - https://blog.opentraintimes.com/2017/06/19/post-incident-review/

An excellent and unusual example of the provision of feedback to a quite detailed level. There are others (web, train operation and infrastructure) who could do worse than follow the example.