Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2018

[whole diary]

[patch38]

Issue with an insulator.

Well at least it'll still be under warranty... 

[TaplowGreen]

Now 3pm. Not good.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) help to a Burnham customer......"Network Rail expect to have it fixed by tomorrow".

Doesn't bode well for the rest of today.

[broadgage]

Whilst any reasonable passenger would understand that things break, and that disruption will occur in such circumstances, OverHead-Line Equipment (OHLE) failures do seem to be unduly frequent and not resulting in the more reliable railway that is still being advertised.

As in other cases, I would ask "what happens overseas ?" I have no doubt that German and French railways have OverHead-Line Equipment (OHLE) failures, but I rather doubt that they are as frequent as in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[johoare]

Now 3pm. Not good.

My decision to not travel into London when I saw the chaos was a good one then! Could be a repeat performance this evening at this rate..

[johoare]

End of the day now!

From Journeycheck:

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Slough and Maidenhead some lines will be blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. All stations between Slough and Maidenhead will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

[a-driver]

End of the day now!

From Journeycheck:

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Slough and Maidenhead some lines will be blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. All stations between Slough and Maidenhead will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

The relief lines are expected to close between 1130 and 1500.  The up main towards London will be blocked to electric traction only and will be running at reduced speed, basically signal to signal to protect engineers working.

Stopping services will run as 8-car electrics from Padd to Slough.
In the other direction, services will terminate at Maidenhead.
Buses ordered between Slough and Maidenhead

[Timmer]

The latest update on journey check making it very clear who is responsible:

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between Slough and Maidenhead some lines are closed.

Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. All stations between Slough and Maidenhead will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Network Rail, who own the railway infrastructure, and are responsible for its upkeep, are currently fixing the damaged overhead cables in the Maidenhead area. As a consequence, the train service between Reading and Paddington is severely depleted, and has been reduced to a shuttle service between Reading and Maidenhead, and also between Slough and London Paddington. The stations between Slough and Maidenhead can only be served by local buses.
First Bus route 13: Slough (Bus Station Bay 12) Burnham (Station), First Bus route 4: Maidenhead (Town Centre Stop S2) - Taplow (Bath Rd) - Burnham (Everitts Corner) - Slough (Bus Station Bay 4) and London Buses are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys. TfL^» (Transport for London - about) London Buses: are accepting tickets on any reasonable route between Slough and Central London.

[IndustryInsider]

Whilst any reasonable passenger would understand that things break, and that disruption will occur in such circumstances, OHLE failures do seem to be unduly frequent and not resulting in the more reliable railway that is still being advertised.

As in other cases, I would ask "what happens overseas ?" I have no doubt that German and French railways have OHLE failures, but I rather doubt that they are as frequent as in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

I would say this is the first ‘major’ incident of the newly electrified sections, so overall reliability has been good.  Had this sort of thing happened once a week since last summer I could sympathise with your views.

I doubt many folk in Germany and France will get to hear about this particular incident, so, as Stuving suggested a few months ago, just because you don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

[a-driver]

Network Rail confident of a 1500 hand back. There’s currently a scaffolding tower erected to enable repairs to the damaged insulator.

[M.T. Vessel]

And there was me thinking "There goes the neighbourhood" when I heard four what sounded like gunshots... When those things go they don't do it quietly. (Well, they might, but not last night)

[johoare]

Welcome to the forum M.T. Vessel Hopefully you'll find some useful information and advice on here

[IndustryInsider]

Network Rail confident of a 1500 hand back. There’s currently a scaffolding tower erected to enable repairs to the damaged insulator.

Now 15:30 but workers and equipment are clear on the track.  Let's hope it all works ok when re-energised.

[IndustryInsider]

Normal working resumed at 15:24, though as ever displaced stock and crews will no doubt impact on the evening peak to some degree.

[eightf48544]

In connection with this incident I found this on the Nataional Rail Website.

Customers travelling to Taplow and Burnham, from the London direction, are advised to change at Reading and then catch local First Bus services onwards.

Customers at Taplow and Burnham travelling in either direction- towards Paddington OR Reading- are advised to use local First Bus services on which their rail tickets will be valid.

There are no First buses from Reading  to Maidenhead and Slough

There is the First No 4 every 30 minutes from Slough to Maidenhead along the A4. There are also other buses from Slough which go by Burnham station. It is a fair walk from Taplow to the bus stop outside Tescos and it's a dodge the traffic walk at  a Maidenhead.

Also the First No 4 is not to be confused with the Courtney Bus No 4 which shares the Frascati Way terminus.

They say  computerised Information Systems make it easier, They've forgotten GIGO. Roll on AI we'll all get jobs sorting out the mess.

[TaplowGreen]

Whilst any reasonable passenger would understand that things break, and that disruption will occur in such circumstances, OHLE failures do seem to be unduly frequent and not resulting in the more reliable railway that is still being advertised.

As in other cases, I would ask "what happens overseas ?" I have no doubt that German and French railways have OHLE failures, but I rather doubt that they are as frequent as in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

I would say this is the first ‘major’ incident of the newly electrified sections, so overall reliability has been good.  Had this sort of thing happened once a week since last summer I could sympathise with your views.

I doubt many folk in Germany and France will get to hear about this particular incident, so, as Stuving suggested a few months ago, just because you don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

That's probably a fair point (notwithstanding pigeons and plastic bags) but I think it illustrates that when something does go "pop" it has the potential to do so big time, and relying on a group of people going for a lengthy walk in order to find the source is a little concerning and brings resilience/robustness into question.

It also of course comes against a recent backdrop of fairly major disruption due "urgent repairs to the track", heat related damage in what could charitably be called pretty moderate temperatures, as well as the usual signalling issues on the infrastructure side, so the public are going to tend to be less forgiving, without even going near all the non infrastructure issues around brand new trains falling over and lack of crew etc.