Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2018

[whole diary]

[Sixty3Closure]

Sigh...the one day I really needed to be in. Almost joined some colleagues in getting a taxi from Twyford to Reading to pick up SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) but my heart wasn't in it. I;m not sure if they went in the end as there was concern about getting home and just the length of time it would all take.

Thanks to Grahame for the information below as there didn't seem to be much on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website other than don't travel.

[grahame]

Damage to overhead lines apparently.  Just what is the point of switching to overhead electricity?  It just adds another thing to go wrong .

It does more that just add another thing ... but the brand new electric railway that has yet something else to go wrong and in any case runs out and switches to diesel at Thingley Cocklebury Lane has something of a public relations problem this morning.

[TaplowGreen]

Sigh...the one day I really needed to be in. Almost joined some colleagues in getting a taxi from Twyford to Reading to pick up SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) but my heart wasn't in it. I;m not sure if they went in the end as there was concern about getting home and just the length of time it would all take.

Thanks to Grahame for the information below as there didn't seem to be much on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website other than don't travel.

There are signalling problems between Reading  & Waterloo too. GWR "help" being terse & unhelpful.

Almost unbelievably, despite warning people against travel today, they are not confirming whether tickets for today can be transferred to tomorrow's services.

[Timmer]

Thanks to Grahame for the information below as there didn't seem to be much on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website other than don't travel.

GWR have rectified this. Here's a pretty detailed summary of whats running and what isn't:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/live-network-updates/disruption-information

Overhead wires damaged Wednesday 17 October
On Tuesday 16 October overhead wires were damaged in the London area. This severely disrupted train services between London Paddington and Reading as many trains became stranded owing to the resultant loss of a power supply. Owing to the extent of the damage no trains are expected to be able to operate between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington in either direction for much of Wednesday 17th October. As a result, GWR, TfL^» (Transport for London - about) Rail and Heathrow Express will not be operating a train service between London Paddington, Hayes & Harlington or Slough until such time as repairs have been completed.

Advice

Due to the disruption to Great Western, MTR and Heathrow Express services, we are advising customers not to seek to travel by train between London Paddington and Slough until at least mid-day today, Wednesday 17th October. From mid-day, two of the four lines are expected to reopen; this to be confirmed in due course.

We strongly advise not to travel on long distance routes or towards London due to a reduced train service on all routes and no train services operating to or from London Paddington. Train services will instead terminate and start at Reading.

If you are travelling from London beyond Reading please do not go to London Paddington but instead travel straight to either London Waterloo, London Marylebone or London Euston depending upon your ultimate destination.


A reduced timetable will be in place on Wednesday 17 October that will impact most mainline routes to and from London Paddington all day.

Between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway
Starting and terminating at Slough, a local stopping train service will operate between Slough, Reading and Didcot Parkway only in each direction.
South Western Railway is accepting GWR tickets between London Waterloo and Windsor/ Reading. Chiltern Railways is accepting GWR tickets between London Marylebone, Oxford and Banbury.
Between West Ealing and Greenford
The train service is suspended between West Ealing and Greenford, please travel on London Underground services and London Buses.
Between London Paddington and Bedwyn
Starting and terminating at Reading, the train service will operate between Reading and Bedwyn only.
South Western Railway is accepting GWR tickets between London Waterloo and Windsor/ Reading.
Between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads
Starting and terminating at Reading, an hourly train service will operate between Reading and Bristol Temple Meads in each direction.
Between London Paddington and Swansea
Starting and terminating at Reading, an hourly train service will operate between Reading and Swansea in each direction. Transport for Wales is accepting GWR tickets between Cheltenham Spa and Cardiff Central and between Newport (South Wales) and Swansea.
Between London Paddington, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance (West of England)
Starting and terminating at Reading, an hourly train service will operate between Reading and the West of England in each direction. CrossCountry is accepting GWR tickets between Cheltenham Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance.
South Western Railway is accepting GWR tickets between Exeter St David’s, Basingstoke and London Waterloo.
Between London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa
The through train service is suspended between London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa, please travel on alternative services to Swindon and change there for connections. A local stopping train service is operating between Swindon and Cheltenham Spa, but this will be busier than normal. CrossCountry is accepting GWR tickets between Bristol Temple Meads and Cheltenham Spa, if you are travelling to or from Cheltenham Spa you can change at Bristol Parkway for connecting train services.
Between London Paddington, Worcester, Great Malvern and Hereford
Starting and terminating at Reading or Oxford, a reduced train service will operate from Hereford, Great Malvern and Worcester to Oxford and Reading in the morning. A limited train service will operate from Oxford to Worcester in the afternoon.
Virgin Trains West Coast is accepting GWR tickets between London Euston and Birmingham New Street.
West Midlands Railway is accepting GWR tickets between Birmingham New Street, Worcester, Great Malvern and Hereford.
CrossCountry is accepting GWR tickets between Basingstoke and Birmingham New Street.
Night Riviera Sleeper Services Tuesday 16 October:

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance, will start at Reading. If you are booked to travel on this service from London Paddington, please travel to London Waterloo and use South Western Railway services to Reading.
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington, this service will terminate at Reading.
Ticket acceptance:
Your ticket(s) with GWR is valid on the following routes:

London Underground between London Paddington and London Marylebone, London Euston, London Waterloo and Greenford.
London Buses between London and Slough.
South Western Railway between London Waterloo and Reading until the end of the day.
Chiltern Railways between London Marylebone and Oxford/Banbury until the end of the day.
West Midlands Railway between Birmingham New Street and Great Malvern via Worcester.
Virgin Trains West Coast between London Euston and Birmingham New Street until the end of the day.
CrossCountry between Cheltenham Spa and Penzance and also between Basignstoke and Birmingham New Street.
Transport for Wales between Cheltenham Spa and Cardiff Central and between Newport (South Wales) and Cheltenham Spa.
Compensation:

If your train service was delayed or cancelled, you could be entitled to a refund or compensation, please check our Refunds and Compensation page for more information

[Timmer]

So was it an OverHead - Line Equipment (OHLE) failure or did an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) bring the wiring down?

Going to be a hefty bill for someone.

Looking at Social media from last night, taxis were doing a roaring trade with some very large bills heading GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s way in the next few days.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[ChrisB]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

[Timmer]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

So whooooozzz gonna pay for that one GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) or Hitachi as the 802s aren't Agility trains?

[grahame]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

From an attribution viewpoint, I'm not yet clear whether the issue has into Hitachi, Great Western, Network Rail  or act-of-God origins. It may take a while to sort out - I understand (from yesterday) that there are still issues from the 2014 (was it?) issues at Dawlish of who picks up final bills.

On board - there may have been just a driver and I'm sure (s)he has long since been evacuated; I don't know if there's 'just' a tangle of wires or some more serious damage. No news (thank goodness) of anyone being hurt / rushed to hospital.


I wrote (s)he there - very interesting to learn yesterday at the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) stakeholder conference that although the company is pressing hard in gender neutral recruitment and looking to advertise vacancies and encourage across all communities, the train driver grade remains stubbornly male dominated.  Did I hear a figure of still just 7% of train drivers being ladies?

[Electric train]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

So whooooozzz gonna pay for that one GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) or Hitachi as the 802s aren't Agility trains?

You may have noticed on the new electric units a light that luminates the pantograph, this is for a CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) camera that is located in the pan well.


The footage from the unit involved and other units that passed over the damaged section will be interrogated by a joint team made up of Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)), TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s and FOCs^▸ (Freight Operating Company).  There is also other data that is recorded on the units that will be used.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[a-driver]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

So whooooozzz gonna pay for that one GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) or Hitachi as the 802s aren't Agility trains?

I doubt very much wether GWR will be paying for it.

[Birdie100]

An interesting commute this morning! Furze platt to maidenhead, maidenhead to Twyford, realise the reading SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train is up the spout, change at twyford back to Slough, Slough to Windsor, Windsor to Waterloo! Will be an adventure coming home!!!

[Sixty3Closure]

An interesting commute this morning! Furze platt to maidenhead, maidenhead to Twyford, realise the reading SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train is up the spout, change at twyford back to Slough, Slough to Windsor, Windsor to Waterloo! Will be an adventure coming home!!!

You showed more dedication than I did although my boss doesn't even look up anymore when I start a sentence or phone call with "the trains......"

[ChrisB]

Graham, There were many more than the 802 that got trapped when those wires descended...all the other electric units that got trapped with no power would have presumably not been running ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) but wiuld have had passengers on them? What happened to them?

Fyi, Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) are tweeting that 200 metred of wires are affected

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[ChrisB]

Journeycheck has removed the comment that two lines might be available after lunch and now states disruption till end of day

[TaplowGreen]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

From an attribution viewpoint, I'm not yet clear whether the issue has into Hitachi, Great Western, Network Rail  or act-of-God origins. It may take a while to sort out - I understand (from yesterday) that there are still issues from the 2014 (was it?) issues at Dawlish of who picks up final bills.

On board - there may have been just a driver and I'm sure (s)he has long since been evacuated; I don't know if there's 'just' a tangle of wires or some more serious damage. No news (thank goodness) of anyone being hurt / rushed to hospital.


I wrote (s)he there - very interesting to learn yesterday at the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) stakeholder conference that although the company is pressing hard in gender neutral recruitment and looking to advertise vacancies and encourage across all communities, the train driver grade remains stubbornly male dominated.  Did I hear a figure of still just 7% of train drivers being ladies?

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) there were people trapped on trains for hours and still hundreds stranded on the concourse at Paddington well after midnight - judging by reports customer service was pretty poor at Paddington (the usual gaping mouthed hopelessness and no-one prepared to make decisions about taxis/hotels etc) but better at Reading where there was some coordination - naturally of course that was if people were able to get to Reading.

I understand that the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) at Paddington got thoroughly p'd off with GWR staff constantly summoning them to deal with frustrated customers who were not being threatening or abusive but just needed help, and then as the night drew on the GWR staff mostly steadily disappeared leaving the Police to deal with it all (that's from the (Police) horses mouth- TVP version).