Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2018

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Simon Calder has just been interviewed at Paddington...

Nice of him to take time off from America's Got The Pop Factor...

[IndustryInsider]

All four tracks now open (one restricted to diesel only), so there's a fighting chance of a reasonable evening peak service.  Trains and crew still badly displaced though, so it'll be far from perfect!

[TonyK]

All four tracks now open (one restricted to diesel only), so there's a fighting chance of a reasonable evening peak service.  Trains and crew still badly displaced though, so it'll be far from perfect!

Yaay! Four tracks, now!

I pity the driver involved "The cost has run into millions!"
"Sorry about that."

[RichardB]

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?

I was on the 20 03 Pad - Ply last night.  We left on time(ish), got to just past Old Oak Common, then were taken back into Paddington.  This was 21 00 so I thought it best to cut my losses, get a hotel and try in the morning.  I know the hotels in the Ealing/Brentford area so went there by tube, stayed in the Ealing Travelodge and travelled back from Brentford via Feltham and Reading.   Smooth trip, booked time from Reading (obviously started there) and back here in Plymouth around 14 30.   Wires down an occasional (and hopefully, fingers crossed, very rare) hazard of overhead electrification.

[RA]

Latest from Network Rail. As part of the repair work, tonight from 21:00 all lines will be blocked to electric traction between Southall and Acton West. The main lines will be closed with all trains using the relief lines. All electric only services will be cancelled unless substituted by class 165/166 units. All class 800/802 formed trains to run on diesel mode between Reading and Paddington.

For the record, the offending train last night was operated and crewed by GB^▸ (Great Britain) Railfreight (GBRf) as they are contracted by Hitachi for all movements and testing of the units on Network Rail infrastructure prior to them being accepted into traffic.

[grahame]

From City A.M. http://www.cityam.com/265952/paddington-disruption-continue-into-tomorrow-network-rail

“We have been working all day on our plan to replace the electric lines and associated equipment quickly and safely. We have been doing as much as possible away from the track, but we can only carry out repairs in earnest when trains are not running," it said.

It said work wold begin on the track at 9pm this evening to install new wires.

“The extent of the damage means we will not be able to complete our repairs in one night, so while services on Thursday morning will be significantly improved, there may still be some disruption. We advise passengers to continue to check with train operators before travelling. We apologise to passengers who have been affected by this major incident.”

[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?

I was on the 20 03 Pad - Ply last night.  We left on time(ish), got to just past Old Oak Common, then were taken back into Paddington.  This was 21 00 so I thought it best to cut my losses, get a hotel and try in the morning.  I know the hotels in the Ealing/Brentford area so went there by tube, stayed in the Ealing Travelodge and travelled back from Brentford via Feltham and Reading.   Smooth trip, booked time from Reading (obviously started there) and back here in Plymouth around 14 30.   Wires down an occasional (and hopefully, fingers crossed, very rare) hazard of overhead electrification.

I'm sure we all wish Richard well, having just today been nominated for the "Smug traveller of the Year" award (sponsored by GWR) 🙂

[IndustryInsider]

I was on the 20 03 Pad - Ply last night.  We left on time(ish), got to just past Old Oak Common, then were taken back into Paddington.  This was 21 00 so I thought it best to cut my losses, get a hotel and try in the morning.  I know the hotels in the Ealing/Brentford area so went there by tube, stayed in the Ealing Travelodge and travelled back from Brentford via Feltham and Reading.   Smooth trip, booked time from Reading (obviously started there) and back here in Plymouth around 14 30.   Wires down an occasional (and hopefully, fingers crossed, very rare) hazard of overhead electrification.

Pleased to hear you managed to minimise the effects of the disruption, Richard.

[SandTEngineer]

Interesting comparison with a major incident in Hong Kong yesterday

Bosses on Hong Kong’s underground network, known as being one of the best in the world, were forced to issue a grovelling apology after trains ran every 12 minutes.

Owners of the MTR network have apologised for Tuesday's delays and have brought in overseas experts to determine how they occurred.

MTR have announced that they will be making fares on the network half price for a day as a way of apologising.

99.9 percent of subway trains in Hong Kong arrive on time, with trains usually running every 2-4 minutes.

According to the South China Morning Post, delays on trains are so rare, there was nothing in the handbook on how to deal with the signal failure.

Three lines were affected by the signal failures

Passengers complained of waiting up to half an hour for a train with staff resorting to switching off escalators as a way of dealing with overcrowding.

Announcements on the tannoy told passengers that they would not be charged for their journey.

Buses and taxis felt the brunt of the delays with a usual taxi journey from Mong Kok to the Eastern Harbour Tunnel taking an hour and 10 minutes compared to the usual 25 minutes.

Trams were also affected with hundreds of people queueing at stops. Queues for ferries were also considerably long.

The issue was so severe, Chief Executive of the region Carrie Lam urged employers to be considerate to those turning up late to work.

She said: “If the railway malfunction has made workers late for work….I call on employers to be considerate.”

After six hours, the network returned to normal however passengers were still warned to allow extra time to complete their journeys.

[Adelante_CCT]

Wasn't it them or somewhere in the far East recently who issued a grovelling public apology when a service departed something like 20 seconds early

Owners of the MTR network have apologised for Tuesday's delays and have brought in overseas experts to determine how they occurred.

Certainly won't be from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

[RichardB]

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?

I was on the 20 03 Pad - Ply last night.  We left on time(ish), got to just past Old Oak Common, then were taken back into Paddington.  This was 21 00 so I thought it best to cut my losses, get a hotel and try in the morning.  I know the hotels in the Ealing/Brentford area so went there by tube, stayed in the Ealing Travelodge and travelled back from Brentford via Feltham and Reading.   Smooth trip, booked time from Reading (obviously started there) and back here in Plymouth around 14 30.   Wires down an occasional (and hopefully, fingers crossed, very rare) hazard of overhead electrification.

I'm sure we all wish Richard well, having just today been nominated for the "Smug traveller of the Year" award (sponsored by GWR) 🙂

I'm sorry you took what I said to be "smug" - far from it, I had things to do today which all went out the window because I didn't get back until 14 30 and realising that your best option is to get away from the area and get a hotel at 21 00 was not brilliant.  I'm certainly not smug.

[Trowres]

RichardB, your post was the first I have seen that mentions anything about rescue of the stranded trains.

Does anyone know more of the story? - some of those trains were stuck between stations...

[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?

I was on the 20 03 Pad - Ply last night.  We left on time(ish), got to just past Old Oak Common, then were taken back into Paddington.  This was 21 00 so I thought it best to cut my losses, get a hotel and try in the morning.  I know the hotels in the Ealing/Brentford area so went there by tube, stayed in the Ealing Travelodge and travelled back from Brentford via Feltham and Reading.   Smooth trip, booked time from Reading (obviously started there) and back here in Plymouth around 14 30.   Wires down an occasional (and hopefully, fingers crossed, very rare) hazard of overhead electrification.

I'm sure we all wish Richard well, having just today been nominated for the "Smug traveller of the Year" award (sponsored by GWR) 🙂

I'm sorry you took what I said to be "smug" - far from it, I had things to do today which all went out the window because I didn't get back until 14 30 and realising that your best option is to get away from the area and get a hotel at 21 00 was not brilliant.  I'm certainly not smug.

Cool your jets Richard, just a bit of tongue in cheek fun, hence the smiley.

 I'm glad you got back to Plymouth OK. I was supposed to be heading there myself today to spend a few days with my aged parents and would be there now but for the hopeless state of the railway......fingers crossed I'll make it tomorrow.

[RichardB]

Jets duly cooled.  Good luck tomorrow.

[didcotdean]

Seems the TV stoppers  will be running as split services late evening, Didcot-Reading (387) and Reading-Paddington (turbo), roughly half normal frequency.