Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2023

[whole diary]

[BBM]

Bridge near Hanwell has been struck by a road vehicle.  It’s a bridge that requires an examiner to pass as safe before trains can run, so another morning of major disruption beckons.

All lines now reopened (thankfully!)

Still some disruption, I’m currently on a Reading-bound EL service which started from P12 at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains),

[TaplowGreen]

A good start to the day.....

Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Reading and London Paddington all lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. Some stations between Reading and London Paddington will not be served. Disruption is expected until 09:00 25/07.

Customer Advice
Other services 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. London Buses are accepting train tickets via any reasonable route on N11 and N207

Additional Information
A data link issue is preventing the signallers from being able to operate the points (the moving pieces of track that enable trains to change lines) and the signals. Techs are on-site trying to rectify the fault.

[GBM]

Puzzled by part of their customer advice -
Customer Advice
Elizabeth line 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.

Surely the Elizabeth Line uses the same signals/points, etc as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), so how come they are apparently running, but not GWR?

[a-driver]

Puzzled by part of their customer advice -
Customer Advice
Elizabeth line 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.

Surely the Elizabeth Line uses the same signals/points, etc as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), so how come they are apparently running, but not GWR?

Elizabeth Line gets priority and/or points have been secured to enable Elizabeth Line trains to operate

[TaplowGreen]

Puzzled by part of their customer advice -
Customer Advice
Elizabeth line 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.

Surely the Elizabeth Line uses the same signals/points, etc as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), so how come they are apparently running, but not GWR?

Elizabeth Line gets priority and/or points have been secured to enable Elizabeth Line trains to operate

Just checked National Rail, everything (all Elizabeth Line) between  0815-1000 from Taplow is cancelled.....if that's priority I feel sorry for those at the back of the queue.

GWR now advising disruption till midday.

[a-driver]

Just checked National Rail, everything (all Elizabeth Line) between  0815-1000 from Taplow is cancelled.....if that's priority I feel sorry for those at the back of the queue.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) now advising disruption till midday.

That sounds more like a line blockage to allow for a fix to be implemented or testing of the signaling equipment to be carried out.

[TaplowGreen]

Disruption now expected "until the end of the day"

[ChrisB]

Dear......
 
We are writing to update you on the disruption to train services between Reading and London Paddington this morning, due to a fault with the signalling system. This impacted GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) South Wales services, as well as Heathrow Express and Elizabeth Line services.
 
Network Rail teams are on site investigating but we wanted you to be aware that it now seems likely that the disruption will continue for the rest of the day and into this evening.
 
An amended timetable is now in place for GWR, Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line services as follows:
 
Heathrow Express running every 30 minutes
GWR London Paddington to South Wales services running hourly
Elizabeth Line and GWR working together to run four local trains per hour - two to Heathrow and two to Reading
 
All other GWR services are scheduled to run but could be subject to last minute cancellations and delays.
 
We sincerely apologise for the disruption and we are encouraging everyone to to check before they travel – either on our website or through National Rail Enquiries.
 
Network Rail are working hard to rectify the fault and we will keep you updated.
 
Best Wishes
 
Heledd and Jane
 
Heledd Iolo
Public Affairs Manager
Network Rail, Wales & Western
 
Jane Jones
Head of Public Affairs

[TaplowGreen]

Just spoken to someone stuck at Slough Station who's been advised that everything towards Reading is cancelled for the next 90 mins.

[a-driver]

Just spoken to someone stuck at Slough Station who's been advised that everything towards Reading is cancelled for the next 90 mins.

Clipping and scotching points to give access to the CrossRail depot.

[TaplowGreen]

Disruption now forecast until 1000 on 26 July, well over 24 hours since it began.

It sometimes feels the system is so fragile that a feather could knock it over.

[TaplowGreen]

Disruption now forecast until 1200.

[a-driver]

Disruption now forecast until 1200.

1800 now.

It appears to be a proper head scratcher!  They are still suffering interference on both the datalinks. The system has two datalinks for system redundancy. If one goes down you can run still run on the one good datalink.

[TaplowGreen]

Disruption now forecast until 1200.

1800 now.

It appears to be a proper head scratcher!  They are still suffering interference on both the datalinks. The system has two datalinks for system redundancy. If one goes down you can run still run on the one good datalink.

I would suggest it's probably time for the head scratching to be replaced by arse kicking!

[Timmer]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have just posted on X (Twitter) that it's 6pm 'at the earliest' which doesn't fill one with much confidence that it will be resolved before the day is out.