Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2024

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Double skinned windows that are designed to shatter into small pieces and with an anti-vandalism laminate are pretty resilient thankfully.  Looks like that one behaved as designed under quite an impact.

[TaplowGreen]

Delays to services between Reading and London Paddington

Following a points failure between Reading and London Paddington all lines have now reopened.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed. Disruption is expected until 15:00 30/03.

[GBM]

Cancellations to services between Reading and Westbury
Due to a fault with the signalling system between Reading and Westbury the line towards Westbury is blocked.
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey today. Due to several signalling faults as a result of heavy rain flooding the railway earlier in the week between Reading and Westbury, the line towards Westbury is blocked. The flood water has now subsided, however there has been significant damage to the railway infrastructure so Network Rail need to close the line in order to make the railway safe and rectify the signalling faults. This disruption is expected to last until the end of the day.
-
We are currently unable to operate our local stopping trains between Newbury and Bedwyn. We are running replacement road transport in the form of taxis. These will depart from the front of stations at the designated taxi points. Our high speed mainline services from London Paddington towards Devon and Cornwall will be diverting after Reading in this direction only. Trains in the other direction will run on their normal route.

[TaplowGreen]

And now this........any idea what's happened? (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter not working again due to "staff sickness" for the second time this weekend so no help from that direction)

Alterations to services at London Paddington

Due to urgent repairs to the railway at London Paddington fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from this station have been revised. Disruption is expected until 12:00 31/03.

Customer Advice
We have been advised at short notice that Network Rail need to take possession of the railway in the London Paddington area from Saturday night until midday on Easter Sunday, 31st March 2024, in order to undertake crucial maintenance work to the track. As a result, most of the lines into and out of London Paddington will be closed, meaning significantly fewer trains will be able to run. To accomodate this work, a revised, emergency timetable is in operation.

***
Online journey planners have been updated to reflect the services that we are able to operate, but it is possible that there may be short notice changes and cancellations to the services that we are able to run on the day. Please check your journey before travelling.
***
With significantly fewer trains running, services are extremely busy. Passengers are strongly advised to avoid attempting to travel to/from London Paddington until after midday. Ticketing restrictions that would normally apply to advanced ticket holders have been lifted to allow you to travel later in the day.

[IndustryInsider]

A possession to undertake maintenance work on a series of points in the Paddington throat area.  Possession covers line 1-4 and Platforms 1-9 inclusive at Paddington.  Access to North Pole depot is also affected.

[bobm]

I think the work was first announced by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday afternoon.

[Mark A]

Bus and Train User has a blog post that consolidates a number of issues with travel (he even caught a bus departures board mixing the... bus departures with a wildly out of date travel advice segment and then a third segment displaying... some random item from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) local news). Not helpful for anyone flying off a train at Northampton and needing to check the buses.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) doesn't escape scott-free either: at a time of large scale disruption to the network it was presumably the twitter feeds scheduled marketing let one loose on the subject of an easter-bunny-dropped easter egg hunt on their trains, complete with an alarming image, the exercise 100% guaranteed to annoy the majority of travellers, and may have resulted in the twitter feed's human staff signing off sick in despair..

Blog, complete with easter bunny on train tweet, here:

https://busandtrainuser.com/2024/03/31/seen-around-20/#more-57648

More on the origin of that bunny thing and its strange egg-laying powers from Wikipedia here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny

Mark

[TaplowGreen]

Delays to services between Newbury and Reading

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Newbury and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed.
Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 10 minutes. Disruption is expected until 18:30 01/04.

[Marlburian]

Points failure at Pangbourne today. A friend was visiting me in Tilehurst and aimed to return on the 1406 to Paddington. She checked for travel updates and found it was running six minutes later. Various other up and down amendments to the local service. I see that the 1433 was cancelled and the 1359 to Didcot Parkway was "not stopping".

Since Lockdown she's nearly always used the car to get to me from South London, but today cycled to Paddington. We debated that, with the former stopping service now being semi-fast, whether it was worth her changing at Reading. "Might save you a handful of minutes," I opined.

BTW^▸ (by the way) she's fascinated by the ravens (?) and their nests on the trees between Platform 4 and the Thames. Today they were in fine voice.

[eightonedee]

she's fascinated by the ravens (?) and their nests on the trees between Platform 4 and the Thames. Today they were in fine voice.

They are Rooks, Marlburian. One used the extensive metal structure forming part of the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) equipment at Goring as a nest site over the main lines as a nest site last year!

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a safety inspection of the track between London Paddington and Acton Main Line some lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled or delayed.

One of the four lines between London Paddington and Reading has been closed until it can be inspected by Network Rail. Until this is done fewer trains can run through the area, however, most of our long-distance services will still run, but may be delayed by congestion in the area. Our local stopping services that run between Didcot Parkway and London Paddington will terminate at Reading and the London Paddington to Didcot Parkway stopping services will start at Reading.

[Mark A]

This has caused grimness for people attempting to leave London Heathrow by train. An affllicted correspondent has resorted to the Piccadilly line for the second time in a week, having needed to do the same on the way out.

Mark

[Mark A]

Passengers in some numbers instructed to take trains at the station for terminal 4 to the next stop at terminals 2/3. Didn't go well, as no visible staff presence there and very full platforms - people with luggage waiting - meant that it wasn't easy to move from the platform to the concourse. Also, the signage between the national rail platforms and the Piccadilly line was absent.

For this station, the maps on the National Rail website don't exactly shine.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/heathrow-terminals-2-3-rail-station-only/

Mark

[TonyK]

she's fascinated by the ravens (?) and their nests on the trees between Platform 4 and the Thames. Today they were in fine voice.

They are Rooks, Marlburian. One used the extensive metal structure forming part of the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) equipment at Goring as a nest site over the main lines as a nest site last year!

I thought that one would be a crow in that case. If you see a rook on its own, it's a crow, whereas if you see a lot of crows, they're rooks.

[a-driver]

According to this X post from someone stuck at Dorking West the 17:29 GTW-RDG^‡(resolve) has struck a tree:

https://twitter.com/Flipthecoin3/status/1773434707281055793

Here's a picture of some of the damage, miraculously no serious injuries.

https://twitter.com/CliveFlint/status/1773410207843905655?t=_GY368bM_KqTEwJNXHSU4w&s=19

I don’t know if it’s the same incident.
https://x.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1775279348834250851?s=20