North Cotswold line delays and cancellations - 2025

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

Hmm. That looks as though it could have been more unpleasant than it was.

Mark

[Witham Bobby]

08:51 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 11:14 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street, Malvern Link and Great Malvern.
It has been delayed between Reading and Oxford and is now 30 minutes late.
This is due to a broken down train.
Last Updated:04/03/2025 10:16

11:57 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 14:23 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.

It will no longer call at Great Malvern, Malvern Link and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a broken down train.
Last Updated:04/03/2025 10:18

[Witham Bobby]

10:59 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 13:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:05/03/2025 08:49

The corresponding down service, the 0715 from Paddington, was caped earlier in the morning, thanks to the signalling fault that disrupted the timetable in the Thames Valley

[Witham Bobby]

12:51 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 15:00 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system earlier today.
Last Updated:05/03/2025 12:12

15:18 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 17:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system earlier today.
Last Updated:05/03/2025 12:12

OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton), and the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) mainline services in general, not exactly covering itself in glory today.  Thanks to a pesky S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) fault that appears to have taken most of the morning to fix

[charles_uk]

1W27 1350 London Paddington to Great Malvern
This service was cancelled due to late arrival of an inbound service (YI)

16:32 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 19:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time

16:58 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 19:25 has been cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

19:04 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

19:45 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 22:24 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

[charles_uk]

16:58 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 19:25 has been cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

with the following 17:34 London Paddington to Hereford service running 16 minutes late and a five car short formation. Not surprisingly the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app is showing no unoccupied seats.

[Witham Bobby]

11:52 London Paddington to Hereford due 14:44 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Last Updated:07/03/2025 11:44

Posted 8 minutes before the planned departure from Paddington time

15:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 18:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Last Updated:07/03/2025 11:46

[ChrisB]

Train failed in the platform possibly?

[Worcester_Passenger]

Sunday March 9

13:11 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 15:35 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:09/03/2025 03:25

Later:

08:15 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 10:35 was started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
It has been delayed at Worcester Shrub Hill and is now 15 minutes late.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.
Last Updated:09/03/2025 08:40

08:58 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 11:35 will be started from Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.
Last Updated:09/03/2025 08:31

[Worcester_Passenger]

Tuesday March 11

Unadvertised on JourneyCheck, the 05:23 from Hereford to Paddington (arrive 08:23) is formed of a five-car set.

Later:

Facilities on the 05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:23.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 9. Service full and standing from Hanborough. There are no reservations on this service.
Last Updated:11/03/2025 07:24

[Witham Bobby]

Tuesday March 11

Unadvertised on JourneyCheck, the 05:23 from Hereford to Paddington (arrive 08:23) is formed of a five-car set.

Later:

Facilities on the 05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:23.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 9. Service full and standing from Hanborough. There are no reservations on this service.
Last Updated:11/03/2025 07:24

Was the 9-car set sacrificed on this service to make it available for the Cheltenham gee-gees extra traffic today?

Doesn't bode well for the rest of the week

Gone are the days of direct D1000 hauled 10-car trains of all first class trains between Paddington and Cheltenham Racecourse (In addition to originating from Cardiff and Wolverhampton)

[PrestburyRoad]

Was the 9-car set sacrificed on this service to make it available for the Cheltenham gee-gees extra traffic today?

Doesn't bode well for the rest of the week

Very likely.  For example, some of the Bristol-Worcesters today are 9-car IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) instead of 3-car 165s, and this looks to be the pattern for the other three days of the races.

[Witham Bobby]

11:57 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 14:23 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Worcestershire Parkway Hl, Pershore, Evesham, Honeybourne, Moreton-In-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury, Hanborough, Oxford, Didcot Parkway, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to a fault on this train.

Last Updated:11/03/2025 11:40

The "service" on the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) and chocolate fireguards have things in common

[UstiImmigrunt]

11:57 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 14:23 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Worcestershire Parkway Hl, Pershore, Evesham, Honeybourne, Moreton-In-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury, Hanborough, Oxford, Didcot Parkway, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to a fault on this train.

Last Updated:11/03/2025 11:40

The "service" on the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) and chocolate fireguards have things in common

And it's going to get worse from May when 30 or so drivers at BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) are forced to remove their route knowledge from Didcot to Malvern Wells via Evesham. Also BPW loosing Cheltenham to Worcester.

Other reductions are taking place as well.

[ChrisB]

So.....aren't the early trains that start at HFD^» (Hereford - next trains) driven by drivers from BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)? If not, how do they get from Hitachi to their starting point? At least one starts at Hitachi....

And 'who' is doing the forcing? GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)? DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)?