Snow/Wintry conditions

[whole diary]

[TheLastMinute]

Major disruption this morning due to the snow that fell last night/is still falling right across southern England...

Saturday 18th December 10:15

Saturday 18th December 10:15

Poor weather conditions are being experienced throughout our region.
Many services will be subject to delay, alteration and cancellation. Reduced services operating Truro-Falmouth; Bristol Temple Meads - Weston Super Mare; and Worcester - Oxford.

Services between Swansea and Bristol Parkway have been severely disrupted for the past few hours, but  are beginning to return to normal.

South West Trains and CrossCountry trains are accepting First Great Western tickets on all reasonable routes.

Road Replacement Transport is not in operation in all areas due to dangerous road conditions.

Visit our Journeycheck website for further details on how this may affect your journey.

[johoare]

I was going to get the train down to Reading this afternoon.. but looking at maidenhead departures boards i think i'd probably get there but not so sure about getting back.. They do still seem to be managing to run a service at the moment tho.. just lots of delays..

[willc]

Full marks to the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and Network Rail staff keeping something moving on the Cotswold Line. We now have getting on for a foot of snow in Moreton-in-Marsh, of which 9in or so have fallen since 9am. Still coming down at a great rate and already more than we got in January.

[Electric train]

The Marlow donkey is running to time 

[anthony215]

Looks like all of the Weston Super Mare - Bristol Parkway services are going to be canceled all day and the Cardiff - Taunton service providing the  local stopping services. This should be ok if there are not many people braving the weather.

Not heard anything about the severn beach line so i am guesing that is running ok.

Heard  that some Swansea - London services suffered major problems this morning, although when i checked at 03:30 this morning there was nothing listed on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s website so i couldnt check if the 03:30 Swansea- London Paddington train was running.

Trains in south wales seem to be coping with the weather better than last year with only the Cardiff - Ebbw Vale trains not operating.

[willc]

They seem to have finally abandoned the struggle on the Cotswold Line. Although the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) home page says a reduced service is running live departures is now showing all services cancelled. National Rail says trains currently unable and the 18.22 is going to Worcester via Cheltenham.

Hardly surprising, as it's still snowing here, although easing off the past hour or so, 14 or 15 inches deep, more where it's blowing about, sounds much the same across the rest of the Cotswolds and down into Cheltenham. Forecast says we could go down to -10C tonight. Very deep, crisp and even.

Seem to be some website issues, a note saying Oxford-Worcester services suspended has now appeared on the FGW home page but is timed 16.00.

[Ollie]

Jo you would have been alright with the locals, I didn't have any issues when I went to do some shopping in Reading. Only coming back was there a delay, but nothing severe.

[Bob_Blakey]

My youngest son has just arrived home from Lancaster University having travelled LAN-BHM with Virgin, BHM-EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) with CC and EXD-DIG with FGW^▸ (First Great Western).
Under the circumstances arrival at Digby at 1945 instead of the intended 1903 should probably be regarded as pretty good.
When asked VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchise (or, possibly, in a France context, Versement Transport - a payroll tax on employers to fund local transport) ) staff at Lancaster arranged for Advance ticket validity to be ignored so that he could still make the Birmingham connection despite the services from Edinburgh/Glasgow being seriously delayed.

[johoare]

Jo you would have been alright with the locals, I didn't have any issues when I went to do some shopping in Reading. Only coming back was there a delay, but nothing severe.

Thanks Ollie.. In the end I walked into Maidenhead and shopped there.. I wasn't 100% sure it would be ok on the train so decided to be safe and stay local.. Mind you walking back with heavy bags wasn't the best idea as it's a 30 minute walk (altho that would have been the same distance walking back from the station had I gone to Reading).. I'm very tired now but all Christmas shopping done.. yay 

[Ollie]

I'm very tired now but all Christmas shopping done.. yay 

Aww okay, what did you get me?

[IndustryInsider]

They seem to have finally abandoned the struggle on the Cotswold Line.

The last service to run was the 11:21 Paddington to Great Malvern which terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill over 2 hours late around 4pm.  Keeping the points at Evesham clear being the biggest headache.  I believe there are two Turbos and one HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) that have been abandoned in the sidings at Worcester.

Other than that, given the amount of snow that's fallen (Moreton one of the worst areas, but Oxford/Bicester/Banbury - basically anything FGW^▸ (First Great Western) wise North or East of Swindon also getting an absolute carpeting), I think that the service held up very well indeed.  Practically all routes maintained some sort of service in conditions that were worse than January.  It will take a long while to get everything back in full working order though - I dread to think what state those trains stabled at Worcester will be in come tomorrow, so expect disruption to continue well into next week.

[johoare]

I'm very tired now but all Christmas shopping done.. yay 

Aww okay, what did you get me?

It's a surprise 

[SDS]

Some trains were coming in with a sheet of ice on the front and the connections between carriages frozen solid.
Several trains with cracked outer skins on windows. One had a cracked inner skin as well, which resulted in having a TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) slapped on it and the coach being completely locked OOU^▸ (Out Of Use).

Other sets had the normal toilet pipes frozen solid.
I dread to think what tomorrow and next week is going to bring.

[dog box]

 never mind ...just fast forward 10yrs when we have new electric hybrid trains or whatever and nothing is running at all

[Timmer]

never mind ...just fast forward 10yrs when we have new electric hybrid trains or whatever and nothing is running at all

Yep the trusty HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) has gone through many a harsh winter since it came onto the Western Region in the 1970s.