Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[insider]

 

Just asked a friend to confirm and have ended up with a bonus!!!!!!

This webiste gives you a complete guide to all new routes, signals and layout. It is the driver brief for the remodel.

(Link removed - Chris from Nailsea)

Password: (Password removed - Chris from Nailsea)


ENJOY!!!!!


Edit note: At the request of gioconda.co.uk, I have removed this link and password, as they are intended to be 'industry confidential' and should not be used as posted here.  Chris from Nailsea. 

[paul7575]

I had a trip up to Twyford today, from Eastleigh, and unfortunately I have to say that the Basingstoke and Bedwyn/Westbury services had all but collapsed by mid afternoon.  There seemed to be major problems, caused by displacement of traincrew, resulting in it being pretty much impossible to run trains in and out of P2.   The pilotman isn't much use without a driver, and a train in P2 with no driver stops the other route's inbound service at Reading West.

I ended up walking to Reading West - a brisk 15 mins - in order to pick up the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) at 1548, having been on the platform in bags of time for the 1405 originally, and then the 1505, both of which were cancelled.

Paul

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

S&TE, are there separate Track Circuits for the A and B ends on P10-15?  I was going to look when I'm there on Tuesday, but you probably know.

Correct.  The Track Circuit split (They are not axle counters in the Relief platforms) should be just under the London Side of the new access bridge (are we allowed to call it a footbridge?).  This only applies to the Relief lines.  The Main lines will not have the split.

So the Track Circuit splits are between the "Rear Clear" boards (where else would they be?), which certainly mitigates to some degree the inherent risks of platform sharing (dare I mention Group Standrad GKRT0044 again?).  At least the signallers at Didcot will know when and where trains arriving in P10-15 have stopped - they may well get some surprises as they don't always know how long some trains actually are (whatever the train plan says).  I believe it is not uncommon for signallers to contact Drivers to ask how many coaches they are. 

My understanding is that all Plats through the station are axle counters. You can actually see the little yellow boxes where the wires from the axle counter heads go to in the middle of the platform. It is also what has been briefed to all drivers (so a driver tells me).

Yes, I was at Reading watching the chaos waiting for the 1632 to Pangbourne (30 late).  There are definitely no track circuit insulated joints between the A and B Rear Clear boards on P12-15.  There are yellow AWS^▸ (Automatic Warning System) magnets (or whatever they are called nowadays) and axle counters, though a different design to what I've seen before.

Incidentally, 1632 was shown onn the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) as P12, but in fact drew right down to the the 5 car stop board which is quite close to the starter signal on 12B.  So why not show it (and similar trains) as 12B and not just 12?

Does strike me that with only 2 lines open the train service they are trying to run is a bit ambitious.
 

[TaplowGreen]

It's all very well eulogising about how pretty it looks but if it don't work, it's ugly.Today has been an unmitigated disaster for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) - having just been incredibly lucky to catch a stopper back from Reading I have witnessed people literally weeping on the platforms having been waiting ridiculous lengths of time in the freezing cold for a train - and I speak as a commuter in both directions of 14 years vintage.....the platform staff were quite clear - things were never going to be ready today and it was simply daft to try to run such a comprehensive service.....far better to have run a much more drastically reduced service for a few days and manage expectations rather than today's farce.

Poor old Isambard will be turning in his grave,but I very much doubt anyone from FGW will have the cojones to carry the can....usual cut and paste apologies I expect.

Overruns of an hour or two are one thing but this simply a case of poor planning and execution.

[paul7575]

Incidentally, 1632 was shown onn the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) as P12, but in fact drew right down to the the 5 car stop board which is quite close to the starter signal on 12B.  So why not show it (and similar trains) as 12B and not just 12?

Fairly predictable bad design of the PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System) as far as I can tell.  The 'listing' type of displays really need to show A or B for a short train, and the 'single platform' displays on the transfer deck at the top of the stairs and escalators also need to be showing different info depending on which end the train is on.

What they were doing today, eg displaying the 1340 XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to Newcastle on both 14A and 14B will catch people out once it becomes more common to have trains in both ends at once.

Does strike me that with only 2 lines open the train service they are trying to run is a bit ambitious.
 

One of the managers pointed out to a couple of us interested bystanders that they weren't really being helped by more random train failures than usual.  The webcam 1 tab 2 shows a prime example, the same HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sat down in P15 for over 75 mins around lunchtime...

Paul

[grahame]

Seeing 33 cancellations showing up at the moment, I'm glad I'm sitting on a platform waiting to head to Manchester at the moment.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

If there is only a single track circuit for each platform, how does the signaller know where an incoming train has actually stopped (as opposed to where he thinks it should stop)? I don't think an axle counter between A and B will help him with this.  So when the first train has arrived eg a terminator from Padd how can he be certain it's stopped behind the Rear Stop board on A before he signals eg a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) into B?

Another twist I saw this evening.  A terminator from Padd arrived in 14A. It was all set to go back to Padd eg tail lights on (I think it was the 1648) but then it got cancelled. The red lights turned to white and the train headed off west past the Rear Stop board on A and up to the starter on 14B which was red and remained red for a few minutes until the road was clear.

My question is... how does the signaller give permission for the driver to pass the Rear Stop board on A, especially when the starter on B is red? And if the answer is by radio then that is not the way to run a safe railway.

[swrural]

I can't answer any of that as I am not technical.  What I have noticed today is that trains are doing well on timekeeping until within a few miles of Reading - either side.  So whatever the problems were with staff, etc, the remaining services would have been OK it seems, were it not for some reason having to crawl into Reading from either side.

Just an eyeball view of the Realtime Trains site.   This is the link if this is a new site to you.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced?location=Reading&date=02%2F04%2F2013&tocs=All&timespan=3&show_schedules=11&schedule_type=0&show_wtt=1&show_var=1

[bobm]

It seems plans are afoot to thin the service out through Reading a bit further for the rest of the week. It mainly affects Oxford services and some through trains to/from Cheltenham. Journey planners will be updated overnight. Hopefully there will also be something on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

[IndustryInsider]

It's all very well eulogising about how pretty it looks but if it don't work, it's ugly.Today has been an unmitigated disaster for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) - having just been incredibly lucky to catch a stopper back from Reading I have witnessed people literally weeping on the platforms having been waiting ridiculous lengths of time in the freezing cold for a train - and I speak as a commuter in both directions of 14 years vintage.....the platform staff were quite clear - things were never going to be ready today and it was simply daft to try to run such a comprehensive service.....far better to have run a much more drastically reduced service for a few days and manage expectations rather than today's farce.

I think, from my observations, there was a bit of bad luck (the train that failed near Goring first thing), another bit of bad luck in that a key signal was causing problems first thing, a bit of bad planning (in hindsight) in that too many services were in the plan (I think it would have been better to run most of the RDG^‡(resolve)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) stoppers only between MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station) or SLO-PAD) and key to many of the delays was expecting too much of the turnback facility at Tilehurst which seemed to be adding unduly to the delays.  And a bit of bad company structure in that (as usual) as soon as the service starts to disintegrate there aren't enough resourcing staff to adequately deal with sorting out a plan in advance - those that are there are constantly trying to maintain some kind of service at the time, rather than having the freedom to step back and work out an adequate plan for services several hours in advance.

I await with interest what happens tomorrow, as things are very much in the balance with capacity and it will only take one problem to risk sending the service into a downward spiral again like today.  It's incredibly difficult to manage upgrades to an aged railway system like this without the odd 'unmitigated disaster' though as, even with the best planning in the world, there are an awful lot of things that can go wrong on the day that can't be planned for - for example any kind of train failure or signal failure at any point between Tilehurst and Twyford will cause huge disruption as there is no way of routing other trains around them.  How can you plan in advance for that given the need to shut 2 of the 4 lines and the need of commuters to have some kind of service after the Easter break?

[Chris from Nailsea]

This webiste gives you a complete guide to all new routes, signals and layout. It is the driver brief for the remodel.

(Link removed - Chris from Nailsea)

Password: (Password removed - Chris from Nailsea)


Edit note: At the request of gioconda.co.uk, I have removed this link and password, as they are intended to be 'industry confidential' and should not be used as posted here.  Chris from Nailsea. 

Please note my edit above, and do not mis-use that website. That is an official request from gioconda.co.uk. Thanks, Chris.

[ellendune]

I notice that Gilpins have left their plant on the end of P 8/9 to continue their demolition work later in the week I presume.  It was said in an earlier post that the Engineering trains were using the P7/8 tracks and the through road.  I notice that work to the east of the station over the last couple of days has been concentrating on the up main line and the approach to P 10/11. I presume when they shift over to the down main line they will use P10 for engineering trains and then Gilpins can finish their work. They may also need to do it at night as it will be quite near to the pedestrian route to P 4/5/6.

Is they layout to the East of the Station to be the final layout? Or will that be altered when the flyover is connected as well?

[Electric train]

It's all very well eulogising about how pretty it looks but if it don't work, it's ugly.Today has been an unmitigated disaster for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) - having just been incredibly lucky to catch a stopper back from Reading I have witnessed people literally weeping on the platforms having been waiting ridiculous lengths of time in the freezing cold for a train - and I speak as a commuter in both directions of 14 years vintage.....the platform staff were quite clear - things were never going to be ready today and it was simply daft to try to run such a comprehensive service.....far better to have run a much more drastically reduced service for a few days and manage expectations rather than today's farce.

I think, from my observations, there was a bit of bad luck (the train that failed near Goring first thing), another bit of bad luck in that a key signal was causing problems first thing, a bit of bad planning (in hindsight) in that too many services were in the plan (I think it would have been better to run most of the RDG^‡(resolve)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) stoppers only between MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station) or SLO-PAD) and key to many of the delays was expecting too much of the turnback facility at Tilehurst which seemed to be adding unduly to the delays.  And a bit of bad company structure in that (as usual) as soon as the service starts to disintegrate there aren't enough resourcing staff to adequately deal with sorting out a plan in advance - those that are there are constantly trying to maintain some kind of service at the time, rather than having the freedom to step back and work out an adequate plan for services several hours in advance.

I await with interest what happens tomorrow, as things are very much in the balance with capacity and it will only take one problem to risk sending the service into a downward spiral again like today.  It's incredibly difficult to manage upgrades to an aged railway system like this without the odd 'unmitigated disaster' though as, even with the best planning in the world, there are an awful lot of things that can go wrong on the day that can't be planned for - for example any kind of train failure or signal failure at any point between Tilehurst and Twyford will cause huge disruption as there is no way of routing other trains around them.  How can you plan in advance for that given the need to shut 2 of the 4 lines and the need of commuters to have some kind of service after the Easter break?

Absolutely, over this Easter major open heart surgery was carried out on one busiest and most complex piece railway out side London.  The project team would have been involved in detailed planning over many months with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) Ops and all the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and FOCs^▸ (Freight Operating Company); all these "stake holders" would have had an input and have been very confident in the plan being deliverable, they would have spent a lot time and effort running risk analysis to manage them out in the planning, what can never be taken into account is anything more complex than N-1 which I believe was the case today, singly they would have been planned for -
Engineering over run
Failed train
Points failure (at Didcot)

What was sadly lacking was communication at platform level this morning this continued through to this afternoon which by this time the managers should have had a grip on things.

[inspector_blakey]

If there is only a single track circuit for each platform, how does the signaller know where an incoming train has actually stopped (as opposed to where he thinks it should stop)? I don't think an axle counter between A and B will help him with this.  So when the first train has arrived eg a terminator from Padd how can he be certain it's stopped behind the Rear Stop board on A before he signals eg a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) into B?

<snip>

My question is... how does the signaller give permission for the driver to pass the Rear Stop board on A, especially when the starter on B is red? And if the answer is by radio then that is not the way to run a safe railway.

There's a disclaimer here in that I'm not at all familiar with the new signalling arrangements at Reading, although I have a few colleagues who will know them inside out.

However, in terms of permissive working in platforms (that is, allowing one train into a long platform that's already occupied either to get two different services in there or to couple one to the other) there doesn't necessarily need to be divided track circuits or axle counters. The driver of an incoming service would see a red main aspect, with two white lights at 45 degrees as a subsidiary indication: the white lights give the driver permission to proceed past the red aspect as far as the line is clear, being prepared to stop short of any obstruction. Their diagram will tell them whether they are to couple up to the unit that's already occupying the platform or not. This method of working is used routinely up and down the country and is perfectly safe. All the signaller will see on their panel or screen is an occupied platform track circuit, not the specific location at which the first train has stopped.

As I said, I don't know any of the specific arrangements with the new Reading signalling, but I'd be surprised if they relied on radio communications between signaller and driver because of the extra workload this would have the potential to be create. Happy to be corrected by anyone who knows more than me though.

There is incidentally, an unusual variation on this method of working at Bristol Temple Meads where each long platform face has two numbers and it's important the train stops in the right place. Firstly, at the last signal before the station, the driver will see a route indicator with the platform number at which they should stop. Secondly, the platforms are separated by the black-on-white "St Andrew's cross" signs: I *think* that when these are unlit they count as a signal at danger, and when lit can be passed (may have that the wrong way round) allowing access to the far end of the platform face. Again though, I'm not fantastically well acquainted with these arrangements so remain open to correction.

[Timmer]

It seems plans are afoot to thin the service out through Reading a bit further for the rest of the week. It mainly affects Oxford services and some through trains to/from Cheltenham. Journey planners will be updated overnight. Hopefully there will also be something on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

Indeed FGW have put the following up on their website:

Tuesday 2 April 2013 - Update: 19:40

First Great Western would like to apologise for the delays to some services in the Thames Valley which were compounded by the very limited capacity at Reading Station.

Having re-evaluated our plans for the remainder of the week with Network Rail and other Train Operating Companies, a revised timetable will be in operation. Please check JourneyCheck for the latest updates and revised timetable for your journey before travelling.

Our normal timetable will resume once Network Rail has completed their work on 8 April.

Please follow us on Twitter @FGW for real time updates and your questions answered.

Sad for everyone really that things just haven't worked out as planned and that services will need to be further thinned out to try and run a better service for the rest of the week.