8.34 Maidenhead to Paddington

[whole diary]

[johoare]

This train for the last week or so seems to consistently arrive at Paddington between 5 and 10 minutes late..

It's non stop to Paddingon but swaps over to the mainline at Slough which always delays it a bit..particularly if the stopping service ahead of it is running late as it was this morning so we had to crawl along behind that.. It's a pity it doesn't swap as it pulls out of Maidenhead as the 09.03 does...

Then it quite often slows right down for airport junction and also as we're passing old oak common as well.. sometimes it slows down at other places too for some reason..

I'm assuming it's because of congestion.. I do hope it's not going to be late every day though as it's then a rush to get to my desk by 9.30..

Last week because I had a 9.30 meeting and as it was ten minutes late on that day I ended up having to pay out for a taxi to get me to my meeting on time...

[Ollie]

Well 3 mins of the 7mins delay appears to have been attributed to a cow on the line at Lavington - so basically you were following a late running service. I don't have an answer for the other 4mins

[eightf48544]

Following a stopper on the Up Relief to Dolphin is going to delay you.

But I suspect the main problem is Airport Junction. Slough IECC^▸ (Integrated Electronic Control Centre) holds it's first signal on the Up Main at Red until the ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting) calls for a trian on the Up Main. Due to the slow response of the system this usually means the driver gets a double yellow the signal before West Drayton and a single yellow at the end of West Drayton platform which means he has to crawl until he can see the offending signal. It's worse on an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) because they are locked down by ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) and even if the driver sees a clear signal he can't accelerate until the ATP releases.

I've often been passed on the Up Relief between Slough and Langley by an HST on the main only to pass it between Iver and Hayes. Often when it passes you can tell it's braking.

[inspector_blakey]

ARS^▸ (Automatic Route Setting)...

...is not what you might think It stands for Automatic Route Setting, and put in slightly simplistic terms is a semi-automatic signalling system that will route trains as the computer thinks best to keep everything on schedule. Signallers can of course intervene if they disagree with it, or when the job has gone down the pan for some reason that means everything's running out of course.

[johoare]

Thanks for the information (and for making me laugh out loud in the office Inspector_Blakey 

I'm hoping it improves.. I have a 9.30 meeting Thursday too.. So I bet it's late that day... I can't keep affording taxis though and can't really get an earlier train in term time due to school drop off..

[JayMac]

Well.... a cow and a dolphin mentioned in the same thread made me titter. That has to be a first for the forum!

[johoare]

11 minutes late today 

The 8.26 stopper departed Maidenhead 4 minutes late so we crawled behind that all the way to Slough.. We finally swapped to the fast line and went through Slough at 08.45 (they are lucky enough to have clocks there  ).. Crawled from West Drayton to Hayes and then slowed down again to go past Old oak common...

I'm beginning to suspect this happens every day (well it has for the last 6 anyway)..

Having rushed to get to the station (via 3 schools), missed out on a coffee as there usually isn't time, as the train usually leaves Maidenhead on time, I would quite like it if it stuck to it's timetabled arrival time just occasionally..

[eightf48544]

You took 11 minutes from Maidenhead to Slough the stopper is booked 12! Non stops on the Up Relief are booked 7.

So that's at least 4 of your 11 late.

[johoare]

Well yes.. The 8.26 departure is scheduled to get to Slough at 8.38 but obviously that would rely on it departing Maidenhead on time.. 

[johoare]

Only 6 minutes late today.. all was going ok until about Southall where we decided to slow down to a crawl..

[johoare]

8 minutes late today 
I only caught this train two days last week and it was ok then.. Back to business as usual this week though..

[johoare]

7 minutes late today

[johoare]

This morning we crawled all the way from Maidenhead to approx Southall on the main line.. Does anyone know what happened as we won't have been the only delayed train.. The relief line was the fast line today 

[Chris from Nailsea]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates:

17:15 London Paddington to Maidenhead due 18:05
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 3.
Last Updated: 21/10/2010 17:12

 

[johoare]

This morning we crawled all the way from Maidenhead to approx Southall on the main line.. Does anyone know what happened as we won't have been the only delayed train.. The relief line was the fast line today 

Well that delay appears to be a total mystery then.. We were 20 minutes late.. HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) behind us must have been even more delayed.. Strange.. Or is this become the norm so much that 20 minutes delay is nothing these days?