Maidenhead station - services, facilities, car parking and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[sanfrandragon]

I’m curious about how the announcer knows that it is full and standing in advance. Does the train manager call ahead or, as I suspect, the announcer is making it up as he goes?

Don't the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) have systems for monitoring the relative loading in carriages - be that weight or numbers through the doors.  A bit of automatic calculation on there will suggest an answer, as well as feeding the new information systems which are starting to show which carriages are best to join.

IETs do have that facility based on a counting system.  There’s also advanced plans to provide real-time data to staff (and passengers) based on mobile phone signals.  I believe this is the research scheme:

https://ts.catapult.org.uk/current-projects/railwatch/

https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=103968

I note that many people nowadays have 2 phones, presumably one for work and one for personal use.  Carriages are going to seem very overcrowded if occupancy is measured by phone signal!

[IndustryInsider]

I guess there will be some kind of allowance averaged out for the likely percentage of people with no phone and those with more than one device.

[sanfrandragon]

Maidenhead Shoppenhangers Rd station car park full by 06.55 again this morning with those missing out on a space facing a tortuous drive around the town centre to find alternative arrangements.  Any news if more convenient car parks will be opened up, or if Shoppenhangers Rd will go double-decker?  if Crossrail ever runs from Reading to central London (2022 maybe?) the situation will only get worse.

[NickB]

I fully concur - this morning was awful in shoppenhangers. Although, as an aside, whilst 20+ cars were battling over the final space at the end of the carpark there was a space right next to the exit that no one had seen!

I have it on good authority that Silco Drive will be reopening, and not too long (in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) terms) to wait. Once the platform works are completed there may be encouraging news.
Plans to double-deck (or triple deck, which is what is actually needed!) shoppenhangers have been abandoned as non cost effective. In some ways that goes without saying, that parking for an additional 200 cars would take a millennium to repay the millions it would cost to build the carpark, but Wokingham managed to overcome that hurdle...

In the meantime we’ll all have to set our alarm clocks earlier and earlier (I now get up 20mins earlier than I did 9 years ago, purely due to that infernal carpark).

[Sixty3Closure]

3 coaches this morning.

With my season ticket due for renewal next week I can see me becoming increasing incoherent and inarticulate if this continues.

[IndustryInsider]

1P10, 06:45 departure confirmed as a 9-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train), and 1P11 is a 10-car IET (after Oxford), and two unconfirmed 387 services have now been confirmed - list updated.

As and when unconfirmed train lengths become certain I will update the list.

Today: (total of 97 carriages)
1P01 - 06:32 dep/06:54 arr - 8 car 387
1P02 - 06:42 dep/07:06 arr - 5 car IET
1P03 - 07:01 dep/07:24 arr - 5 car IET
1P04 - 07:08 dep/07:29 arr - 9 car IET
1P05 - 07:10 dep/07:36 arr - 8 car 387
1P06 - 07:18 dep/07:38 arr - 8 car 387
1P08 - 07:33 dep/07:55 arr - 12 car 387
1P09 - 07:44 dep/08:16 arr - 6 car Turbo
1P11 - 08:02 dep/08:24 arr - 12 car 387
1P81 - 08:06 dep/08:30 arr - 8 car 387
1K07 - 08:11 dep/08:41 arr - 5 car IET
1P15 - 08:32 dep/08:54 arr - 8 car 387

December: (total of 119 carriages)
1P92 - 06:33 dep/06:52 arr - 12 car 387
1P10 - 06:45 dep/07:05 arr - 9 car IET
1P75 - 07:02 dep/07:22 arr - 12 car 387
1P11 - 07:07 dep/07:24 arr - 10 car IET
1P76 - 07:15 dep/07:40 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)
1P77 - 07:32 dep/07:52 arr - 12 car 387
1K05 - 07:35 dep/07:54 arr - 8 car 387
1P78 - 07:44 dep/08:19 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)
1P79 - 08:02 dep/08:22 arr - 12 car 387
1P80 - 08:14 dep/08:49 arr - 8 car 387
1P81 - 08:31 dep/08:53 arr - 12 car 387
1P82 - 08:44 dep/09:09 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)

[NickB]

12-cars it may have been but it was still full and standing throughout, late, and on the wrong platform.

Today is not a good start.

[Adelante_CCT]

This mornings issues are signal failure related rather than lack of stock, causing many problems in the Twyford/Maidenhead area.

[sanfrandragon]

12-cars it may have been but it was still full and standing throughout, late, and on the wrong platform.

Today is not a good start.

You beat me to it.  12 minutes late.

Not a great start

[Sixty3Closure]

12-cars it may have been but it was still full and standing throughout, late, and on the wrong platform.

Today is not a good start.

off sick today so didn't go into London but this is so disappointing to hear.

[IndustryInsider]

Was it crush loaded like the old 5-car train was, or just full with a few standees?  I see it left virtually on time and the following 10-car 07:07 was expected to be between 5 and 10 minutes late so perhaps more people made a dash for it than would have otherwise? 

The previous 06:45 left at 06:53 and was the newly extended 9-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train), so that’s 31 carriages worth leaving Maidenhead on fast trains within the space of about 25 minutes!

[NickB]

Looked pretty cosy from where I was stood.  If anything it looked as though there were more passengers onboard from previous stations, and then the avalanche of maidenhead passengers that have been waiting for a full-size, earlier, service than the previous 7.08 will gravitate towards this enhanced service.  Deleting the 7.10 service from the new timetable doesn’t help space people out either.

The return trip this evening is looking pretty ropey already. The reduction in frequency of services compounded by poor platforming decisions, cancellations and late calls for boarding reduce my overall rating for today to 2/10. Those points being scored for not having to travel via Marylebone.

[TaplowGreen]

I see the 0707 missed out Maidenhead today - apparently because it was running 8 minutes late?

[NickB]

Indeed it did. ‘A fault on this service’, that didn’t prevent it stopping at Oxford or Reading after that fault was declared.  Perhaps the fault discovered was an allergy to delay repay 😉

Needless to say that the 7.02 from maidenhead was full and standing throughout.

[IndustryInsider]

It was 12 minutes late from Oxford after being delayed on the Cotswold Line.  It has to stop there as it couples to another unit.  Expect more ‘brutal’ decisions like that though.  Nothing whatsoever to do with delay-repay, but simply because anything late holding up the mains at Maidenhead will knock on to other services for a long while after.

At least the 07:02 was 12-cars, departed from the right platform, and was early into Paddington.