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

[whole diary]

[NickB]

An update from my helpful source at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Works at Silco Drive are delayed due to Network Rail needing to retender.  There is no eta for the release of the car park.

👎

[johoare]

That's not ideal in the slightest.. The car park itself looks to be pretty much empty and unused each day from what I can see from the other side of the railway line which is a big waste or valuable parking space

[NickB]

Indeed.  FYI^▸ (for your information) shoppenhangars road car park is 50% closed for Network Rail activity over the next few days.

[sanfrandragon]

I see the top half of Shoppenhangers car park has been tarmaced - which presumably means no expansion (upwards?) of the car park.  Lets hope Crossrail doesn't grow the number of passengers....

I wonder by how much APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) feel they can increase the daily rate for a non-pothole rubble-covered surface.

[NickB]

I hadn’t seen this elsewhere so I hope I’m not duplicating the story. Credit to Maidenhead Advertiser of course.  The lift to the platform is a good 3-4m from the platform edge so this will be an interesting story to watch unfold.

https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/maidenhead/129978/rail-inspectors-investigating-after-empty-pram-is-dragged-into-train-path.html

[CJB666]

The pram sand child was reportedly sucked into the path of a passing freight train.

Re: passing freight trains. This could also be an issue at Hayes & Harlington on platform 3 where the stairs come down from the upper foyer. The platform there is very narrow and uneven right along past the waiting room to the 'new' bridge. This is due to works by Crossrail and Network Rail on platform 2 impinging upon the access to platform 3. Seems like its par for the course. I have informed the Health & Safety Executive.

[grahame]

The pram sand child was reportedly sucked into the path of a passing freight train.

To be clear ... that's pram sans (without) child not pram and (with) child, thank goodness.

Rail inspectors are investigating after a young mother’s pram was sucked into the path of a passing train at Maidenhead Station.

The mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, was exiting a lift with her two-year-old son as a freight train went past.

The pram was destroyed in the incident and the mother said she was ‘shocked’ but felt lucky her son was not in it at the time.

[CJB666]

The pram sand child was reportedly sucked into the path of a passing freight train.

To be clear ... that's pram sans (without) child not pram and (with) child, thank goodness.

Rail inspectors are investigating after a young mother’s pram was sucked into the path of a passing train at Maidenhead Station.

The mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, was exiting a lift with her two-year-old son as a freight train went past.

The pram was destroyed in the incident and the mother said she was ‘shocked’ but felt lucky her son was not in it at the time.

'sans' it is!!

[johoare]

I travelled from Wycombe to Birmingham last weekend (and back) and couldn't help notice that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could take some advice from Chiltern about providing adequate car parking at their stations..
 
Take High Wycombe for example.. Their car park is about the same size in my opinion as Shoppenhangers at Maidenhead.. But then they've put a big multi storey on part of it so that when I got there about 1pm Friday I had a couple of floors of spaces to chose from. I saw many other similar car parks at Chiltern operated stations from the train..

[ellendune]

I travelled from Wycombe to Birmingham last weekend (and back) and couldn't help notice that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could take some advice from Chiltern about providing adequate car parking at their stations..
 
Take High Wycombe for example.. Their car park is about the same size in my opinion as Shoppenhangers at Maidenhead.. But then they've put a big multi storey on part of it so that when I got there about 1pm Friday I had a couple of floors of spaces to chose from. I saw many other similar car parks at Chiltern operated stations from the train..

You mean like the one at Bristol Parkway and the one being built at Didcot Parkway?

[lordgoata]

Hi all,

Does anyone know why 1D93 (1810 at Maidenhead), has suddenly switched from Platform 3, to Platform 4? It happened about 2 weeks ago I think - confused the hell out of me when I came back from a week off 

It seems that there are services to Reading almost every 5 minutes now, so the times are quite tight (is the 1813 a new one?), which is why I assume it has moved, but it switches back and forth depending on what other services are delayed, and happens right at the last minute, leading to everyone running up and down the stairs. Last night they made the announcement but the boards still showed it on platform 4 for a good few minutes, leading to those that arrived after the announcement being on the wrong platform.

Along those lines, does anyone know why the OpenTrainTimes maps still show it coming in on platform 3, even when its on platform 4? I usually use that to preempt a platform change (it comes in on the mainline and then routes into 3 or 4) - but the last couple of days its shown it coming into 3 both times, when it actually came into 4 on Wednesday.

[Adelante_CCT]

I can only assume it is to help passengers get to the 18:13 Bourne End service quicker. Perhaps this keeps being delayed when there is a minor delay to 1D93. Problem is though, if 1D93 is a little behind schedule then that delays the 18:15 to Paddington which is waiting to arrive from the middle siding.

I've had a look back through and see no reason as to why it suddenly jumps to platform 3 every now and again. It is scheduled to use Platform 4 until the end of the month though.

(The 18:13 to Reading has been in operation since at least May)

[sanfrandragon]

What is going on with this service?  Usually 6 cars, but only 3 today, the number of cars has been up and down all summer, varying between 6, 4 and 3 as i recall with no apparent pattern.  The initial explanation was 'due to engineering works at Didcot'  I can kind of understand how engineering works might prevent a full service, but why the daily variation?

Is it really due to staff shortages/stock unexpectedly out of service/lack of maintenance that I have read about elsewhere for other trains?  The cynic in me also assumes that because the service is running to time it gets a tick in the box even though capacity has been cut by half?

It's going to be carnage putting 6 cars worth of passengers into 3 when everyone returns from their summer hols.  Indeed, the other day, it was noticeably dangerous and the driver had to sound his horn as passengers moved along the platform on the wrong side of the yellow line as they realised the train was short-formed just as it was approaching.

[CJB666]

At least he sounded a warning horn. Such over-crowding is a recipe for someone trying to board at doors where pax are jammed, the doors then closing, and the train moving off dragging the poor s%d along the platform. But this would never happen on our modern and professionally operated railways would it? Hmm - thinks back to Hounslow, Hayes & Harlington, and other stations.

[Sixty3Closure]

I catch the same train at Twyford so agree with you that 3 cars is nowhere near enough. I'm guessing the variance in size is due to 3 cars being needed elsewhere while the new trains  bed in/drivers are trained etc.

As GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have redeployed a lot of their DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) there's probably a very small pool of DMU rolling stock to call on now.