Is the infrastructure under strain?

[whole diary]

[bobm]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website

Line problem between Slough and London Paddington.
Train services are being disrupted due to a problem with line-side equipment between Slough and London Paddington.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 20 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 09/06/2011 12:41

Line problem in the Reading area.
Train services have been disrupted due to earlier signalling problems in the Reading area.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 30 minutes may still occur.
Last Updated: 09/06/2011 11:47

Leaving aside the cable theft last week which is something else but aren't these sorts of problems becoming more common on this stretch.

In the case of Reading was there much upgrading to the signalling when it moved to the new centre at Didcot. I thought it was more a case of just changing where the wires ran to (in over simple terms).

[Boppy]

Not a single train was able to enter/leave Reading station between 8.25am and 8.55am approx this morning.

A painful wait whilst the signalling problem got resolved.

It was quite entertaining to see all the signal lights suddenly switch from Red to Amber/Green when the system did come back online though (as it were) when things got sorted!

Boppy.

[eightf48544]

i hope all the signals didn't change to amber/green that would have been interesting!

[TerminalJunkie]

It was quite entertaining to see all the signal lights suddenly switch from Red to Amber/Green

These amber lights would presumably be from traffic lights on an adjoining road, since railway signals are yellow.

[inspector_blakey]

These may have been posted elsewhere, in which case apologies, but two interesting articles on copper theft from railway equipment appeared in the Guardian earlier this week:

Network Rail losing millions from copper thefts

In Copper Theft Central, even a metre of signalling cable is worth stealing

[Electric train]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website

Line problem between Slough and London Paddington.
Train services are being disrupted due to a problem with line-side equipment between Slough and London Paddington.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 20 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 09/06/2011 12:41

Line problem in the Reading area.
Train services have been disrupted due to earlier signalling problems in the Reading area.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and delays of up to 30 minutes may still occur.
Last Updated: 09/06/2011 11:47

There are a number of contributory factors, part is down to the age of some of the equipment, part is due to staffing levels - NR^» (Network Rail - home page) announced to day its profit level good news but some of that profit is down to reduction in staff the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road, formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) in its CP 4 determination required NR to make 20% savings over the control period.  Maintenance have been restructured maintenance teams now cover larger areas S & T faulting teams are expected to cover out of area.

Leaving aside the cable theft last week which is something else but aren't these sorts of problems becoming more common on this stretch.

In the case of Reading was there much upgrading to the signalling when it moved to the new centre at Didcot. I thought it was more a case of just changing where the wires ran to (in over simple terms).

[bobm]

Must be something in the water. Signalling problems on SW Trains tonight. Nothing moving between Woking and Basingstoke. FGW^▸ (First Great Western) among those accepting SWT^▸ (South West Trains) tickets.