I had a little jaunt on some of the Chiltern network yesterday, and by the looks of it their management are quite rightly concerned.
Here's what I personally experienced having decided to try out one of the Class 67 hauled 'Silver' trains from Marylebone amongst others:
1) 10:54 Bicester North to MaryleboneFormed off of a set which arrives at 10:45. The decision to rebuild Bicester North Up Platform and not install a passing loop (as has been done at Princes Risborough) makes things difficult in this example, as the terminating train has to be checked empty, despatched to the turnaround siding before allowing the 09:55 Birmingham Moor Street to Marylebone pass through, after which it can return to the Up Platform to form the train.
The driver has to check the terminating train, and certainly didn't seem in much of a hurry yesterday. By the time it crawled into the sidings the 09:55ex Moor Street was waiting at the signal outside. After accelerating through, the set for the 10:54 crawled (and I mean crawled) from the siding into the platform. Net result was a 4 minute late departure. The driver also took the set all the way to the far end of the siding (despite only being a 2-car) which meant it took longer to get back into the station. Not sure whether that's an instruction they follow, or just this driver's decision, but it didn't help. Also the points leading into the siding are marked as 15mph, but the train was far slower than that in both directions - whether
ATP▸ was preventing it from going faster, or the driver was just taking it steady I'm not sure. Either way, that sort of sloppy working needs tightening up for this new timetable to stand a chance!
2) Princes RisboroughA pleasant hour was spent watching trains at Risborough. It was great to see the fast services running at full speed through the station - though all of them were running late. There was also good use made of the new through loop with fast services passing stopping ones. Although the facility to pass trains at High Wycombe remains, they will be doing it at Risborough wherever possible as it has less conflicts with other services.
3) 12:21 Princes Risborough to MaryleboneThis had departed Banbury 4 minutes late and as I was watching it on my phone, lost more time en-route. We eventually left Risborough 10 minutes late. Even with a spirited run to London we only gained one minute back arriving 9 minutes late. The driver blamed poor rail adhesion, which certainly might have contributed, but the tight schedule meant no real scope for recovery. The fact it was a Class 165, restricted to 75mph, meant that the upgrade work had little effect on the speed the train could go, save for some short sections in the Northolt and Neasden Junction areas.
4) 13:37 Marlylebone to Birmingham Moor StreetA Class 67, and 5 shiny MK3's and a
DVT‡ were sat in platform 1 Marylebone. We left about 40% full and I settled in to a journey scheduled to take just 100 minutes stopping only at Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick Parkway, and Solihull. We were 2 minutes late leaving after waiting a delayed train from Aylesbury to arrive into a conflicting platform. Even with the extra platforms, Marylebone is very congested train wise.
After getting checked for the 60mph permanent speed restriction at High Wycombe and for a
TSR▸ near Bicester we roared through Aynho Junction and arrived Banbury after just 54 minutes - an average speed of 78mph! Moor Street was reached after 103 minutes an average of 65mph, though we had lost a further 3 minutes and arrived 5 minutes late. This is worrying as, apart from two 50mph TSR's, there were no noticeable hold-ups throughout, apart from a slow arrival at Moor Street which could well be due to the fact that the train arrives at one of the new bay platforms and is therefore subject to approach control signals. Station dwell times were at an absolute minumum for a slam door stock train. Are these schedules just too tight?
5) Other observationsBirmingham Moor Street's train announcer is still a manual one, and he decided to announce in a very chirpy voice. Nothing wrong with that, until you realise that every time he said 'Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Birmingham Moor Street before'
every announcement. I must admit after a couple of minutes it got bloody irritating! Contrast that with the excellent annoucements on board the 13:37 which could sadly hardly be heard due to the level of the speakers. I was also unable to connect with the free wi-fi on board, but otherwise the trip was very impressive and an excellent advert for what train travel can offer. The two new bay platforms at Moor Street look great and really add to the capacity at this station.
I then took a London Midland service to the Hawthorns (excellent on-train announcements spoilt this time due to a speaker that was far too loud - why can't we get it right!). The Midland Metro platforms are right by the National Rail ones and I was struck by how passengers are encouraged to walk across the tracks in between the low platforms in between trams. It's no wonder some people don't understand the dangers of tresspassing on the tracks when they are encouraged to do just that on metro tracks which look just the same to the untrained eye!
Through to Stratford-Upon-Avon from the Hawthorns as I wanted to take a look at the work that's been undertaken on that route over the last few years. Much of the track has been replaced to give a nice smooth ride. The line is now LED signalled throughout controlled from the West Midlands Signalling Centre at Saltley. There were signs of ongoing platform extentions, as well as welcomed added capacity/speeds at Bearley Junction and Stratford-Upon-Avon. At Stratford, the addition of a crossover means that trains can now arrive and terminate at all three platforms, rather than previously where they had to arrive on platform 1 and shunt over to 2/3 if needed to get out of the way. An example of how a relatively simple and cheap fix can really add to capacity.
6) 17:40 Stratford-Upon-Avon to Marylebone.Not much to say about this one. Left on time and arrived at Banbury (where I left it) on time. Then again this is one train that, bar two extra stops, runs in the same timings as it did before the Mainline timetable took effect. Stratford ends up feeling very little benefit from the Mainline timetable sadly - no wonder the council there is not too impressed with Chiltern Railways according to credible rumour.
7) SummaryOverall, I'm impressed, yet worried. Very few of the trains I saw/travelled on yesterday were on time. Occasional major disruption, like signal failures, are excusable. Minor adjustments to the stopping patterns and train consists might mitigate many of the criticisms of overcrowding that have been made - not observed by me yesterday, but I was avoiding peak trains. However, on a day like yesterday when there were no major problems most of the trains were still running 5-15 minutes late. This is not a good sign. Sure, drivers/signallers will get more familiar with the new schedules, speeds and so on, but I am concerned that Chiltern have simply been too optimistic about what they can achieve journey time wise.
The improved infrastructure still doesn't allow much flexibility operationally on what is basically a 2-track railway right from the throat of Marylebone station onwards. Timings are very tight to say the least, there is hardly any apparent slack, so when a train gets late it will more often than not stay late. Whilst
FGW▸ have come under criticism for too much slack, have Chiltern gone too far the other way?
It is, as ChrisB says, laudable that their management has been very active and visible over the last few days. Believe me, there will be a hell of a lot of investigation going on to work out what can be done to sort out the initial problems. This is a
big test for Chiltern and its management - with a massive timetable change like this there will always be some teething problems, but are they so bad that the timetable will have to be overhauled completely? I fear it might, or Chiltern's predicted 2% drop in punctuality following Mainline might be more like a 20% drop!
As an example as to how bad things are, here's the performance of peak hour trains through High Wycombe this evening. 60 trains, only 9 arriving at their destination within the 5 minute charter threshold, one part cancellation and one full cancellation. Worrying!
