New Timetable & Re-doubling follow on

[whole diary]

[Andy W]

Well today was my son's first venture onto the line since re-doubling.

The 06.41 arrived at Pershore on time (the early trains usually did)
It arrived at Paddington 15 minutes late (they usually did)

What I did notice is that the second quickest journey of the day is the 15.51 from Pershore which is a 2.08 journey time. The interesting (and disappointing) thing is  that this train requires a change at Oxford with a 15 minute wait for the connecting service.

So there must be some really significant padding, is you took the 15min wait out of the equation it should be timetabled to take around 1hr 53 mins.

So with all that padding & redoubling they're still late.

[pbc2520]

Well today was my son's first venture onto the line since re-doubling.

The 06.41 arrived at Pershore on time (the early trains usually did)
It arrived at Paddington 15 minutes late (they usually did)

...

So with all that padding & redoubling they're still late.

Just checking - which side of Oxford was the delay?  I presume on the Cotswold line but you didn't say so explicitly.

It would be interesting to know where delays are occurring now.  (Given he left Pershore on time, I presume it was Charlbury?)

[IndustryInsider]

Just checking - which side of Oxford was the delay?  I presume on the Cotswold line but you didn't say so explicitly.

It would be interesting to know where delays are occurring now.  (Given he left Pershore on time, I presume it was Charlbury?)

There was no delay on the Cotswold Line, the train was on time (early in fact) until it approached Reading.

[pbc2520]

Thanks, very revealing!

It'll be interesting to see where most delays now occur between Paddington and Worcester.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

I think most delays are between Paddington and Oxford. They are not usually long delays but enough to create the knock on delays to Up trains approaching Oxford because of late departing Down trains from Oxford. CLPG^» (Cotswold Line Promotion Group - about) volunteers and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) employees are putting a lot of effort into monitoring CL train performance in the last week of September to identify over a week where there are regular problems and also where there is now slack running that could be reduced as a result of the double track improvements. As most of us know it is a complicated matter as adjusting times at one point can create problems somewhere else with so many trains now running over an infra structure that has had only relatively minor improvements over the last 50 years or so. There is a campaign starting in South Oxfordshire to get more XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trains to call at Didcot but most of us know that Didcot stops were taken out of XC schedules some years ago because of the congestion created by the trains having to cross so many other busy tracks.

[ChrisB]

And that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) doesn't want to stop 3 times 45 minutes...long distance service.

[IanL]

My first trip on the new timetable last night, on the 1732 stopping service from Oxford to Gt Malvern. Not sure if this is a new feature but it
departed from platform 2 rather than platform 3.

Previously a Chiltern train from Bicester arrived at P3, followed by a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) train into P3, the FGW train arrived from the north and formed
the 1731 departure to Worcester. Problems included the Chiltern train getting delayed arrival so the FGW train cant enter the P3 bay platform
until after the arrival of the Chiltern train.

Now the train from Paddington (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) to oxford terminates at platform 2, is checked and then departs to sidings. The 1732 arrives from the
south (where?) and enters platform 2 only a few minutes before scheduled departure due to previous train having to be checked. Problem
with this is the scheduled next train being a very busy 1736 XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) train, so we now loads of passengers on the platform delaying the boarding
of the 1732 which will in turn delay the 1736.

Anyone know if this is a permanent change to platforms for the Cotswold line stopping train?

[ChrisB]

THe train comes from the south, so I guess so. It could possibly go off platform 1, but is likely to block other services there too at that time.

It won't be pl 3, for sure.

[IndustryInsider]

THe train comes from the south, so I guess so. It could possibly go off platform 1,

Yes, it's formed by 3E95 the 17:05 ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) ex Didcot Parkway (the set which worked the 15:22 GMV-DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains)).  A delay of a few minutes will not be uncommon (as in its previous incarnation when it came from Banbury) due to the reason IanL describes.  I can well imagine that the platform will be packed and confusion will reign amongst non-regulars.

A more sensible idea might be to only run the 15:22 GMV-DID as far as Oxford?  Then the set could shunt to the sidings and depart from Platform 3 as it used to.

[pbc2520]

CLPG volunteers and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) employees are putting a lot of effort into monitoring CL train performance in the last week of September to identify over a week where there are regular problems and also where there is now slack running that could be reduced as a result of the double track improvements.

Hope this went well.  Will detailed findings/conclusions be published in due course or do we just wait to see what surprises the December timetable has in store for us?

[IndustryInsider]

I'd expect any changes to not happen until next May at the earliest as the December timetable will be already finished, and that is now looking like the likely date for the return of the Class 180's.  I think all we'll see change in December is the 07:31 Oxford to Paddington starting back at Charlbury, and an extra stop at Pershore on the 09:21 Paddington to Worcester service.  Would be interesting to hear what the survey's findings were though?

[ChrisB]

I'm unsure as to whether I can report - I'll ask once I've written up my findings....

[pbc2520]

I'd expect any changes to not happen until next May at the earliest as the December timetable will be already finished, and that is now looking like the likely date for the return of the Class 180's.  I think all we'll see change in December is the 07:31 Oxford to Paddington starting back at Charlbury, and an extra stop at Pershore on the 09:21 Paddington to Worcester service.

Those, and some weekend tweaks, appear to be all that is changing:
http://www.clpg.co.uk/Dec2011%20Timetable%20Plans.htm

[IndustryInsider]

Another obvious tweak would be to alter the 17:28 WOF-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) so that after leaving Hanborough at 18:44 it then runs to Oxford and departs at 19:01 with the 19:07 stopper running behind it (as per services throughout the rest of the day).  Currently, for no obvious reason, it crawls from Hanborough to Oxford and departs at 19:06 after a stopping service at 19:01.  This is after already having to wait at Charlbury for 13 minutes.

This used to be sensible before the redoubling, but now simply means that as well as being 5 minutes slower to London, there's no decent connection to Didcot, and the 19:01 stopping service has to languish at Didcot for 16 minutes instead of the usual 10 minutes - which is plenty long enough!

[Steve Bray]

I caught the 'new' 1522 from Great Malvern to Oxford last Monday. I chose it only from a novelty point of view as I don't think I'd ever been on a train which didn't stop at the Link. Thank goodness I chose this service as the following HST^▸ (High Speed Train) had been cancelled between Hereford and Worcester.

It left Gt Malvern 8 minutes late, but was just 3 minutes late leaving Shrub Hill and arrived Oxford 1 late. The most passenger movement came at Foregate Street with a couple of dozen pax (maximum), using it as a local service to Evesham. There were 11 pax on between Charlbury and Oxford.

Question - How many 2 car turbo trains have a trolley service?!