An update, from the BBC:

 
I'm hoping that posting on this 'new' topic on December 31 os OK.

Prompted by some comments in a recent edition of Modern Railways, I’ve been looking at scheduled and actual running times.  I’ve used the data from RTT for the Mondays-to-Fridays from November 3 to December 12, for the section of the Cotswold line between Ascott and Evesham. These timings are only to the nearest minute at each location.

I looked at trains that do the ‘standard’ calls, at Kingham, Moreton and Honeybourne, and I excluded the trains with ‘padding’ in their timings (mostly in the up direction in the late afternoon). The ‘standard’ working timetable timing for down trains (pass Ascott to arrive Evesham) is 30 or 30.5 minutes (the variation is down to the dwell time at Honeybourne); in the up direction (depart Evesham to pass Ascott) it is 30.5 or 31 minutes.

I excluded Friday November 14 – there was an issue about defective track between Evesham and Moreton.  I also excluded an occasion when the ‘halts’ train was cancelled (when the following train did these calls), and a couple of occasions when trains skipped stops to catch up with the timetable.

That left me with 476 timings in the down direction and 327 in the up direction.

I’ve plotted the results as cumulative distributions on the two attached charts.  In the down direction, the scheduled running time is 30.25 minutes, depending on the dwell time at Honeybourne. But the median actual running time (achieved by half of the trains) is 32.5 minutes.  And 25% of trains take 34 minutes or longer – some 12% slower than the timetable.
Only 26% of trains take 31 minutes or less.

The chart for the up direction is broadly similar – a scheduled average of 30.75 minutes, a median of 32.5 minutes, and 28% taking 34 minutes or longer.

What this is telling me is that the trains can’t keep up with the current timetable, and that it’s not all surprising to find them being turned short – down Hereford trains only getting as far as Malvern and so on.

The Cotswold line may well suffer badly in this regard – the standard calling pattern between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill (57 miles) has 8 intermediate stops, so the station-to-station distance averages out at 6.3 miles. Over that distance, acceleration is very important, and that will be badly affected by engines that are not working.

Unless Hitachi can get the engines working properly soon, an emergency timetable looks very likely.

 
A very detailed update, from the BBC:


It is an excellent, detailed and wide-ranging updated news item, so I won't quote from it here: please click on this link to read it all, or just pick out the parts that affect you.

Please do take care out there, if you are travelling, and have a Happy New Year!

CfN.

 
From the BBC:

 
My source is Real Time Trains, which suggests it is. 

 

I *had* noticed its absence tomorrow.  But resumes Monday, right?    After the peak service 'pulled' without consultation or notice from Dilton Marsh, leaving passengers high and dry, my trust in GWR telling us about changes has been severely dented.

 
Completed solution:
January - Westbury - picture 7
February - Westminster - picture 4
March - Paddington - picture 11
April - Melksham - picture 9
May - Chetnole - picture 1
June - Haguenau - picture 5
July - Angers - picture 8
August - Harran - picture 10
September - Acton - picture 6
October - Whitstable - picture 2
November - Blunsdon - picture 3
December - Trowbridge - picture 12

 
The 05:11 has not run since Christmas Eve.   It is not due to run tomorrow or Friday either.

 
The 05:11 from Gloucester to Southampton did not run this morning - not flagged up on JourneyCheck and it looks like an unannounced timetable change has removed it - to start at 06:55 from Westbury, first southbound trains at Melksham not until 09:09 which is a fat lot of good for the regular commuters on the 06:30.   Even then, the remaining train ran 22 minutes late Westbury to Salisbury where it was terminated:

 
Complete answers ...

1. Telgart (Slovakia)
2. Ludvika (Sweden)
3. St Malo (France)
4. Santorini (Greece)
5. Katacolon (Greece)
6. Venice Mestre (Italy)
7. Storlein (Sweden)
8. Melksham (England)
9. Tallinn (Estonia)
10. Faro (Portugal)
11. Felletin (France)
12. Leer (Germany)
13. Koper (Slovenia)
14. Fiesch (Switzerland)
15. Narvik (Norway)
16. Newcastle (England)

... a mixture of rail replacement buses on a temporary basis, and some where there isn't a train coming (back) and perhaps never has been one.

 
08:16 Par to Newquay due 09:03
08:16 Par to Newquay due 09:03 will be cancelled.
This is due to a points failure.

(Also points failure West of Newton Abbot, but that's a different forum placement)

 
0. Exmouth
1. Yetminster
2. Bad Kleinen (Germany)
3. Newquay
4. Melksham
5. Castlebar (Ireland)
6. Sea Mills
7. Morchard Road
8. Chandlers Ford
9. Wexford (Ireland)

There are so many places where a modern service level reflecting the more-than-doubling passenger numbers on an infrastructure reduced to what was minimally needed in the '70s and '80s is having an effect on reliability, flexibility to increase further, and growth.

 

There was a well spotted pattern in this one - the first (alphabetically) three letter code under each starting letter, which I took as being a good way to select 10 stations based on random catchment areas, parts of Great Britain, services, etc, to ask about whether the fit development.

A. Alexandra Palace
B. Barnham
C. Cadoxton
D. Dalgetty Bay
E. Earlsfield
F. Falmouth Dock
G. Garrowhill
H. Habrough
I. IBM
J. Jewellrey Quarter

I don't think there are many green field opportunities around E, F, and J.  It has been pointed out that B has issues otherwise it would have happened years ago. I is ripe for brownfield redevelopment and I'm going to stop at that point being unfamiliar with others

 

In a National voluntary organisation I have been involved in the nomination process for civic awards, "just doing their job" is not sufficient even for and award for being a highly committed volunteer.  There has to be more about that person than just doing a job or roll.

The awards process is not perfect and I agree that just being a certain level of civil servant should not warrant a gong

 

As I said just being Devils Advocate 

I have been a boater on the Thames, canals and sea going far longer than I worked on the railways.  Llangollen canal incident sadly means a number of people have not just lost their boat but the home, luckily there was no loss of life or serious injury

 
I have come to the conclusion from the news reports that there was a de-wirement in one of the tunnels, sounds like it was a le-Shuttle caught up in the entanglement; that train may not have been the cause of the damage.

It is difficult enough to sort OLE de-wirements on open plane line, the logistics required in a 22 mile long tunnel are not to be underestimated; and repair cannot be done until the damaged train had been hauled clear of the damaged area.

I know from my previous dealings with Eurotunnel when I was working they are acutely aware of the demands on their systems over certain peak times of the year, Christmas and New Year being one of them; the place a lot of resources in the lead up to and over these peaks.

The did well recovering so quickly

 
Horrendous.

BBC News - Eurostar delays enter second day as passengers stuck onboard overnight
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q4eg03eyzo

 

I thought there were still some answers missing, and on checking I find that quizzes 5, 7, 13, and 21 (this one) do lack complete answer sets.

But based on the presumption that we know the initial letters, I had one last look at the unfound ones here. There are not a lot of stations with names starting with I, so that is made much easier - it's IBM (Halt), which may or may not still be a station by whatever definition is relevant. That restricted choice does not hold for the others three, so they are not easy guesses.

 
The board for so much of this stuff is, probably ...
... and there seems to be scope there for leisure canals.  The Llangollen current issue thread there, perhaps.  I would get concerned if we had separate threads for every arm (Wendover Arm or Bumblehole Basin, anyone) but then I guess if we ended up with an Ardingly and a Mannez  Quarry thread that would be getting interesting - if perhaps member driven so we would move with it.

 

Thanks, grahame. 

I am definitely not a fan of your first clip - that male pursuer could have been running much faster in broad daylight if he'd only ditched that big metal torch from his gunbelt, right from the beginning of the chase.

Your second clip is a great one - well worth a watch / listen.

In response, I can offer two of my own 'music' clips.

The first has absolutely no discernible railway context, but it is particularly resonant to me, as I remain convinced that it features you - and I wonder whether Lisa has watched it (for her second opinion): from YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxXdrsvEtnU (3:16)

My second offering is light-hearted music and heritage railway related (but doesn't feature you): from YouTube, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG-NaWehAkU (3:41)

Happy New Year!

 

Thank you. Let's hope it's much much much much quieter than this year.

Lisa and I celebrating the New Year tonight - firstly because we like to be ahead of the game, and secondly because I want to be up early on 1st January to catch the first train of the year!

 
Here's another new topic I've primed, ready.  CfN. 

 

Thank you for your post, Electric train.

You make a good point - but one which I would rebut, as follows:

Firstly, we do indeed have a very substantial number of topics relating specifically to heritage railways - of which there are many, throughout the UK, and which carry thousands of (generally leisure) passengers.  Similarly, we have several topics covering ferries, steamships and other public transport based attractions.  These often 'heritage attractions' are generally widely used, judging by the sheer number of posts they generate on the Coffee Shop forum.  Not so much so with 'canals' - which were never much of a 'tourist attraction' - more an historic working environment in the wider infrastructure.

Secondly, (and perhaps more personally), I know that most of the administrator and moderator team here on the forum have something of a 'canal / narrowboat' background (myself included). While we also have active interests in heritage railways, I may perhaps have favoured 'canals' disproportionately in my own posting out on the forum. There is, however, absolutely nothing to say that any of our members should not post anything relevant about canals, heritage railways, or their historic infrastructure (whether on land or over waterways).

Meanwhile, may I offer best wishes to all of those boatowners, families and others dealing with that Llangollen canal incident. Chris from Nailsea.

 
extra stops are promised on some services....as an example. no one claimed a full rewrite

 
Also, civil servants have their own rungs that they automatically move up while employed as such....don't get me started....

 

And SEVEN HOURS later, the admit to adding in a bus


Better than nothing ... but yet I wonder if and how many people have changed their plans between the cancellation just before lunch and the admission that a bus would run at quarter past seven.