I don't think there are any intermediate signals on the Wolvercote - Ascott-under-Wychwood single line.  So, heading downwards, a second train cannot leave Wolvercote until a preceding one has cleared Ascott-under-Wychwood and the section is clear

 

 
The 16:23 from Westbury and the 17:35 from Swindon now re-instated.

However

 
Meanwhile, a technical question about signalling on our line.

Yesterday (Wed May 28), I was on the 15:52 back from Paddington. We left Oxford +48, but then sat at Wolvercote for 13 minutes. Looking at OpenTrainTimes, this seemed to be waiting for the halts train, in front of us, to get out of the single track section at Charlbury. We also sat at Ascott, waiting for it to reach Moreton.

Now, looking at OpenTrainTimes, there appear to be intermediate signals on the Wolvercote - Charlbury section. My question is this : why could we not have followed the halts train through the suingle track section? We would still have had to wait at Ascott, but at least we'd have got passengers to Hanborough and Charlbury.

As it was, we got to Charlbury +64 and to Moreton +75.

 
Wednesday May 28

The Wednesday of the half-term holiday, with lots of day-out traffic to London.

Alas, GWR seem to have suffered from a perfect storm. I have never know such a wide range of explanations for delays. I suffered from

• track circuit failure in the Swindon area
• failed train blocking a platform at Shrub Hill
• unspecified delay south of Oxford
• unspecified delay after Slough
• overhead wire problems between Paddington and Reading
• waiting for a driver
• following a stopping train
• following a different stopping train

Final scores for yesterday are not a pretty sight, and will have put off some of that day-out traffic from using the train.

1P20 08:18 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington : arriving stock blocked by 1W11 (+50), departed +36, further delayed after Oxford, arrived +71.
1P22 08:56 Great Malvern to London Paddington (11:27) : started from Worcester Foregate Street, delayed after Reading, arrived +28.
1P24 09:56 Great Malvern to London Paddington (12:23) : delayed after Reading, arrived +19
1P30 13:16 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (15:22) : departed +28, arrived +28.
1P04 13:18 Hereford to Paddington (16:24) : held Norton for 1W02 (+12), delayed before Oxford (+53), arrived Reading +53 and cancelled thereafter.
1P34 15:18 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington (17:29) : cancelled throughout.
1P05 15:18 Hereford to London Paddington (18:29) : started from Worcester Shrub Hill
1P38 16:32 Great Malvern to London Paddington (19:29) : started from Worcester Foregate Street
1P39 17:26 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington (19:52) : departed +22, saved 10 at Moreton.
1P42 19:02 Great Malvern to London Paddington (21:26) : started from Worcester Shrub Hill, arrived +15.
1P44 19:45 Great Malvern to London Paddington (22:24) : started from Shrub Hill

1W11 05:53 London Paddington to Great Malvern (08:38) : held Moreton (+12), spent 26 at Shrub Hill (blocking 1P20), arrived Worcester Foregate Street +22 and cancelled thereafter.
1W15 07:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (10:14) : departed +23, arrived +16.
1W17 08:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (11:14) : held Wolvercote for 1P20 (+16), arrived +22.
1W21 10:53 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill (13:01) : departed +23, delayed before Reading (+42), arrived +38.
1W02 11:52 London Paddington to Hereford (14:44) : delayed before Reading (+34), arrived Shrub Hill +39, Worcester Foregate Street +56 and cancelled thereafter.
1W25 12:52 London Paddington to Foregate Street (15:00) : delayed before Reading (+42), arrived Oxford +46 and cancelled thereafter.
1W27 13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (16:15) : delayed before Reading (+13) and at Shrub Hill (+21), arrived Worcester Foregate Street +20 and cancelled thereafter.
1W29 14:53 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street (17:04) : delayed before Oxford (+40), arrived +36.
1W31 15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (18:26) : departed +14, held Reading (awaiting driver, +42), held Wolvercote (behind halts train, +62) and Ascott (same, +73), saved 13 at Evesham. Arrived Worcester Shrub Hill +63 and cancelled thereafter.
1W33 16:58 Paddington  to Great Malvern (19:25) : started from Reading, held Oxford (+35), arrived Worcester Shrub Hill +29 and cancelled thereafter.
1W03 17:34 London Paddington to Hereford (20:25) : held Evesham (+32), arrived +31.
1W34 17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street (20:11) : started from Oxford
1W36 18:57 London Paddington to Great Malvern (21:18) : delayed before Reading (+23), arrived +25.
1W41 20:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (23:13) : cancelled after Worcester Shrub Hill (train crew)

 
Green Signals have released a 45 minute interview with Lord Peter Hendy looking at the future. He has some interesting points to make, especially with regard to the role of the MD of SWT

https://youtu.be/dYcb9tV0Glw?si=GVc0dcgIV7eZCOzg

 
Depressing ... and it feels it's getting even worse again.

Gap at Melksham ...
12:32 to 18:53 northbound
13:39 to 20:38 southbound
... and that's for a town of around 25,000 where an appropriate service would be running hourly each way; the timetable is thinner (just one every 2 hours) and the sort of thing being offered today has six hour gaps. Sadly, this is not unusual - it's ongoing.   The trains MAY end up being re-instated later but that's cold comfort to people who need to have their days planned. 

Things WILL go wrong occasionally ... but this is an ongoing problem and it is NOT occasional. It's difficult to see anything being done to provide a reliable service ... words are spoken, actions being taken explained and promised and there are even good patches for a while with it running a bit better, but it falls over again. Sad.

 
14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00
14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

15:15 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59
15:15 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

Followed, as sure as night follows day, by

 
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

If you think that's cheap, I'm currently in Spain's Basque country. They seem to have some kind of special economic crisis pricing going on. If I'm not mistaken I just did the 12 miles by train from Hendaye in France to San Sebastian for 49c

 
Unless I missed it I didn't see any mention of simplifying tickets which I thought would be one benefit of bringing everything under one roof?

 

IETs will probably run diesel Paddington to Reading.  Possibly a minor issue like a broken dropper wire

 
Interesting - GWR has said that all lines are open, speed limit imposed, expect delays - proper fix tonight

 


.......and almost inevitably.....

Route(s) affected
Elizabeth line between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5, and also between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading

Great Western Railway on all routes to / from London Paddington

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description
Damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Southall means some lines are blocked.

Trains between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading may be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 


........and it's now pushed out to 1800 on National Rail.....

 

Delays & cancellations now until 3pm......or will it be the familiar/dreaded "until the end of the day"?

 

Both now re-instated.

 

In the end it went to Laira, Plymouth, for repairs.   Due to head to Penzance this afternoon.

 

No damage confirmed. A trains pantograph automatically dropped. That could be caused by damage to the overheads but it could also be an issue with the pantograph itself or just a spurious fault.

NR will inspect all 4 lines first as a precaution

 
There was a signal failure yesterday between Reading and Paddington. Journeycheck then reported further delays due to trespassers on the line. Was there an unexpected detraining somewhere?

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Reading some lines will be blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 13:30 28/05.

 
...and if I search for Bristol Temple Meads - Melksham on the National Rail app it also shows the earlier 1545 option as cancelled as well, although I can't be bothered to check which of the 2 trains on that route aren't running.

 

That would have been the last leg of my commute home. Looks like another £3 on the buses 

 
and
1W11 05:53 London Paddington to Great Malvern was delayed at Shrub Hill. Arrived Worcester Foregate Street +22 and cancelled thereafter.

Indeed so - I'm on it. And the "train in front" was the 05:53.

 

 
Looks like set GW08 43156/43186 was used for the rescue, as 2C00 was cancelled and 2E06 was partially cancelled.

 

Looking at RTT, it was a 3 carriage train from London to Exeter!

 

The fares issue is partly down to the Ashington line only having Single tickets and no returns (Single leg pricing).  The £2.60 is actually Off Peak, the Anytime Single being £3.00 (www.brfares.com) - your point about the fares being cheap still holds but, taking that Didcot - Oxford example, the Off Peak Day Return for that is £8.70, just 10p more than the Off Peak Day Single.

Okehampton was opened in 2021 with fares of £4.00 Single, £8.00 Return (both Anytime, no Off Peak fares) Exeter - Okehampton and that's 30 miles.   Now £4.60 and £9.20 respectively.  In both cases, the railway is being introduced in areas where generations have grown up without it so attractive fares clearly have an important role.  I know the great care that was taken with Okehampton.



     

 

What are they going to do without "Thunderbird" Castles??