No so Great Western today.

[railuser007]

Had a great day (not) today in the morning waiting for more than an hour and half on the freezing platfoms with no trains going either way, was informed about something up with "lineside equipment" between Southall and Hayes and Harlington, does anyone know what exactly was the issue?

In the evening going back from Reading toward Paddington it looked like some sort of issue had cropped up in the same area with trains being severly delayed, hope it is all sorted by tomorrow.

 

[D2022]

I know there has been a signal failure at Slough this eve which has caused horrific delays. I've just waited for over an hour at Swindon.

 

[Bald Rick]

Major points failure Southall this morning, and signalling power supply failure this evening in roughly the same area. Probably unrelated.

 

[tsr]

Major points failure Southall this morning, and signalling power supply failure this evening in roughly the same area. Probably unrelated.

The two disruptions are indeed supposedly unrelated, according to FGW.

These delays were, of course, nicely complemented by a few moderate delays due to a problem with lineside equipment (I was never told exactly what) at Gomshall this evening!

 

[Roverman]

I know there has been a signal failure at Slough this eve which has caused horrific delays. I've just waited for over an hour at Swindon.

My contact at Slough box says its all ok now.

"Power Failure on 2 Relief Lines between Drayton and Southall, booked in order 19:27"

 

[LexyBoy]

And a landslide (or so my text alert told me). The points failure must have been bad, these things are usually sorted quickly on such a major route.

Am currently on a train from Oxford and things are still not going well there! Pretty bad this morning at Reading though (gave me an unusual day of XC both ways for my usual Reading-Didcot commute, with an extra stop on the 0841 Newcastle), not aided by the auto announcer getting into a cycle of apologising for late trains (yes, we've noticed things have gone mammaries skyward thanks) that there was no time for useful announcements. And magical trains which don't actually stop at Reading showing up on the boards (that means you, 0722 to Great Malvern).

 

[Captain Chaos]

The two disruptions are indeed supposedly unrelated, according to FGW.

These delays were, of course, nicely complemented by a few moderate delays due to a problem with lineside equipment (I was never told exactly what) at Gomshall this evening!

There was an issue at Burrows Lane level crossing (first level crossing Guildford side of Gomshall) which required trains to run through on the Down at 5 MPH which started at about mid-day. Only caused a minor delay to me when I went through at around 2.

Though I understand that the fault was eventually found and required an emergency line blockage. I still have no idea what the actual problem was though.

 

[fgwrich]

From FGW's Facebook page.

I am very sorry if you experienced disruption to your journey on the morning of Thursday 6 December. Services were severely disrupted due to two major points failures near Southall in West London.

As a result, three out of four lines into and out of London Paddington were closed for more than two hours. This severely limited our ability to operate services into and out of London Paddington and h
ad a substantial knock-on effect across our network.

I know this will have come at a very difficult time for you after the impact of flooding to your journeys over the last couple of weeks. The scale of service disruption you have experienced recently is unacceptable and we are working very closely with Network Rail, which owns and operates the railway network, including track and signalling, to achieve an early improvement in reliability.

Network Rail has been working round the clock to rectify the impact of recent flooding and the infrastructure failures. My team is giving every support to help them complete their work as soon as possible.

Quite simply, I want to apologise for the service you have been experiencing. We recognise it's not good enough and we are working with Network Rail to put it right. In the meantime, we appreciate the patience shown by you, our customers.

Mark Hopwood
Managing Director

 

[tsr]

There was an issue at Burrows Lane level crossing (first level crossing Guildford side of Gomshall) which required trains to run through on the Down at 5 MPH which started at about mid-day. Only caused a minor delay to me when I went through at around 2.

Though I understand that the fault was eventually found and required an emergency line blockage. I still have no idea what the actual problem was though.

Thanks indeed for the information. I had an inkling it was an LC, but I wasn't sure! I noticed some late-running starting around lunchtime, but there was a bit of congestion around Redhill (LC fault Ford-Barnham, by coincidence!), so I thought that could be affecting the reversals there and causing a delay.

I've never personally been delayed by a fault at that LC before, and can only assume that there was some sort of electrical or electronic system failure. I suspect NR may have had to deactivate the crossing briefly to replace one of the components linking it to the box, but I don't know.

 

[D2022]

My contact at Slough box says its all ok now.

"Power Failure on 2 Relief Lines between Drayton and Southall, booked in order 19:27"

The other issues and the knock on affected the GWML badly, I assume it's all in recovery now though.

 

[GodAtum]

FGW have been having lots of problems this month

 

[D2022]

FGW have been having lots of problems this month

FGW ARE the problem this month. Rude staff, lack of information going out passengers, lack of compensation, poor rail replacement, disorganised staff, trains displaced all over the region and of course blaming Network Rail for EVERYTHING.

Let's be honest, NR are or were struggling with the weather, but FGW then took it into their own hands to blame Network Rail for things that were internal to FGW, such as buses on replacement services, Swindon were sending them back to where they came from empty as they didn't want to pay for them to wait around for the next train. Result, passengers stand around for free while more buses are found to cover those that have just been sent away. Madness.

Travelling everyday and knowing staff in the sector is useful, you pick up all sorts of crap that goes on. First are bad for it. But probably no worse than any TOC in the situation.

 

[CC 72100]

FGW ARE the problem this month. Rude staff, lack of information going out passengers, lack of compensation, poor rail replacement, disorganised staff, trains displaced all over the region and of course blaming Network Rail for EVERYTHING.

Well FGW hardly woke up and decided 'hey, lets sprinkle some trains out of place for a laugh, see what chaos we can create' did they? :roll: That's hardly their fault given it's partly been due to the weather.

And I've had my own issue with FGW this month before I'm accused of defending them. Must admit it was my first issue I've had with them, but in my case it was fortunately dealt with with a great deal of common sense.

 

[D2022]

Well FGW hardly woke up and decided 'hey, lets sprinkle some trains out of place for a laugh, see what chaos we can create' did they? :roll: That's hardly their fault given it's partly been due to the weather.

And I've had my own issue with FGW this month before I'm accused of defending them. Must admit it was my first issue I've had with them, but in my case it was fortunately dealt with with a great deal of common sense.

I'm not insinuating they did. What they did do however is lie to the public about it. Siting other problems when even their own staff knew it wasn't true. The public aren't stupid, seeing units down at WSB on the way to work and seeing the same ones sat there on the way home annoyed people. Using Westbury as an example, it happened elsewhere too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Don't get me wrong, I do praise their efforts to get some services on track and commend their giving out food vouchers to those worst hit by the delays. I got stuck for over 4 hours at Bath and they were doing well to get some of their services through. Buses however, were a nightmare, I travel with a bike so was having to wait for services by rail, not bus.

 

[CC 72100]

I'm not insinuating they did. What they did do however is lie to the public about it. Siting other problems when even their own staff knew it wasn't true. The public aren't stupid, seeing units down at WSB on the way to work and seeing the same ones sat there on the way home annoyed people. Using Westbury as an example, it happened elsewhere too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Don't get me wrong, I do praise their efforts to get some services on track and commend their giving out food vouchers to those worst hit by the delays. I got stuck for over 4 hours at Bath and they were doing well to get some of their services through. Buses however, were a nightmare, I travel with a bike so was having to wait for services by rail, not bus.

Obviously I don't know the in's and out's of the situation you describe, but I'll take your word for it. Lack of crew/train faults could also of course be the reason why they haven't moved.

As for the second point: bikes and replacement buses always present problems. No easy fix on that I'm afraid.

 

[D2022]

Obviously I don't know the in's and out's of the situation you describe, but I'll take your word for it. Lack of crew/train faults could also of course be the reason why they haven't moved.

As for the second point: bikes and replacement buses always present problems. No easy fix on that I'm afraid.

Everyone's experiences of them are different, sadly I've not found many to be favourable. I don't know if it's because of where I live and travel, on the London lines but I've found very little about them acceptable and those points were just a few that sprang to mind.

Agreed, buses and bikes often leave a sour taste all around. But there isn't a lot can be done about that.