Chiltern disruption due to fuelling fault

[Snow1964]

Chiltern have announced services on 25th July will be disrupted, due to a fault At their fuelling point.

Customer Advice
Due to a fault with the control panel on our fuelling system at our primary maintenance depot, we are unable to prepare and fuel as many trains as we need to run a full timetable.
As a result, services between Oxford and Marylebone (both directions) from Tuesday 25th July, will be significantly reduced. Ticket acceptance will be in place between Oxford and London Paddington on Great Western Railway services. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to your journey.
Last Updated:24/07/2023 17:15

seems they expect to restore services 3 days and 45 minutes after posting the notice

Impact
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 18:00 27/07.

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[JustPassingBy]

With the recent strikes, weekend engineering work, fuel pump issue this week, strikes next week and then Aylesbury blockade for the 2nd and 3rd weeks in August, it is going to be basically a month with no proper train service between Aylesbury and Amersham/Marylebone.

Even before the fuel pump issue, following the cancellation of the tube strikes, Chiltern were seemingly not going to reintroduce any service between Aylesbury and Marylebone via Amersham this week - which seemed poor (that was what was announced on their website until 5pm yesterday).

 

[sammyg901]

There are buses to Amersham running hourly and a "commuter" service running from Aylesbury at 0730 out back at 1820 this week along with the Risborough shuttles. Hopefully connections are still reasonable following the Oxford cancellations.

But it's not ideal, most people can plan holiday or wfh to avoid the main blockade but have to travel at some point

 

[AndrewE]

Can they not arrange bowsers to fuel the units? Or is this just a(nother?) convenient excuse to not run trains?

 

[Chris172]

Tonight, tomorrow night's and Thursdays night 2U88, usually Birmingham Snow Hill to Banbury will run under headcode 2A88 Birmingham Snow Hill to Aylesbury

 

[JustPassingBy]

Tonight, tomorrow night's and Thursdays night 2U88, usually Birmingham Snow Hill to Banbury will run under headcode 2A88 Birmingham Snow Hill to Aylesbury

Is that to swap units? i.e. to get a fully fuelled unit to Aylesbury? (or to get an empty unit to Aylesbury for fuelling?)

Where is the fuel pump issue? Aylesbury?

 

[12LDA28C]

Is that to swap units? i.e. to get a fully fuelled unit to Aylesbury? (or to get an empty unit to Aylesbury for fuelling?)

Where is the fuel pump issue? Aylesbury?

The issue is at Aylesbury but not a fuel pump issue, an electronics issue as described in post #1.

 

[Crossover]

Can they not arrange bowsers to fuel the units? Or is this just a(nother?) convenient excuse to not run trains?

Possibly not that straightforward to be honest. I'm not an expert but a few things that come to mind is whether the attachments would be correct for the trains and whether there is any link from the pumps to the trains. Also the issue of fuel isn't water so there is a limitation on what it can be transported in and what it can offloaded from/via.

My other half works for a bus company arranging fuelling and I know that when they have issues with depot fuel, the buses will be sent to other depots to be fuelled - obviously a time consuming/expensive job. Doing this for trains would be nigh on impossible for various reasons

 

[sammyg901]

It's now resolved - Oxford restored from tomorrow but but Aylesbury via Amersham still only getting an hourly servicing and that only starts from Friday. Not sure if that'll be the case through until the 7th August or not

 

[12LDA28C]

Possibly not that straightforward to be honest. I'm not an expert but a few things that come to mind is whether the attachments would be correct for the trains and whether there is any link from the pumps to the trains. Also the issue of fuel isn't water so there is a limitation on what it can be transported in and what it can offloaded from/via.

My other half works for a bus company arranging fuelling and I know that when they have issues with depot fuel, the buses will be sent to other depots to be fuelled - obviously a time consuming/expensive job. Doing this for trains would be nigh on impossible for various reasons

It's pretty straightforward to fuel a train directly from a tanker to a loco or unit and this is done quite regularly at more remote locations on the rail network when required. As I understand it the problem was initially identified on a weekend where sourcing a tanker was not possible, and once enquiries were made earlier this week, the costs coupled with access / method of working arrangement meant it was impractical.