Fun and games at Ealing Broadway 27 Dec

[Thames99]

Thimngs are all over the place this morning between Reading and London. Most fast services were due to terminate at Reading with stopping trains running to Ealing Broadway becasue of Old Oak Common works.

This morning the stoppers are only going as far as Southall because of a 'planning error' at Acton. What does this mean? And why should issues at Acton affect journeys to Ealing in any case?

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have the following explanation.

Due to engineering works not being finished on time between Reading and Ealing Broadway fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 14:00 27/12.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the delay to your journey today.
Can you tell me more about the incident?
Due to a planning error for the possession/isolation at Acton West, we cannot run our stopping services past Reading. Our high speed services to/from London Euston can run but these are NOT booked to call at Reading.

 

[JN114]

If they’re saying planning and engineering; I’d speculate the train plan for turning at Ealing Broadway has been planned to use some infrastructure that isn’t available as part of the HS2 works at Old Oak.

As the Eustons appear to be getting through that would suggest that the infrastructure that is unavailable is associated with the OLE.

 

[SWT_USER]

Pretty incredible that this wasn't known before today given how meticulously planned these works supposedly are.

 

[cactustwirly]

How are you supposed to get from Southall into central London? There isn't any alternative transport

 

[Benjwri]

Network Rail Western has said it's an Electrical Isolation issue, which will be sorted at the earliest 2pm. https://x.com/networkrailwest/status/1872592155241591074

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Dec 2024 ==

How are you supposed to get from Southall into central London? There isn't any alternative transport

By London Buses, which are accepting tickets.

 

[fandroid]

All is confusion here at Ealing Broadway today, with the GWR and Elizabeth Line closures. Departures shown online consisted of just one GWR train to Reading at 10.45. Station staff are all Elizabeth Line staff and have very little idea of what GWR are up to. Passengers are confused by westbound GWR trains coming through, with passengers on board, but not stopping (I assume those trains are from Euston). Anyway, the 10.45 has now departed, at 11.13. I wonder what the rest of the day promises!

 

[Dr Hoo]

Don’t the Elizabeth Line staff have access to the same industry train running systems that staff at multi-operator stations generally have?

(By way of contrast, I regularly use Stockport and Doncaster stations that are served by around six distinct operators each but the Avanti/LNER staff seem to be well aware of what’s going on across the piece.)

 

[RailExplorer]

I believe train planning or network rail got this wrong. EL trains should be using the shunt at Acton West (terminating first at Ealing Broadway), but the overheads are switched off / isolated. So they are terminating at Southall instead and doing a shunt to West Ealing sidings. This appears to be the case until Monday although I have no factual info to back this up - only what I've heard so far.

Edit: seen the next post below. Could be all sorted later and could've just been overrunning engineering works.

Any non stop GWR stuff will be coming from Euston. There also appears to be one GWR service starting from Ealing Broadway. Presumably can continue to operate as its a bi-mode Hitachi (but not 100% sure).

 

[fandroid]

Network Rail's feed to displays at Reading are blaming over-running engineering work between Hayes & Harlington and Ealing Broadway. All back on track from 14.00 apparently.

 

[800301]

Pretty much, no 387’s are going past Reading which has been the case all morning, 800’s running in diesel, unable to shunt at Ealing Broadway/Acton West currently, there have been quite a few mistakes today including at least 1 800 being low of fuel…

I believe train planning or network rail got this wrong. EL trains should be using the shunt at Acton West (terminating first at Ealing Broadway), but the overheads are switched off / isolated. So they are terminating at Southall instead and doing a shunt to West Ealing sidings. This appears to be the case until Monday although I have no factual info to back this up - only what I've heard so far.

Edit: seen the next post below. Could be all sorted later and could've just been overrunning engineering works.

Any non stop GWR stuff will be coming from Euston. There also appears to be one GWR service starting from Ealing Broadway. Presumably can continue to operate as its a bi-mode Hitachi (but not 100% sure).

 

[800001]

I believe train planning or network rail got this wrong. EL trains should be using the shunt at Acton West (terminating first at Ealing Broadway), but the overheads are switched off / isolated. So they are terminating at Southall instead and doing a shunt to West Ealing sidings. This appears to be the case until Monday although I have no factual info to back this up - only what I've heard so far.

Edit: seen the next post below. Could be all sorted later and could've just been overrunning engineering works.

Any non stop GWR stuff will be coming from Euston. There also appears to be one GWR service starting from Ealing Broadway. Presumably can continue to operate as its a bi-mode Hitachi (but not 100% sure).

The below picture is taken from Network Rail Western Twitter blaming an ‘electrical isolation issue’.

x.com

x.com

 

[Horizon22]

This was indeed a planning error (and a pretty massive one considering how much work went into this blockade!) where the train plan and possession did not match the isolation. This prevented the shunt moves east of Ealing Broadway.

Considering the fleet for GWRs and Elizabeth line trains to Ealing Broadway are all electric (387 and 345) this obviously presents some issues…

The only places to terminate trains in Up Direction realistically is West Drayton or Southall and into West Ealing sidings but that doesn’t give you much capacity. GWR turned at Reading.

Looks like they’ve been able to shorten back the isolation now though and trains are running through again.

I imagine some quite busy London Buses from Southall and Ealing this morning, although still reduced demand post Xmas.

 

[Watershed]

I wonder who is going to be taking accountability for this monumental error, and what measures NR will put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I suspect the answers will be "nobody" and "nothing", but I'd be glad to be disabused of my cynicism...

 

[robbeech]

I wonder who is going to be taking accountability for this monumental error, and what measures NR will put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I suspect the answers will be "nobody" and "nothing", but I'd be glad to be disabused of my cynicism...

The carpet holding gloves are being put on as we speak, get your brushes ready.

 

[Horizon22]

I wonder who is going to be taking accountability for this monumental error, and what measures NR will put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I suspect the answers will be "nobody" and "nothing", but I'd be glad to be disabused of my cynicism...

We’ll probably never know, and someone will be quietly moved along…It hasn’t exactly been a good
2024 for NR Western.

It would suggest NR planning made a mistake however all the TOC planning teams & signallers never noticed the discrepancy either until it was time to run the first trains.

 

[Clarence Yard]

To be fair, the TOC planning teams are not familiar with electrical sections. They rely on NR planning being able to tell them which sections of line are available and what power is available, if any.

Someone in NR engineering is going to be very unpopular with NR’s planners (and management), let alone TOC management. This is not what engineering planning should be about.

 

[Horizon22]

To be fair, the TOC planning teams are not familiar with electrical sections. They rely on NR planning being able to tell them which sections of line are available and what power is available, if any.

Someone in NR engineering is going to be very unpopular with NR’s planners (and management), let alone TOC management. This is not what engineering planning should be about.

No indeed. The fault obviously lines with NR engineering / planning, although it might have been picked up by others but much less likely.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

To be fair, the TOC planning teams are not familiar with electrical sections. They rely on NR planning being able to tell them which sections of line are available and what power is available, if any.

Someone in NR engineering is going to be very unpopular with NR’s planners (and management), let alone TOC management. This is not what engineering planning should be about.

Thing is bank holiday works are subject to independent review often by outside parties to make sure this sort screw up doesn't occur. There is a whole NR standard for these reviews that was bought in following the Rugby debacle many years ago and a job of this size and complexity the possession and isolation planning arrangements should have been independently verified. The reviews involve NR ops and infrastructure teams along with train and freight companies so everyone should have known what the train plan was. It should have cater for overrun scenarios as well.

Anyhow all sorted now and they shouldn't make that mistake again over the next five years!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Ealing Broadway looked very busy when I passed through on a train from Euston about 11am, and back about 2pm.

Curiously a Reading stop was advertised on the trains in both directions - slightly annoying as I'd paid to go to Swindon, but there were no announcements on the platforms, either at the previous stop or at Reading itself, that it would do so, although at least in the down direction the doors were released.
Up service ran about 30 minutes late - the delay seemed to have been picked up before leaving Wales. By the time we left Reading the Penzance service was hot on its heels.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

One service from Penzance failed to make it past Plymouth (1Z82), and the return 1Z89 (1636 Euston-Penzance) does not appear to have run.

 

[PG]

I wonder who is going to be taking accountability for this monumental error

Why surely that'll be the Rail Minister...

 

[stuving]

Looking at the EAS, it says that now (27/12/24 0400 to 29/12/24 0130) both the Up Relief and Up Main are under possession from Acton West eastwards. That does seem to be where the 345s and 387s are reversing. Surely it can't be that simple?

After all, it also has:
0400 FRI 27/12 TO 0045 SUN 29/12 AND 0445 SUN 29/12 TO 0040 MON 30/12
ALL LINE BLOCK TRAINS TO START/TERMINATE AT EALING BROADWAY REVERSING AT ACTON
WEST
ELIZABETH LINE SERVICES TO RUN BETWEEN OOC AND CCOS VIA LINES 5 AND 6/CROSSRAIL
DEPOT LINE 1 ONLY
ITT SERVICE TO RUN AT HEATHROW

 

[Watershed]

Looking at the EAS, it says that now (27/12/24 0400 to 29/12/24 0130) both the Up Relief and Up Main are under possession from Acton West eastwards. That does seem to be where the 345s and 387s are reversing. Surely it can't be that simple?

After all, it also has:
0400 FRI 27/12 TO 0045 SUN 29/12 AND 0445 SUN 29/12 TO 0040 MON 30/12
ALL LINE BLOCK TRAINS TO START/TERMINATE AT EALING BROADWAY REVERSING AT ACTON
WEST
ELIZABETH LINE SERVICES TO RUN BETWEEN OOC AND CCOS VIA LINES 5 AND 6/CROSSRAIL
DEPOT LINE 1 ONLY
ITT SERVICE TO RUN AT HEATHROW

That's a summary but the exact possession limits (and isolation limits for OHLE) will be determined separately. Clearly it was a case of "left hand, right hand"...

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

This sounds like a significant and highly embarrassing NR screw up, if the traffic remarks in the possession notes state that trains are terminating at Ealing Broadway and reversing at Acton West, then GWR and MTR are not to be blamed for planning that. (Particularly given that NR Train Planning will have validated the timetable, which includes the rolling stock being electric etc.). If the electrical isolations do not facilitate the traffic remarks then it is NR’s problem 100%.

Do the reduced electrical isolation limits now prevent some of the planned engineering work from being completed I wonder?

 

[Adrian1980uk]

So many issues like this over the years has brought large organisations like NR to a halt and nothing moves forward other than a glacial and expensive pace. Not saying it's right but the next issue will be 'why does everything take so long'

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

So many issues like this over the years has brought large organisations like NR to a halt and nothing moves forward other than a glacial and expensive pace. Not saying it's right but the next issue will be 'why does everything take so long'

True but this is just basic project planning. Anyone who knew the wires would be switched off at Acton West would know that electric trains cannot reverse on the Acton West turnback, so clearly there isn’t a proper communication of the most basic elements of the plan between NR Planning and NR Engineering.

 

[LJA]

What a mess

Probably not as bad but overrunning engineering works around Doncaster caused a lot of trouble on the ECML and surroundings this morning as well. Not ideal on what is a very busy travelling day. Of course works can always overrun but bad day to happen (and you always wonder whether the fact it’s Christmas contributes……)

 

[The Planner]

If the correct isolation limits werent in PPS ( possession planning system) correctly then its going to cause problems. Traffic remarks are just that, remarks, they are rarely taken verbatim.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

If the correct isolation limits werent in PPS ( possession planning system) correctly then its going to cause problems. Traffic remarks are just that, remarks, they are rarely taken verbatim.

I disagree with the last part of your reply, traffic remarks usually form the basis of TOC/FOC amended timetable planning, particularly for major possessions on this scale. They’re also a contractual record of what has been agreed. If processes have deteriorated so that this is no longer reliably the case, then I would be extremely concerned.

 

[Harpo]

A quarter of the way into the 21st century and engineering planning remains a complex word soup that allows mutually exclusive plans to evolve and only get discovered at T-0.

One party says what it will close, the other tries to work out what’s left.

Simple published diagrams of 1) the railway remaining under the possession of the operator and 2) lines available to electric traction could have avoided the traps.