A week of delay on SWR

[zsl11913]

SWR seems to be hit badly by the heat and infrastructure failure - Since Tuesday there have been quite significant delays especially in the suburban area. First the heatwave and points failure, today there is a section of defective track that needs emergency repairment, basically knocked out services via Surbiton at Vauxhall, Earlsfield and Wimbledon. It's really frustrating given these are quite busy stations, especially Earlsfield has no other rail/tube station close by.

 

[zwk500]

SWR seems to be hit badly by the heat and infrastructure failure - Since Tuesday there have been quite significant delays especially in the suburban area. First the heatwave and points failure, today there is a section of defective track that needs emergency repairment, basically knocked out services via Surbiton at Vauxhall, Earlsfield and Wimbledon.

Ouch, that's going to get felt in the evening with people trying to get away from work or into town for drinks, gigs and shows.

It's really frustrating given these are quite busy stations, especially Earlsfield has no other rail/tube station close by.

Earlsfield is 1 mile from Southfields or Wimbledon Park tube stations on the Wimbledon Branch of the District line, 1.5 miles from Wandsworth Common station on the London Victoria-Brighton line and 1.75 miles from Tooting Bec tube station on the Northern Line. Inconvenient yes, but hardly nothing close by. And that's before looking at bus options to slightly further out stations.

 

[Tetragon213]

It's been a week of complete fiascos.

My mum has had both her journeys face disruption to and from Glasgow, with the return journey affected by heat on the WoEML

I then had that complete disaster involving the failed train at Bath on Wednesday.

And finally disruption today to Basingstoke both due to the rail repair near London AND a suspected burst water main further down the SWML.

4 journeys within the family, 4 lots of disruption and 4 different claims for delay repay, as well as getting a gigantic earful from an irate family in its entirety, as I was the idiot who convinced my mother to give the railway another chance after her previous run-ins.

And to think we had to pay for that shoddy service...

Class 159 services were terminating short at BSK, before booting people off for the DC services into Waterloo. When I left on the Manchester train, they looked to be running between 12 and 20L on services Up to Waterloo.

The 444 and 450 services all looked to be full and standing only from BSK towards Waterloo.

I can only pray the air con was working for them!

 

[Swedenorer]

SWR seems to be hit badly by the heat and infrastructure failure - Since Tuesday there have been quite significant delays especially in the suburban area. First the heatwave and points failure, today there is a section of defective track that needs emergency repairment, basically knocked out services via Surbiton at Vauxhall, Earlsfield and Wimbledon. It's really frustrating given these are quite busy stations, especially Earlsfield has no other rail/tube station close by.

It wasn't so special last Sunday either. Problems at Hilsea - again... The RRBs to Pompey all week seem to be working though.

 

[gabrielhj07]

And another incident at Vauxhall just a moment ago. Plenty of chaos with stuff being held as far back as Basingstoke.

 

[nctd2306]

It hasn't been a week of disruption on SWR, it's been more like three weeks.

The starting point for all of this seemed to be the (first) GSMR failure a few weeks ago. Since that day, there has been one form or another of major disruption on SWR (and in particular the suburban network) almost every single day. The infrastructure definitely seems to have taken a dive with this hot weather but things like fatalities, train break downs and completely random events like the aforementioned GSMR failure seem to be occurring there or four times a week.
The Staines to Clapham corridor recently had two suicides in under 24 hours which destroyed the evening peak and then the following morning peak.

I think with SWR, it's been one bout of bad luck after the next with not much chance to recover.

 

[gabrielhj07]

It seems that SWR are being suitably proactive and holding stuff in platforms instead of letting queues build up on the line.

I was quite lucky on 2P54 at Weybridge, able to get as far as Twickeham via Addlestone.

 

[zsl11913]

Think SWR's most suburban services were wiped out and now nothing is in or out of Waterloo given the sad incident.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I wondered what was going on as I went over the Brighton flyover near Queenstown Road. Saw an Up Slow train stationary adjacent Pouparts Jn whilst a Down Alton seemed to weave onto the slows in front of it. Whilst plenty of trains were stacked adjacent Queenstown Road.

 

[MrToad]

So having to go and collect my son yet again, for what seems like about the 10th time this month, when something like this happens, why can they not terminate the trains at somewhere like Clapham, Woking or wherever and run a skeleton service back the other way, rather than simply stopping all trains as far afield as Basingstoke and beyond?

When there has been engineering work between Weybridge and Wimbledon, SWR will run trains from Southampton/Basingstoke as far as Woking, and then disembark passengers there so they can put them on one of the reduced services that runs via Staines. The driver will then walk to the other end of the train and the journey back will start at Woking, so the points/signals etc must allow for trains to run out of Platforms 1 and 2 back towards Basingstoke?

I would have thought train operators would have a "playbook" where if an incident happens that closes the lines, e.g. a tree down at Walton-on-Thames or a points failure at Earlsfield, they could simply have a pre-prepared plan B that they could switch in?

Obviously it is not as simple as this, otherwise they would do it?

 

[fandroid]

I was caught up in the aftermath of an incident yesterday. That happened somewhere on the West of England line. The train that would have formed the 14.20 from Waterloo was turned round at Basingstoke. The off-peak timetable for fast trains between Waterloo and Basingstoke is really lopsided, so there might be 4tph total but they are all between xx.50 and xx.20. The next train to take stranded passengers towards Basingstoke and Salisbury at 14.50 was a 2-car 158 unit! It was horrendous, and we still had heatwave conditions in London and the SE.

Common sense suggests that no train leaving Waterloo during the working day should be shorter than a 4-car set. Even that is a lot shorter than the average Waterloo train.

There must have been a 3-car 159 somewhere that was being rested for the afternoon.

Given the current nightmare that SWR are enduring, they should get every usable unit out onto the tracks, in order to cover all eventualities and be there when desperate displaced passengers need them.

 

[zsl11913]

Currently at Waterloo, some suburban trains are kinda looking like going somewhere but no one really knows if they will leave. Someone (assuming staff) blow the whistle and no one knows which train that refers to either. SWR is really having a bad time.

 

[Lifelong]

It’s a horror story for sure, like many I’ve had a terrible May on SWR. Following on from the note above, I am quizzical as to why at least some trains are not being turned at Woking (the lines or at least some of them are bi-directional)

A very significant issue across SWR is staffing - quantity not quality. Aside from Surbiton, Woking and Guildford it’s all over the place. Entry level gateline assistants left on their own at Haslemere and as for Havant….with the RRBs on top of delays etc a very sorry state of affairs. Unlike sad incidents like this evening, staffing is within the company’s gift….

 

[Teddy Greene]

The West of England mainline hasn't run on time for months.
Too many trains for what track there is.
one late in the morning it stays consistant to that delay all day.
Theres no recovery time, even when they decide to turn round at honiton

 

[DNCharingX]

Looking at social media, I really wish I could give these ghouls a piece of my mind, someone isn't going home today...

 

[jfollows]

Earlsfield is 1 mile from Southfields or Wimbledon Park tube stations on the Wimbledon Branch of the District line, 1.5 miles from Wandsworth Common station on the London Victoria-Brighton line and 1.75 miles from Tooting Bec tube station on the Northern Line. Inconvenient yes, but hardly nothing close by. And that's before looking at bus options to slightly further out stations.

Agreed. it was my local station in 1983-84.
Tooting Broadway, Wimbledon Park and Wandsworth Common were alternatives, and even Wimbledon by bicycle. No big deal.

 

[Alex C.]

Last week I travelled into London on Tuesday and Thursday (from Fratton). Both days we were diverted via Basingstoke, and both days we were further delayed by failed rolling stock on the SWML. I actually can't remember the last time day I was able to get into London and back without any delays.

 

[Highview]

The Surbiton - Berrylands - New Malden RRB appears to have been the most reliable SWR metro service this week!

 

[zsl11913]

The Surbiton - Berrylands - New Malden RRB appears to have been the most reliable SWR metro service this week!

Don't jinx it...

 

[Kite159]

Woking isn't ideal to turn trains around when the brown stuff hits the spinning object. From the Basingstoke/Alton direction trains can only use platforms 1 or 2. Trains from the Portsmouth branch line can also arrive into 4-6. So it won't take much to get trains stuck outside from the Brookwood direction.

Compared with Basingstoke where all 4 platforms (ignoring the Reading Bay) can be accessed from both directions with Barton Mill sidings close by to allow trains to 'disappear'.

It's been a rubbish week full stop, heat related issues, overcrowding, points issues at Wimbledon etc

 

[Steven Taylor]

Agreed. it was my local station in 1983-84.
Tooting Broadway, Wimbledon Park and Wandsworth Common were alternatives, and even Wimbledon by bicycle. No big deal.

I live at Clapham Junction and use Earlsfield station a couple of times a week. I am over 70, and trust me, it is a `big deal` if I have to walk 1 to 2 kilometres, especially in the current heatwave. OK, there is a very good bus network available, but it will take a lot longer than 3 minutes by train from Clapham Junction.

 

[Recessio]

There's some engineering work today (including a complete line closure through Surbiton affecting Metro/Suburban services), but otherwise the remaining service seems good today so far.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

A lot of decisions relating to turning back trains (or not) at Woking etc (on the UP) will be governed by crowding issues. If three trains, lets say an UP Pompey, and UP Weymouth, and an UP Alton are all terminated there, and there is only potentially one service going forward to Waterloo be that via Surbiton or Chertsey, there is a very real potential for platform overcrowding and the obvious dangers that can follow, not to mention (given the heat of last few days) staff becoming victims of passengers frustrations.

I live at Clapham Junction and use Earlsfield station a couple of times a week. I am over 70, and trust me, it is a `big deal` if I have to walk 1 to 2 kilometres, especially in the current heatwave

Wim Park and Southfields crossed my mind, having walked from Wim depot to Earlsfield back when I was on the job, as a change from using the LU, but as you say, in 'one's senior years, not such a good idea in the heat.

 

[Cymroglan]

We have had so many appalling experiences on the Waterloo - Weymouth line over the last 12 months that we have given up and now travel by car and occasionally by coach instead. I imagine the regular problems are due to a combination of factors including bad luck, weather, and a signalling system which should be robust but is really frail (if SWR are giving telling the truth about reasons for the delays).
Living in the New Forest, our suffering is compounded by the Brains Trust at Control who promptly respond to any delay by skipping all stations in the Forest. This happened to our son travelling to visit us with his two very young children on Thursday 28/05. They were turfed off at Southampton Central, not easy with all the equipment he had, and were on a rammed 4 coach train, arriving an hour late. At the end of their visit we drove them back to London just to ensure they reached home.

 

[zsl11913]

uLiving in the New Forest, our suffering is compounded by the Brains Trust at Control who promptly respond to any delay by skipping all stations in the Forest.

Surely if these stations have only 1tph 2tph, skipping them would not be the usual way to deal with the delay?

 

[Cymroglan]

Surely if these stations have only 1tph 2tph, skipping them would not be the usual way to deal with the delay?

I honestly don’t understand their “thinking” about this. The last time it happened to me was a couple of months ago when I was trying to travel from Southampton Central to Sway or New Milton. Trains were running late, nevertheless we were allowed to board at Southampton but turfed out at Brockenhurst. After some considerable time, we were told by station staff to travel to Bournemouth on the next train and then catch a stopping service back towards Southampton. A somewhat protracted journey! It happens so often. So we almost always drive to wherever rather than risking the train.

 

[NSEWonderer]

A lot of fatalities have happened in may ontop of then infrastructure failures. Sadly the fatality bit seems to be onbthe rise more interms of frequency

 

[Lewis66655]

Some of this is SWR's fault, staff telling customer's conflicting information, trains departing at random from Waterloo, trains skipping stops when you're already on it. Dispatchers at Waterloo also seem to have a habbit of shouting the train is ready to leave at customers when the signal is still at danger, leading to a stampede of people running. Constants announcements at Waterloo, saying the 14:20 service had been cancelled when it's 5PM -- really? It's just poor service. For example, I was at CLJ and told to go back to Waterloo to catch a train but I could already see an Alton train had left Waterloo on RTT. They seem to give-up running a service whenever there's a disruption. They obviously push the TRTS button at Waterloo when the driver has arrived, why can't staff check their own maps and advise customers.

 

[embers25]

Woking isn't ideal to turn trains around when the brown stuff hits the spinning object. From the Basingstoke/Alton direction trains can only use platforms 1 or 2. Trains from the Portsmouth branch line can also arrive into 4-6. So it won't take much to get trains stuck outside from the Brookwood direction.

Compared with Basingstoke where all 4 platforms (ignoring the Reading Bay) can be accessed from both directions with Barton Mill sidings close by to allow trains to 'disappear'.

It's been a rubbish week full stop, heat related issues, overcrowding, points issues at Wimbledon etc

Basingstoke is the logical place to terminate the West of England short, but then they need to stop the fast Winchester-Woking trains extra there to pick up the stranded passengers going into London. This almost never happens (except sometimes when the 0510 from Exeter is curtailed there).

Coming from London they never to wait for the xx03 to Pompey to arrive when connections are running almost ok or the xx48 to Weymouth when things are going more pear shaped. So many times this week the xx48 was held for 5 mins outside Basingstoke to let the xx07 Exeter train leave when the Exeter train gets waiting time at Andover, outside Salisbury and Tisbury loop and connects to nothing at Salisbury. It often leaves Basingstoke up to 10 mins late and is on time at Gillingham, particularly when not splitting at Salisbury. There is often no reason the xx48 or xx03 couldn't have been brought in first rather than being held outside. Often, if that had been done the Exeter train would only have left a couple of minutes late instead of making people wait an hour, which we as tax payers pick up the can on with unnecessary delay repay being triggered.

It's even more galling when they don't hold the Exeter train knowing it will have to wait 5-10 mins at Tisbury loop for a late running Eastbound train anyway. SWR are supposed to be more joined up but have gotten worse than ever. I understand if the connection is far away but when it is literally at the signal and prevented from entering the platform, even when Platform 1 or 3 are clear at worst is mad.

As for the 2 coach train from Waterloo, there have been numerous 3 coach trains the whole way from Waterloo to Exeter, even today and during shoulder peak. As these take longer at each stop to cram people on they invariably miss their slot at Honiton and so get held there for 20-30 minutes, as today. SWR have given up even listing them on journeycheck now as its almost every train that is short-formed by between 1 and 7 coaches.

Listening to Lawrence Bowman on Green Signals and reading his report of his meeting with SWR Watch, he says all the right words, but frankly is delivering the worst performance I can remember. Some issues are beyond SWR's control like trespass and fatalities, but their constant lack of care for their customers and awful service recovery, like demonstrated at Basingstoke, is ridiculous.

Even GWR try to maintain connections at Exeter, Plymouth and other interchanges where the impact is small. The last London-Plymouth runs late and the last Penzance is held (for almost an hour last week), similarly with Exmouth and Barnstaple connections despite the single track. SWR however just abandon you. If the last connecting train from Waterloo will miss the last curtailed Exeter train at Basingstoke, it won't wait even a couple of minutes. It's just ridiculous.

 

[Kite159]

The diesel fleet has had a few issues with engines lately, hence the various short forms. In my eyes both Weymouth trains should call at Basingstoke even when things are good, just to help even out the load. You just need to be at Winchester to see the volume of passengers leaving the Weymouth - London train which is next stop Woking and remaining on the platform for the train from Portsmouth to take them to Basingstoke.