Gas leak at Didcot 23/09/26

[mickey]

A friend is supposed to be travelling from Reading to Cardiff tomorrow and is very worried about this. Are there any alternative routes he could try? National Rail Enquiries journey planner is extremely unhelpful as it just lists all the cancelled services.

Reading to Bristol will be operating at least hourly, via Westbury. Plenty of connections at Bristol for Cardiff.

 

[moogal]

Reading to Bristol will be operating at least hourly, via Westbury. Plenty of connections at Bristol for Cardiff.

Thanks very much, have relayed this to them. Looks like today it's the xx55 from Reading, and as you say, plenty of onward trains from Bristol to Cardiff.

 

[Siemens Staines]

If the line is shut for days, then presumably some plan will need to be made to fuel & service the Oxford 165s, which are already operating one short today.

 

[fishwomp]

Presumably via Pewsey and Westbury. Pretty standard when Uffington is closed.

Wondering if many GWR drivers now sign via Bicester - given the upcoming diversions in December! .. but alas it's not happening.

North of Oxford the up carriage sidings are pretty full of 80x this morning. Aren't they lucky the Botley Road is back open - the replacement bus to Reading won't be as bad as it would have been until last weekend.

 

[CR165022]

If the line is shut for days, then presumably some plan will need to be made to fuel & service the Oxford 165s, which are already operating one short today.

A few years back when Oxford-Didcot was shut because that bridge needed repairs, the 165s stuck at Oxford went to the depot at Banbury for refueling, so they might need to do that again?

 

[PP57601]

A friend is supposed to be travelling from Reading to Cardiff tomorrow and is very worried about this. Are there any alternative routes he could try? National Rail Enquiries journey planner is extremely unhelpful as it just lists all the cancelled services.

Assuming the issue continues tomorrow, I would suspect GWR will divert Bristol TM services via Newbury, and/or possibly start South Wales services from Swindon?

 

[mickey]

A few years back when Oxford-Didcot was shut because that bridge needed repairs, the 165s stuck at Oxford went to the depot at Banbury for refueling, so they might need to do that again?

Didcot West curve is open, so they could be rotated in/out through Westbury if needed. Could even be done in service, given the Oxford-Bristol direct has restarted.

 

[ox_chap]

Is it to the east of Didcot? As I notice a couple of freight gone round the curve onto and off the GWML

So this might be a bit naive, but couldn't the new East-West drivers pilot from Oxford to Milton Keynes? Hence with the curve open round the back of Didcot, some IETs running Bristol TM, Oxford, collect a driver to pilot, then on to Milton Keynes where people can change there for London.

Go on rail managers, give it a try, if it was all safe to do something like this?

 

[Benjwri]

So this might be a bit naive, but couldn't the new East-West drivers pilot from Oxford to Milton Keynes? Hence with the curve open round the back of Didcot, some IETs running Bristol TM, Oxford, collect a driver to pilot, then on to Milton Keynes where people can change there for London.

Go on rail managers, give it a try, if it was all safe to do something like this?

They don’t sign the route yet. You could use GBRF or the like to do it, as is being done in November, but to what benefit?

Going via Westbury is a lot quicker, even without changing ant Milton Keynes the time penalty is large, and significantly cheaper because you don’t need to pay for the pilots. There wouldn’t be much, if any capacity, without cutting WCML services regardless

 

[ox_chap]

They don’t sign the route yet. You could use GBRF or the like to do it, as is being done in November, but to what benefit?

Going via Westbury is a lot quicker, even without changing ant Milton Keynes the time penalty is large, and significantly cheaper because you don’t need to pay for the pilots. There wouldn’t be much, if any capacity, without cutting WCML services regardless

Of course, but wouldn't Chippenham and, especially, Swindon passengers really appreciate something like that? I'm not suggesting onward to Euston without changing - simply getting passengers to the West Coast main line for connections.

 

[mickey]

Of course, but wouldn't Chippenham and, especially, Swindon passengers really appreciate something like that? I'm not suggesting onward to Euston without changing - simply getting passengers to the West Coast main line for connections.

Because there’s a whole bunch of pilots sitting round doing nothing…? It’s one thing arranging this with two months’ notice, quite another in two hours.

And before we get to ‘nice-to-have’, there are far higher priorities. Such as giving Goring *any* service at all. Currently there isn’t even a replacement bus.

If you’re suggesting changing at MKC, why can’t they just change at Westbury or Bath?

 

[CR165022]

Surely if passengers were going to London, they'd just change at Oxford and head into Marylebone? By the time they'd reach Milton Keynes and made a connection, a Chiltern service would already be nearly halfway to London and would get there quicker than any Avanti connection made

 

[ox_chap]

Surely if passengers were going to London, they'd just change at Oxford and head into Marylebone? By the time they'd reach Milton Keynes and made a connection, a Chiltern service would already be nearly halfway to London and would get there quicker than any Avanti connection made

The problem we have in Oxford, is when things go wrong, and everyone clambers on board a Chiltern train, it gets total overwhelmed by the time it reaches London. This is potentially unfair to loyal Chiltern customers, who get left behind at intermediate stations.

On the "pilots", aren't there a set of drivers available who will drive the Oxford to Milton Keynes trains, once the guard issue is resolved? So there are people available to pilot?

I'm sure there are incredible efforts being made to keep people moving at the moment, and I'm just tapping away on a keyboard. But it always feels to me that East-West Rail offers so many opportunities to help during times of disruption.

 

[mickey]

The problem we have in Oxford, is when things go wrong, and everyone clambers on board a Chiltern train, it gets total overwhelmed by the time it reaches London. This is potentially unfair to loyal Chiltern customers, who get left behind at intermediate stations.

On the "pilots", aren't there a set of drivers available who will drive the Oxford to Milton Keynes trains, once the guard issue is resolved? So there are people available to pilot?

I'm sure there are incredible efforts being made to keep people moving at the moment, and I'm just tapping away on a keyboard. But it always feels to me that East-West Rail offers so many opportunities to help during times of disruption.

One person’s ’unfair’ is another’s ’helping to get people moving’. It was posted upthread that Chiltern have added extra coaches, which will help. They’re also good at adding extra stops to fast services in the unlikely event that people get left behind. And of course GWR helps when they get screwed up too so it works both ways round.

Again, there aren’t people sitting round on shift doing nothing. EW drivers aren’t being rostered to sit in a mess room every day for six months!

EWR will absolutely help with disruption management… once it’s open. Until then, patience is better than crayonista-fat-controllering.

 

[800002]

I don’t think you could blame NR..

A pity it wasn't NR works who damaged it, then you could blame them.

A few years back when Oxford-Didcot was shut because that bridge needed repairs, the 165s stuck at Oxford went to the depot at Banbury for refueling, so they might need to do that again?

Only if their going to use them and run them out of fuel.

So this might be a bit naive, but couldn't the new East-West drivers pilot from Oxford to Milton Keynes? Hence with the curve open round the back of Didcot, some IETs running Bristol TM, Oxford, collect a driver to pilot, then on to Milton Keynes where people can change there for London.

Go on rail managers, give it a try, if it was all safe to do something like this?

On the "pilots", aren't there a set of drivers available who will drive the Oxford to Milton Keynes trains, once the guard issue is resolved? So there are people available to pilot?

Such an interesting proposition.
There are qualified drivers with knowledge between Bicester and Milton Keynes.
The 80x is cleared.
Would just need some one to agree to take the WCML delay minutes which would inevitably pile up.

It would be a massive ask of several organisations, sone of whomever would want a vast amount of money... GWR not yet being in the stable.

 

[TastyMaltesers]

Didcot West curve is open, so they could be rotated in/out through Westbury if needed. Could even be done in service, given the Oxford-Bristol direct has restarted.

GWR has no facilities for refuelling at Westbury. More likely to use the Oxford - Bristol service to cycle them through St Philips Marsh Depot instead.

 

[Benjwri]

On the "pilots", aren't there a set of drivers available who will drive the Oxford to Milton Keynes trains, once the guard issue is resolved? So there are people available to pilot?

As far as I’m aware the Chiltern drivers who will do so do not have route knowledge for EWR yet.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 15:52 ==

The problem we have in Oxford, is when things go wrong, and everyone clambers on board a Chiltern train, it gets total overwhelmed by the time it reaches London. This is potentially unfair to loyal Chiltern customers, who get left behind at intermediate stations.

What passenger is going to choose to take a train to Milton Keynes, change there and then another train, rather than a direct from from Oxford that is also quicker?

 

[ox_chap]

As far as I’m aware the Chiltern drivers who will do so do not have route knowledge for EWR yet.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 15:52 ==


What passenger is going to choose to take a train to Milton Keynes, change there and then another train, rather than a direct from from Oxford that is also quicker?

If I lived in Swindon, and wanted to get to London today, I might appreciate a direct train to Milton Keynes. So change into the WCML, where the latter has high frequency and a lot of capacity. Rather than changing at Oxford into a half-hourly service with smaller trains, which are likely to become extremely crowded? My guess is Chiltern might prefer that too, so there are no problems at the intermediate stations on the way to Marylebone?

Maybe I'm missing something - sorry if that's the case?

 

[800002]

As far as I’m aware the Chiltern drivers who will do so do not have route knowledge for EWR yet.

There is an ever increasing number of Chiltern drivers who possess such knowledge to obtain Milton Keynes, from Oxford.

 

[Laserbeam31]

Have read on internal coms that a 10’’ gas main has a 12’’ hole put in it and it is venting towards the railway. It’s unable to be isolated and repairs could take up to two days. I don’t think you could blame NR for being over cautious about this event. We shall see how quickly the repair can be achieved but that is down to the gas supplier.

That does indeed sound quite bad... Apologies if this seems like an obvious question, but if it can't be isolated, how can repairs be conducted at all, and how is the risk of explosion managed more generally if the gas is continuing to emerge? Is this a common situation to be in, in the event of ruptured gas mains, where they can't be turned off?

 

[Falcon1200]

Concentrated gas burns (bad), gas diffused in air can explode (potentially catastrophic).

Another problem is that if an internal combustion engine operates in a area where gas is present, it is taking in extra fuel

Useful info, thanks.

Have read on internal coms that a 10’’ gas main has a 12’’ hole put in it and it is venting towards the railway. It’s unable to be isolated

One would have thought there would be valves at intervals allowing sections of pipeline to be isolated, for maintenance and of course incidents such as this. Otherwise how is the massive and ongoing loss of gas mitigated, and stopped?

So this might be a bit naive, but couldn't the new East-West drivers pilot from Oxford to Milton Keynes?

Presumably as well as the Drivers, the GWR Train Managers would require Route Conductors too.

 

[43096]

Have read on internal coms that a 10’’ gas main has a 12’’ hole put in it and it is venting towards the railway. It’s unable to be isolated and repairs could take up to two days. I don’t think you could blame NR for being over cautious about this event. We shall see how quickly the repair can be achieved but that is down to the gas supplier.

Unable to be isolated? Sorry, I don’t buy that. Unwilling to isolate, maybe…

 

[class ep-09]

That does indeed sound quite bad... Apologies if this seems like an obvious question, but if it can't be isolated, how can repairs be conducted at all, and how is the risk of explosion managed more generally if the gas is continuing to emerge? Is this a common situation to be in, in the event of ruptured gas mains, where they can't be turned off?

If pipe can’t be isolated - “ hot tapping “ method can be used ( I have not time explain details but easily available on internet)

 

[LW84]

Has the route possibly reopened? Several reinstated calls in the area on some GWR services?

 

[zwk500]

Has the route possibly reopened? Several reinstated calls in the area on some GWR services?

Nothing obvious on the Berth maps yet, but then it'll take a bit of time to get the change of plans communicated out to staff so keep an eye out. Rhere's a Paddington-Taunton approaching Reading that would normally go via Didcot, judging by it's headcode.

 

[fishwomp]

Has the route possibly reopened? Several reinstated calls in the area on some GWR services?

No - nothing updated on nationalrail, and nothing moving on traksy. Must be needing a bigger piece of gaffer tape.

 

[zwk500]

Rhere's a Paddington-Taunton approaching Reading that would normally go via Didcot, judging by it's headcode.

This service has ended up going via Newbury.

 

[800301]

Lines are now open but diesel only operation through the area at the moment, a full service is unlikely to reinstated at current

The leak has been repaired

 

[CR165022]

Still nothing going through at present although I'd imagine service alterations that have already been made can't be reverted that quickly

 

[trainophile]

At Bournemouth station at 16:15 today we saw with our own eyes a XC arriving. Nowhere on RTT can I see where it had come from, according to all the sources I’ve checked if it was the 11:25 ex-MAN PIC then it was terminated at Oxford.

Did it perhaps continue ECS?