17:23 Euston to Wolverhampton stuck at Watford Junction, Thursday evening

[sprinterguy]

Quite often, my usual commute home from London is on-board the 17:23 Euston to Wolverhampton. Some minor items of business kept me in the office slightly longer than usual, and I later became thankful for it. I travelled home on the following 17:43 train instead, and just before Watford Junction we were diverted onto the slow lines, and overtook the 17:23 to Wolves still sitting in the platform on the fast lines, with a lot of bored looking passengers still sitting on the train. Does anybody know what was causing the hold up for this train?

This minor diversion onto the slow through Watford Junction also gave me a taste of what my commute would have been like back in loco-hauled days, as the minor delay that we accumulated near the beginning of our journey began to build up dramatically once we got into the West Midlands, despite the fact that we absolutely flew up the West Coast between Watford Junction and Rugby, so that the journey back to Birmingham took 1 hour 50 mins!

 

[Crossover]

It seems that the emergency services may have been dealing with an incident. The train departed WFJ 33 mins late and arrived at Wolverhampton 30 down

 

[mattyb1405]

Would this be the cause of the delays and cancellations to LM services between 5 and 6 at Bham New Street. Needing a local train to Cov and found that the 17.33 was cancelled and showing as such, so decided to head home slowly initially getting the 17.36 ATW services to Bham Intl. The screen at Intl was still showing what would of been the 17.33 ex New Street as running but delayed - how come when one station's info screens are updated another's are not? The staff at Intl for example were also not aware of the 17.33 ex New St being cancelled! Is it as much down to a different toc running the services to that running the station?

 

[yorkie]

....also gave me a taste of what my commute would have been like back in loco-hauled days, as the minor delay that we accumulated near the beginning of our journey began to build up dramatically once we got into the West Midlands...

Yes, the WCML was a mess back in those days with frequent delays. It's not as bad now, but it's still not exactly reliable. But you can avoid WCML delays and and use a loco-hauled train by taking the 1807 from Marylebone.

I'm not quite sure why you are thankful for taking a train that arrived 15 minutes later into Birmingham New Street though!

 

[Nym]

Thankfully I pulled up into WFJ immediately after the 17:23 on the slows, so it didn't affect me

But I can say that thanks to the horrendous traffic in North Watford that afternoon, the ambulance didn't arrive until 18:10(!)

PS: The 17:30 to MKC formed of two 350/1 units, WIN, comfy seat

 

[sprinterguy]

I'm not quite sure why you are thankful for taking a train that arrived 15 minutes later into Birmingham New Street though!

There's no way that the 17:43 arrived into New Street 15 minutes later than the 17:23. We overtook it at Watford Junction, it never ever had the opportunity to overtake us again, so the 17:23 was behind us somewhere all the way. If I had been onboard the 17:23 then I would have been sat watching the 17:43 sail past me.
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Yes, the WCML was a mess back in those days with frequent delays. It's not as bad now, but it's still not exactly reliable. But you can avoid WCML delays and and use a loco-hauled train by taking the 1807 from Marylebone.

Unfortunately, my off-peak tickets are not valid on the 18:07 from Marylebone, otherwise I surely would be catching that one! I wouldn't say that the WCML is "still not exactly reliable" either (I've probably just invoked sod's law there for getting home tonight!): I travel up and down it five days a week at least, and only three or four times in as many months have I encountered some sort of problem, and nothing that has delayed me by a dramatic amount.
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It seems that the emergency services may have been dealing with an incident. The train departed WFJ 33 mins late and arrived at Wolverhampton 30 down

Thanks for the information

 

[yorkie]

There's no way that the 17:43 arrived into New Street 15 minutes later than the 17:23. We overtook it at Watford Junction, it never ever had the opportunity to overtake us again, so the 17:23 was behind us somewhere all the way. If I had been onboard the 17:23 then I would have been sat watching the 17:43 sail past me.

It overtook you at MKC and had a much faster run from there to BHM.

 

[sprinterguy]

It overtook you at MKC and had a much faster run from there to BHM.

Did it? hock: By ‘eck, I didn’t notice that. Apologies!