Bedford-Bletchley: Suggest you get out and walk...

[Z12XE]

....it would be quicker!

from National Rail:

Bedford, Stewartby, Lidlington, Aspley Guise, Woburn Sands, Fenny Stratford & Bletchley

TOC Affected London Midland
Description

Train services on the line between Bedford and Bletchley will be disrupted for part of the day today due to heat related speed restrictions being imposed. The following service changes will apply on Saturday 10 May 2008.

A normal service will apply until 11:40.

From 11:40 until 19:20 a reduced service will operate. Journey times will be extended from 42 minutes to approximately 100 minutes.

Trains will depart Bedford at 11:49, 13:30, 15:30 and 17:30. Trains will depart Bletchley at 11:57, 13:57, 15:57 and 17:57.

A normal service will resume with the 19:21 Bedford to Bletchley and 19:47 Bletchley to Bedford services.

I assume this is to do with previous track works where the new track hasn't been retentioned for hotter weather?

 

[westcoaster]

1hr 40 your having a laugh seriously its only iirc 16 miles even if the whole line was to go down to 20mph it would still take an hour

if you look at the new timmings they do not link up with the 100 min journey, i.e the 11:49 from bly will be the 13:30 from bdm which by my timmings make that about 90 mins

utter disgrace poor guys+girls down there today on boiling 150+ 153.

 

[Jordy]

A shocking average of 10mph!

 

[me123]

That would be like Chinese torture! A can't stand it when were slow to 20 past a yellow, never mind 10mph!

 

[djw1981]

Eh..... not sure what you mean me123...If a safety restriction is in place you cannot go faster. What interests me more is that the gap between rail work and tensioning is not shorter. Ok this is a branchline, but surely there could have been time found for it, or is every NR employee in that area on WCRM work at the moment?

 

[P156KWJ]

pah! if you think that was bad, I am an extremely unlucky person - as I have travelled on what was voted THE SLOWEST intercity service ever! In October 2000 (the exact date escapes me) not long after Hatfield when Failtrack slapped TSRs everywhere, the 2200 Midland Mainline St Pancras - Nottingham HST was SEVERELY delayed. After leaving London about 45 mins late, it took about 2 hours just to get to Bedford. Another 1.5 hours to Kettering. by this time, a lot of people crammed in to coach A (bearing in mind smoking was still allowed in that coach at the time), just to have a fag. Or anywhere you liked by that time. IIRC they were basically giving away anything out the buffet for free. we arrived in to Nottingham on coaches at 0700 the following morning :roll:

 

[yorkie]

156401, was that during the floods that happened after Hatfield?

 

[me123]

Eh..... not sure what you mean me123...

I can't stand travelling slowly along a "fast" line, like when I'm travellling behind yellows going into Glasgow Central we slow down to what seems like about 20-30mph.

 

[djw1981]

Whats the alternative though 10mph in a car/bus traveling parallel......it is sadly a function of teh capcity issues of modern railways in the UK

 

[me123]

Yeah, I know it's there for a reason, but when you're used to flying down at about 75mph, it can feel a bit...slow

 

[djw1981]

Yeah, so does coming off the M74 onto London road but if you're gonna get frustrated when you are driving as well...then I wanna stay out your way

 

[me123]

I can live with it, it's just a bit annoying, especially when it's because the signal box "forgot about us" (genuine reason!)

 

[TheSlash]

What interests me more is that the gap between rail work and tensioning is not shorter. Ok this is a branchline, but surely there could have been time found for it, or is every NR employee in that area on WCRM work at the moment?

It can be quite a difficult thing to resource, especially if the stress job is longer than the minimum 10 chain + plus closure rail.
Then you have to account for the set up time for welding, i was on a job Saturday night where it took an hour for the welders to set up the weld.
All this means it can take quite alot of time to restore the stress

 

[P156KWJ]

156401, was that during the floods that happened after Hatfield?

no, it was October 2000. The great Nottingham flood was November 2000, it is chiselled in the wall next to Trent Bridge how high it got, along with previous floods (think June 2007 was too).

 

[gordonthemoron]

2007 flood may possibly have gone over the cycle path underneath Trent Bridge on the bridgford side, but that's all