Dicky wireless makes Chiltern cancel parliamentary train

[DelW]

TOCs should be concerned about all their passengers. The purpose of that passenger's journey is of no concern to them, but the fact that they have bought a ticket should be.

ROB

But passengers simply wanting to get to Paddington could easily do so by travelling to Marylebone on the next available train and then walk or tube to Pad.

 

[swt class 450]

Would passengers be entitled to Delay Repay because of the cancellation of this service? I am pretty sure that getting the next train to London Marylebone and then walking to London Paddington (or getting the London Underground if you have a ticket that allows this) would delay you by over 30 minutes?

 

[PermitToTravel]

TOCs should be concerned about all their passengers. The purpose of that passenger's journey is of no concern to them, but the fact that they have bought a ticket should be.

ROB

Sure. If a train has to be cancelled, that's the right one - it only goes between stations served by the Underground, so everyone can still make their journey. The other diagrams all leave London and serve stations where the passengers wouldn't be able to make their journey.

 

[philthetube]

I wonder if ticket acceptance was arranged on the underground.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Chiltern Railways replied very promptly to my complaint as follows ...

Dear Mr Old Yard Dog,

Thank you for getting in touch.

I am sorry that your train from South Ruislip to London Paddington was cancelled on Monday morning.

The train was cancelled because the driver of the train was unable to connect the train's radio to the GSMR radio network. This is the system that is used to communicate with the signaller (and is considered to be safety critical).

Since Monday, due to an identical fault occurring (for the same scheduled train to Paddington) on subsequent days, using different trains and with different drivers, we have been able to prove that the fault was with the local Network Rail radio mast and which only affect our once a day trains to and from Paddington. The resolution of the issue was taken very seriously (we do not like cancelling trains), to the extent that yesterday the train ran with two drivers and a member of our engineering team on board.

Since the beginning of the current timetable the train has been cancelled on three occasions:

• Thursday 23rd February - Storm Doris (A strategic decision to ensure that we had as many drivers as possible at Marylebone and avoid the risk of the train being stranded at Paddington in the event of infrastructure problems)

• Monday 27th February - GSMR Fault

• Tuesday 28th February - GSMR Fault (this was when steps were taken to understand the root cause of the problem).

As your journey was delayed by more than 30 minutes, under the terms of our Passenger's Charter, you are entitled to apply for Delay Compensation as a result of the cancellation.

If you wish to apply for Compensation please submit an application via our web site. The Enquiry type is 'Delay Compensation'. If you travelled using an Oyster Card, please attach a copy of your Oyster journey history as an alternative to submitting a copy of your train ticket.

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/compensation

Alternatively, please reply to this message with a copy of evidence of travel.

The train ran to time today, so I do hope that you have the opportunity to use the rather unusual train service to Paddington sometime soon.

(I won't be asking for compensation)

 

[AlterEgo]

That's a decent response. They even acknowledge it's an unusual service.

 

[MichaelWells]

I was on Network Rails TRU was in the area at the same time testing South Ruislip GSMR on both Monday and Friday...be interesting to see the data from that

 

[68000]

The fault is likely to be PNO interference as the train radio will pick up adjacent cells if the one serving the area is down. If it was PNO interference it is likely to be localised and I suspect that the train will have picked up the GSM-R later in the journey