FGW/Reading service disruption

[island]

Due to overrunning engineering works there are severe delays on most FGW mainline services this morning. Even though through HST services to/from Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Temple M have been limited this week, trains are running up to 30 minutes late in both directions. Connections are not being held. FGW's Twitter was locked for flooding.
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Lots of disorganization on 1B10 the St. David, 0742 Paddington to Swansea. 15 minutes down at Swindon and the guard announced that passengers for stations to Cheltenham should change to platform 2 for the 0938 service (having neatly missed the 0847 HST). I and others alighted onto platform 4 where the platform announcer said that anyone for Gloucester only should reboard the train and change at Bristol Parkway for the 0952 to Gloucester (origin Westbury), with passengers for Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse and Cheltenham going to the bay platform. The guard had meanwhile walked halfway down the train slamming doors only for a dozen people to reopen them and get on again, delaying the service further. He had an entirely justified rant out of the local door window to the dispatcher about inconsistent information.

 

[Harlesden]

Slamming doors? I thought we'd got rid of them.

 

[island]

Still alive and well on the GWML, and I think there are a few EMT and XC services using them too.

 

[jopsuk]

Slamming doors? I thought we'd got rid of them.

Not on Intercity trains. FGW have a large fleet of HSTs with slam doors (centrally locked). Smaller fleets at East Coast, East Midland Trains and Cross Country. Greater Anglia use slam door mark 3s on London-Norwich. One of Chiltern's loco hauled sets still hasn't been fitted with powered doors. Arriva Trains Wales have slam doors on the carriages used for the premier Express between the north and Cardiff.

That's just the "regular service" fleet- I think Scotrail still have some mark 2s running on the Fife Circle due to a (long term) shortage of DMUs. It is stood down now, but Virgin still have the Mark 3 "Pretendolino" in reserve. Plus the many charter fleets.

 

[Tomnick]

Slamming doors? I thought we'd got rid of them.

Not yet - and I'd suggest that these passengers, who had probably just seen the Guard walking down slamming the doors shut, might have been able to do their bit to avoid further delay by carrying out the very simple and familiar act of closing the doors behind them...!

 

[starrymarkb]

Slamming doors? I thought we'd got rid of them.

Slam doors are OK as long as they have central locking.

Wasn't IEP supposed to be in squadron service this year (when the original competition was being run - now it's 2017!) hence FGW didn't do anything to the doors. (the refurb was designed to take the Mk3s to the original IEP launch)

Some Mk3s will get sliding doors as part of the work to give the west HSTs a few more years pending further wiring or a full Diesel unit.

 

[GodAtum]

Shame I didnt bet on this. It was obvious that the amount of engineering work at reading over Easter would cause disruption.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Shame I didnt bet on this. It was obvious that the amount of engineering work at reading over Easter would cause disruption.

oh, soo cynical!!!

 

[Bald Rick]

Shame I didnt bet on this. It was obvious that the amount of engineering work at reading over Easter would cause disruption.

I'm not sure Ladbrokes run a book on this. Besides it's not that obvious. The possesion overan due to a signal failure at Twyford, not necessarily linked to the work. And it was fixed by 0425.

Main issue has been the train failure at Goring & Streatley.

 

[GodAtum]

Ah right. Anyone got any pics of the new station?

 

[yorkie]

Ah right. Anyone got any pics of the new station?

This thread is about today's disruption, there is another thread about the Reading improvement works, see here.

 

[vicbury]

Tuesday 2 April 2013 - Update: 19:40

First Great Western would like to apologise for the delays to some services in the Thames Valley which were compounded by the very limited capacity at Reading Station.

Having re-evaluated our plans for the remainder of the week with Network Rail and other Train Operating Companies, a revised timetable will be in operation. Please check JourneyCheck for the latest updates and revised timetable for your journey before travelling.

Our normal timetable will resume once Network Rail has completed their work on 8 April.

Please follow us on Twitter @FGW for real time updates and your questions answered.

It seems that the disruption today has been more directly linked to the Reading engineering than previously stated in this thread.

Should have an interesting journey from Bristol to Swindon at 0730 tomorrow!

 

[fgwrich]

It's only set to continue. Ouch.

First Great Western Facebook
"Delays to some train services in the Thames Valley this morning were related to a number of problems in the region. These problems were compounded by the very limited capacity at Reading station, while improvement work continues, which had a greater affect on our ability to recover quickly from otherwise relatively small delays than originally thought.

"We worked hard with Network Rail to minimise the delays, but it quickly became clear that the number of trains we were trying to operate through the area was affecting our ability to get our services back on track, and our customers to where they needed to go, as quickly as we would have liked.

"Having re-looked at our plans with Network Rail and other train operating companies this afternoon, we've revised our special timetable for the remainder of the week. This will reduce the chance of congestion in the area and make sure our services are as robust as possible while Network Rail continues its important improvement work.

"While we know this decision may cause difficulties for some customers, we are confident this will deliver a more reliable service for the vast majority of customers. We will, of course, be making every effort to let people know about the changes being made, and we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience caused today.

"Our normal timetable will resume once Network Rail has completed their work on 8 April."

The following is a summary of planned changes to First Great Western services on Wednesday 3 April. Please see http://*******/WJK6eP for more detailed information.

Oxford services
Fast Services between Oxford and London will generally be reduced from half-hourly to hourly in each direction. Stopping services between Oxford and London are not affected by this change and will run as planned

Reading services
The 06:35, 06:57 and 06:59 Reading-Paddington services will be cancelled. Customers are advised to catch the 0714 service instead.

Bristol Services
The 05:20 Bristol Temple Meads-Paddington service will not run.
The 16:57 Paddington-Bristol Temple Meads service will not run.

Worcester Services
The 05:21 Worcester Shrub Hill-Paddington service will terminate at Swindon, where customers are advised to catch a connecting service to London Paddington and intermediate stations.

Cheltenham Services
The 06:31 Cheltenham-Paddington service will terminate at Swindon, where customers are advised to catch a connecting service to London Paddington and intermediate stations.

The 15:45 Paddington-Cheltenham service will start at Swindon instead of Paddington. Customers wishing to travel to Cheltenham are advised to catch the retimed 15:42 Paddington-Swansea service to Swindon for the onward connection, which will now leave Paddington at 15:45.

The 17:45 Paddington-Cheltenham service will start at Swindon instead of Paddington. Customers wishing to travel to Cheltenham are advised to catch the retimed 17:42 Paddington-Swansea service for the onward connection, which will now leave Paddington at 17:45

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/FirstGreatWestern?fref=ts

 

[TEW]

Main issue has been the train failure at Goring & Streatley.

I'd say the main issue was the timetable, there were just too many trains running on the limited infrastructure.

 

[43167]

I was on the sleeper on Monday night from Penzance and it was on my mind if the Reading work was going to overrun. We went through at 5am with lots of stop boards on lines everywhere.

 

[island]

FGW has just tweeted that all ticket restrictions are lifted today.

 

[dvboy]

XC from Birmingham to Bournmouth was announced as calling at Reading West this morning

 

[Juniper Driver]

I was on the sleeper on Monday night from Penzance and it was on my mind if the Reading work was going to overrun. We went through at 5am with lots of stop boards on lines everywhere.

Can't say im surprised,I was at Reading on Saturday and the works looked like a huge job.

 

[Omega Point]

XC from Birmingham to Bournmouth was announced as calling at Reading West this morning

All XC Bournmouth/Manchester Piccadilly services are stopping at Reading West rather than Reading this week, there just isn't room for them at the moment. Should be back to normal next week once they have all the platforms opened up again. I was planning to travel on it this week too, luckily I can delay until next week.

Not seen it posted so here is the NRE page for all the changes this week: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/ene8aed65fe64674927f381834773361.aspx

 

[455driver]

It looks like all the FGW trains from Exeter are routed via Swindon, even if they are not stopping.

Those that are fast from Taunton to Reading are routed via Bristol Temple Meads and Parkway and those that call at Westbury are then going via Chippenham and Swindon, all non stop.

 

[TEW]

All XC Bournmouth/Manchester Piccadilly services are stopping at Reading West rather than Reading this week, there just isn't room for them at the moment. Should be back to normal next week once they have all the platforms opened up again. I was planning to travel on it this week too, luckily I can delay until next week.

It's not that there isn't room for them, it's that it isn't possible to reverse at Reading from the Oxford direction and then head out to the Basingstoke direction. The only access to Reading West from Reading is out of Platform 2, with pilotman working from by the depot. Platform 2 has no access towards Oxford so XC services have to run via the Reading West Curve.
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It looks like all the FGW trains from Exeter are routed via Swindon, even if they are not stopping.

Those that are fast from Taunton to Reading are routed via Bristol Temple Meads and Parkway and those that call at Westbury are then going via Chippenham and Swindon, all non stop.

Yeh, as I explained above there is no access to the B+H line from the mainlines at Reading so London-Exeter/Plymouth/Penzance services are booked via Swindon all week, with the exception of 1 up and 2 down peak services which will reverse at Tilehurst and run via the Reading West Curve.

 

[Omega Point]

It's not that there isn't room for them, it's that it isn't possible to reverse at Reading from the Oxford direction and then head out to the Basingstoke direction. The only access to Reading West from Reading is out of Platform 2, with pilotman working from by the depot. Platform 2 has no access towards Oxford so XC services have to run via the Reading West Curve.
...

Thanks, I didn't know that.

 

[swt_passenger]

For a similar reason platform 3 is going out of use for the next year or so. There is no access towards Tilehurst/Oxford etc from P3 in the interim layout, so there's no services for which it is any use.

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XC from Birmingham to Bournmouth was announced as calling at Reading West this morning

That was in the journey planners some while ago, but for some reason XC didn't seem to think it was worth pointing out on their engineering works posters. They did cover the weekends either side as normal, but this week's (Tuesday to Friday) alteration of the Bournemouth services, and the cut back of the 2 hourly Southampton services to Reading, appears to have been kept a bit of a secret...

 

[Bald Rick]

I'd say the main issue was the timetable, there were just too many trains running on the limited infrastructure.

Maybe, but it is a reasonable assumption that the timetable was compliant with planning rules. So as long as everything was close to being on time, the timetable would have been fine. Unfortunately a train failing (and not moving for 3 hours) in the morning peak just up the line is bound to put the cat amongst the pigeons whatever the timetable.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Slam doors are OK as long as they have central locking.

Wasn't IEP supposed to be in squadron service this year (when the original competition was being run - now it's 2017!) hence FGW didn't do anything to the doors. (the refurb was designed to take the Mk3s to the original IEP launch)

Some Mk3s will get sliding doors as part of the work to give the west HSTs a few more years pending further wiring or a full Diesel unit.

Sliding doors or plug doors like on Chiltern Mk3s?

 

[Cobob04]

Reading the message on this thread make me more than happy to be on leave next week. Things should be 'back to normal' my Monday 15th. Well one can only hope.

 

[vicbury]

The information given has been pretty poor in my opinion. The 1801 Swindon - Bristol Temple Meads was cancelled today and is cancelled for the rest of the week yet is still showing as running tomorrow on the National Rail website.

I made the mistake of deciding to travel on the 1816 from Swindon via Bristol Parkway instead of waiting for the 1831 to Temple Meads earlier. It was a wise move until my connecting Cross County train to Temple Meads got delayed by a fire..

 

[TEW]

Maybe, but it is a reasonable assumption that the timetable was compliant with planning rules. So as long as everything was close to being on time, the timetable would have been fine. Unfortunately a train failing (and not moving for 3 hours) in the morning peak just up the line is bound to put the cat amongst the pigeons whatever the timetable.

That's true, but there were still cancellations and late running well into the evening. FGW obviously realised the timetable was too ambitious in the evening because it left little margin for error and have cut the number of services running for the rest of the week. The service on Tuesday was not for off a standard M-F service running with just 4 platforms. On Thursday with the old station that timetable would have had 4 through platforms, 2 east facing bays and 1 west facing bay. You then had all services running on the relief lines from Twyford as well.

 

[Zoe]

Some Mk3s will get sliding doors as part of the work to give the west HSTs a few more years pending further wiring or a full Diesel unit.

Do we know that for sure? As far as I know, power doors are not mandatory for the trains to be able to remain in service from 1 January 2020. It's also not clear how long the Plymouth/Penzance route will retain HSTs. It's possible that more bi-mode IEP units could be ordered (this is still an option on the contract) and there's also the possibility of cascading 222s following Midland Main Line electrification both of which could see retirement of the remaining HSTs around 2020 in which case any benefit from fitting power doors would be quite short term. Alternatively it has been suggested that the HSTs could remain in service at least until 2035.