Went down to a family event in Cardiff this last weekend. Despite knowing about the closure of Paddington on the Sunday, news of the diversion to Euston seemed to make it all practical. How unwise I was.
Thus we set off from home, back a few stops on the DLR to Custom House station because that is more convenient than the widely separated Canary Wharf stations, only to find, when getting right up to the Liz Line gates … closed. Now in all the Paddington publicity this had passed me by, that the Liz Core was completely closed. Not for the first time, actually, there was nothing said on the DLR approaching the interchange at all. Different, non-speaking worlds it seems. How tedious. In fact I’d been on the Liz core the previous evening, no signs about it. So back to Canning Town, Jubilee to Baker Street, Bakerloo to Paddington – and we’re notably late now. First time through the new Bakerloo entrance at Paddington … but it passes me by.
As on multiple previous occasions, I think what a shortfall it was not providing scissors crossovers at the east end of Paddington Liz platforms, to allow the Core to work completely independently of anything west of Paddington.
The 1430 to Cardiff is now just about to go from No 8, and is cleared off the board as we walk across the Lawn to buy tickets. Hey ho, it’s the 1530 then, so we get tickets and go for a coffee. Sat there looking at the later departures, up comes the 1530 – Cancelled ! So I set off looking for a sensible enquiry point that can work out multiple connections, is it worth pushing as far as Bristol Parkway, etc. Meanwhile Mrs T looks at Trainline, and finds our original 1430 described as “Delayed”. Seems strange, but I hoof across to No 8, to find a train there, nothing on any of the boards, but there are traincrew at the back door, all others closed. Guard confirms it’s the South Wales, waiting for a driver, supposedly going any second but the signals are still On. Phone the others, “Quick”, they hotfoot over, and we are last on at the back .
I did a bit of research after we started off. Trainline had said the service was “Delayed”, while RealTimeTrains said it was “Cancelled”, but then showed times at all points along as it progressed. Paddington describers cleared it off as if it had left normally, although it hadn’t. I didn’t think the railway Systems were actually capable of showing such divergent conditions for the same train. Given that the South Wales service an hour later was also cancelled, wouldn’t it have been nice to have shown it until it was ready to leave, for those arriving early for that next one, those for whom it was important to be there.
Alas inside it’s extremely busy, with standees such that it was difficult to push through. Coach after coach. Eventually we are in the front car, standing in the doorway. I always think that GWR expresses lose passengers as the progress, including a lot at Reading, but this one was actually picking up at each point as it progressed. By adroit positioning we actually manage to get seats at Reading from those getting off, but far more get on, as indeed likewise happened at Swindon and Parkway. Reservations are of course cancelled. Some seemed to have stood all the way from London to Cardiff.
Relief line all the way out from Paddington to Slough. Nothing to hold onto as we lurch across at Dolphin Junction, standees fall into each other.
At Cardiff, there were notably large crowds, biggest of the trip, waiting for the service onward to Swansea. The 5-car set pulled in right down to the west end of the platform, meaning most of them were behind even the back car. As we walked back it seemed they had just walked forward to the rear door, and there were an enormous number, now maybe 50+, crushed standing in the aisle of just the rear first class car.
It's an interesting point with Delay Repay giving compensation refunds starting at being 15 minutes late, but no refund where the railway send out 5 coaches instead of the rostered 10, reservations cancelled, and people end up standing for two hours from London to South Wales, no compensation offered. I know which situation I regard as worse.
On the return, we circumnavigated the crowds arriving at Cardiff for the Rugby game, what you would expect, but I was really surprised at the waiting passengers quantity. We noticed the very large numbers still waiting as we departed. There was a Portsmouth following shortly behind, which must have been overwhelmed, and a Cross-Country to Nottingham behind that, which was – guess what – cancelled. There had been announcements about this, but passengers were just being left to wait for the next one. However, a little research afterwards showed the inbound was late, not grossly so, and was being turned round at Newport. If only it had been announced anyone for that should get our train, or the Portsmouth, and change. But no.
When it comes to the riding qualities of the 800s, the worst was on the Up Stoke Gifford curve, from Patchway round to Parkway, which we went around as if the rails had been drawn on the diagram around the side of a 50p piece, with body rolling to match.
Now for the diversion bit. There were grave announcements that nobody was to try and get out at Reading, which was apparently a crew change, while the Ealing stop appeared, from 10 coaches back, to have been made with just the cab on the platform. Turning into the Acton freight yard, it seemed done this way as a Liz Line train was reversing on the Up Relief immediately ahead. Quite considerable works on the main tracks, a signal bridge was going up, and a large excavation under the Down Relief that made one wonder if it would be all reinstated for the start of things the next morning. The Acton incline had signs of future electrification, and we negotiated Acton Wells junctions, all done rather slowly.
Personal moment about the Acton incline, with its high brick wall, but way way back, summer 1962, we passed here steam-hauled, and standing on there was Class 31 number D5835, first of the type I had ever seen. And bizarrely that number has been going round inside my head for the last 64 years. And now we ran over the very track it was standing on.
There’s a single line section on this connection, under the high level platforms at Willesden, and fate might have the hourly trains in both directions meet there. Fate did indeed take full advantage of this situation, so we stopped and waited for the outbound, and finally rolled onto the WCML and zapped along into Euston. All on diesel it seemed, including at the platform; none of this letting those Nasty Dirty GW trains have our Nice Clean WCML electricity.
And so we finally made our way up the ramp, on foot. There was inevitably a Euston Wildebeest Stampede in progress down to Platform 3, and worse up in the concourse. I guided the family out and then back in again to the Underground; Mrs T, unprompted, enquired what idiot thought this arrangement up.
One thing notable was the way the services were just described everywhere as to London Euston, as if this was an everyday event instead of something oddball. Platform describers, in-train announcements, all just rolled off to say Euston instead of Paddington.
Also notable? The sheer crowds of passengers around, in the train and on stations. Returning from Swindon to Euston there were standees for an hour not only around the doors but down the aisle as well – and this in the last car of 10, generally the least popular. I’m discounting those exiting at Cardiff for the Rugby match, which you expect, but the numbers on the stations were well beyond my expectations for Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. How popular is the railway. And how contemptuously are they treated by the operators.
Because I’ll also stick in the cancellations, and the excessive short forms. As Lady Bracknell might have said about such events, to have one of them is unfortunate. To have both together looks like carelessness.
Oh, and the final verdict of the family? Next time we’ll drive.
Thus we set off from home, back a few stops on the DLR to Custom House station because that is more convenient than the widely separated Canary Wharf stations, only to find, when getting right up to the Liz Line gates … closed. Now in all the Paddington publicity this had passed me by, that the Liz Core was completely closed. Not for the first time, actually, there was nothing said on the DLR approaching the interchange at all. Different, non-speaking worlds it seems. How tedious. In fact I’d been on the Liz core the previous evening, no signs about it. So back to Canning Town, Jubilee to Baker Street, Bakerloo to Paddington – and we’re notably late now. First time through the new Bakerloo entrance at Paddington … but it passes me by.
As on multiple previous occasions, I think what a shortfall it was not providing scissors crossovers at the east end of Paddington Liz platforms, to allow the Core to work completely independently of anything west of Paddington.
The 1430 to Cardiff is now just about to go from No 8, and is cleared off the board as we walk across the Lawn to buy tickets. Hey ho, it’s the 1530 then, so we get tickets and go for a coffee. Sat there looking at the later departures, up comes the 1530 – Cancelled ! So I set off looking for a sensible enquiry point that can work out multiple connections, is it worth pushing as far as Bristol Parkway, etc. Meanwhile Mrs T looks at Trainline, and finds our original 1430 described as “Delayed”. Seems strange, but I hoof across to No 8, to find a train there, nothing on any of the boards, but there are traincrew at the back door, all others closed. Guard confirms it’s the South Wales, waiting for a driver, supposedly going any second but the signals are still On. Phone the others, “Quick”, they hotfoot over, and we are last on at the back .
I did a bit of research after we started off. Trainline had said the service was “Delayed”, while RealTimeTrains said it was “Cancelled”, but then showed times at all points along as it progressed. Paddington describers cleared it off as if it had left normally, although it hadn’t. I didn’t think the railway Systems were actually capable of showing such divergent conditions for the same train. Given that the South Wales service an hour later was also cancelled, wouldn’t it have been nice to have shown it until it was ready to leave, for those arriving early for that next one, those for whom it was important to be there.
Alas inside it’s extremely busy, with standees such that it was difficult to push through. Coach after coach. Eventually we are in the front car, standing in the doorway. I always think that GWR expresses lose passengers as the progress, including a lot at Reading, but this one was actually picking up at each point as it progressed. By adroit positioning we actually manage to get seats at Reading from those getting off, but far more get on, as indeed likewise happened at Swindon and Parkway. Reservations are of course cancelled. Some seemed to have stood all the way from London to Cardiff.
Relief line all the way out from Paddington to Slough. Nothing to hold onto as we lurch across at Dolphin Junction, standees fall into each other.
At Cardiff, there were notably large crowds, biggest of the trip, waiting for the service onward to Swansea. The 5-car set pulled in right down to the west end of the platform, meaning most of them were behind even the back car. As we walked back it seemed they had just walked forward to the rear door, and there were an enormous number, now maybe 50+, crushed standing in the aisle of just the rear first class car.
It's an interesting point with Delay Repay giving compensation refunds starting at being 15 minutes late, but no refund where the railway send out 5 coaches instead of the rostered 10, reservations cancelled, and people end up standing for two hours from London to South Wales, no compensation offered. I know which situation I regard as worse.
On the return, we circumnavigated the crowds arriving at Cardiff for the Rugby game, what you would expect, but I was really surprised at the waiting passengers quantity. We noticed the very large numbers still waiting as we departed. There was a Portsmouth following shortly behind, which must have been overwhelmed, and a Cross-Country to Nottingham behind that, which was – guess what – cancelled. There had been announcements about this, but passengers were just being left to wait for the next one. However, a little research afterwards showed the inbound was late, not grossly so, and was being turned round at Newport. If only it had been announced anyone for that should get our train, or the Portsmouth, and change. But no.
When it comes to the riding qualities of the 800s, the worst was on the Up Stoke Gifford curve, from Patchway round to Parkway, which we went around as if the rails had been drawn on the diagram around the side of a 50p piece, with body rolling to match.
Now for the diversion bit. There were grave announcements that nobody was to try and get out at Reading, which was apparently a crew change, while the Ealing stop appeared, from 10 coaches back, to have been made with just the cab on the platform. Turning into the Acton freight yard, it seemed done this way as a Liz Line train was reversing on the Up Relief immediately ahead. Quite considerable works on the main tracks, a signal bridge was going up, and a large excavation under the Down Relief that made one wonder if it would be all reinstated for the start of things the next morning. The Acton incline had signs of future electrification, and we negotiated Acton Wells junctions, all done rather slowly.
Personal moment about the Acton incline, with its high brick wall, but way way back, summer 1962, we passed here steam-hauled, and standing on there was Class 31 number D5835, first of the type I had ever seen. And bizarrely that number has been going round inside my head for the last 64 years. And now we ran over the very track it was standing on.
There’s a single line section on this connection, under the high level platforms at Willesden, and fate might have the hourly trains in both directions meet there. Fate did indeed take full advantage of this situation, so we stopped and waited for the outbound, and finally rolled onto the WCML and zapped along into Euston. All on diesel it seemed, including at the platform; none of this letting those Nasty Dirty GW trains have our Nice Clean WCML electricity.
And so we finally made our way up the ramp, on foot. There was inevitably a Euston Wildebeest Stampede in progress down to Platform 3, and worse up in the concourse. I guided the family out and then back in again to the Underground; Mrs T, unprompted, enquired what idiot thought this arrangement up.
One thing notable was the way the services were just described everywhere as to London Euston, as if this was an everyday event instead of something oddball. Platform describers, in-train announcements, all just rolled off to say Euston instead of Paddington.
Also notable? The sheer crowds of passengers around, in the train and on stations. Returning from Swindon to Euston there were standees for an hour not only around the doors but down the aisle as well – and this in the last car of 10, generally the least popular. I’m discounting those exiting at Cardiff for the Rugby match, which you expect, but the numbers on the stations were well beyond my expectations for Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. How popular is the railway. And how contemptuously are they treated by the operators.
Because I’ll also stick in the cancellations, and the excessive short forms. As Lady Bracknell might have said about such events, to have one of them is unfortunate. To have both together looks like carelessness.
Oh, and the final verdict of the family? Next time we’ll drive.