Marston Vale Line, Bletchley to Bedford cancellations today

[WolvertonWorks]

This morning I went walking with a friend and we passed both Woburn Sands (WOB ) and Bow Brickhill (BWB ) stations.

Twice on our route we saw Rail Replacement Buses, marked as such.

So I've just looked on the national rail journey planner for a trip from Bletchley to Bedford today and it tells me that I could buy a standard ticket from £1 but shows all of the trains are cancelled for the rest of the day. Looking on RTT it appears that maybe some did run earlier this morning.

The journey planner helpfully tells me that I can view alternative real-time services and following this link it offers me a variety of journeys taking around 2 hours 15 minutes as opposed to 42 minutes for the journey between Bletchley and Bedford at an eye watering Single From £74.50. This is a day single going from Bletchley to Euston, then tube to St Pancras and train back to Bedford, around 100 miles by train whereas it's less than 20 by road.

I'm assuming the underlying problem today on the Marston Vale line is lack of staff - it is locally half term - or is there another issue?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I would assume it's staff, it comes second fiddle to anything else. The units seem to have behaved of late.

It's very annoying that they don't enter the RRBs in the planners - it means misleading information is given out. Generally a cancelled service is replaced by a bus (better than Northern manage half the time) but you pretty much have to know that and it does prevent tickets being purchased online (though they can still be obtained from the TVMs as these are not planner based). They don't even generally enter a note on the CIS to say there's a bus replacement to the cancelled service.

 

[Silver Cobra]

It is half term in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire this week, but what's strange is that the service seemed to run relatively fine yesterday. I used it in both directions (0917 Bedford to Bletchley and 1345 Bletchley to Bedford) with no issues. I would have thought that if half-term was going to have an effect on staffing it would hit the entire week rather than just specific days. My guess then is that there are other underlining issues for today.

 

[DarloRich]

Looking on RTT it appears that maybe some did run earlier this morning.

unless i dreamt it one ran this morning - it got me to work

The journey planner helpfully tells me that I can view alternative real-time services and following this link it offers me a variety of journeys taking around 2 hours 15 minutes as opposed to 42 minutes for the journey between Bletchley and Bedford at an eye watering Single From £74.50. This is a day single going from Bletchley to Euston, then tube to St Pancras and train back to Bedford, around 100 miles by train whereas it's less than 20 by road.

why would you fenny about when you could just get the replacement bus? they tend to do a fast one and a slow one

EDIT - the buses aren't loaded to the online planner i guess! Same old. In reality LNWR are quite good at getting a bus on. Just be on your wits or it will leave you behind.

I'm assuming the underlying problem today on the Marston Vale line is lack of staff - it is locally half term - or is there another issue?

It will be staff issues. It has been good for a few weeks but can just fall apart like this on a whim

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Oct 2024 ==

My guess then is that there are other underlining issues for today.

surely an easy choice if short of staff on the Euston run?

 

[WolvertonWorks]

DarloRich said "why would you fenny about when you could just get the replacement bus? they tend to do a fast one and a slow one"

I was making the point that the journey planner wasn't telling me there were RRBs but offering an alternative route at huge expense in both money and time.

 

[DarloRich]

train problems this morning. Delays and cancellations. ffs.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Scotched my Birmingham Bletchley Bedford St Pancras Royston itinerary yesterday. Didn’t fancy the RRB when I had planned it like that just to do the line on a 150.

I had a planned 14 minute connection at Bedford and the bus may or may not have arrived in time and as said, there was nothing in the planners, so I had no confidence and would rather just get home.

Interestingly the 1645 was cancelled by midday but briefly reinstated (with a 10 minute delay) around 1630 but swiftly re cancelled. I wonder if that was someone trying to put RRB timings in the system…?

The wording of the alert on NRE was a bit ambiguous and suggested ticket acceptance was on Stagecoach buses, but didn’t specify if that was a dedicated RRB or a service bus.

In the end I just bought a Super Off Peak Single MKC-EUS for £13, stayed on the Pendo all the way and got home 90 minutes earlier than planned.

Somehow I didn’t want to fight the Euston gateline arriving on a Bedford to St Pancras advance…

 

[Bletchleyite]

When Marston Vale services are cancelled they are generally replaced with a dedicated RRB. Annoyingly this isn't put in the planners or on the CIS so you have to know about it. The buses are "on call" so can be brought into service very quickly (though they are no longer parked permanently at Bletchley as they were in the 230 era).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Oct 2024 ==

Somehow I didn’t want to fight the Euston gateline arriving on a Bedford to St Pancras advance…

Wouldn't have been valid, so a Penalty Fare would have been forthcoming on WMT, or a new Anytime ticket if it was Avanti and they bothered checking. It would have been valid on a later train of the same TOC if the connection was missed.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Wouldn't have been valid, so a Penalty Fare would have been forthcoming on WMT, or a new Anytime ticket if it was Avanti and they bothered checking. It would have been valid on a later train of the same TOC if the connection was missed.

Indeed, and since RRBs were running then I wasn’t stranded, I just didn’t want to take a bus and a likely 30 minute delay.