xc2707 1743 to reading leaves 6mins early!

[sonic2009]

Just waiting for the 1737 fgw to didcot, and the 1743 xc for reading pulls in ahead, and leaves early anyone know why of this?

 

[anthony263]

Odd, havent heard about this happening before unless, the train hass accidently been put into the wrong platform and has to leave early to clear it perhaps?

 

[FGWman]

So you are waiting for the 1737 to didcot and the 1743 pulls in first. Using my crystal ball I assume you are at Oxford. Well two likely options

1. Signallers error. The xc was running early and it should have waited outside for the 1737. By letting it go early it does not hold up the 1737 behind. As it is terminating at reading not many people will be inconvenienced.

2. 1737 is runing a bit late so the 1743 comes in first. The avoid even further delay to the 1737 1743 is allowed to go straight away.

Sounds like good train regulation to me.

 

[scotsman]

Just waiting for the 1737 fgw to didcot, and the 1743 xc for reading pulls in ahead, and leaves early anyone know why of this?

Where were you!? It's hard to help when we don't know where you are!

 

[sonic2009]

Where were you!? It's hard to help when we don't know where you are!

Sorry guys my bad I'm @ oxford

 

[brompton rail]

According to NR iPhone app, the ex Newcastle did indeed leave Oxford 6 mins early as it was in front of the late running Manchester - Bournemouth which left at 17.42. Presumably they will regain their paths from Reading, though the Bournemouth will still be 25 mins late.

Correction, they are both only going to Soton!

 

[scotsman]

Looks like the XC was let infront of the late running GW. Methinks it was set-down only

 

[swt_passenger]

According to NR iPhone app, the ex Newcastle did indeed leave Oxford 6 mins early as it was in front of the late running Manchester - Bournemouth which left at 17.42. Presumably they will regain their paths from Reading, though the Bournemouth will still be 25 mins late.

Correction, they are both only going to Soton!

Reminds me of another NRES oddity. This is the 5th weekend of engineering works at Southampton Central, and each Saturday the ex Newcastle services haven't run beyond Reading, but still show up as terminating at Central. The Bournemouth services do run, but terminate at Parkway.

How that can be wrong in the LDBs for 5 weeks running is presumably another complicated story...

 

[mumrar]

My guess is that as the train terminated at Reading they have similar arrangements as to the XC services between Newport and Cardiff. They can let a Cardiff go early from Newport if a delayed following service is going to be there at the booked time of the 'early' train.

This wouldn't be practical for a service through to Southampton, but makes perfect sense for Oxford to Reading.

 

[ian959]

Sod anything else, I'm still trying to get my head around the concept of an XC service running early

 

[Anvil1984]

The Newcastle - Reading are actually good for keeping to time because they dont have to negotiate local services at Leeds or much around Brum as they go via Solihull. Used to be a nightmare before it all swapped and you got held behind Coventry - Birmingham locals then lost your path and got held behind the stopped to Derby then clear run to Sheffield only to follow stopper most the way to Moorthorpe then again between Leeds and Micklefield, twas a nightmare as you can tell

 

[route:oxford]

Sod anything else, I'm still trying to get my head around the concept of an XC service running early

Practical and sensible though where other services will accommodate.

I wonder if the early departing XC service ended up on the fasts to Reading - it would be more than 6 minutes early arriving at the destination if that were the case.

(Early departures opens a huge can of worms over AP tickets though...)

 

[The Planner]

The Newcastle - Reading are actually good for keeping to time because they dont have to negotiate local services at Leeds or much around Brum as they go via Solihull.

They still get clattered going into Brum via Solihull though. LM stoppers are still hanging about there.

 

[laird]

It isn’t just on the Oxford to Reading section that odd things happen with the Cross Country Trains although I've not noticed the early departures personally but the way the services interact between Birmingham and Leamington does lead to quite a few odd situations further along the line to Reading.


What seems to happen with somewhat noticeable regularity is that I will end up at Birmingham waiting for a southbound service to find the Manchester-Southampton scheduled to depart a few minutes ahead of the delayed Newcastle-Reading. The temptation is to go for the first departure but I have learnt the better thing to do is to wait for the Newcastle-Reading, if the service goes within 5-10 minutes of the Manchester-Southampton then at Leamington Spa it goes through first meanwhile the Newcastle-Reading now carrying most of the passengers is held North of the junction.
Even when this doesn’t happen the Newcastle to Reading services tend to be quieter in terms of passenger numbers probably connected at least in part to the calling pattern, missing Leeds, Chesterfield, Burton on Trent, Tamworth, Birmingham International and Coventry. It certainly means I will try to use them for my somewhat regular journey from Reading to Birmingham New Street and back as it is normally much easier to get a seat on these services rather than those calling at Coventry and Birmingham International.
I guess if the original plan to serve Birmingham Airport via bus link from a station call at Solihull had come to fruition this would have made a difference but that seems a long distant memory now.
In this case it sounds like the delay on the Southampton/Bournemouth service had also resulted in it being held at Leamington waiting for the on time Reading service to go ahead, I guess there wouldn’t be time to make a judgement to keep the normal order of services (probably at the cost of a 3 minute or so delay to the Reading service?).

One side effect from all this confusion leaving Birmingham seems to upset the departure boards and on one memorable occasion at Banbury to complete confusion as to which service might make it first.
Once the XCs have fought their way to Aynho Junction competing with each other and all the Chilterns they then get a reasonably clear run given the few and far between FGW stopping services between Oxford and Banbury.
At which point a service coming off the Cotswold line or ECS from the Oxford carriage sidings rolls the dice once more.
I can therefore see why by Oxford desperation would be setting in as the following service gets later and later waiting for the preceding service to clear Leamington, Banbury and finally Oxford meaning that the decision is taken to depart as soon as possible.

Thinking more generally about the XC Reading-Birmingham NS route I notice I end up staring out of the window at the Northern edges of Oxford waiting for a platform from time to time so improvements wise:
Long term Oxford could do with more platforms, perhaps akin to those reopened centre platforms at Taunton allowing services to turn back on what are now the through lines, and in situations like this for the services to get back into the intended order.
It tends to be quite overcrowded Reading/Oxford to Birmingham and vice versa at peak times. Part of the problem is that while there seems to be plenty of capacity Banbury to Birmingham using the Chiltern Railways services few have connections from Oxford, if the Oxford Banbury stopping service was expanded this would perhaps help to increase the loadings on the Northern end of the Chiltern services and alleviate the overcrowding on the Cross Country station.
Of passing interest just this weekend Chiltern have been taking their services South from Banbury to Oxford, adding to the Oxford.