Great Western Coffee Shop

Passengers say there is "absolute chaos" at Gatwick Airport because of overcrowding on rail replacement services on the Brighton mainline.

Southern is advising people not to travel to the coast as there are no direct trains from London due to engineering work.

People are waiting about two hours to board replacement buses, National Rail said.

Disruption is expected to last until the end of the day and into Monday.

In the old days through trains would have been run via Dorking and Horsham, reversing at Littlehampton.  On the other hand, if Uckfield to Lewes was open 8) 8)

From time to time, on these forums and elsewhere, schemes to encourage leisure travel by rail are discussed, this all seems a bit pointless under present circumstances.

From time to time, on these forums and elsewhere, schemes to encourage leisure travel by rail are discussed, this all seems a bit pointless under present circumstances.

From time to time, on these forums and elsewhere, schemes to encourage leisure travel by rail are discussed, this all seems a bit pointless under present circumstances.

In the old days through trains would have been run via Dorking and Horsham, reversing at Littlehampton.  On the other hand, if Uckfield to Lewes was open 8) 8)

I think what Taplow Green said a few months back that you cannot rely on the railways at weekends and I’d include bank holidays as well.

Amended Great Northern and Thameslink service
Short-term timetable amendments mean fewer trains are able to run. Trains running across Great Northern and Thameslink are running as normal but some services may still be revised.

 

Customer Advice:
The majority of the new timetable services are in operation but services on some routes are being progressively phased into the timetable during the course of the summer.

New carriages need to be introduced to operate the service. Some of these carriages are currently stored off the network. To get them to what will be their home depots; the train operators must also move some of the existing trains off the network and switch over to the new rolling stock.

The majority of this will be done overnight prior to Monday 21 May, but it is not possible to change over the entire fleet in one weekend without risking disruption to services. The remaining new trains will be brought onto the network as the summer progresses.

How will this impact the train service?

Sunday 20 May:
The train operators have introduced the new timetable, with trains operating from Cambridge and Peterborough and other locations in Sussex and Kent directly across central London on an expanded Thameslink route.

As part of the huge logistical challenge of introducing this new timetable, the train operators are working hard to minimise the impact this will have on the busiest trains; some services however, were not initially running and this has ultimately led to some cancellations.

Weekday services:
Whilst the train operators go through this transitional period; the long term impact of all the changes they are making will enable the service to have greater resilience and reliability but also aid in minimising the ripple effect of any incidents that may occur across the network. The full benefits of the timetable change will become apparent in the coming weeks as they progressively expand the services.

Where possible, the gradual introduction will be limited to services that previously didn't run and where other services will still be available. The train operators are doing everything possible to limit the impact such as removing quieter services and providing additional replacement bus services where necessary.

The four main routes that will be gradually phased in are listed below:

    Peterborough to Horsham via London St Pancras International
    Luton to Rainham via London Bridge
    Luton to Orpington via London St Pancras International
    Bedford to Brighton via London St Pancras International


It is anticipated there will be significant gaps in service at Higham station, where a bus replacement service will operate linking Higham and Strood with onward connections provided by Southeastern Highspeed services to and from Gravesend and London St Pancras International.

The train operators are also working with Southeastern to provide alterative trains.

Please plan travel in advance by using journey planners and we will provide further updates as and when they are received.

I want to know more?
The train operators have been painstakingly preparing for this significant alteration to the timetables and every effort has been made to prepare for this. The train operators are currently in the process of introducing one of the biggest changes to the railway timetable since the 1970s by providing more route choices, new trains and better connections.

The train operators have had to redeploy large numbers of trains and drivers for the 3,600 services now due to run every day which is 400 more than before. This is a huge logistical undertaking that they have been working toward with the partners at Rail Delivery Group, Network Rail as well as the Department for Transport and other train operators to deliver this industry changing programme.

As part of the process to get trains to where they need to be and ensure that drivers have full awareness of and are fully trained on their new routes, there will be temporary changes put in place to allow these movements to take place. These could be revisions to the calling patterns of services and in some instances cancellations, however, where possible they aim to minimise the effect this will have by facilitating this during quieter off peak periods and also overnight when services are not as busy.

In addition to this, the national timetable planning process as has happened across the entire national rail network has been significantly delayed. Railway timetables are normally published 12 weeks in advance, however, due to the vast undertaking of rewriting the timetable from start to accommodate the large network; this was not completed for Govia Thameslink Railway until 3.5 weeks ago. Part of this process is defining the scope of engineering work to the track, which affects the deployment of trains and train crew and the access they have to train maintenance depots. This means they have had less time than normal to re-plan the driver allocations as well as the train stabling and maintenance requirements to which work is continuously on-going.

The train operators thank you for your patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused during the upcoming weeks as they work hard to introduce the industry leading timetable, in so, modernising the railway, creating faster journeys across London and creating space for an additional 50,000 passengers daily into London.

Additional Information
For more information on the New Timetable and how this will transform your journey, please visit railplan2020.com

Rail disruption is continuing on a day dubbed 'Meltdown Monday' by unions after new timetables were introduced.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) rescheduled every service on its Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern franchise as part of an overhaul billed as the biggest in the UK.
The operator apologised after it cancelled dozens of trains, hours after its new timetable began on Sunday.
It confirmed disruption was continuing on Monday.
Passengers in the north of England are also reporting delays and cancellations as rail routes covered by Northern, which operates services across the north from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, saw train times and stopping patterns change from Sunday.
The RMT called today "Meltdown Monday" said it should "spell the end of the privatised chaos on Britain's railways".

[continues]

Here's Chris Grayling's statement in the Commons this evening and the grilling he got from MPs on all sides

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-06-04/debates/8053C64D-817B-4041-BB61-9C445FDC599E/RailTimetabling

Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)

There could not be a greater contrast between the millions of pounds of new investment in our railways being introduced by the Welsh Labour Government and the shambles over which the Secretary of State presides. Can he explain what on earth is going on at Great Western Railway? There have been repeated cancellations, delays, trains that are understaffed with no catering services, and trains breaking down. I have spoken to Great Western Railway, to Network Rail and to Hitachi. Hitachi tells me that the Department for Transport did not give a long enough period for testing the trains, and Great Western tells me that it sold off a load of its own trains to Scotland before the new ones were ready. Will he get a grip on that situation?

Chris Grayling

The Great Western modernisation is delivering new trains and a faster service, and by the end of this year it will deliver an improved timetable. There have been teething problems with the introduction of the new trains, but anyone who has travelled on the new trains in which this Government are investing on the Great Western route will say that they are a step in the right direction.

Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and his commitment to investigate what has gone wrong and take appropriate action as soon as possible. Does he believe that part of the answer to ensuring that this situation never happens again is combining the operation of track and train under one operator?

Chris Grayling

Bringing track and train back together is part of the solution for the railways. I am absolutely sure that the railways are going to have to change quite a lot as a result of what has gone on, which has been completely unacceptable. Their ways of working have got to change. We are going to need a reshaped approach for the future.

Luke Pollard (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Lab/Co-op)

The Secretary of State told the House that sorting out the timetable chaos was his Department’s No. 1 priority. That is a phrase he has used before about Dawlish and the resilience work in the far south-west, which was apparently his No. 1 priority. What is his No. 1 priority, and will Northern and GTR passengers have to wait the years that passengers in the far south-west have had to wait for action on Dawlish?

Chris Grayling

The work on Dawlish has already started, as the hon. Gentleman knows. In terms of the infrastructure period that is about to start, delivering that work is, in my view, the most important capital project in the country. The most important priority on my desk now is self-evidently to get this sorted.

Thanks for the link, Richard

From the GWR franchise area:

Our "Meltdown Monday" will be Wednesday ;D 2nd January 2019, I suspect.

Is what has happened on the Oxenholme to Windermere line unprecedented? In effect, what has happened there is that due to being unable to cope with planned timetable changes, the entire service has been removed for 2 weeks, and no trains will run at all. While bustitution for a week due to line maintenance isn't unusual, complete closure for a fortnight due to inability to cope with planned changes must be unique.

I though the striking thing about the removal of that service is that it barely needs a timetable at all. Even if the through trains pose a problem of some kind, once the branch has been given a train for the day it can just chug up and down without even the signallers worrying about where it is. It saves one (small) train and a crew, that's all.

I suspect it'll be later than that. Possibly not until May 2019.

Has there ever been a time when the railways have been more of a national embarrassment?

Yes when Railtrack shut much of the network down to check for cracks after the Hatfield Crash

Has anyone spotted this on the BBC website, a "Reality Check" on the current Northern Rail problems -- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44356993?

There seems to be many similarities to the position in January on GWR when the new electrified timetable came in between Didcot and Paddington. Problems blamed on changes to electrification schemes, staff training and shortage difficulties.

Is the problem that too many changes are being introduced at the same time? Should new trains be introduced, and drivers trained up, before major timetable changes take place? Are there any industry insiders out there in the coffee shop able to help?

Yes when Railtrack shut much of the network down to check for cracks after the Hatfield Crash

In September 2002 Virgin Trains launched Operation Princess. This involved introducing a new clockface timetable with shorter trains running more frequently. However the new fleet suffered from a number of technical faults which coupled with infrastructure and capacity issues led to many problems. Between September 2002 and January 2003 punctuality fell to 54.1%, it was therefore agreed with the Strategic Rail Authority that certain services would be cut to improve reliability and robustness on the core network.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/op_prin.jpg)

I recall a bit of a problem with "Operation Princess" too (Wikipedia) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_CrossCountry)


I don't think this sort of problem is new.  What is new is the strength of the social media which has the latest news on everyone's services - not just yours - being blasted at you all the time.  No longer is the commuter just reading the morning paper with yesterday's news - he / she is now following it on his / her mobile device as it develops.

......which means that the railways and those responsible for their management are being held to account more speedily & rigorously for their frequent & often spectacular failings, which can only be a good thing.

I suspect Hopwood & his team are down on their knees in the Boardroom on a daily basis thanking the Lord that the chaos elsewhere is keeping the spotlight off GWRs wretched performance  (for the time being)

Inevitable the new timetable will delayed or staggered. The whole electrification project is so far behind the original planned completion dates what’s another six months.

But December 2019 is already a year later than the original "new" IET timetable, SLC3a.

.......well doesn't that just take the cake.....



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44415339

Chocolate cake ?

What went wrong?

The May timetable change should have been good news, and in many cases it is - it ushers in one of the biggest increases in capacity in our railway's history, with additional space and travel opportunities for tens of thousands more passengers.  In many places, the new timetable is already delivering benefits, with 8 out of 10 trains running as planned overall.

However, in two parts of the country - across the Thameslink network in the South-East, and the Northern network across the North - there has been significant disruption to passengers.  Collectively, the rail industry made promises to passengers that we have not yet been able to deliver fully, and collectively we apologise for letting passengers down.

The timetable change in May 2018 was four times bigger than normal.  This level of change depends on infrastructure upgrades, rolling stock to be available, drivers to be trained and crews to be rostered. Under normal circumstances, such a timetable change would be a massive, complex, piece of work. However on this occasion, the challenge has been compounded by several different factors:

In early 2018, the Government accepted the recommendation to ‘phase in’ the new Thameslink timetable, which meant a major re-write of the new timetable for the South East was required.

In January 2018, completion of the Manchester-Bolton electrification project was delayed, due to unforeseen poor ground conditions hampering progress. This meant the whole of the new timetable for the North would need to be re-written. Matters were compounded further by the collapse of Carillion.

In March 2018, the already very challenging situation was compounded by a delay in the planned arrival of new trains in Scotland, meaning major re-writes of the new timetable for Scotland and cross-border services.
In addition, a number of operators made late changes to their timetables during the ‘adjustment’ phase of timetable planning.

We delivered a base timetable as planned in November 2017.  But the sheer number of changes subsequently meant that the timetable process took a lot longer than planned. This meant that train companies had less time to prepare for the new timetable, meaning specialist training required could not be completed in time for drivers to learn all the new routes, or operate different trains for operators to address all the logistical challenges.  Some operators also have industrial relations issues, with a ban on overtime or working on rest days, which has led to crew shortages as the new timetable beds in.

Here's an analysis of what went wrong with the May timetable change


From Network Rail at https://www.networkrail.co.uk/how-rail-timetabling-works/

Due to multiple points failures we're unable to run any trains into, or out of, Glasgow Central High Level.

Scotland's turn on Wednesday 27th June, with Glasgow Central suffering a lack of train services from late afternoon until close-of-play.


Maybe related to high temperatures? around 29C reached in Glasgow.

The thread on railforums contains some criticism of communications "on the ground" at Glasgow Central.

We are often told by the railway industry that these major closures are planned far in advance and cant therefore be altered, presuming that this is true, why was almost no warning given by GTR of this closure.

There are going to be exceptional closures for emergency works at short notice.  It feels at times though that short notice closures or effective closures (no trains running) have become anything but exceptional.

Depends where the engineering works are. If they are following up the temporary repairs put in place at Streatham (I think it was) that stopped trains to Victoria, then it was not planned months in advance. 

Travelling to Brighton to / from stations between Three Bridges and London?

    A limited train service will operate in both directions between Brighton and London Victoria via Littlehampton with journey times extended by 60 minutes, taking 2 hours 15 minutes between London and Brighton.
    Customers travelling between London and Brighton are advised to use these services rather than the replacement buses.
    These trains will only operate once an hour and space will be extremely limited. Not everyone will be able to board these services.

Old Severn bridge closed due to staff sickness....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-45069260

"If we haven't got staff members in crucial roles on the toll plaza it is not safe for our team or the drivers so we have taken the decision to close the tolls.

It remains open in the eastbound direction, which is not controlled by tolls.

Old Severn bridge closed due to staff sickness....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-45069260

Exactly. And the other striking point is that the roads that the bustitutes will have to use are notoriously congested. I have used the Lakes bus between Kendal and Windermere a few times, and getting in and out of Kendal is a nightmare. It often loses half an hour from the timing it is supposed to be keeping to.

'This is the story of how to mess up a branch line’ said Alan Noble of the Lakes Line Rail User Group. Except he did not use the word ‘mess’. The Lakes Line branch that runs ten miles from Oxenholme to Windermere is one of those survivors of Beeching which has prospered and become an integral part of the rail network.

[long article]

The potential of the line is huge and local businesses see it restored to its previous reliability and then to see it improve. Tourism keeps the local economy going and public transport is a key component of many people’s experience of the area. The line, though, will take a bit of time to recover as the commuters, unable to rely on the train service, have now disappeared. They will only come back if the performance improves back to the level of service offered by TPE. David Grime concludes: ‘All we want is a reliable service, and then more capacity as clearly the line will not be able to cope with the expected growth. It is not too much to ask.’