Major delays Saturday 21st June 2014

[whole diary]

[johoare]

I'm already dreading my commute into work in the morning..

[didcotdean]

The train I was on finally got to Didcot at 01:45.

There were at least a couple of passenger incidents - one of people trying to open the train doors whilst it was stopped for the long period at Slough, and a group of people who had misheard an announcement intended for people going to Oxford that there would be no staff to help them at Didcot (and hence should get off at Reading) as there would be no stop at Didcot. They piled out found out their mistake and wanted to get back on as the train was about to leave.

[johoare]

The latest from JourneyCheck.. Not looking good:

"Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington 


 
Owing to signalling problems between Reading and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
 Impact: 
 Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed at short notice. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.
 Customer Advice: 
 South West Trains services are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.
 Cross Country services are conveying passengers between Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Parkway in both directions until further notice.
 Underground services are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.
 Replacement road transport services are conveying passengers between Maidenhead and Slough via Taplow and Burnham in both directions until further notice.
 First Berkshire Buses 1B & 2 Slough (Bus Station) - Burnham, First Berkshire Bus 75 Maidenhead - Taplow - Burnham - Slough (Bus Station) - Langley and First Berkshire Bus 76 Burnham - Slough (Bus Station) - Langley services are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.
 Stagecoach West Bus 51 Cheltenham via Cirencester - Swindon, Stagecoach West Buses 10, 94, 97 & 98 Gloucester - Cheltenham Spa, Stagecoach Bus 94 Cheltenham Spa - Gloucester, Stagecoach West Bus 14A Stroud - Stonehouse - Gloucester, Stagecoach West Buses 20 & 21 Stroud (Town Centre) - Stonehouse (Main Street), Stagecoach West Buses 46 Gloucester - Stroud and Stagecoach West Buses 93 Cheltenham Spa - Stroud services are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice."

[BBM]

I was watching Realtime Trains yesterday and PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-RDG^‡(resolve) stoppers didn't seem to be too badly affected under the circumstances. However things today seem to be rather different with the 0930 and 1030 stoppers from PAD each taking about 2 hours to reach RDG and the 1120 from RDG to PAD has only just reached Slough some 90 minutes later. I live close to the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) near Twyford and it's been very quiet here too. Having said that I've just heard an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) go past, quite possibly the 1127 from PAD to Penzance which according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) left just 1 minute late but didn't pass TWY^▸ (Twyford station) until 1256^.

[TaplowGreen]

I'm already dreading my commute into work in the morning..

Yep me too......rather ominously the message on the fgw twitter feed is that "we are unable to advise regarding tomorrow's services".......I would have thought by now that there would be bells and whistles on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website warning people of the situation and telling them only to attempt travel if absolutely necessary....sadly not.....as usual one of the main complaints is that there is no information other than "there is a signal problem", looks like there aren't many staff around helping people today either judging by the comments on twitter and elsewhere.

This is really unacceptable after a week of signal problems and now this for over 24 hours....and yes before everyone jumps on me I know the signals are NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s responsibility but there is no excuse for not keeping people informed and that sits squarely with FGW..

[SandTEngineer]

This is really unacceptable after a week of signal problems and now this for over 24 hours....and yes before everyone jumps on me I know the signals are NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s responsibility but there is no excuse for not keeping people informed and that sits squarely with FGW^▸ (First Great Western)..

......but FGW can't if NR don't tell them what's going on.......

The issue may be that although they both sit in the control room at Didcot that as its the Slough panel area affected that there is a lack of communication between Slough and Didcot

Anyway, the problem seems to have been fixed now as trains are no longer losing time (according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website)) between Slough and Maidenhead (as of 1600).

[insider]

In summary this disruption was caused by a total signalling failure between Burnham & Slough West, caused by a cable failure. The cable had to be completely replaced due to an unknown fault. The type of failure was so bad that the indications in the signal box were "wrongside failures" so trains were not visible and signals were not clearing / reverting to danger.

This incident started at around 1700 yesterday, with multiple trains trapped between Reading & Slough. No departures were allowed from Pad or Reading fro several hours. Standard ticket acceptance via diversionary routes was in place by 1800, however due to Ascot Races, Waterloo to Reading was not permitted, which made the situation much worse.

A system of working called "temporary block" was implemented over the relief lines from 2100, the signals on the route had to be all disconnected, all points clipped and locked secure, then only one train in the several mile section at a time. (This method of work is what was used back in February with the flooding at Waltham)

This reduced the number of paths per hour to 3-4 in each direction, thus many cancellations and disruption with crew. Trains that did run were also delayed 20-45 mins through the section depending on the backlog. Network Rail engineers have worked all night long, to replace 700m of cable, and tested all the new connections, track circuits and signals.

As of 14:45 this afternoon, normal working has resumed. And the main lines should reopen as normal they were closed due to planned engineering today.

[bobm]

And the main lines should reopen as normal they were closed due to planned engineering today.

I wonder how much of the planned engineering work got done with all the other problems.

[Tiffy]

This incident started at around 1700 yesterday, with multiple trains trapped between Reading & Slough. No departures were allowed from Pad or Reading fro several hours.

I think I must have been extremely lucky as I got back to Paddington to catch the 1745 to Bristol and it came up as cancelled then disappeared off the board. It suddenly reappeared and left Paddington at around 1820.  it did run a lot slower than normal but even so I was back at home in Bristol by 2030.
Hope anyone who was caught up in this got home safely eventually.

Anne

[Electric train]

And the main lines should reopen as normal they were closed due to planned engineering today.

I wonder how much of the planned engineering work got done with all the other problems.

I would guess most of it, engineering trains might have got caught up in the delays getting on site or off.

The cable fault potentially could be due to disturbing the existing system to install the new, cables and their joints that have laid undisturbed for several decades do get a bit curmudgeonly to say the least

[SDS]

And the main lines should reopen as normal they were closed due to planned engineering today.

I wonder how much of the planned engineering work got done with all the other problems.

I would guess most of it, engineering trains might have got caught up in the delays getting on site or off.

The cable fault potentially could be due to disturbing the existing system to install the new, cables and their joints that have laid undisturbed for several decades do get a bit curmudgeonly to say the least

#

Been told that the cable that failed was originally installed back in 1969, so I would guess that something disturbed it and it just gave up the ghost.
As indeed seems to be the problem there is never enough information being provided by NeR to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) when these major incidents happen.

[bobm]

I gather, just to add to the problems, an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) decided to throw a sicky in the Taplow area this morning and so added to the delays for a time.