Great Western Coffee Shop

From the FGW website :

10:55 London Paddington to Greenford due 11:19
This train will be run fast. It will no longer call at: Acton Main Line, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park and South Greenford.

Customers travelling from the intermediate stations to Greenford are advised to travel on the 1125 service.

This seems to have happened wit a few trains recently - a wheeze through which a train that's late from it station of origina can be on time at destination, perhaps, or some other reason?

From the FGW website :

Cable theft apparently.

Shows how desperate some people are...

Second time in the space of like..4 days?

More from Ollie on this and other problems in the link below.
http://www.iworkforfgw.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

...and how expensive copper cables are these days  :P

Now if NR bought cable with tinned copper cores, works just as well, if NOT better, but has a fraction of the Scrap vaule.

Cable theft AGAIN today.

Might as well just give up running the service on there and let LU take the strain...

I popped up there the other day, in the interests of research...

(http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/Greenford1.jpg)

Gotta love those semaphore signals! (in the background of the shot above)

(http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/Greenford2.jpg)

Greenford Box had 'life extension' work carried out last year so expect to see them for a while.  For the amount of work carried out I'm surprised they weren't replaced with colour lights. 

From the FGW website :

Line problem in the Greenford area.

Train services between London Paddington and Greenford are being disrupted due to a problem with line-side equipment in the Greenford area.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations and cancellations can be expected.

All Services are terminating and starting from West Ealing. London Underground and London Buses will accept tickets on their services.

From the FGW website :

12:53 Greenford to London Paddington due 13:19
This train will be started from West Ealing.It will no longer call at: Greenford, South Greenford, Castle Bar Park and Drayton Green.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

12:55 London Paddington to Greenford due 13:19
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

13:23 Greenford to London Paddington due 13:49
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

28/06/2008 :

08:55 London Paddington to Greenford due 09:19
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

09:23 Greenford to London Paddington due 09:48
This train has been cancelled.This is due to train crew having been unavailable earlier.

Not because Virgin West Coast trains are using the branch today then on their way to Euston?

12:23 Greenford to London Paddington due 12:49


This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: South Greenford, Castle Bar Park, Drayton Green, West Ealing, Ealing Broadway and Acton Main Line.This is due to passengers transferring between trains.

Gooble de Gook

Unlikey it's only 1 tph each way. I gather the Up train is timed at West Ealing just before the Up Heathrow Connect.

Oh for..... ::)

Do FGW think that putting up rubbish will do? ???

I can't even believe this is an option (assuming that the website people have a drop down list).

That one ran late on its inbound trip (12 late at Greenford) - so had to pick its time back up for the run again at PAD. Of course, the Central is an ample alternative for many stations.

SWT used that reason yesterday due to problems on the West of England too...

Services appear to be having trouble getting up the Greenford branch due to signalling problems.

FGW report that London Buses are accepting First Great Western tickets between West Ealing and Greenford. London Underground are accepting First Great Western tickets between London Paddington and Greenford.

A few cancellations posted this evening, with emergency engineering works cited as the reason on the FGW website.

20:15 and 20:45 from Paddington and their respective returns from Greenford.

Some problem on the relief at Acton caused a temporary block whilst NR sorted it.

Quite a few BTP officers boarded the above mentioned service at Paddington tonight (they split up so there were a few in both carriages). Never seen this happen before, not sure why they were there but I don't think they were looking for fare evaders - was nice to have a little police protection though!

It's good to see the new policy being put into practice, then: from the BTP press release (http://www.btp.presscentre.com/Media-Releases/MORE-POLICE-ON-RAIL-NETWORK-AT-NIGHT-AS-RAIL-CRIME-FALLS-FOR-SIXTH-YEAR-f2e.aspx):

Came across an interesting notice at Ealing Broadway last night.

Saying No Greenfords from today 15th until 19th due to Chiltern being diverted into Padd.

Wonder if any Chiltern are stopping at West Ruislip as it would be a chance to do the Greenford West curve on a Travelcard or Oyster.

Bit of a poor excuse. Must be the worse branch in London now the Gospel oak- barking has been upgraded.

Yep, Heathrow Connect are filling in for the Greenfords as usual between Paddington and West Ealing but no services operating at Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park or South Greenford - passengers being advised to use tube/bus services instead.

This week, Chiltern services that start at Kidderminster, Stratford-on-Avon or Birmingham Moor Street are terminating at Leamington Spa, services that start at Birmingham Snow Hill are terminating at Didcot Parkway (running non-stop from Banbury).

Services from Aylesbury via Amersham will terminate at Harrow-on-the-Hill with onward connection via the Bakerloo to Baker Street.

There are trains starting at Bicester North running into Paddington (non stop from Gerrards Cross) and trains starting at Banbury running as far as West Ruislip.

Timetables here (http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/content/august-closure-travel-information).

So to answer the OPs question it doesn't appear possible to do Greenford west curve on a Travelcard or Oyster as the services to Paddington originating at Bicester North make their final call prior to Paddington at Gerrards Cross. It is possible that the Chiltern services will not actually be travelling on the Greenford branch, instead going through Park Royal. The FGW Greenford services merely being suspended to free up paths and platform space at Paddington.

Apparently FGW have hired a Chiltern 165/0 2 car to work the Greenford branch. It comes complete with driver as FGW drivers aren't trained on 165/0. They have funy things like ATP and tripcocks.

Saw set in Padd this pm.

The use of the Chiltern class 165's is to allow 150002 to be transfered down to the Exeter area to provide more capacity during the summer period.

Though I have heard today that FGW had two chiltern class 165's on hire working the Paddington - Greenford services

Not sure where you heard that, FGW drivers can drive them. And they have done so today. Just like when 165/0 units were hired in the past.

165002 arrived from Aylesbury yesterday morning and was bought to Paddington by a Chiltern driver as they sign the route.  The plan is for it to be used on Greenford or Basingstoke services.
It is worked by us FGW drivers though!  The ATP system is isolated and the tripcock system can also be isolated although not necssary.

Gather it was due to be used on the Basingstoke line this morning...but failed.

Ah yes, I posted on the RDG-BAS channel, it ran as http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C41960/2014/07/22/advanced (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C41960/2014/07/22/advanced)
The return 07:37 service to BAS was cancelled due to technical problems

They had problems with it again on the Greenford branch this morning.  Unable to release the brakes at Greenford.

Just as an aside, BAS is Bere Alston, BSK is Basingstoke!

Interested to see on the tube map for 2050 that the Greenford branch service runs to Gerrard's Cross ... and Crossrail to Ebbsfleet.  Alas, no tube / overground service to Ashford or Staines  :-\

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/resources/files/32832/
via
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewisham/11462033._/?

Is there logic (from flows and potential flows) in extending out from Greenford - either via tube or Network Rail lines?

I think with the various interchanges available with the Central Line (between West Ruislip and Greenford) and with Crossrail at West Ealing, it is a way of increasing the overall journey options for the medium distance stations on the Chiltern route, without having to run extra or longer trains into Marylebone which is probably approaching capacity limits. 

The convention the author uses on the map is to just name a generic station on the route outside the zones, it wouldn't necessarily be Gerrards Cross - although that has the infrastructure for reversals - the actual proposal in the source TfL document is to run from High Wycombe to either West Ealing or Old Oak Common, by CP6/2024.  Of course there are also well rehearsed reasons why Crossrail actually requires the 'Greenford' route to terminate at West Ealing.

It comes from a table on page 147 of this 22 Mb TfL document, and is definitely concerning Chiltern rather than tube: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/transport_supporting_paper.pdf

Note that the map is a third party attempt to clarify some of the various proposals in the London 2050 report, it isn't a TfL map as such, (although it has just been distributed wildly all around the internet), a chap who posts on the London Reconnections website did it himself...

Paul

That's a very interesting report - thanks for highlighting it. I particularly like what, to me, is a new word: densification. In this context it refers to the desirability of knocking down thirties semis in outer suburbia and replacing them with higher density new homes, thus giving sufficient population density to support public transport. Bring it on, I say!

I've always thought it very odd that Crossrail didn't take over OOC to West Ruslip and maybe Wycombe. With a big interchange at North Acton a station on the mainline at Greenford.

Crossrail could also have served the branch to West Ealing (terminate) from Greenford East (?) Jn. The bay at Greenford Central line would then close. This would have given say 6 tph less trains terminating at Padd. Electrifying the Greenford loop also gives an opportunity to turn units and prevent uneven tyre wear caused by the sharp left hand curve on the Heathrow branch.

It wasn't even in the early plans for Crossrail which envisage linking with the Aylesbury line somewhere around Neasden. I was never quite sure how that junction was going to be made.   

Option C was:

This was appraised thus:

(From Crossrail Information Paper A1 - Development of the Crossrail Route)

Cancellations this morning (27/12/2014)


Is it my imagination, or does the Greenford service get cancelled / cut back an awful lot more than the other Thames Valley branches - Windsor, Marlow and Henley?

I think given the LU options, passengers are potentially less affected.

It's because the Greenford's run through to Padd, when there are problems it is easy to take them out to free up paths, when the bay get built at West Ealing as part of the Crossrail work then Greenford's will shuttle back and forth just like the Windsor's, Marlow and Henley's do, capping these branches during the day would only release drivers and not train paths on the relief lines