Great Western Coffee Shop

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46258720 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46258720)

At least Filton bank opened on time

Another day of shockingly poor service for SWR’s customers.

Whilst blame doesn't lie with SWR, they have to handle the fallout. And it looks like they're not doing a very good job communicating.

Sadly it appears to be another example of FirstGroup's Maxwell touch. Thats the polar opposite of the Midas touch. Named after Robert Maxwell - everything he touched turning to s***.

As of 10:16:

Despite the way the news has been presented, most Windsor Lines services were running, though with a few gaps due to missing stock. Reading trains were worse than that, most delayed and some missing, but that was our old friend "signalling at Earley" having a bit of a strop.

And then, a little to the east:

I was never called a 'SPECIALIST' signal technician in my time in the S&T.  Can't repeat here what I was called at times, though...... ::)

Correspondents here too.....The subject line is incorrect, as noted by posts above.

It's odd, isn't it? I guess they say that to make it sound as if these are a superior kind of technician, not the ordinary ones who know very little. But if it means anything in this kind of highly technical field, it means someone who has only been trained on a limited range of equipment, and can't be sent out to fix any fault anywhere. In other words, the equivalent of semi-skilled (but when did you last hear that used?) - after all the French equivalent of that is ouvrier specialisé (which you don't hear much these days either).

Do you mean the thread title? What's incorrect about it?

Waterloo was severely disrupted, not 'closed'

Simple sequence of events ……….. as I understand it.

• Defective rail need to be replaced, just routine work that had been planned in.
  Defective rails had been removed.
  RRV runs through a set of points in the wrong direction thus damaging the points, something that should not happen but sadly does.
  Whole team stood down for 3 hours for a safety brief /investigation
  Re-rail team informs NR that they will not complete intime
  At this time SWR Shunters had gone off shift, mainline drives do not have route knowledge for depots.
  

Melt down!!!!

Point 4 appears to be the major problem - was that really necessary? Then Point 6 - what happened to the real [multi-tasking] railway workers?

What was the issue with NR staff unwilling to tamp that I've heard of elsewhere?

Christian Wolmar on Twitter earlier today.

“Chaos at Waterloo today was caused by works to replace long sections of track which then proved to be faulty on testing and had to be relaid, along with tamper problems.”

I trust he means rails, not track.  If the track had to be replaced it would have been very drastic and certainly taken more than a week..... ::)

 ;)

Luckily, I had the day off yesterday so didn't have to cope with the SWR morning problems. Unfortunately I had already decided to go to Brighton from Dorking Deepdene. Multiple delays and cancellations on GWR North Downs line due to a broken down train.  :(

Sunday's main possession was all four lines from Waterloo to Hampton Court Junction, including a wide range of planned work. Whether the rail renewal that is reported to have gone wrong was part of that, or a short-notice addition, I don't know. It included some work inside Wimbledon Park Depot, though there were some movements in and out via the District Line. On paper, it ran 01:10 Sunday to 04:30 Monday.

On Sunday there was, as is now customary, a limited service with long-distance trains diverting at Weybridge via Virginia Water. The Weybridge service was removed to make room, with the long-distance trains calling instead at Addlestone and Chertsey, and Byfleet and New Haw standing in for Weybridge.

Clearly that service could be run without using any lines inside the possession. So why was no attempt made to do something similar on Monday? Well, one possible answer is a lack of drivers for those diverted routes - as many as possible being used on Sunday. Another issue is how to recover to a normal service once the possession does eventually end. An alternative of splitting the routes, probably at Woking, might be better. But "flexibility" seems to have vanished from corporate objectives across the whole rail industry, doesn't it?

The passengers with the biggest beef are those using (or who would have used) the Weybridge service - even with the line free of interlopers, that didn't run; at least, nothing (from Addlestone) between the 5:39 and the 10:02.

More strops last night and again today

Pleased to report signalling problem at Earley fixed in time for 18:26 ex Guildford (following two cancelled trains in the same direction) to gallop through from Wokingham to Reading without slowing, catching up from two minutes late from Guildford to 3 minutes 30 early at Reading - hopefully a sign of an end to recent travails on the North Downs Line.

Meanwhile over on Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1067078401842954241