Great Western Coffee Shop

Overrunning engineering work is causing big trouble for services heading into London between Didcot and Reading. 31 incidents on the FGW website at 7am this morning:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/LiveUpdateList.aspx

This is what they have to say about the main problem:

Line problem in the Pangbourne area.
Train services between Reading and Didcot Parkway are being disrupted due to over-running engineering works in the Pangbourne area.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice alterations, cancellations and delays of up to 30 minutes can be expected.

Direct train services between London Paddington and Cardiff Central are suspended in both directions, customers travelling to/from Cardiff Central are advised to travel on the direct train services between London Paddington and Swansea in both directions, which will call additionally at Didcot Parkway. Customers travelling from Cholsey, Goring & Streatley, Pangbourne and Tilehust are advised to start journies at Reading or Didcot Parkway. Replacement road transport is in operation between Pangbourne and Reading in both directions.

ENDS

Why do Network Rail insist on doing engineering work during the working week!?!?!? Yes I know the answer, because people complain when they do it at weekends! But it has to be done sometime you know...rails wear out.

Yep, been posting on this meself.

Only 1 incident non related to overrunning engineering work, 0500 Swansea to Paddington caped at Port Talbot due to train fault.

Yes its not been a good start for passengers trying to get to London this morning. I wonder if Economy Klaus will have something to say later on today?

I got the 06:56 from BPW to London PDN this morning. For some unlucky people it was standing all the way. Then withought warning or announcement, the train train dropped speed and took thirty minutes to do the 10 minute journey from Didcott PW to Reading.

I now know that this delay was caused by over running engineering works, but it appears the at the time the train manager didn't know anything about this until happened. Until leaving Didcott PW he kept announcing an expected arrival at London at 08:25. From Didcott to Reading, where I left the train, not a word or announcement about the delay until he apologised at Reading station for a 10 minute delay due to speed limits. It was 20 minutes at that point!

The cancellation of the 06:31 train meant the passengers from two of the busiest services of the day had to use the same train. Shame that FGW could not find a spare set!

NR have messed up on this bigtime (It took until lunch time to get the problem sorted out), but FGW seem to have dealt with the problems reasonably well (using a diverionary route and replacement buses for local services)

The test will be tomorrow - the track will be open but will FGW have all their trains in the right place to provide a full servcie?

I should of thought so, I am sure they can still manage some cancelations though!

I would have thought, if the line is re-opened, they would be able to carry out some ECS movements...or would I be really naive and wrong in this?

A lot of the trains merely get diverted so will be in an ok place.

There aren't many depots in the Thames Valley for them to go anyway!

I should hope Network Rail apologise for this.

This is what FGW had to say on their afternoon email bulletin:

Quote:

We would like to apologise to customers affected by the overrunning Network Rail engineering work in the Pangbourne area this morning. The work was due to finish at 06:00am, but due to some problems with equipment failures on site, the work overran and we were contacted by Network Rail who requested that we reduce our services between Didcot and London .

As soon as Network Rail contacted us, we implemented contingency plans, including an emergency train plan; mobilising all "on-call" staff and calling-in off-duty staff to help. Coaches and taxis have also been used to help keep customers moving.

Hourly services from Swansea continued but Cardiff to London Paddington services were cancelled. Taunton , Bristol Temple Meads and Bath trains to London Paddington were re-routed via Westbury and Newbury, adding 40 minutes to journeys.

Services from Oxford , Worcester , Cheltenham and Gloucester were also badly affected and we have used coaches to link Swindon with onward services at Reading . Road services have also been in place to help customers reach Reading from Didcot, Cholsey, Goring and Pangbourne.

Network Rail completed their work by 1400 and we are now making every effort to restore our services to our advertised timetable. It is likely that residual delays and cancellations will occur as we recover our full timetable; however we are doing all we can to minimise any further disruption to your journeys today.

We are sorry for the delays you have experienced today. Network Rail have assured us that a full investigation is underway into the cause and management of this overrun and we will continue to work closely with them to deliver a punctual and reliable service.
ENDS