I think it is to easy to blame issues like Sunday working on the Dft/Government but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)/FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about)/RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have had 26 years to sort this out and the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport)/Government haven't been micro managing them the whole time.

In my opinion it is a failure of both the management and employees to come to an agreement about this issue and neither appear to care about how this may impact the travelling public.

And I am not sure why those who advocate (like many on this site) for either people to travel by rail or for further investment in rail bother when many of those running the railway seem to think that the world revolves around them and have forgetten that the passengers (and taxpayers) need a reliable 7-day service.

Not quite as bad but last Friday I went on a 2 car 165 standing in for a 5 car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on a  fast London - Oxford. Needless to say it was 17 minutes late arriving at Oxford. That might have been okay in the 1990's but surely not in 2024.

I guess there must be a shortage of IET's and probably all other train types on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

According to Modern Railways GWR have averaged 40 IET engine shutdowns a day since January and this is before we get to the summer and we also have to remember this train type has now been around for nearly 7 years. Shutdowns are typically caused by overheating.

There is no way that an IET, at least in diesel only mode,  is going to last as long in service as an HST^▸ (High Speed Train).

I don't agree, it is obviously too much, but when you consider fare income was £8.6bn it is about 1% of that income.

What I would be interested to know is do Toc's still receive money for delays from Network rail (and others) and how does that work with their fixed fee contracts?

Under franchising a lot of the toc profit (this was true for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) was made up of delay payments from Network Rail as the amount paid to the customer for delays was always much less than that paid from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to the toc. Of course not all compensation comes from NR as the toc will also be responsible for delays and therefore compensation.

If you look at the map in the pictures you will see that Varamis Rail have highlighted the London - Bristol route.
Would be interested to know whether this is just a suggestion or whether they have any customers lined up.

Well looks like a GWR IET went to Euston today.
https://x.com/TerrierMcD/status/1769691037558059255?t=CVVTnxxoYsbWZxbGrHSTwQ&s=03

There are pictures of a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) at Waterloo station today as part of a test run for the Old Oak Common HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) closures, apparently one is also due to visit Euston this week.

https://x.com/SWTrainspotter/status/1769659039867081051?t=1dM3g_rktSn6YAt75TnqeA&s=03

The 1Z46 special from Kidderminster to Canterbury was 7 minutes late leaving Shrub Hill at 0609 but 138 minutes late leaving Norton Junc at 0825 https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U91961/2024-03-13/detailed

Don't know whether 1Z46 was the cause or was just badly impacted by the incident, but appeared to be okay when I saw at Didcot Parkway.

Apparently the section to Bedford mentioned in yesterday's budget https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68491452

I am not convinced that £240m is enough to actually do all the required work, and would like to see more detail about the funding, but it does say that trains will be running from Oxford to Bedford by 2030

How many crew can you get in a crew storage area ? what type of crew are stored there? how long can they be stored for? and has this been agreed with the Unions?

According to the usually reliable Oxford Clarion on twitter https://x.com/OxfordClarion/status/1742528741627007417?s=20 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have asked permission to start an Oxford to Bristol sevice from Spetember 14th 2024.
Service will start as 2 trains a day on a Saturday calling at Radley, Culham, Appleford, Didcot, Swindon, Chippenham and Bath.
Operated by Class 802 trains.

That may technically be true, but isn't the fragmentation of the railways, as you describe, a major problem and it gives to many people an excuse to pass the buck so that no-one takes responsibility and nothing changes.

I would hope that employees of NR^» (Network Rail - home page), GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), tfl, etc. worked together to ensure that those passengers on stranded trains were communicated with and evacuated as soon as possible.

Until the fragmentation of the railways is resolved then things will not improve for passengers and costs will continue to rise.

No 1 is Euston and is No 4 some sort of battery electric tram?

Or just reinstate the Didcot to Oxford shuttle service to run every half an hour.

Of  course if they hadn't cancelled the half-complete (maybe more) Didcot-Oxford electrification then none of this would have been happening.

Given the recent level of reliability of the Worcester line services its good that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) haven't decided, from the December timetable change, to halve the number of services on the Didcot to Oxford shuttle and replace them by stopping the Worcester services at Didcot parkway instead.

Oh wait......

Given that when fares go up the standard line 'about paying for investments in services' is trotted out maybe we will see a reduction in fares to match the reduction in services.

According to the Evening Stanard it has been saved.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/one-day-travelcard-saved-transport-for-london-tfl-trains-fares-b1115574.html

It will apparently rise in price (I am not surprised), if the rise is 'small' then this has to be good news and good news about the railways is in short supply at the moment.