Major delays/cancellations, Paddington to Reading, 20 December 2012 and ongoing ...

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) are saying it's due to an electrical fault, nothing to do with Crossrail - guess it's maybe the same problem as last week?

Whatever, it's appalling......I was due in London today and am in Reading tomorrow - if there's no trains I will get a cab and send FGW^▸ (First Great Western) the bill.

[bobm]

I presume that full weekday/rush hour fares are payable for this worse than a Sunday service.

Off peak fares valid on all trains until Jan 2nd as I understand it. Ceartainly all my early morning journeys are available on off peak tickets.

[JayMac]

if there's no trains I will get a cab and send FGW^▸ (First Great Western) the bill.

Whilst it may make you feel better to do so, it is highly unlikely that FGW will refund you. Compensation for delays to your journey or a refund of your ticket if you decide not to travel by train is the limit to their liability.

There may be alternative transport arranged, and in some cases this may be a taxi, but will most likely be travel via an alternate route where possible, replacement road transport or ticket acceptance on local buses.

[CLPGMS]

The Ticket Restrictions on all FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services "are lifted from 22 December 2012 to 1 January 2013 inclusive" - See FGW's Christmas and New Year booklet.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Trains between Reading and London Paddington suspended


Passengers at Paddington complained about confusion over alternative travel arrangements

Train passengers have been advised not to travel unless their journeys are essential due to problems between Reading and London Paddington.

Overrunning engineering work has caused all services along the route to be suspended until at least 11:00 GMT, First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) said.

A limited road replacement service is running using 15 buses.

FGW customers can use their tickets on South West Trains services between Reading and London Waterloo.

Network Rail said the line had to be closed after an electrical fault between Hayes and West Drayton was discovered during the engineering works.

Services have also been suspended on Heathrow Connect between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport.

The delays have also hit passengers from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire as they get to Reading.

Passengers at Paddington told BBC News of their frustration at the problems. One man said there was confusion between FGW and station managers about alternative travel arrangements. While others said the number of replacement buses was insufficient.

Network Rail has apologised for the disruption and said it was working to reopen all lines as soon as possible.

[insider]

Off Peak Fares at ALL Times until 1st Jan (normal fares from 2nd), which means that Weekend First is available and therefore a trolley service will be provided (subject to staff) on a weekday.

Just a reminder that the disruption being experienced this morning is Network Rails Responsibility (well actually subcontractors).

The live departure boards are what they say "Live", they are correct until a decision is made to amend a service. So looking at Taunton at around 0900 (or the post was as 1000 approx), trains would have been shown as going to London as the Line was always estimated to reopen this morning at 1100.

I think the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) team have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks with disruption happening permantly... Not to say that this acceptable but just from my sources, I would like you all to know that, there are only 3 people in the control room that provide all the info to both internal and external sources (websites, news, stations etc...). They also have to order and cooridnate replacement bus services, taxis and an array of other jobs. Yes they will be supported by managament, but when there are so many incidents it is very very hard to actually keep on top of so many service alterations.

They work very hard to get the info out, unfortunately there are still a number of railway staff across the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that choose to ignore or dont understand how to deal with disruption, when it comes to informing the Customer/Passenger, whether it be a simple PA^▸ (Public Address) or just passing the info to someone else like the ticket office.

The actual cause of the over-run today was due to an electrical issue when engineers tried to test the system in the early hours, due to lack of diagrams (electrical ones) they were unable to complete testing, they also had some earthing faults. This basically meant that the signalling could not be restored in the Hayes area.

Info I have recieved from a Source. There were actually other issues as well which delayed the handing back of the overall project.

a) 8178b points run through have been initially looked at and have bent drivers and stretchers and the switch is also crippled.
It is possible that the damage appears worse than it is due to the bent drivers and stretchers. This was caused by an engineering train being allowed to move by someone when the points were not set.

b) Main line work expected to be handed back in Item 18 on time though the Relief Lines may overrun until 0800 due to difficulties getting power to the Locations due Transformer issues. This was the major issue which actuall kept ALL lines shut


c) Whilst removing a road railer vehicle from the Up Main at Hayes, the railhead has become damaged. Welders en route to attempt to grind out damage.  Just something else for them to sort.

Personally looks like the whole area was a bit of a shambles..... Oh well it is open now.

[insider]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Trains between Reading and London Paddington suspended


Passengers at Paddington complained about confusion over alternative travel arrangements

Train passengers have been advised not to travel unless their journeys are essential due to problems between Reading and London Paddington.

Overrunning engineering work has caused all services along the route to be suspended until at least 11:00 GMT, First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) said.

A limited road replacement service is running using 15 buses.

FGW customers can use their tickets on South West Trains services between Reading and London Waterloo.

Network Rail said the line had to be closed after an electrical fault between Hayes and West Drayton was discovered during the engineering works.

Services have also been suspended on Heathrow Connect between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport.

The delays have also hit passengers from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire as they get to Reading.

Passengers at Paddington told BBC News of their frustration at the problems. One man said there was confusion between FGW and station managers about alternative travel arrangements. While others said the number of replacement buses was insufficient.

Network Rail has apologised for the disruption and said it was working to reopen all lines as soon as possible.

15 Buses on the day after the Xmas break, that isnt bad as they were all on hand from around 0830 approx. Do people actually think there is a place where hundreds of buses just sit waiting in case the railway need them....?

[ellendune]

The actual cause of the over-run today was due to an electrical issue when engineers tried to test the system in the early hours, due to lack of diagrams (electrical ones) they were unable to complete testing, they also had some earthing faults. This basically meant that the signalling could not be restored in the Hayes area.

No diagrams.  This is 1990's work have they been lost or were they never completed? Is this some underlying fault that was part of the previous problems or was the whole original installation a botch job?

I think the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) team have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks with disruption happening permantly... Not to say that this acceptable but just from my sources, I would like you all to know that, there are only 3 people in the control room that provide all the info to both internal and external sources (websites, news, stations etc...). They also have to order and cooridnate replacement bus services, taxis and an array of other jobs. Yes they will be supported by managament, but when there are so many incidents it is very very hard to actually keep on top of so many service alterations.

They work very hard to get the info out, unfortunately there are still a number of railway staff across the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that choose to ignore or dont understand how to deal with disruption, when it comes to informing the Customer/Passenger, whether it be a simple PA^▸ (Public Address) or just passing the info to someone else like the ticket office.

Hats off to them they have not had an easy time. However its that customer service culture that keeps coming up.  Some staff do get it but others are stuck in a different age.

Info I have recieved from a Source. There were actually other issues as well which delayed the handing back of the overall project.

a) 8178b points run through have been initially looked at and have bent drivers and stretchers and the switch is also crippled.
It is possible that the damage appears worse than it is due to the bent drivers and stretchers. This was caused by an engineering train being allowed to move by someone when the points were not set.

b) Main line work expected to be handed back in Item 18 on time though the Relief Lines may overrun until 0800 due to difficulties getting power to the Locations due Transformer issues. This was the major issue which actuall kept ALL lines shut

c) Whilst removing a road railer vehicle from the Up Main at Hayes, the railhead has become damaged. Welders en route to attempt to grind out damage.  Just something else for them to sort.

Personally looks like the whole area was a bit of a shambles..... Oh well it is open now.

I assume there will be some sort of a full and frank exchange of views on these issues.

[insider]

I think the sad part of this will be that all the senior people will sit around a table in the New Year and someone will get shouted at, there will probably be a press release saying sorry and that it wont happen again..... However 99% of people reading this just know that aint true.

These kind of incidents will always happen, I suppose it is just how the incident is handled from the customer/passengers point of view??

[paul7575]

A key feature of this morning's problems is that someone somewhere based all the announcements around a problem at Maidenhead.  Why might this have been?  Misunderstanding when someone said the problem route was 'London to Reading via Maidenhead' perhaps?

Another own goal seems to be to do with the way they try and keep people up to date using twitter - again, someone decided that an appropriate hashtag for this problem would be '#maidenhead'.  Oddly enough that was already in use for all sorts of other random subjects.  I suppose anyone who uses twitter regularly will already be aware of this limitation though...

Paul

[JayMac]

There is now severe overcrowding at Reading as at 1249, 27/12. So much so that the station is exit only until further notice.

[Chris from Nailsea]

An update, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Trains between Reading and London Paddington resume

Disrupted train services between Reading and London Paddington have resumed.

All services along the route were suspended throughout Thursday morning after an electrical fault caused engineering work to overrun, First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) said. Two out of four lines reopened earlier with a full service set to resume by 16:30 GMT. Pre-booked tickets will be accepted on FGW services until the end of the week.

Network Rail closed the line after an electrical fault between Hayes and West Drayton was discovered on Boxing Day during engineering works. Services on the Heathrow Connect and Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport were also cancelled but resumed earlier. The delays also affected passengers from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire as they headed to Reading.


Passengers had to wait in the rain for replacement bus services outside London Paddington station

Dan Panes from FGW said: "We have managed to get trains moving again as soon as Network Rail opened up the line again. Services will be busy, but the road replacement buses will continue to run as well in the short term. We have lifted all ticket restrictions until the end of the week meaning customers can get on any train even if they have pre-booked in advance."

Passengers at Paddington told BBC News of their frustration. One man said there was confusion between FGW and station managers about alternative travel arrangements. Others said the number of replacement buses was insufficient.

BBC Radio Berkshire's Gavin Fischer at Reading station said services seemed to be preparing to return to normal after earlier disruption.

Network Rail has apologised for the disruption.

[TaplowGreen]

15 Buses on the day after the Xmas break, that isnt bad as they were all on hand from around 0830 approx. Do people actually think there is a place where hundreds of buses just sit waiting in case the railway need them....?

Insider - of course people don't think that....what they think, and have every right to expect, is a greater than 50/50 chance of being able to get to work in the morning, via the train for which we pay thousands of ^ per year....sadly over the last month this hasn't been the case.

We have the most expensive, and least robust and reliable system in Europe, its a disgrace.

As later posts have revealed, this latest farce was down to sheer incompetence/sloppy workmanship on several levels....will anyone be held accountable? I doubt it.



Edit note: Quote marks fixed. CfN.

[Electric train]

......... this latest farce was down to sheer incompetence/sloppy workmanship on several levels....will anyone be held accountable? I doubt it.

Where is you factual evidence?

If appropriate Individuals and contractors will be held accountable (this does happen it is not published to the public)

[Chris from Nailsea]

To be fair to the staff (if that is not in itself a sort of oxymoron), they will indeed be held accountable for their actions, or apparent lack of them: I've seen it.