Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Friday, 05:00 ...

Cancellations to services between Maidenhead and Twyford Due to signalling problems between Maidenhead and Twyford trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed by up to 30 mins. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.
Customer Advice:
Chiltern Railways, Cross Country, London Underground and South West Trains are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice. Arrangements have been made for First Great Western rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys.

12 cancellations and 11 amendments showing already

[Worcester_Passenger]

And at 06:23 there are 22 cancellations and 39 amendments.

[johoare]

26 cancellations and 41 amendments now.. I am staying at home today.. I can't take it anymore 

[insider]

FAULT IS STILL ONGOING..........

After pretty much pulling the power supply system apart over night, techs are still baffled as to why they cant rectify an earth fault. This is causing a one track circuit on each of the lines UP & DOWN, Main & Relief, to give false indications.

So as a result Long Block Working will remain in place UFN^‡(resolve). The train service has been stripped back more than yesterday for AM peak as there were some big delays with bunching of trains at Twyford!

Basic Plan is Pad-Cardiff cancelled.
 Bedwyn - Pad start/terminate RDG^‡(resolve),
Oxford - Pad Class 1 cancelled (North Cots services should run)
Henley & Marlow Branch Services, run a locked in Branch Service only no through trains to Pad.
Chetenham - Pad start/term Swindon.

And then as ever whatever else Network Rail decide to cancel to ease congestion and workload for signaller to ensure a safe railway....this will mean severe overcrowding, but at least trains run.

And Yes Twyford & Maidenhead customers will be hit hard with these amendments....but there will be trains, it would be nice if they thought to send something down to Maidenhead to start, being the London side of the failure, but doubt that will happen!

[insider]

AND AS IF BY MAGIC...AFTER THE PLANS ARE IMPLEMENTED AND ADVERTISED......NETWORK RAIL ADVISE NORMAL SIGNALLNG FULLY RESTORED AT 0655!!!!!

However majority of alterations will stand as crew and sets already in place, however some will be reinstated....

First to run is the 0736 Pad-Chelt!!!

Likely that HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services will recover, and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) will take until around 1000-1100 as loads of sets are still on Reading depot!!!

[BBM]

Yes I can confirm from "on the spot" that trains seem to be passing between Twyford (TWY^▸ (Twyford station)) and Maidenhead (MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station)) without delay. It's a shame this couldn't have been fixed earlier to allow a normal scheduled service this morning!

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[TaplowGreen]

AND AS IF BY MAGIC...AFTER THE PLANS ARE IMPLEMENTED AND ADVERTISED......NETWORK RAIL ADVISE NORMAL SIGNALLNG FULLY RESTORED AT 0655!!!!!

However majority of alterations will stand as crew and sets already in place, however some will be reinstated....

First to run is the 0736 Pad-Chelt!!!

Likely that HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services will recover, and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) will take until around 1000-1100 as loads of sets are still on Reading depot!!!

Good news - let's hope a normal service can be maintained, maybe for as long as 24 hours?  my only hope is that someone will compensate me for the amount of flowers I've had to buy Mrs Taplowgreen in respect of taxi service to work over last few days......I've even promised to do the hoovering and clean out the garage at the weekend.....FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have a lot to answer for! 

[BerkshireBugsy]

It looks like there are problems again this Friday - well there were on my journey from Thatcham to Paddington.

Fortunately I saw this when I got out of bed and managed to catch an earlier train to get me to Reading. More by luck than judgement I managed to get a re-instated turbo servers from Reading to Paddington which stopped only at Maidenhead and got to the office earlier than when the services run on time.

Although I have sympathy with those struggling to get into London from the west one of the plus points of my journey was that the tube wasn't as crowded as normal

[BBM]

Have the problems reappeared yet again? I've just taken a look at RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and at the current time (0905) there seems to be about 10-12 minutes of delays occurring in the Twyford (TWY^▸ (Twyford station)) area on all 4 lines.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[BerkshireBugsy]

Have the problems reappeared yet again? I've just taken a look at RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and at the current time (0900) there seems to be about 10-12 minutes of delays occurring in the TWY^▸ (Twyford station) area on all 4 lines.

Not sure BBM - from guesswork (must stress that) they reoccurred early this morning and loads of services were showing as cancelled/delayed on the planner app. After I walked down to Thatcham station they seemed to have settled but I suspect that was a false sense of security.

When I got to Reading I was thinking of catching a stopping service to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) and was on P14/15 when they announced that some of the services were being re-instated.

Maybe FGW^▸ (First Great Western) had learnt from the troubles on Monday (in a good way, I'm not being sarcastic!) and were planning accordingly.

[ellendune]

Maybe FGW^▸ (First Great Western) had learnt from the troubles on Monday (in a good way, I'm not being sarcastic!) and were planning accordingly.

Practice makes perfect!

[TaplowGreen]

Have the problems reappeared yet again? I've just taken a look at RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and at the current time (0905) there seems to be about 10-12 minutes of delays occurring in the TWY^▸ (Twyford station) area on all 4 lines.

.....suspect there's an element of a**e covering as things get back to "normal" in case they all fall over again? Having said that the list of cancellations seems to be dwindling and mainly restricted to London - Cardiffs.

[jane s]

It was a complete fiasco this morning so I don't think anyone has learnt from anything!

JoHoare you were so right to stay at home!

I had to change at Reading on to 8:31 Ealing Broadway stopper. I was sitting comfortably in the rear coach of 5 at 8:29 when I heard platform - NOT on-train - announcements that the front 2 coaches only were going to Ealing Broadway and the rear three were now going to Oxford. After quickly checking with someone who had just got on, I got off & sprinted up the platform & got on the rammed 2nd coach getting the last seat. The doors soon shut leaving those less quick on the uptake than me standing outside.

Since this was patently unfair due to the lack of on-train announcements, they eventually had to open the doors to let these people on, causing a delay. After further delays between Twyford & Maidenhead we then proceeded getting later & later & later due to the sheer impossibility of trying to cram at least 3 full trains-worth of people onto 2 coaches.

The platform at Slough alone was still heaving when they shut the doors, a situation repeated at West Drayton, Hayes & Southall. We eventually arrived at Ealing over 20 mins late (having strated off only 5 mins late).

Whoever decided to split that train at Reading and send us forward with only 2 coaches has some SERIOUS explaining to do! It is just taking the proverbial - if you cancel more than half the trains, the ones that do run MUST be full 5 or 6-car sets - no ifs, buts or maybes.

It is never acceptable at any time to run 2-car trains in the peaks on this route, let alone when it was the first stopper through in some time as it was this morning.

I had just got off the stopper from Oxford that had terminated at Reading - surely they could have turned this around to form the service to Oxford instead of splitting the 5-car set! It's simply beyond a joke.

[broadgage]

Does anyone know WHY they run such short trains at times of disruption ?
With so many cancellations they can hardly plead shortage of rolling stock.

If the network rail signalling fiascos severely limit the number of trains that can be run, then surely every train that does run should without question be full length.

[ChrisB]

Trains & drivers out of place....