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

[whole diary]

[Electric train]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

So whooooozzz gonna pay for that one GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) or Hitachi as the 802s aren't Agility trains?

You may have noticed on the new electric units a light that luminates the pantograph, this is for a CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) camera that is located in the pan well.


The footage from the unit involved and other units that passed over the damaged section will be interrogated by a joint team made up of Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)), TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s and FOCs^▸ (Freight Operating Company).  There is also other data that is recorded on the units that will be used.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[a-driver]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

So whooooozzz gonna pay for that one GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) or Hitachi as the 802s aren't Agility trains?

I doubt very much wether GWR will be paying for it.

[Birdie100]

An interesting commute this morning! Furze platt to maidenhead, maidenhead to Twyford, realise the reading SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train is up the spout, change at twyford back to Slough, Slough to Windsor, Windsor to Waterloo! Will be an adventure coming home!!!

[Sixty3Closure]

An interesting commute this morning! Furze platt to maidenhead, maidenhead to Twyford, realise the reading SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train is up the spout, change at twyford back to Slough, Slough to Windsor, Windsor to Waterloo! Will be an adventure coming home!!!

You showed more dedication than I did although my boss doesn't even look up anymore when I start a sentence or phone call with "the trains......"

[ChrisB]

Graham, There were many more than the 802 that got trapped when those wires descended...all the other electric units that got trapped with no power would have presumably not been running ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) but wiuld have had passengers on them? What happened to them?

Fyi, Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) are tweeting that 200 metred of wires are affected

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[ChrisB]

Journeycheck has removed the comment that two lines might be available after lunch and now states disruption till end of day

[TaplowGreen]

An empty 802 moving from North Pole to Bristol brought the wires down at Hanwell around 1930 last evening. Yet to hear how any evacuations happened, they can't still be on board, can they?

From an attribution viewpoint, I'm not yet clear whether the issue has into Hitachi, Great Western, Network Rail  or act-of-God origins. It may take a while to sort out - I understand (from yesterday) that there are still issues from the 2014 (was it?) issues at Dawlish of who picks up final bills.

On board - there may have been just a driver and I'm sure (s)he has long since been evacuated; I don't know if there's 'just' a tangle of wires or some more serious damage. No news (thank goodness) of anyone being hurt / rushed to hospital.


I wrote (s)he there - very interesting to learn yesterday at the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) stakeholder conference that although the company is pressing hard in gender neutral recruitment and looking to advertise vacancies and encourage across all communities, the train driver grade remains stubbornly male dominated.  Did I hear a figure of still just 7% of train drivers being ladies?

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) there were people trapped on trains for hours and still hundreds stranded on the concourse at Paddington well after midnight - judging by reports customer service was pretty poor at Paddington (the usual gaping mouthed hopelessness and no-one prepared to make decisions about taxis/hotels etc) but better at Reading where there was some coordination - naturally of course that was if people were able to get to Reading.

I understand that the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) at Paddington got thoroughly p'd off with GWR staff constantly summoning them to deal with frustrated customers who were not being threatening or abusive but just needed help, and then as the night drew on the GWR staff mostly steadily disappeared leaving the Police to deal with it all (that's from the (Police) horses mouth- TVP version).

[grahame]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) there were people trapped on trains for hours and still hundreds stranded on the concourse at Paddington well after midnight - judging by reports customer service was pretty poor at Paddington (the usual gaping mouthed hopelessness and no-one prepared to make decisions about taxis/hotels etc) but better at Reading where there was some coordination - naturally of course that was if people were able to get to Reading.

I understand that the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) at Paddington got thoroughly p'd off with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff constantly summoning them to deal with frustrated customers who were not being threatening or abusive but just needed help, and then as the night drew on the GWR staff mostly steadily disappeared leaving the Police to deal with it all (that's from the (Police) horses mouth- TVP version).

Graham, There were many more than the 802 that got trapped when those wires descended...all the other electric units that got trapped with no power would have presumably not been running ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) but wiuld have had passengers on them? What happened to them?

Fair questions - I misread (didn't engage brain) and answered purely from the viewpoint of the train involved - classic error of not looking at the wider picture.   I need another coffee.

My mis-read shows how classically easy it is to be involved in the detail of what's going on and overlook the passenger - the very person for whom the services are being run.

[BBM]

On BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio Berkshire just now there was a report from BBC South's Paul Clifton saying that the test IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) involved was being driven by a GB^▸ (Great Britain) Railfreight  (GBRf) driver and it brought down half a kilometre of cables.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[ChrisB]

Something else that was missing last night were announcements were necessary on the tube on lines passing through Paddington....as has happened in the past - that the station was shut, likely to be shut for the rest of the evening & to go directly to Waterloo to get to Reading or Windsor/Slough, or via Piccadilly line to Heathrow.

No announcements meant pax were still going to Paddington after 10pm....simply then telling them not to travel after a night out was insufficient.

On BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio Berkshire just now there was a report from BBC South's Paul Clifton saying that the test IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) involved was being driven by a GBRf driver and it brought down half a kilometre of cables.

Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) are saying less than half that - 200 metres.

I wondered whether it was one of the couple of newly delivered 802s....seems so.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronym

[BBM]

Network Rail (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) are saying less than half that - 200 metres.

Network Rail (NR) are reported as saying "500 metres of extensive damage caused to overhead power lines" in this Guardian article:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/17/paddington-station-suffers-major-disruption-after-overhead-wires-damaged

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[ChrisB]

Yes, indeed, they are tweeting this now too.

[a-driver]

All passengers were evacuated from stranded trains by 00:30

[BBM]

I've just found a Tweet from someone called Anila Babla with a photo showing passengers being evacuated onto the ballast at an unspecified location last night:

https://twitter.com/AnilaBabla/status/1052360086633340933

[SandTEngineer]

According to info on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) Forum, 15 Headspans damaged and up to 500m of wire.  The IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) is still stranded with the wires wrapped around it.  14 headspans now repaired.