GWR Performance Figures

[whole diary]

[initiation]

I've certainly noticed the uptick in Bristol punctuality - the number of text delay warnings I get has gone down significantly.

I note several Paddington high speed services from Bristol towards Weston/Taunton have had there timetables tweaked and the train departure put back several minutes at Bristol. So while they now might meet punctuality, no time saving for the user...

[Adrian]

I've certainly noticed the uptick in Bristol punctuality - the number of text delay warnings I get has gone down significantly.

Agree with that, and the improved performance seems to be continuing through January.

I keep a close eye on two Taunton - Cardiff services that I use most often for my journey home from work, and their arrival time in Newport because I make a connection there.  Statistics for arrival within 5 minutes of scheduled time look like this:
July 2018 - 14/34 = 41%
Aug 2018 - 27/45 = 60%
Sep 2018 - 27/44 = 61%
Oct 2018 - 23/39 = 59%
Nov 2018 - 13/20 = 65%
Dec 2018 - 29/31 = 91%
Jan 2019 up to today - 25/26 = 96%

No short-forms this week either on these services - though that's not long enough to call it a sustained trend.

Adrian

[Sixty3Closure]

Thanks Ray does that mean that people with continuous season tickets are actually paying less year on year?

I remember a period at the end of Thanes Trains  and the changeover First ? taking over when for several years I paid lees each year for my annual season ticket around 2% rise and 5% discount.

Never seems to get mentioned in reporting.

My ticket despite the 5% or 10% has nearly always cost me more. I wished I was better at maths to understand why.

[IndustryInsider]

Another mostly positive set of results after last months distinct upturn.  HSS Punctuality was up to 90.6% which is the best result since April 2016, and with Reliability at 99% I guess that's evidence that the IETs are starting to settle in?  All other punctuality scores were up on last month as well, except for LTV which dropped back a little. 

Reliability didn't show quite such an impressive set of results, with drops on 4 or the 6 sectors compared with last month, though they were mostly slight drops.  That's except for Plymouth & Cornwall which recorded just 97.6, no doubt due to the Penryn derailment.  That was enough to drop the Moving Annual Average from 98.7% to 98.5% which is the trigger for season ticket discounts.

Graphs attached.

[nickswift99]

Thanks. So why is LTV still performing poorly?

The 387s have been around for a year now on the outers (and longer on the suburban services).

Is it just the seemingly frequent infrastructure issues at the London end of the route? Issues with the timetable? Something else?

[eightonedee]

I could make a (probably ill-informed!) guess that the problem is timetable related, and a further observation.

If you look at that most complicated current GWR timetable,  T10, you will see a very complicated set of different calling patterns all running between Paddington and Reading, and an uneven spacing of services with "bunching". Many leave or arrive at the same station close together, so delay on one service affects others. To give two examples - there are 3 services close together through Goring each weekday morning towards Reading - a 7-45 (stopping electric to London), 7-55 (stopping diesel, Oxford-Reading) and 08-00 (electric limited stop after Reading for London). The first is often late, and almost invariably the others are delayed following. There are then gaps of 18 and 28 minutes respectively between the next two services. In the evening there are a number of limited stop departures that pass earlier slower trains before reaching Maidenhead, then stop there and Twyford just or so three minutes before the slow service they have overtaken, so it does not take much slippage in timings to get two late trains for the price of one. Perhaps (if it is possible) reworking the Paddington - Didcot timings so that timings west of Maidenhead are evened out might help?

The second factor is the splitting of trains at Reading - a particular problem with a train I often get when I change at Reading, the 16-57 ex-Reading stopping service for Didcot. It arrives as a lightly loaded 12 coach train, then divides. leaving 4 behind. It seldom arrives at the advertised 16-53, and usually takes longer (sometimes much longer) than the allowed 4 minutes to divide, often ending up 10 minutes or more late at Goring. Surely someone could work out a way of avoiding this delay?