More dangerous overcrowding to the Westcountry

[whole diary]

[stuving]

If one more WoE train ran into Marylebone then another busy route would have had one less as it was handling as many as it sensibly could.  Was there a reason Waterloo wasn’t used this year?

Ah, but there was a plan! SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) ran 4 tph all day yesterday between Reading and Waterloo (as well as a few longer trains from Exeter). So GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) should - logically* - have been running the trains unable to get into a terminal (and perhaps even some extra ones) to Reading, telling people "change there to one of the frequent trains to Waterloo".

Do you mean to say they didn't do that? Did the stitches joining up the thinking come apart?

* Yes, I know ...

[Timmer]

It was a shame GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) didn’t run to Waterloo yesterday. I couldn’t see a reason why.

If I had been travelling back up from the Southwest yesterday I’d have traveled on a Reading service and changed there for Waterloo. But that’s me, most will always opt for the direct service and I get that from the less hassle factor of changing. Of course when you have a much less frequent direct service operating the trains are always going to be full; especially from the SW.

Wouldn’t have been surprised if the SW-Reading services were quite lightly loaded.

[TaplowGreen]

Ongoing problems today.....

07:41 Penzance to London Paddington due 13:15 has been previously delayed, has been further delayed at Tiverton Parkway and is now 21 minutes late.
This is due to overcrowding.

[Phantom]

Only had to travel between Temple Meads and Weston on the way home from work last night - on one of the Marylebone to Penzance services (1610 from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))), I've honestly never seen an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) so overcrowded, not just with people but the amount of luggage that was being carried.
Was talking to a lady that got on who had three cases that had a reserved seat but literally couldn't find anywhere to put her luggage as the racks etc were already full, she was travelling down to Truro so good luck to her !

Earlier in the day, platform 3 was 4/5 deep all the way from Bonapartes to the help desk area, luckilly a 9 car service was due for Leeds, but goodness knows how many of those made it.

Of course the area was worse than normal with the Cross Country strikes yesterday and the random timetable that seemed to be running in the area

[Southernman]

South Eastern are making a rare foray into Waterloo since Boxing Day with some of their Kent services. May be this was a reason why GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) didn't operate into Waterloo?

[broadgage]

Ongoing problems today.....

07:41 Penzance to London Paddington due 13:15 has been previously delayed, has been further delayed at Tiverton Parkway and is now 21 minutes late.
This is due to overcrowding.

Elsewhere on these forums, the need for an improved service between London and Plymouth has been discussed, primarily to attract business travellers.
I wonder what a business traveller boarding at Plymouth today or yesterday would have thought ? "never again" I expect! Remembering that today is a normal working day.

Events like this make all the agonising over details seem rather pointless if business users cant even get on the train, much less get a seat.
And yes I know that it is their fault for travelling just after Christmas.

[IndustryInsider]

I very much doubt there were many business travellers yesterday, though with the arrival of the 802 fleet imminent, by this time next year many WoE service should have about 20% more seats.

[Sleepy]

All ready for more media GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday ? The why don't they run more/ longer trains brigade will tweet like crazy !!

[TaplowGreen]

All ready for more media GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday ? The why don't they run more/ longer trains brigade will tweet like crazy !!

Can you blame them?

[Timmer]

All ready for more media GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday ? The why don't they run more/ longer trains brigade will tweet like crazy !!

Well they are but it probably still won’t be enough. We Brits have this obsession with all wanting to travel at once when it comes to bank holidays.

[TaplowGreen]

All ready for more media GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday ? The why don't they run more/ longer trains brigade will tweet like crazy !!

Well they are but it probably still won’t be enough. We Brits have this obsession with all wanting to travel at once when it comes to bank holidays.

At this time of year, "It's the customer's fault for travelling/no-one forced them to get on the train" is almost up there with "Oooooooooooos gunna pay for it?" on the Coffee shop forum Bingo card! 

[broadgage]

It might not be as bad this year as in some previous years, on account of the rather poor weather that is forecast.
Many passengers will have made arrangements some time in advance and are unlikely to alter arrangements due to moderately adverse weather.
I doubt however that many potential customers will look at the weather and say "It looks lovely, lets pop down to see aunt Hilda, you know that she wants to see the children again"

[grahame]

All ready for more media GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Thursday ? The why don't they run more/ longer trains brigade will tweet like crazy !!

Well they are but it probably still won’t be enough. We Brits have this obsession with all wanting to travel at once when it comes to bank holidays.

At this time of year, "It's the customer's fault for travelling/no-one forced them to get on the train" is almost up there with "Oooooooooooos gunna pay for it?" on the Coffee shop forum Bingo card! 

I posted elsewhere about some of the forward looking thought at yesterday's Transport Knowledge Hub in Bristol, covering the South West - and that was a qualified positive post.

Alas, I'm struck by the difference between Highways England - "We have just completed a great strategic road through the open countryside north of Exeter to Cornwall" and the speaker's view of "we can't justify a strategic rail link through the open countryside north of Exeter toward Cornwall because there's no-one much in that open countryside".   Dual Standards.

Also I was struck by the suggestion that the lines are currently at capacity and more passing place are needed on them.   Can't help feeling that someone's confused into thinking that the line from Exeter to Taunton is largely single, just like the line from Exeter to Salisbury is ... and that the fact that many trains are shorter than they need be is overlooked.

A little bit of arithmetic ... from Taunton to Exeter, come new timetables ... 2 x XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trains per hour at 5 carriages each, one x GWR train at 9 carriages super-fast and one x GWR train ever 2 hours semi-fast - I make that 23 or 24 carriages per hour.  Capacity, even at just one passenger train every 15 minutes - 40 carriages if they were all 10 car.      For how long would 66% growth in capacity be enough?   In chatting with the speaker briefly after the talk, I got the impression that the 'longer train' option may be an inconvenient option as it provides an interim solution that could muddy progress towards even greater capacity via capital expenditure on the current routes - especially via Salisbury.   For sure the extra trains will cost money - but doesn't that money need to be spent in addition to infrastructure anyway if there's to be more capacity on the infrastructure in future years - not much good having a railway that can take 60 carriages per hour if there are only 25 carriages available!

[TaplowGreen]

It might not be as bad this year as in some previous years, on account of the rather poor weather that is forecast.
Many passengers will have made arrangements some time in advance and are unlikely to alter arrangements due to moderately adverse weather.
I doubt however that many potential customers will look at the weather and say "It looks lovely, lets pop down to see aunt Hilda, you know that she wants to see the children again"

I think the sudden impulse to see a Devon or Cornwall based Aunt Hilda would be tempered somewhat by the cost of walk up fares at this time of year and the prospect of an extremely expensive sardine experience of several hours duration.

I'm afraid she'll have to wait to see the children, but on the upside she gets to eat the Easter eggs herself 

[IndustryInsider]

Surely the cost of walk-on fares doesn’t alter at all?  Very expensive if you involve London or Reading or places like that, but still pretty reasonable if you are going from, say, Taunton to Exeter, which is probably more likely to be the sort of journey involved to go to see Aunt Hilda on the spur of the moment.

Expect hellish conditions on many trains on Thursday afternoon, Friday morning and most of Monday with the usual ‘jam tomorrow’ caveat that more capacity should be available for Easter next year onwards.  That’s provided GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) can train up enough staff of course, their recent track record not exactly inspiring confidence.