SWR Disaster On 'First' Day

[whole diary]

[SByers]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) "The Journey  Starts Here ..."

Buzzcocks.

Widespread disruption and hours' worth of delays and cancellations.

Tryng to get from Feltham to Kingston - the black fella in the ticket office who was more interested in playing games on a smart phone - eventually said "Kington?" He didn't know where that was. Catch the next train in 20 minutes (one of the few running) - change at Twickenham (which I already knew). That was all the help he offered. Then went back to his smart phone.

When I got to Twickenham there was so much disruption - all trains were delayed by hours - not even showing cancelled - and nothing was going round the Kingston loop.

So I ended up at Waterloo - two hours' late.

The announcements on the trains and stations were 'a train fault' or 'power supply problems.'

Obviously there's "lies, damned lies, and SWR excuses."

At Waterloo there was a brave new sign stating South West Railways - "The Journey Starts Here..."

Bo$$ocks. No-one's journey was starting anywhere are certainly not here at Waterloo - period.

I have now complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

I'd have thought that they'd have toned down the message bearing in mind the network-wide disruptions.

Of course disruptions on First Group services are expected, they've got those to perfection on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

And MTR? Well an out-and-back Metro service in Hong Kong is no training for managing the complex ex-SWT^▸ (South West Trains) network. And they well failed today.

SWR had taken out a full two page advert in Metro. They're promising all kinds of improvements. Well running trains would be an improvement. How hard is that? SWT managed - but not it seems MTR / First Group.

Pathetic bunch of idiots. No wonder RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) etc. are going on strike.

SB^▸ (Signal Box)

[ChrisB]

You don't say when this was....

[stuving]

 The first report was timed 05:16!

    Various incidents across the South Western Railway network is resulting in some trains being delayed by up to 60 minutes, cancelled or revised.

    Evening peak services are likely to be disrupted due to the following incidents that occurred during today;

        A broken down train (Loss of power to the train) between Staines and Feltham,
        A broken down train between Wimbledon and Earlsfield blocking the local surburban line.
        A signalling problem between Hilsea and Portsmouth Harbour,
        A signalling problem between Southampton Central and Fareham
        A trespass incident between Basingstoke and Eastleigh
        A points problem at London Waterloo closing Platform 9.

[Timmer]

Yes it wasn't the best day for the 'launch' of the new franchise with some attendees stuck on trains outside Waterloo for various reasons.

Paul Clifton tweeting the launch train was 15 minutes late!

I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of its Firstgroup so bound to go wrong be rubbish etc. Let's give Andy Mellors and his team a chance to deliver on the commitments made when awarded the franchise.

Believe me they are going to need all the goodwill they can get especially with the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) already balloting their members.

[stuving]

I'm not sure how many of those various failures should have or did have much impact on services nearer London. Obviously the Feltham one did, in part because it did take quite a while to rescue the poor thing.

1S14 from Weybridge left Ashford at 07:29 (2L) and was terminated at Feltham at 09:56, by now 145L. However the next train to leave Feltham was 2C14 from Reading, at 10:16, 161L.

They did manage to keep up trains running, by sending them on one of the long detours available to the SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line). Down trains seem mostly to have used the normal route, though not all. I imagine Waterloo ran out of trains to send back out at one point. 

[Adelante_CCT]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) "The Journey  Starts Here ..."

-------------------snip------------------

Pathetic bunch of idiots. No wonder RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) etc. are going on strike.
SB^▸ (Signal Box)

        A broken down train (Loss of power to the train) between Staines and Feltham,
        A broken down train between Wimbledon and Earlsfield blocking the local surburban line.
        A signalling problem between Hilsea and Portsmouth Harbour,
        A signalling problem between Southampton Central and Fareham
        A trespass incident between Basingstoke and Eastleigh
        A points problem at London Waterloo closing Platform 9.

Signalling problems and the points failure = Network Rail
Trespass = Some idiot
Train failures = Could be down to the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) depending on the fault and any relative preventive maintenance, or could just be down to bad luck.

Can't blame SWR too much.

Now if it was 'due to driver shortage', 'due to a shortage of train crew', or 'due to more repairs required than usual' then by all means blame the TOC!

[JayMac]

...and I'm not sure the skin colour of the person in the ticket office at Feltham is of any relevance. 

I'm no fan of franchising, or the corporations that run them, but it's worth noting that MTR Corporation is far more than just an operator of an 'out and back' metro in Hong-Kong. They operate heavy rail services in numerous countries, both suburban and long distance,  and were, until recently, operator of the London Overground concession. They are also running the Crossrail concession.

[RichardB]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) "The Journey  Starts Here ..."

When I got to Twickenham there was so much disruption - all trains were delayed by hours - not even showing cancelled - and nothing was going round the Kingston loop.

So I ended up at Waterloo - two hours' late."

Why didn't you think about seeing if there was a bus from Twickenham to Kingston? 

As it happens, the 281 would have taken you straight from Twickenham station.

[The Tall Controller]

I'm sure the day would have gone just fine had SWT^▸ (South West Trains) still been in control then? 

[ChrisB]

Quite.

Trying to make a mountain out of a molehill that SWT^▸ (South West Trains) had zero control over that soon after taking over.

[John R]

Quite.

Trying to make a mountain out of a molehill that SWT^▸ (South West Trains) had zero control over that soon after taking over.

I think there's no doubt that SWT had zero control over it...

[ChrisB]

Indeed, nor had SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) frankly