Total Weekend Closure of Reading 14-15 October

[whole diary]

[BBM]

I've just had a quick perusal of RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and I see that 0900 2P14 MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) was terminated at Southall "due to a problem with the train". Meanwhile over on Chiltern, the 0835 Marylebone-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) was cancelled together with its return working at 1009 so an hour gap in the service.

[1st fan]

Can I say a big "thank-you" to those of you who have posted about this.

I've been out of the country for the best part of two weeks. The first week was a conference in, of places, Barcelona. Now this conference has a history of being held at the wrong time (over the years it has coincided with Princess Diana, 9/11 and the pound falling out of the EMS^▸ (Engine Management System) during the Minister's keynote address, plus some some lesser events). But the possibility of being in the wrong place as well turned out not to be too bad.

Anyway, I'd decided to have a bit of a break on my way home. I caught a through train from Barcelona to Santiago de Compostela which meandered gently through Pamplona, Vitoria and Leon - good value at €53.75 for a 12:30 ride, in First class. I had a couple of nights in Santiago, and then gently worked my way back along the north coast, stopping at Ribadeo, Leon, Bilbao and Bayonne.

In Santiago (last Sunday) I looked at the Forum for the first time for a week. And encountered the prospect of this weekend's shambles at Reading. Thank you all - without this, I'd've turned up at Paddington at about 16:00 tomorrow only to find that the train would magically turn into a pumpkin coach at Slough. My reputation as someone who understands the vagaries of transport would have been shot.

So, instead of spending the night in London, I'm on Friday night's 19:22 to the Cotswolds, so as to get home before pumpkin time.

This morning I set off on a TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) from Bayonne, down near the Spanish border. 1:47 of diddley-dum to Bordeaux, then it's given 2:08 for the 544km to Paris, which I make to be an average speed of 158 mile/h. We arrive three minutes early.

Cross Paris to Nord, where a Eurostar whizzes me to St Pancras, arriving some 20 seconds late.

And now I'm back in the comfortable world of the Famous Five on the 19:22. We left Paddington 14 late ("waiting for a member of the train crew"). The police were called at Reading (do they ever feature in the Blyton canon?) and we're now 22 late.

But hey, that's much better than being on a coach from Slough to Didcot.

Many many thanks to you all.

That's my normal Friday night train hope you weren't too delayed.

[1st fan]

Was that before or after Five get pissed orf at having to use a rail replacement bus ,and start rioting.

Surely Five get pissed orf at having to use a rail replacement bus (discover the train company couldn't get enough buses and therefore don't have enough seats for all the passengers), have no means of getting to their destination in a reasonable time frame and start rioting?

[Timmer]

I've just had a quick perusal of RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and I see that 0900 2P14 MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) was terminated at Southall "due to a problem with the train". Meanwhile over on Chiltern, the 0835 Marylebone-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) was cancelled together with its return working at 1009 so an hour gap in the service.

Ouch! Can't imagine what the scene is like at Oxford right now. Meanwhile GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter feed tales of woe are starting to appear 

[didcotdean]

In addition the 09:09 from Oxford to Marylebone had at least one carriage with faulty air conditioning according to a twitter exchange with Chiltern.

[Timmer]

Managed to watch Paul Clifton's report from Reading on last night's BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) South Today on i player in which he said that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 'are livid' about this late notice work. Well if that's the case then Mark Hopwood needs to break this so called code of not criticising other parts of the railway and come out and say so. He might get a bit more sympathy from his long suffering customers if he did.

PS it was GWR's Dan Panes who said they don't have enough buses when he was interviewed as part of the report.

[IndustryInsider]

Mark Hopwood is in a difficult position there as he’s been heavily promoting the fairly recent collaboration agreement with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) suggesting that things are improving as a result, so to take a pop at NR would fly in the face of those claims, so he’s having to be ultra-diplomatic about it.  No doubt he’s seething underneath! 

You also have to question if playing the blame game is a sensible approach given the average passenger won’t care one bit who is to blame, so I can’t see much sympathy being extended towards GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if he did.

[stuving]

Mark Hopwood is in a difficult position there as he’s been heavily promoting the fairly recent collaboration agreement with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) suggesting that things are improving as a result, so to take a pop at NR would fly in the face of those claims, so he’s having to be ultra-diplomatic about it.  No doubt he’s seething underneath! 

You also have to question if playing the blame game is a sensible approach given the average passenger won’t care one bit who is to blame, so I can’t see much sympathy being extended towards GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if he did.

Presumably GWR were confronted with a choice of either this weekend closure or a lot more shorter closures to finish the same test/approvals work. The latter would delay replacing Turbos with 387s, which GWR desperately need to do ASAP to mitigate the Great Rolling Stock Shortage. They might even  see that as the worse option in the longer term - but they are no doubt still livid with NR for their never-ending failures to complete any electrification works on time.

[TaplowGreen]

Mark Hopwood is in a difficult position there as he’s been heavily promoting the fairly recent collaboration agreement with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) suggesting that things are improving as a result, so to take a pop at NR would fly in the face of those claims, so he’s having to be ultra-diplomatic about it.  No doubt he’s seething underneath! 

You also have to question if playing the blame game is a sensible approach given the average passenger won’t care one bit who is to blame, so I can’t see much sympathy being extended towards GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if he did.

In the meantime he's happy to hide behind the Boardroom door & let his frontline staff face the music without offering a public explanation himself. Not good enough I'm afraid. With the big salary comes accountability. It's not a question of blame, it's a question of being seen to do the right thing.

Even O'Leary had the balls to stand up and openly apologise for the Ryanair disaster.

[IndustryInsider]

I think we've discussed that at some length before, and we pretty much all agree that some sort of public apology from him should have been forthcoming.

[Adelante_CCT]

Still numerous cancellations this evening "due to shortage of train crew", despite requiring far less crew for this weekend than normal

[BBM]

Tweet just now from Chiltern to add to the woes of diverted passengers:

Due to animals on the railway between Bicester North and Haddenham & Thame Parkway trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.

[Sixty3Closure]

I noticed at Twyford they'd closed the footbridge which I believe is still a public right of way. Be interesting to know how they got that paperwork so quickly as they seem to struggle with other admin.

There were also 'no parking' restrictions on the road the station is on which must have been popular with residents.

On the plus there were plenty of staff and buses around with signs telling you to purchase a rail ticket. As the regular bus service to Reading is much cheaper this seems a bit much.

[bobm]

I noticed at Twyford they'd closed the footbridge which I believe is still a public right of way. Be interesting to know how they got that paperwork so quickly as they seem to struggle with other admin.

In years gone by they used to close the old footbridge one day a year (can't remember the date now) to prevent it becoming a right of way.  No idea what the current situation is. 

[ChrisB]

I think we've discussed that at some length before, and we pretty much all agree that some sort of public apology from him should have been forthcoming.

Why not both him & Mark Carne of Network Rail making an aology together?