Christmas Day Trains?

[whole diary]

[bobm]

As usual no trains on Christmas Day - but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) came with a mince pie of running a passenger service to rival Santa.

The 18:04 from Paddington to Penzance was started from Reading due to earlier disruption and was then, because of the ongoing flooding near Exeter, diverted via Honiton.

It finally arrived in Penzance just two minutes before the witching hour.

From Realtime Trains

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

And because there are no cancellations, train service alterations etc to-day, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s website is proudly proclaiming (for the first time for several days) that there is a .....

"Good service on most of our network".

[grahame]

The 18:04 from Paddington to Penzance was started from Reading due to earlier disruption and was then, because of the ongoing flooding near Exeter, diverted via Honiton.

Has the flooding subsided then come back again?

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Taunton

Due to flooding between Exeter St Davids and Taunton all lines are blocked.

Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice

CrossCountry are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.

A whole series of these ...

14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:09
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:09 will be diverted between Castle Cary and Exeter St Davids.
It will no longer call at Taunton and Tiverton Parkway.
It is being delayed at London Paddington.
This is due to flooding.

15:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 18:11
15:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 18:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to flooding.

I suppose two wrongs make a right ... every cloud has a silver lining ... other cliches apply ... Thank Goodness it's not the final day of the five day Christmas travel window what was planned until recently!

[bobm]

The line at Staffords Bridge did re-open for a time this morning but closed again around 3pm and expected to be so for another 24 hours after the recent rain worked its way into the river system.

[AMLAG]

The main line between Taunton / Tiverton Pwy and Exeter St D is Closed yet AGAIN due   height of river Exe at Staffords bridge; water takes about 12 hrs to get from Exmoor to Exeter.

Over the years I have been aware of an increasing build up of deposited gravel & sand etc in the middle of the river, just downstream of this bridge. This material must slow the flow of water and adversley effect the speed and volume of water actually approaching and passing under this bdge. Yet there have, very surprisingly, been no plans to remove/ dredge this deposited material from the riverbed. It would not be difficult or costly (by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) standards) to do this in the Summer.

An improved slightly lower spillway on the outside curve/ bank of the river as it approaches Staffords bdge would help by allowing excess water off and into the field and down to the new drainage culvert etc built for NR by its Contractors at great cost a year or two ago.

[grahame]

The line at Staffords Bridge did re-open for a time this morning but closed again around 3pm and expected to be so for another 24 hours after the recent rain worked its way into the river system.

Indeed ... your prediction is correct

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Taunton
Due to flooding between Exeter St Davids and Taunton all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:15

The main line between Taunton / Tiverton Pwy and Exeter St D is Closed yet AGAIN due   height of river Exe at Staffords bridge; water takes about 12 hrs to get from Exmoor to Exeter

Many thanks for that insight / detail.  At times, it feels that we have a fair weather railway!

[grahame]

Oh dear ... as of now:



Current version of that map at: http://new.passenger.chat/map/_CAACAABAAA.jpg (as I write, identical, but it will change over time as trains past their run-by date and (hopefully) relatively few are added.  Clickable version and tailor your version of the report via http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html&basemap=CAACAABAAA

[grahame]

From that map ... http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html ... I have been using the current data as an effective test. Click on a station for details ( or start by substituting a three letter station code in http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html?stn=WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) ) and you're provided with a rich seam of onward data such as:









It may be on the "Christmas Day trains" thread ... but it's ready for next year!

[IndustryInsider]

Good work, Graham, but is it possible to source better street maps, as those ones are pretty awful for legibility and information?

[grahame]

Good work, Graham, but is it possible to source better street maps, as those ones are pretty awful for legibility and information?

There are reasons behind those / they are in early stages ... BUT I will look to add other more mainstream options.

[stuving]

At times, it feels that we have a fair weather railway!

Is that fair comment, or just an impressions? There's a well-known bias in our idea of how common things are now relative to the past, due to our not knowing how often things did happen before our lifetime (and sometimes not even within it). This is not helped by that way that most media reporting suffers from the same bias.

But, looking for some historical basis, I searched the BL Newspaper Archive for reports of floods in Devon affecting railways for 1900-1949. There did seem to be fewer floods, though the ones reported were big ones. As always, it's hard to know what that represents - though you'd have thought that the more local press of the day would report even quite small local floods. There was mention of trains being delayed, but rarely of lines being closed.

My impression at least is that is that in that era a train would not stop for any flood unless it was deep enough to reach the firebox. This, from a long piece in the  Totnes Weekly Times of 17 February 1900 starting with "The biggest flood in the memory of living man..." supports that;  railway operations were indeed conducted differently then:

[grahame]

At times, it feels that we have a fair weather railway!

Is that fair comment, or just an impression?

I stated it as an impression - the words "it feels" in my original text - so feel it fair.

On one had, yes, things are very different these days with trains not being run through water.  And on the other, things are very different that we have the information at our finger tips 24x7 telling us of issues far, far from home that would not have come to out attention 20 or 30 years ago.

[Clan Line]

And because there are no cancellations, train service alterations etc to-day, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s website is proudly proclaiming (for the first time for several days) that there is a .....

"Good service on most of our network".

Even then, they hedged their bets by saying "most" !

[grahame]

Severe case of thread drift ... however, I will complete (gee - I hope!) the Christmas flood list here

Cancellations to services between Trowbridge and Bath Spa
Due to flooding between Trowbridge and Bath Spa all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:15 28/12.

[bradshaw]

Screenshot from Tracksy