ECS Working

[whole diary]

[jamestheredengine]

There's an ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) Working that is prone to causing minor irritation levels of delays: 5B23 Cardiff to Stoke Gifford. Today was a classic. It left Cardiff (P3) late, and it was crossed, as diagrammed, at Long Dyke Junction all the way over to the Up Main. Now Long Dyke is a single-lead junction. And because the Ebbw Vale train was also late, this left the ECS sitting in Central Station so long that it made the next GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Swansea service 9 late, held up the arrival from Nottingham behind that, and pushed a very late Maesteg to Gloucester from 15-30 to 30-60 delay territory.

The issue is that pathing this ECS working that way is moronic: if it gets late at all, it causes conflicts like this. From P3, it has a straight shot onto the Up Relief, which leads to the through (non-platform) road at Newport, and then the Bishton Flyover Bridge lines it straight up for the Severn Tunnel, rather than Gloucester. Taking Long Dyke Junction the wrong way is just pointless. It isn't even as if there are actually that many slow freight trains on the reliefs these days.

Who does one contact to get 5B23 rediagrammed to run on the Up Relief?

[MVR S&T]

The days of class 1 2 3 4 5 trains being prioritised are over, seen many 'possible' class 5 ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) given priority over 1 and 2, get the driver home before running out of hours.