2023 Delays and Cancellations

[whole diary]

[grahame]

That IS the advance notice (assuming you got it off the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website?)

I did get it from the GW^▸ (Great Western) website, but to be advance information, it should be out and publicised, err, in advance - not on the day, don't you think?

Planned engineering works through to the end of the year, with advanced notice of what's coming up in the first three months of next year, can be found at https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/planned-engineering. ... however, people need to know to look.     

There are various industry briefings, and it gets flagged up in various ways, but such things tend to be easily missed; I can recall a none-rail project where we listed 10 different ways we reached people, and we still got complaints that "I hadn't heard".   Just a couple of weeks ago, I noted on my personal Facebook page the last in a series of consultation events coming that evening, and got a slamming response "why are you only just telling us" ... but actually the 3rd or 4th telling but this last one just happened to reach wider.

It would be lovely of there was a way of getting the right information to the right people at the right time ...

[IndustryInsider]

I first heard about it a couple of weeks ago, but I also wasn't really looking for it. 

I expect the online journey planners had alterations on them some time before that as it's half term week, so likely to have been planned for a reasonable amount of time?

[Mark A]

So no early morning services to Oxford/London for almost two and a half hours!

Something about this... the railway's long been into the practice of charging premium and sometimes unfeasably premium prices for one-off peak time travel, as well as providing annual season ticket rates that bring the daily rate down to around the level of (in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s case) the cost of a super off peak return.

Was it the case that they then put a lot of staff effort into ensuring that the perhaps infrequent long distance trains in the morning peak ran as reliably as possible?

The refrain 'More trains than usual' is a bit 21st century, especially when used with respect to the morning peak, and especially on the Hereford to Paddington route with its relatively infrequent trains. This must have a very suppressing effect on the passenger figures for trains at these times.

Mark

[ChrisB]

I first heard about it a couple of weeks ago, but I also wasn't really looking for it. 

I expect the online journey planners had alterations on them some time before that as it's half term week, so likely to have been planned for a reasonable amount of time?

It's been listed in the forward plan for Engineering Works that Graham mentioned for over a month - probably longer - and route season ticket holders I understand were emailed a while ago. How else could GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) identify that any particular account holder needed to know about that particular route? We at the CLPG^» (Cotswold Line Promotion Group - about) put it out a while ago to our members.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I would have thought that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) had an excellent database on who travels on which line, thanks to Delay Repay.

[ChrisB]

Unless they all sign up to these notifications, GDOPR would prevent any contact outside of Delay/Repay refunds

[charles_uk]

A few cancellations today:

1W29 1453 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street - cancelled due to an issue with the train crew (TH).

2E14 1704 Didcot Parkway to Oxford - cancelled between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh due to unknown cause (ZW).

2E16 1851 Evesham to Oxford - cancelled due to late arrival of an inbound service (YI).

[ChrisB]

2E14 1704 Didcot Parkway to Oxford - cancelled between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh due to unknown cause (ZW).

2E16 1851 Evesham to Oxford - cancelled due to late arrival of an inbound service (YI).

The inbound was the service above 2E14....late arrival? Never got past Oxford!!

[Worcester_Passenger]

The stock of 1W29 (a 9-car set) ran empty from Paddington to Shrub Hill (missing out the bit round to Foregate Street) in order to pick up service as train 1P39, the 17:30 from Shrub Hill back to Paddington.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I would have thought that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) had an excellent database on who travels on which line, thanks to Delay Repay.

Unless they all sign up to these notifications, GDOPR would prevent any contact outside of Delay/Repay refunds

It cannot be beyond the wit of the IT department to add a cople of GDPR permission tick-boxes for when you register or claim for DelayRepay - one for "tell me about future engineering works that would affect this journey" and another for tell me about any disruptions that would affect this journey today".

[Worcester_Passenger]

JourneyCheck:

11:52 London Paddington to Hereford due 14:41 will be terminated at Great Malvern.
It will no longer call at Colwall, Ledbury and Hereford.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.
Last Updated:02/11/2023 13:34

15:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 18:29 will be started from Great Malvern.
It will no longer call at Hereford, Ledbury and Colwall.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.
Last Updated:02/11/2023 13:35

[Worcester_Passenger]

13:50 Paddington - Great Malvern cancelled after Shrub Hill - a change that was announced to the passengers as we came into Shrub Hill, some 19 late.

I was looking to go round to Foregate Street, as I had very heavy luggage and I can rely on there being taxis at Foregate Street. Fortunately I rang up for a taxi to come to Shrub hill and only had to wait in the cold for a few minutes.

The return working is shown as

16:32 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 19:29 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will no longer call at Great Malvern, Malvern Link and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.
Last Updated:02/11/2023 15:57

Note that 'updated' time - why the change could not have been communicated to the train manager of the 13:50 isn't obvious (and wasn't obvious to the TM^‡(resolve) either).

[charles_uk]

05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:24 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

And the following 06:43 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington was a five car short-formation.

5 coaches instead of 18!

[Worcester_Passenger]

08:51 Paddington - Great Malvern reported on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) as "cancelled due to a problem with the train".

An odd one:

10:53 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 13:01 will no longer call at Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham, Honeybourne, Pershore and Worcestershire Parkway Hl.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:03/11/2023 11:26

[charles_uk]

1W05 1953 London Paddington to Hereford
This service was cancelled due to a delay not investigated (OU)