2023 Delays and Cancellations

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

And more:

14:53 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 17:04 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:21/12/2023 14:38

17:26 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 19:52 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:21/12/2023 14:38

[IndustryInsider]

Keep up:

15:17 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 17:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:21/12/2023 09:40

Well JourneyCheck couldn’t.  It was reinstated, but still showing as cancelled for a l-o-n-g time after!

[Worcester_Passenger]

JourneyCheck:

10:19 Reading to Hereford due 12:46 will be terminated at Great Malvern.
It will no longer call at Colwall, Ledbury and Hereford.
It has been delayed at Reading and is now 38 minutes late.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.
Last Updated:27/12/2023 11:48

13:18 Hereford to Reading due 15:59 will be started from Great Malvern.
It will no longer call at Hereford, Ledbury and Colwall.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.
Last Updated:27/12/2023 11:48

10:19 from Reading was held for the single line at Evesham and is now 61 late.

The "late running train in front of this one" looks to have been a late arrival at Reading by train 1P20, the 08:15 from Shrub Hill to Reading. This left Shrub Hill 28 late, was held at Norton and at Charlbury, and arrived at Reading 50 late. It left Shrub Hill late becaause the empty stock from Stoke Gifford arrived 34 late.

[grahame]

For 2024 - new topic at http://www.passenger.chat/28354 - please carry on there.  This thread remains open for archive and historical reference back.

[stuving]

The photograph in the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) announcement makes it look as if the wall is made up of two skins of brickwork, with little bonding between the two. You can see this more clearly in the RailAdvent piece.

The RAIB report into this incident has been published, and identifies the big gap between the original wing wall and this thin wall in front (added to it at some time) as important. Not only did it hide the load-bearing wall behind it, but it meant that the last repair (pins grouted into the wall in 2013) was ineffective. It also meant that, when this wall bulged, the one behind was bulging even more, and the state of the wall was misassessed.

[ChrisB]

The collapse happened within three weeks of an examining engineer observing that a bulge in the brickwork had increased since a previous inspection.

There is a process for an examiner to directly notify Network Rail if they identify something that requires urgent attention, but this was not thought to be the case in this instance, according to the report.

[Worcester_Passenger]

OK, the big issue in the report is about the wing wall.

But given that there has been much discussion of late about emergency evacuation of trains, there's little mention of what actually happened here.

It's noticeable that the incident happened at 18:35, but that evacuation of the train didn't start until 22:15 and wasn't complete until 23:57. The train was "carrying 365 passengers plus 2 crew" (para 26).  Evacuation was "assisted by Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service" (para 31), who presumably set up lighting and ladders to move the passengers to the rescue train.

I'm assuming that during this time the driver would be mainly concerned with the train.  The conductor must have done a sterling job in keeping everybody calm and well-informed. And on their own - "2 crew" implies no trolley and no First Class host.  Perhaps there were Hanborough passengers on board who said "we're out in the middle of nowhere - let's just stay on this nice safe train".  We're not told when the fire service arrived - but I'd imagine that if they appeared inside the train then that must have been helpful.

And the evacuation took over an hour and a half - worth remembering that.

[ChrisB]

The RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) would have only been concerned with this if there had been a safety aspect - but as the train was probably the safest place for stranded passengers, they found nothing to investigate.