Black Bridge, Nuneham: southern abutment failure

[whole diary]

[bobm]

National Rail Enquires now saying 9th June.

Disruption between Reading and Oxford is expected until at least the end of the day on Friday 9 June.

Only a matter of time before some “clever” journalist works out that covers Easter, the May Day bank holiday, the Coronation weekend and the late Spring bank holiday.   

[TaplowGreen]

National Rail Enquires now saying 9th June.

Disruption between Reading and Oxford is expected until at least the end of the day on Friday 9 June.

Only a matter of time before some “clever” journalist works out that covers Easter, the May Day bank holiday, the Coronation weekend and the late Spring bank holiday.   

I am sure that even now (if not already!) GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) & NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are creating imaginative contingency plans.......particularly for the Coronation weekend......

[froome]

The Independent

Engineers have spent the weekend examining the structure and, on Easter Monday morning, Network Rail announced: “Disruption between Reading and Oxford is expected until at least the end of the day on Wednesday 31 May.”

The Independent seems to have misunderstood what "a lot of movement" in the bridge means:

Main rail line to close until June due to a wobbly bridge

Passengers between the north of England and the South Coast are being advised to travel via Bristol or London instead

Given how long this line is going to be closed, surely it would be better to add some extra services from Southampton travelling up via the Trans Wilts line to Swindon and then along the line to Cheltenham. Expecting people to divert a long way west or east to Bristol and London, where there are huge numbers of travellers and very complex movements, is a recipe for ensuring they don't ever travel by train again.

[grahame]

Given how long this line is going to be closed, surely it would be better to add some extra services from Southampton travelling up via the Trans Wilts line to Swindon and then along the line to Cheltenham. Expecting people to divert a long way west or east to Bristol and London, where there are huge numbers of travellers and very complex movements, is a recipe for ensuring they don't ever travel by train again.

I know I'm a great supporter of using the TransWilts for diversions, but can I please promote ... Stations from Bournemouth to Reading as "normal" then Didcot, Swindon, Cheltenham Spa, Worcestershire Parkway, before resuming regular route at Birmingham New Street.    Or as an alternative - Reading, then via South Greenford to Banbury where normal route is resumed?

[Mark A]

In an article released today, the New Civil Engineer web site no less... (may or may not paywall itself) gives a very optimistic date to reopen as 'The end of April'... that's certainly 'by june the ninth' but I'm not sure that's what Network Rail meant in their own statement on the opening date at the weekend.

Mark

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/reopening-hopes-for-safety-concern-nuneham-viaduct-shift-to-end-of-april-as-investigations-continue-11-04-2023/

[TonyN]

Graham's suggestion

Stations from Bournemouth to Reading as "normal" then Didcot, Swindon, Cheltenham Spa, Worcestershire Parkway, before resuming regular route at Birmingham New Street.

Sounds a a lot better than National Rail Enquires suggestion.

Customers travelling between Worcestershire Parkway / Pershore / Evesham and London should consider travelling via Bristol Parkway or Birmingham.

Normally if I leave Pershore at 07:44 I would get to Paddington at around 09:50

National Rail Enquires tells me that leaving after 07:00 the best I can do via Bristol Parkway is:

08:48    Pershore [PSH] - Worcestershire Parkway [WOP] 08:53 0h 05m

08:58    Worcestershire Parkway [WOP] - Cheltenham Spa [CNM^» (Cheltenham Spa - next trains)] 09:14 0h 16m
   
09:32    Cheltenham Spa [CNM] - Bristol Parkway [BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)] 10:00 0h 28m
   
10:24    Bristol Parkway [BPW]- London Paddington [PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)] 11:44 1h 20m

So nearly 2 Hours later.

Via New Street to Euston is a bit better.

08:03    Pershore [PSH]- Worcestershire Parkway [WOP]08:08 0h 05m    

08:14    Worcestershire Parkway [WOP]- Birmingham New Street [BHM]08:45 0h 31m    

09:17    Birmingham New Street [BHM]- London Euston [EUS] 10:54 1h 37m

Only one hour late.

[eightonedee]

I know it is easy for us armchair railway controllers to make suggestions without knowledge of all the relevant factors, but wouldn't it be better to introduce an emergency timetable, combining the Swindon (or Paddington) - Cheltenham and Cheltenham - Worcester and beyond services instead?

[ChrisB]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are saying that planners can only be updated to this Friday currently & the fault is being worked on.

As are services & timetables beyond Friday. It’s still a liquid situation. How about cutting the poor train planners a tad of slack?

[IndustryInsider]

CrossCountry seem to have decided that it’s best to halve the service northbound from Oxford, where they are currently starting of course, to once every two hours. 

[ChrisB]

In order to connect with the service up from the South Coast that tuns to Didcot. By the tie the RRS reaches Oxford, the northbound leaves.

[IndustryInsider]

In order to connect with the service up from the South Coast that tuns to Didcot. By the tie the RRS reaches Oxford, the northbound leaves.

Was that in response to my message?

[ChrisB]

In addition I guess, to give context that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) see their service as a South Coast service, not just Oxford & north of

[grahame]

In addition I guess, to give context that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) see their service as a South Coast service, not just Oxford & north of

I have split my thoughts into a separate thread at http://www.passenger.chat/27374 looking at how thorough journeys work over bustituted sections in Europe (where the train often waits) and in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (where the train often sticks to schedule, even if it means long waits for through passengers)

[CyclingSid]

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-engineers-work-around-the-clock-to-repair-nuneham-viaduct-with-the-line-expected-to-be-closed-until-early-june

Sounds like they are going to do it once and have done with it, as opposed to a temporary fix. Although I might have misunderstood it.

[stuving]

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-engineers-work-around-the-clock-to-repair-nuneham-viaduct-with-the-line-expected-to-be-closed-until-early-june

Sounds like they are going to do it once and have done with it, as opposed to a temporary fix. Although I might have misunderstood it.

That's my reading too. After a lot about how they knew what was going on all the time, honest squire, and tried squirting some kind of glue (polymers, I gather) under the abutment but it still suddenly dropped a whole load more, this is the plan:

Engineers have been working around the clock since the line was closed and are now working to replace the southern support structure with a new one, which will provide a long-term fix and allow for both passenger and freight trains to run again between Didcot Parkway and Oxford by Saturday 10 June. The work to replace the support structure will be complex and challenging owing to ground conditions at the site, including the proximity to the River Thames and the heavy clay soil in which the new support will need to be secured.