North Cotswold Line delays and cancellations - 2024

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

07:36 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 10:14 will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
Last Updated:14/04/2024 02:26

08:15 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 10:31 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
Last Updated:14/04/2024 02:23

08:58 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 11:31 will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
Last Updated:14/04/2024 02:25

09:58 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 12:30 will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a shortage of station staff.
Last Updated:14/04/2024 02:27

[bobm]

No platform staff at Foregate Street until 11am.  Also affects West Midlands Railway services. 

[TaplowGreen]

No platform staff at Foregate Street until 11am.  Also affects West Midlands Railway services. 

Rather embarrassing.

[ChrisB]

WMT are short of station staff in the area - Shrub Hill was short of staff several days last week

[IndustryInsider]

There’s a lot to moan about on the railways as we know, but just taking a look at today’s unit allocations on the line and of the 29 trains on the route today, just 2 were allocated for 5-car units - the first up one and one of the evening down ones.

In the pre-IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) days on a Sunday it was a mix of 3,5,7, and 8 carriage trains, so quite a leap in the right direction capacity wise on the increasingly busy Sunday services.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Yes, I was impressed to see a nine-carriage IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) at Worcester Foregate Street the other day...

...on a Bristol Temple Meads service which until recently would have been two or three carriages. Meanwhile our Cotswolds service had five which would have been rather cosy after Oxford.

Not as good as this Paddington-Hereford, though, which RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) swears has 18 carriages.

[grahame]

There’s a lot to moan about on the railways as we know, but just taking a look at today’s unit allocations on the line and of the 29 trains on the route today, just 2 were allocated for 5-car units - the first up one and one of the evening down ones.

In the pre-IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) days on a Sunday it was a mix of 3,5,7, and 8 carriage trains, so quite a leap in the right direction capacity wise on the increasingly busy Sunday services.

A huge amount of good has happened over the last decade though some of us moan at the loss of love facilities.  But sadly when one element goes wrong it often has a disproportionate effect and that's why reliability is key and we tend to emphasise and look to fixing the failures - if only at times (because it's all we can do!) bringing the issues and concerns to the further attention of the authorities.

As an example, I'm on a journey from Antwerp to Melksham - planned via Dieppe.  5 trains yesterday, and the longest delay was 10 minutes, which did not matter.  Overnight hotel in Dieppe and planned for the 06:30 ship to Newhaven - which has been cancelled (they tell me "weather" but I think I smell a porkie) and that one failure out of 6 is the one noted and damages the whole journey. Made all the worse by the last minute information to me about the change, received just a few miles short of Dieppe!

I am an advocate for public transport and on so on places like this I try to be careful about logging / complaining at failures - laugh between a rock and a hard place because  I do not want to put people off who might use it, but at the same time I want to help persuade the powers that be, and have others help persuade them, that they should improve certain things, what matters to the user, and make positive suggestions as to how they can.

I have gone off on a bit of a [rant/sermon/explanation] there - sorry!

[TaplowGreen]

There’s a lot to moan about on the railways as we know, but just taking a look at today’s unit allocations on the line and of the 29 trains on the route today, just 2 were allocated for 5-car units - the first up one and one of the evening down ones.

In the pre-IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) days on a Sunday it was a mix of 3,5,7, and 8 carriage trains, so quite a leap in the right direction capacity wise on the increasingly busy Sunday services.

As an example, I'm on a journey from Antwerp to Melksham - planned via Dieppe.  5 trains yesterday, and the longest delay was 10 minutes, which did not matter.  Overnight hotel in Dieppe and planned for the 06:30 ship to Newhaven - which has been cancelled (they tell me "weather" but I think I smell a porkie) and that one failure out of 6 is the one noted and damages the whole journey. Made all the worse by the last minute information to me about the change, received just a few miles short of Dieppe!

There are moderate/severe weather warnings for wind in place for most of England & Northern France so I wouldn't assume you're being told "porkies"......hope the crossing isn't too choppy!

[grahame]

There are moderate/severe weather warnings for wind in place for most of England & Northern France so I wouldn't assume you're being told "porkies"......hope the crossing isn't too choppy!

Hmmm - OK - thank you.  Just that it seems pretty calm here in Dieppe this morning ...

[Worcester_Passenger]

Yes, I was impressed to see a nine-carriage IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) at Worcester Foregate Street the other day...

...on a Bristol Temple Meads service which until recently would have been two or three carriages. Meanwhile our Cotswolds service had five which would have been rather cosy after Oxford.

Not as good as this Paddington-Hereford, though, which RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) swears has 18 carriages.

Even more impressive, the subsequent ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) move from one side of Hereford to the other involved 36 carriages.

[Worcester_Passenger]

05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:24 will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.
It will be starting late from Hereford.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Last Updated:15/04/2024 05:22

[Witham Bobby]

According to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website)

1P05 1520 Hereford to Paddington was on time to Colwall, and somehow managed to be 50 minutes late leaving Malvern Link

Projected to be leaving Shrub Hill at 1706, following 1P38, the 1632 Great Malvern to Paddington.  The Westbound working of 1P38 is 1W27 Paddington to Great Malvern.  This was terminated at Shrub Hill

[grahame]

There are moderate/severe weather warnings for wind in place for most of England & Northern France so I wouldn't assume you're being told "porkies"......hope the crossing isn't too choppy!

Hmmm - OK - thank you.  Just that it seems pretty calm here in Dieppe this morning ...

Now at sea on that later crossing, yep, a bit choppy but I have been in worse!

[ChrisB]

It *was* a lot worse this morning!!

[Mark A]

Sea state visualisation...

Mark



https://www.windy.com/-Waves-waves?waves,54.381,-3.032,5