Twyford to Henley branch line - services, timetables, incidents and improvements

[whole diary]

[Lee]

A young teenager was threatened with a needle 'infected with HIV/AIDS' on a train between Henley and Twyford (link below.)
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-6694-young-teen-threatened-with-infected-needle/

A man in a carriage of the 12.08 train grabbed a 13-year-old boy and said he would stab him, saying the hypodermic needle was infected.

The man, who is described as Asian, then fled the train at Wargrave station.

He passed several people who were boarding, and police are hoping witnesses will come forward to the incident on Saturday, May 24 at about 12.20pm.

[autotank]

Good news for Henley in the new timetable - the service during weekdays will increase from hourly to roughly one every 45 minutes during the day off-peak. Shame they couldn't also increase the frequency during the evenings and at weekends, but one step at a time. Not too pleased about the slightly later start on a Saturday and again connections could be tweaked at Twyford to reduce waiting times. I'm reasonably happy though.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Good news indeed, autotank - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!

Yes, even 'one step at a time' is still better than 'no progress' on improving local services. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Henley Standard:

A businessman has won his ^battle of the speed bumps^. Mark Chappell threatened to take legal action after the traffic-calming measures were installed at the entrance to the car park at Henley station. The 57-year-old company finance director claimed they were too high and were damaging the suspension of his BMW 525M Sport. Now Oxfordshire County Council has admitted that he is right and has replaced the bumps with smaller ones.

Mr Chappell complained to train company First Great Western and received an email saying the work had been checked and that the bumps were the correct height. The reply said an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) official had a site meeting with the contractor who had the specification for the ramps from the Department for Transport. The email continued: ^This has been cross-checked and the ramps do meet the requirement^. However, the council confirmed to the Standard the bumps were too high ^ and blamed the contractor.

A spokesman said: ^The humps were built at the end of March by contractors working on behalf of First Great Western and the county council. The contractor thought they were built to the right standard but it was found that they were not. The two speed bumps were built on land which Network Rail plans indicated was owned by them. The plans were found to be inaccurate and the two bumps have been rebuilt to a lower height to meet highways standards.^

A spokeswoman for First Great Western maintained that the bumps had been checked and said: ^We believe they are within the required height restriction^. She added: ^We have a duty of care to our passengers and the bumps were originally installed following concerns raised about speeding motorists in the area. Drivers travelling over the bumps within the 10mph speed limit should not have encountered any problems with their vehicles.^

The county council spokesman insisted the cost of renewing the bumps had been absorbed into a ^70,000 budget for other improvements at the station. He said: ^The two bumps that were rebuilt were part of a joint county council and Department for Transport-funded project to improve disabled access through raised bumps between the station, car park and toilet block at Henley station. Working with First Great Western, the scheme has improved the station^s environment by installing new guardrails, dropped kerbs, a pick-up/set-down area, a new taxi rank, bin compound, extra cycle parking and a resurfaced parking area. Re-marking the disabled parking bays is also part of the project.^ He added that extra street lighting had been installed to make the two new bumps ^more obvious^.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

The county council spokesman insisted the cost of renewing the bumps had been absorbed into a ^70,000 budget for other improvements at the station

does this mean that there is now a shortfall in funds for the proposed improvements

[autotank]

No service this morning due to a broken down train at Shiplake so I was told. Does anybody have more details? I was told there were no units available to rescue the stranded Turbo. What are the procedures in instances like these?

I was very impressed with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) who laid on coaches at short notice and I got to work just 15-20 minutes late. Well done all round!

[devon_metro]

Fault on the 0621 Twyford - Henley On Thames it would appear.

[Electric train]

It would quite possibly be quicker to send a fitter out from Reading depot in a van to see if the fault can be rectified sufficient to get the Unit back to the depot.  The chaos caused to the rest of the network between Reading and Paddington taking a unit out of a service train and a driver and then finding the paths to get it to the failed train and then haul the failed train out and then get a replacement health unit to continue the service in to morning peak for a failed unit on a branch line would be difficult to justify, in the days of BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) a loco could be summoned up quite quickly but today not so easy.

165/6 are fairly reliable units

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Henley Standard:

The Henley to Twyford train line will not be affected by First Great Western^s Refresh programme.
Henley MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) John Howell sought reassurances that the service on the branch line will not be hit by the programme for its Turbo fleet, or by the extension of Crossrail to Maidenhead.
There were fears that during the ^8million programme for the train company^s London Thames Valley fleet the length of trains might be shortened, creating overcrowding, particularly at peak times.
But in a letter to the Mr Howell, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) managing director Mark Hopwood said trains on other lines had been shortened where there was capacity. As a result, there would be no need to shorten the trains on the Henley branch line. Mr Hopwood also confirmed there was no threat of closure to the line as a result of Crossrail.
Mr Howell welcomed the news and said: ^The Henley branch line is vital for the town and the many commuters who use it on a daily basis. We need to make sure that we are on the ball when it comes to the consultation on the next franchise. We also need to make sure we respond when, in 2012, commitments about station closures are discussed for the period to 2019.^

[autotank]

But this isn't true! From the May timetable change the 1812 Padd - Henley is reduced to 3 cars instead of the 5 it was less than a year ago. True you're slightly mad to use this service all the way from Paddington as by getting the 1806 HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and changing you can get to Henley 20 mins faster but what Mr Hopwood is saying just isn't true!

[inspector_blakey]

Be careful, autotank.

Before you start accusing people of telling untruths, are you comparing the length of the train now to what it will be from May, or the length the train was "less than a year ago" but well before the refresh programme started?

[Electric train]

Biggest risk to the Henley line is, if, his party are successful on May 6

[autotank]

It is currently scheduled to be a 4 car, reduced to 3 from the May timetable change. Until September when I last regularly used this service it was always a 5 car service (and believe it still usually is). See - http://www.mmpa.org.uk/tt/maytt.html for detials of changes (being discussed elsewhere).

I hate it when newspapers give politicians an easy ride and just reprint good news press releases. Lazy journalism.

[autotank]

I agree with you Electric Train. The problem with living in Henley is that you effectively don't get a vote in the general election as it must be one of the safest Tory seats in the country!

Several months on from the electrification announcement it is still not clear if Henley is included in the plans. The fact that they haven't cleared this up means that they are considering not putting wires up which would be madness!

I'm worried that the through Henley - London services will be lost when Crossrail finally starts up. There is a danger that a change will be required at both Twyford and Maidenhead for Henley - Padd passengers once Crossrail is up and running. Plans need to be released for services post 2017 rather than just vague aspirations.

[devon_metro]

I agree with you Electric Train. The problem with living in Henley is that you effectively don't get a vote in the general election as it must be one of the safest Tory seats in the country!

Ah but you might soon have more influence in Parliament. I'm hoping if Torbay becomes Conservative as it is predicted to, then we might get a bit more of a look in from central government, especially considering it is a marginal seat.