Appleford station - timetable changes, signalling problems (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website :

Line problem in the Appleford area.

Train services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway have been disrupted due to signalling problems in the Appleford area.Engineers have worked as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Delays of up to 10 minutes may still occur.

A number of services have been revised as a result of the above, including the 1725 Paddington-Banbury service being terminated at Oxford.

[willc]

A prize for optimism to whoever put that on the website. At the time Lee posted it here, I was standing on platform 2 at Oxford waiting for the 20.21 to Malvern, which was somewhere at the back of a queue of trains all the way back to Didcot and probably beyond.

While the fault had been fixed by 8.30, the delays were somewhat in excess of 10 minutes - in the case of my train, 40 minutes down, after a procession of Turbos, a Voyager, an empty Adelante, a terminating HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and two container trains, which the Oxford signaller somehow sorted out, assisted by the bi-directional signals on platform 1. Info systems were contradicting each other to add to the fun, with the new web-driven screens insisting all was well, while for once the old Thames Trains screens had some sort of a handle on what was going on.

I think I can officially declare winter has arrived on the Cotswold Line. I'm now up to four compensation claims in a fortnight, for delays of 30 minutes plus. And a cancellation on Wednesday morning as well. So far the blame is very much in Network Rail's court, with assorted signalling kit failures.

[IndustryInsider]

A prize for optimism to whoever put that on the website. At the time Lee posted it here, I was standing on platform 2 at Oxford waiting for the 20.21 to Malvern, which was somewhere at the back of a queue of trains all the way back to Didcot and probably beyond.

The unfortunate scenario that actually benefits some passengers was almost reached. By that, I mean that the trains were so late that they were nearly running in the path of the following scheduled service! Rather typically there were at least four freight trains stuck in the mix at Didcot.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Oxford Times:

Commuters at Appleford are celebrating after a number of daytime services to Oxford and London were reinstated this week.

The station had fallen victim to cuts in May and was left without a train from 11am to 5pm after First Great Western deemed the station was not being used enough. But following a campaign from villagers, the operator has reintroduced stops on three daytime services between Paddington and Oxford and a stop by a train from Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington.

Mark Hopwood, First Great Western managing director, said he had been convinced by the level of local demand for the extra trains. ^This is just one example of how we do everything we can to deliver the best possible service to all our customers,^ he said. ^We value our customers^ thoughts and would like to thank all those people who took the time to talk to us.^

Angela Greenwell, 61, of Chambrai Close, Appleford, said: ^It^s very important the service has been reinstated because it gives locals more choice. ^When it was cut, you would have to start your journey home almost as soon as you arrived, or face waiting for hours.^

Angela Jones, of Main Road, Appleford, said: ^This is a huge relief because we really depended on it, as it was the only available means of public transport in the village. Older people would use it to go to the doctor or solicitor, and younger people would go to school or work.^

Chris Hancock, 60, from Church Street, Appleford, said: ^I think it^s important that all aspects of the service are provided. We^ve noticed that as a result of this reinstatement, however, other evening services have been changed and we^re calling for those to come back.^

The following stops, removed as part of timetable changes in May, will be added to the timetable on Mondays through to Saturdays:

 11.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 1pm.

 13.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 15.00.

 12.07 Oxford to Paddington will call at Appleford at 12.17 (12.18 on Saturday).

 09.29 Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington will call at Appleford at 10.17 (10.18 on Saturday)

 From Mondays to Fridays, the current 19.31 and 20.30 stops at Appleford on the Oxford to Paddington service will be replaced by stops at 20.13 and 20.59.

Local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Ed Vaizey said: ^It^s a great triumph. We^ve managed to change the mind of the operator and I think the station could have been closed if the service was not reinstated. Now we need as many people to use it as possible, so it^s not axed again.^

[inspector_blakey]

From the Oxford Times:
The following stops, removed as part of timetable changes in May, will be added to the timetable on Mondays through to Saturdays:

 11.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 1pm.

 13.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 15.00.

 12.07 Oxford to Paddington will call at Appleford at 12.17 (12.18 on Saturday).

 09.29 Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington will call at Appleford at 10.17 (10.18 on Saturday)

I know this is one of Barry Doe's pet peeves, but who else spotted the inelegant mish-mash of 12- and 24-hour clocks?! 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I merely quoted the Oxford Times article, James - and, as we know, journalists are very seldom wrong ... ! 

[ChrisB]

As Ed Vazey says - "it's a use or lose it" service....let's hope the good citizens of Appleford really do realise it this time and do start to use igt, or it'll get downgraded again....

[grahame]

As Ed Vazey says - "it's a use or lose it" service....let's hope the good citizens of Appleford really do realise it this time and do start to use igt, or it'll get downgraded again....

If the citizens of Appleford are reading this, I can't stress enough the good sense in his suggestion that you use the service.  But I'm going to go a step further and warn you that just using it may not be enough.   You need to use it ... AND to publicise it locally so it gets still more use ... AND to keep your eyes open for consultations / change proposals that could have a negative effect on the service in the future, and to respond with vigour to keep your service in the public eye.

In May 2001, Wessex Trains impoved the TransWilts train service from 2 to 5 round trips per day. It was done very quietly, but it was a very useful service enhancement indeed, and from a quiet beginning, traffic on the line grew - a compound growth rate of between 10% and 35% per annum, depending on what measure you used.   From under 3,000 ticket sales per annum (1,500 per service, if you like), sales rose to around 30,000 (6,000 per service) ... so that's each train carrying 4 times the number of people that each of the trains on the previous service carried. success story!

But ... we failed to notice a consultation in July 2005.  There's some evidence that the consultation wasn't widely publicised and indeed it was hidden.  Certainly, as a regular user of what had been a quiet service but was getting busier by the week, I saw no signs about the consutlaltion at the station, not was I told about it on the train.   So inputs were few.  And what did the consultation ask? "What do you think of the new Greatern Western proposals from 2006 for 7 to 10 years?" which on page 70 had a one-liner suggesting that the service be cut back to 2 a day.

Cutting a long story short, we were told "you're too late" when we heard about the consultation in August 2005.   First won the franchise, bid and stock levels based on 2 trains a day, and withdrew a service that we had been using. I don't know if the story would have been different if we had understood that "use it or loose it wan't enough" ... but I know I would like to have tried from summer 2004, not from summer 2005.

Use it, shout for it, publicise it, consult on it.   That's no guarantee of a service, but you've a better chance than if you buy into the "Use it or loose it" line, which has alraedy been proven to be a distortion of the truth in the Greater Western franchise area.

[IndustryInsider]

From the Oxford Times:

Commuters at Appleford are celebrating after a number of daytime services to Oxford and London were reinstated this week.

The station had fallen victim to cuts in May and was left without a train from 11am to 5pm after First Great Western deemed the station was not being used enough. But following a campaign from villagers, the operator has reintroduced stops on three daytime services between Paddington and Oxford and a stop by a train from Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington.

Mark Hopwood, First Great Western managing director, said he had been convinced by the level of local demand for the extra trains. ^This is just one example of how we do everything we can to deliver the best possible service to all our customers,^ he said. ^We value our customers^ thoughts and would like to thank all those people who took the time to talk to us.^

Angela Greenwell, 61, of Chambrai Close, Appleford, said: ^It^s very important the service has been reinstated because it gives locals more choice. ^When it was cut, you would have to start your journey home almost as soon as you arrived, or face waiting for hours.^

Angela Jones, of Main Road, Appleford, said: ^This is a huge relief because we really depended on it, as it was the only available means of public transport in the village. Older people would use it to go to the doctor or solicitor, and younger people would go to school or work.^

Chris Hancock, 60, from Church Street, Appleford, said: ^I think it^s important that all aspects of the service are provided. We^ve noticed that as a result of this reinstatement, however, other evening services have been changed and we^re calling for those to come back.^

The following stops, removed as part of timetable changes in May, will be added to the timetable on Mondays through to Saturdays:

 11.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 1pm.

 13.27 Paddington to Oxford will call at Appleford at 15.00.

 12.07 Oxford to Paddington will call at Appleford at 12.17 (12.18 on Saturday).

 09.29 Moreton-in-Marsh to Paddington will call at Appleford at 10.17 (10.18 on Saturday)

 From Mondays to Fridays, the current 19.31 and 20.30 stops at Appleford on the Oxford to Paddington service will be replaced by stops at 20.13 and 20.59.

Local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Ed Vaizey said: ^It^s a great triumph. We^ve managed to change the mind of the operator and I think the station could have been closed if the service was not reinstated. Now we need as many people to use it as possible, so it^s not axed again.^

As Ed Vazey says - "it's a use or lose it" service....let's hope the good citizens of Appleford really do realise it this time and do start to use igt, or it'll get downgraded again....

There's a cull of services at Appleford from this summer's timetable.

A total of 9 weekday trains are being removed, cutting the service by almost a third and leaving the station with just 11 trains towards Didcot and 10 towards Oxford and gaps during the middle of the day of up to four hours between trains.  There is some good news in that the frequency and number of trains over the weekend remains the same as it is now.

The reason given is lack of usage and a performance benefit for the busy two-track section from Oxford to Didcot.  Appleford remains very poorly used and, to be honest, a two hourly off peak service does flatter it a little as quite often nobody gets off and nobody gets on - at least neighbouring Culham has plenty of commuters to the nearby science centre, though it does make the words of Mark Hopwood back in 2009 sound a little hollow.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for posting that update, IndustryInsider. 

To be fair to Mark Hopwood (and I do try to be fair to anyone at First Great Western, in the interests of impartiality and the fact that, as I'm not staff, it has no impact on any appraisal or review!) ...

What he said then was valid then: this is now, and things have changed in the meantime. 

[ChrisB]

And give FGW^▸ (First Great Western) their due - they have discussed this long & hard with the local Parish Councils, so there's unlikely to be much complaining....

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Herald Series:

Rail passengers facing Sunday disruption

Train services will not stop at Appleford every day from December as part of the programme of electrification.

First Great Western said it was the result of reduced services required to allow Network Rail to access the relief lines. Over the summer, Network Rail started the process of electrifying the Great Western Main Line, which is expected to be completed by 2016. It means having to erect gantries along the line between London Paddington and South Wales to hold cables.

First Great Western spokesman James Davies said reduced services elsewhere because of this process would mean trains between Oxford and London will be longer, so cannot stop at Appleford on Sundays. He said: ^We cannot stop six car trains at Appleford unless we lock the rear three carriages out of use from Didcot. This reduces the number of seats available for customers, as well as disrupting the journey for those sitting in the rear three units. Having looked at data for usage from Appleford, and found an average of less than one person on many trains, and none at all on others on a Sunday, we have decided not to lock the rear three carriages out of use, but to change the timetable for Appleford.^

Richard Webber, county councillor for Sutton Courtenay and Marcham, said: ^It is most unfortunate this is happening. It is going to cause an enormous amount of disruption and I don^t think the public has really had enough say.^

[ChrisB]

"sunday disruption"....followed by ..."every day"....

Sloppy journalism yet again, potentially leading to misread article (possibly deliberate to upset travellers)

"Every Sunday" maybe?....

Regardless, so long as the bustitution is ample & well signposted/advertised, I think this is probably proportionate considering numbers travelling from this station....

[IndustryInsider]

Will there be any replacement buses though?  I read that statement as if the service is being removed from Appleford on Sunday's?

[ChrisB]

Depends what's in the PSR^▸ (Permanent Speed Restriction). They can't just remive anything on that...