Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

But fair play for trying to address the problem and not just take the easy option and say "Well, we've only got three more days to get through..."

[johoare]

Anyone know where the three carriages went? Today, where there are less trains running than usual, really isn't the day to remove carriages from the trains that are running

During the Reading blockade, quite a few trains in the Turbo fleet were kept at Old Oak Common instead of Reading depot. It is quite possible that if work over-ran this morning that they wouldn't have been able to get to Reading in time for the start of service.

Or in fact for the rest of the day it seems? I was on the 11.47 to Paddington.. 3 carriages still.. we left people behind at Hayes and Southall...

I came home on the 20.45 as far as Slough.. Firstly it showed as delayed for a good 15 minutes.. No announcements whatsoever during that time about all the delayed trains (!!).. They were kind enough to announce that the toilets on platform 1 were now closed but that the ones on platform 12 were open all night (which a) told me that there was someone around who could have made announcements and b) made us wonder if that was a secret way of telling us we were going to be there a long time)

Finally it was announced as the front of platform 13 (even though most platforms were empty).. We went straight away and  hurried (not ran) to get there but the guy was still blowing the whistle as we arrived on platform 13.. I imagine some of the people who were slower didn't make the train. oh and still 3 carriages...sigh

Hopefully they will make some longer trains tomorrow though fortunately I don't have to travel FGW^▸ (First Great Western) the rest of this week...

[JayMac]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have posted an apology and full breakdown of the amended amended changes for the rest of this week.

I expect they had anticipated teething problems, but not quite to the scale that happened this morning.

From FGW on Facebook:

"Delays to some train services in the Thames Valley this morning were related to a number of problems in the region. These problems were compounded by the very limited capacity at Reading station, while improvement work continues, which had a greater affect on our ability to recover quickly from otherwise relatively small delays than originally thought.

"We worked hard with Network Rail to minimise the delays, but it quickly became clear that the number of trains we were trying to operate through the area was affecting our ability to get our services back on track, and our customers to where they needed to go, as quickly as we would have liked.

"Having re-looked at our plans with Network Rail and other train operating companies this afternoon, we've revised our special timetable for the remainder of the week. This will reduce the chance of congestion in the area and make sure our services are as robust as possible while Network Rail continues its important improvement work.

"While we know this decision may cause difficulties for some customers, we are confident this will deliver a more reliable service for the vast majority of customers. We will, of course, be making every effort to let people know about the changes being made, and we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience caused today.

"Our normal timetable will resume once Network Rail has completed their work on 8 April."

The following is a summary of planned changes to First Great Western services on Wednesday 3 April. Please see http://bit.ly/WJK6eP for more detailed information.

Oxford services
Fast Services between Oxford and London will generally be reduced from half-hourly to hourly in each direction. Stopping services between Oxford and London are not affected by this change and will run as planned

Reading services
The 06:35, 06:57 and 06:59 Reading-Paddington services will be cancelled. Customers are advised to catch the 0714 service instead.

Bristol Services
The 05:20 Bristol Temple Meads-Paddington service will not run.
The 16:57 Paddington-Bristol Temple Meads service will not run.

Worcester Services
The 05:21 Worcester Shrub Hill-Paddington service will terminate at Swindon, where customers are advised to catch a connecting service to London Paddington and intermediate stations.

Cheltenham Services
The 06:31 Cheltenham-Paddington service will terminate at Swindon, where customers are advised to catch a connecting service to London Paddington and intermediate stations.

The 15:45 Paddington-Cheltenham service will start at Swindon instead of Paddington. Customers wishing to travel to Cheltenham are advised to catch the retimed 15:42 Paddington-Swansea service to Swindon for the onward connection, which will now leave Paddington at 15:45.

The 17:45 Paddington-Cheltenham service will start at Swindon instead of Paddington. Customers wishing to travel to Cheltenham are advised to catch the retimed 17:42 Paddington-Swansea service for the onward connection, which will now leave Paddington at 17:45

[IndustryInsider]

Hopefully they will make some longer trains tomorrow though fortunately I don't have to travel FGW^▸ (First Great Western) the rest of this week...

Yes, there did seem to be a lot of 2-car trains running around today.   

[johoare]

Thanks bignosemac..I saw that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) post too..

It isn't terribly specific though.. For example if I were commuting into London from Maidenhead for the rest of this week I wouldn't know how that affected me.. And I can't quite work out if the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) website has been updated or not since this is a quite last minute change..

[JayMac]

It's worth noting that whilst FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have issued the amendments to the amended timetable, this information has not filtered down to National Rail Enquiries' journey planner or booking engines.

For instance I can still select the 0520 from Bristol TM^‡(resolve) to Paddington and the 1657 return for 3/4/2013, if I so wish, from FGW's booking engine.

Internally, FGW are saying these amendments will also be in place for Thursday and Friday. Yet the booking engines are still allowing reservations on cancelled services. 

Is it too difficult to remove cancelled services from both the operational timetable and the journey planners/booking engines?

[Southern Stag]

Well today was rather chaotic. I spent most the day in the Reading area attempting to use a Kennet Day Ranger, but a lot of the services I could use, those from Reading-Basingstoke and Westbury were cancelled. The problems did seem to be more down to the timetable than anything else as by the afternoon there weren't many other problems, but services were just getting delayed through the heavily congested Reading. The main victims did appear to be the LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) services, with numerous cancellation to the London-Reading stoppers and the services from Platform 2. I spent a bit of time at Reading West and the staff there were excellent. There were only 2 of them, but lots of rather confused passengers. The CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) was pretty much useless so the staff had a lot to do to keep everyone informed. Using Reading West as an interchange for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) really fell down today because so many of the Reading-Reading West services were cancelled, XC passengers were turning up at Reading West with no service due for Reading for long periods, or turning up from Reading having missed there service. Hopefully tomorrow can get off to a better start without any AM disruption so the rest of the day stands a better chance. I agree that turning round the London-Reading stoppers before Reading would be useful, and probably the XC services at Oxford or Didcot too. Terminating trains were really eating up capacity today.

[Ollie]

It's worth noting that whilst FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have issued the amendments to the amended timetable, this information has not filtered down to National Rail Enquiries' journey planner or booking engines.

For instance I can still select the 0520 from Bristol TM^‡(resolve) to Paddington and the 1657 return for 3/4/2013, if I so wish, from FGW's booking engine.

Internally, FGW are saying these amendments will also be in place for Thursday and Friday. Yet the booking engines are still allowing reservations on cancelled services. 

Is it too difficult to remove cancelled services from both the operational timetable and the journey planners/booking engines?

Journey Planners update overnight. Unfortunately not just a case of taking it out.

[JayMac]

Thanks Ollie. Today's amendments are now in the journey planners, but not those for Thursday and Friday. Can only one day be updated at a time?

Booking engines still showing today's cancelled trains though as, at 0245. I am kinda interested as I was planning on using the 0520 from Temple Meads this morning. I'm now travelling on the 0447. Arriving far too early in London for my appointment, but hey-ho at least it's not me paying for the ticket. However, if I'd known earlier, I could have bought the Super Off Peak which is valid on the 0447 but not the 0520.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

If there is only a single track circuit for each platform, how does the signaller know where an incoming train has actually stopped (as opposed to where he thinks it should stop)? I don't think an axle counter between A and B will help him with this.  So when the first train has arrived eg a terminator from Padd how can he be certain it's stopped behind the Rear Stop board on A before he signals eg a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) into B?

I think I can answer my own question (which I'm glad to do before someone else comes on and tells me I'd got it wrong).  There are of course no track circuits: there are axle counters at both ends of P11-15 as well as the middle between the rear clear boards, so trains can be counted in and out of A and B separately so the signaller knows where they are.  So I think this issue is resolved.

[BBM]

Hopefully they will make some longer trains tomorrow though fortunately I don't have to travel FGW^▸ (First Great Western) the rest of this week...

Yes, there did seem to be a lot of 2-car trains running around today.   

And again this morning - the 06:53 from Twyford was just 2 cars instead of 6, one less even than yesterday. Someone must have informed the Maidenhead passengers as it appeared that most people there had gone over to Platform 2 to sit it out for the delayed 07:08.

[IndustryInsider]

Seems to be holding together much better today so far.  A few too many 2-cars still running around on peak services for my liking, such as BBM's one quoted above, but at least most of the off-peak LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) services seem to be using at least 3-cars with several 5-cars running about out there.  Punctuality wise, delays on both LTV and HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services seem to be in the order of 5-10 minutes typically, which is rather better than the 25-50 minutes we were seeing for most of yesterday.  The 180s have (surprise, surprise) been pulled from service though.   

[paul7575]

In the case of the services into platform 2, from the Newbury direction of from Basingstoke, in hindsight might it have been a good idea to dedicate a pool of train crew to those routes all day?   I wonder if that's part of today's solution?

Paul

[BerkshireBugsy]

In the case of the services into platform 2, from the Newbury direction of from Basingstoke, in hindsight might it have been a good idea to dedicate a pool of train crew to those routes all day?   I wonder if that's part of today's solution?

Paul

Good point Paul. Does anyone know if there is anything in the rule book which prevents a driver operating the same route (or alternating between the same routes) all day ?

[paul7575]

In the case of the services into platform 2, from the Newbury direction of from Basingstoke, in hindsight might it have been a good idea to dedicate a pool of train crew to those routes all day?   I wonder if that's part of today's solution?

Paul

Good point Paul. Does anyone know if there is anything in the rule book which prevents a driver operating the same route (or alternating between the same routes) all day ?

They do it on the Isle of Wight quite happily!  I'd have thought interworking the two routes would be fine - a few round trips shared between both would be heading towards a full shift, with the Basingstoke only being hourly there was a lengthy layover at Basingstoke as well.

Paul