Saturday 11th September

[whole diary]

[willc]

Glad to see that something was done - eventually - but should this really be down to Ollie and any other FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff who were out and about on Friday night raising the issue in this way? Or on-the-day reactions like an extra HST^▸ (High Speed Train) being wheeled out in May to get Oxford United fans home after their Wembley play-off due to overcrowding on trains into London earlier in the day. And that was a case where it was a predictable, concentrated flow on a single route, not the obviously harder to predict vagaries of big concert audiences - although as Jo pointed out up the thread, she had written to FGW after the last such combination of events pointing out the overcrowding, so they can't say they weren't warned.

Has anyone told them the Pope's in London this Saturday?

[inspector_blakey]

Has anyone told them the Pope's in London this Saturday?

Erm, yes, it's in this thread. But I'll wager that one falls into the category of "hard to predict flows", and in all honesty my money's on it not making a vast amount of difference. I'm always ready to be proved wrong though.

[Ollie]

Well I was told this morning that it doesn't appear to have been my e-mail that sparked it, don't really know when the plan was to strengthen - shame that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) didn't publish the additional carriages so people would have peace of mind =)

[johoare]

Maybe they got lots of complaints (although it seems a bit soon for them to have read them).. Maybe people were left behind at Paddington so complained in person...

[Ollie]

I doubt we will ever know

[willc]

shame that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) didn't publish the additional carriages so people would have peace of mind

But it seems to be policy not to do so - such as this case, the Big Chill, Oxford United at Wembley to name but three and while someone seems to have taken in hand getting engineering-related changes to services on the website, there hardly ever seem to be any other sorts of alterations listed on the page, with the odd exception like Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, presumably due to the slimming-down of the Cardiff service to free HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) for the extras to Gloucestershire. Would it have been so hard to put something about those strengthened Turbo services on there too?

[Phil]

Has anyone told them the Pope's in London this Saturday?

The Pope's coming to London?!?

[bigdaz]

Hail Passengers, full of trains,
The Lord is With Thee;
Blessed art First Great Western among TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)
And Blessed is the fruit of they womb, TURBOS.
Holy 165, mother of Turbos
Pray for us, passengers, now and in our desire for longer trains.

_{No offence meant to my Roman Catholic brethren.}

[JayMac]

From the Edinburgh Evening News:

Top policeman: Pope should travel by train

A leading police authority figure has said the Pope should travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow by train during his visit.

Allan Falconer, deputy convener of the Strathclyde Police Authority, said the pontiff should take a train from Haymarket to Queen Street on September 16 instead of being driven along the M8, to minimise disruption and policing problems.

The call came as Strahclyde's Chief Constable, Steve House, addressed the authority on the Pope's visit, including plans to bill the Scottish Government for policing costs.

Mr Falconer said: "I'm not talking about the Pope taking a scheduled service from Haymarket, but he could have had a first-class carriage done up for him, like the way the Queen often travels. I would have thought that might be an easier way to transport the Pope."

Mr House said a motorcade was a more flexible means of transportation in the event of any trouble.

The Evening News yesterday revealed that taxpayers would pay a ^22,000 bill to spruce up a city street where the Pope is going for lunch. An 80-metre stretch of road outside Cardinal Keith O'Brien's home in Morningside has been relaid and lampposts have been painted ahead of his visit.

 

[inspector_blakey]

Mr House said a motorcade was a more flexible means of transportation in the event of any trouble.

Like what, Richard Dawkins waving a placard?! It's not as if a motorcade can go veering up the embankment on the M8 to escape any "trouble" either, is it...?

The Evening News yesterday revealed that taxpayers would pay a ^22,000 bill to spruce up a city street where the Pope is going for lunch. An 80-metre stretch of road outside Cardinal Keith O'Brien's home in Morningside has been relaid and lampposts have been painted ahead of his visit.

And you can bet that's only the very tip of the iceberg. No doubt the pope will go back to the Vatican under the impression that all of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) smells of fresh paint. Please excuse me. I'm off to find a quiet corner and weep for a long time.

[JayMac]

I expect Cardinal Keith has been on at the council for months about the potholes on the road outside his house. Getting His Holiness to visit was just an elaborate ruse to get the council to finally fill 'em in.

 

[Fish]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do have staff looking at events, though I know some events sometimes drop under the radar.  I am not sure how they get their information.  Obviously, loadings are always difficult to quantify, though surely previous experience should be logged and kept.

With regard to the Pope's visit, not only the travelling numbers are vague, but also the expected finishing time is not exactly known.  As a result, FGW are stabling a spare set and crew at Paddington to be used as required.