Crossrail/Elizabeth Line. From construction to operation - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

I received a letter today from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) outlining the Easter works programme. It's extensive, and pretty disruptive. My conclusion is that I'll be working from home for a week.

Brief summary (my fault if I've misinterpreted)
The line from Hayes to Didcot will be disrupted/closed from Friday 3rd April to Sunday 12th April.
HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) to Bristol and Wales will be 1 per hour and run on the chilterns line.
HSTs to Cornwall to run from Waterloo.
In the Thames valley trains run 2tph from Padd to Hayes.
Everything from Hayes to Didcot will be via bus service.

Awesome.

The lines are open between the Tuesday after Easter and the following Saturday before closing again for one day on the Sunday, so not much of the normal working week should be too badly affected?

As well as the final major push at Reading, the panel box at Slough is being closed and transferred to Didcot TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) (hopefully, as I know that one is running close to the wire!), and I'm sure there will be lots of other more minor works progressing as well.

[NickB]

Can't really think of one, but I am glad that I have the option to work from home. Others aren't so lucky and will have a pretty rubbish week.

[NickB]

I received a letter today from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) outlining the Easter works programme. It's extensive, and pretty disruptive. My conclusion is that I'll be working from home for a week.

Brief summary (my fault if I've misinterpreted)
The line from Hayes to Didcot will be disrupted/closed from Friday 3rd April to Sunday 12th April.
HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) to Bristol and Wales will be 1 per hour and run on the chilterns line.
HSTs to Cornwall to run from Waterloo.
In the Thames valley trains run 2tph from Padd to Hayes.
Everything from Hayes to Didcot will be via bus service.

Awesome.

The lines are open between the Tuesday after Easter and the following Saturday before closing again for one day on the Sunday, so not much of the normal working week should be too badly affected?

As well as the final major push at Reading, the panel box at Slough is being closed and transferred to Didcot TVSC^» (Thames Valley Signalling Centre - about) (hopefully, as I know that one is running close to the wire!), and I'm sure there will be lots of other more minor works progressing as well.

Interesting. I've reread the letter in light of your comment about the line reopening and I still do not get that impression.

[IndustryInsider]

I haven't seen the letter, but that's what I understood was happening and a quick check on the NRE^‡(resolve) website seems to confirm.

[NickB]

That would be welcome news. If I can find a scanner tomorrow then I'll upload the letter for all to see.
It could be another case of fgw's communications letting down the rest of the organisation.

[paul7575]

That would be welcome news. If I can find a scanner tomorrow then I'll upload the letter for all to see.
It could be another case of fgw's communications letting down the rest of the organisation.

I think the key phrase to look at here is 'disrupted/closed'. The slash should be taken as 'or'.  Meaning closed at the first weekend, and on the second Sunday, and disrupted during the week. 

This has been shown in the online engineering access statement for ages, and has been shown in journey planners for some weeks now, and was previously seen on the  opentraintimes or realtimetrains websites.

Paul

[JayMac]

What happens if the Harbury landslip isn't repaired by Easter?

It'll be difficult to divert London-Bristol/South Wales HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) via Banbury as capacity there is constrained by terminating Chiltern and CrossCountry services. Will there still be room each hour to reverse 4xFGW HSTs?

[Adelante_CCT]

I remember last time some of the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) were reversing at Aynho, maybe they would have to utilise this option more

[paul7575]

What happens if the Harbury landslip isn't repaired by Easter?

It'll be difficult to divert London-Bristol/South Wales HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) via Banbury as capacity there is constrained by terminating Chiltern and CrossCountry services. Will there still be room each hour to reverse 4xFGW HSTs?

The XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) trains have almost an hour at Banbury, there seems to be scope for them to shunt via the down sidings to make room in the platforms.  There's also the option to reverse GW^▸ (Great Western) services at Aynho as said earlier.

[ChrisB]

More likely, it will alter what Chiltern are able to offer by way of a timetable for their own services. (Bustitution^▸ (the practice of replacing trains with buses) from Bicester, rather than Banbury perhaps? (using the turn-back at Bicester North)

[lordgoata]

The letter is awful. I read it pretty much as NickB did, so I still don't understand what is happening. It says something like busses between Didcot and Reading, then a couple of lines later says busses between Goring and Tilehurst, so nothing stopping at Pangbourne (which I assumed to mean nothing on the relief lines, so as no platforms on Pangbourne, nothing can stop) - so does that mean trains are running from Didcot to Reading, and if so are they stopping or running non-stop on the mains ? Its about as clear as mud to me.

I think I will be working from home as well.

NB. writing that from memory as I don't have the letter to hand, but that was my recollection of thoughts when I read it. Maybe I also read it wrong...

[paul7575]

Here's a day's services at Tilehurst for Tuesday 7th April:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/TLH/2015/04/07/0600-2000?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Stopping trains between Oxford/Didcot and Paddington appear to be calling all day.

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

But not at Pangbourne, so it'll be a bus to Tilehurst's to connect into the train. 

[lordgoata]

I'm going from Goring to Maidenhead so I don't really care about Pangbourne or Tilehurst - my point was more it isn't at all clear (to me as someone that uses trains but doesn't understand the black magic that runs them, nor the terminology often used) as to what is happening. I suspect the same will be true for many commuters. As Nick said, my impression was its basically closed for a week - and if thats not the case, it should be made abundantly clear. There is a lot of information in that letter - maybe too much (less is more sometimes).

Either way I will work from home, I am not willing to risk not making it in - and whatever is running is bound to be delayed by engineering works 

[IndustryInsider]

I'm going from Goring to Maidenhead so I don't really care about Pangbourne or Tilehurst - my point was more it isn't at all clear (to me as someone that uses trains but doesn't understand the black magic that runs them, nor the terminology often used) as to what is happening. I suspect the same will be true for many commuters. As Nick said, my impression was its basically closed for a week - and if thats not the case, it should be made abundantly clear. There is a lot of information in that letter - maybe too much (less is more sometimes).

Either way I will work from home, I am not willing to risk not making it in - and whatever is running is bound to be delayed by engineering works 

Yes, the letter sounds like it's not very clear.  Fortunately the website is a little clearer:  https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/easter2015

Up to you whether you work from home or not of course, but Goring to Maidenhead from Tuesday (7th April) to the Friday looks pretty simple with a direct train every 30 minutes or so.  All details are on www.nationalrail.co.uk or the other journey planners.

The trains will be running on the main lines between Didcot and Reading (hence not calling at Pangbourne) due to the remodelling of Reading West Junction and in the Scours Lane area (and I expect they'll use the opportunity to press on with some electrification work on the relief lines as well), but no reason to believe the amended service will be affected any more than the usual two-track timetable would disrupt it - i.e. if there's a failure there's no way of getting anything round it etc.