New Timetable & Re-doubling follow on

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Question - How many 2 car turbo trains have a trolley service?!

Not many.  That units previous working, 12:21 Paddington to Great Malvern, is distinctly cozy when it leaves Oxford as a 2-car, especially on a Friday.

The axle counters for the block between Wolvercote Junction and Charlbury have failed at some point during the day each of the last three days which is not impressive as it results in delays whilst pilot working is introduced.  Along with several incidents of cable thefts further down the line, I'd be interested to see if the punctuality figures for the route have actually improved much since the completion of the redoubling.  Little, if at all, would be my guess.

There's still one outstanding TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) of 50mph at Aston Magna in the 'up' direction as a remaining legacy of the redoubling project.  Presumably engineers are giving the track more time to settle in before relaxing it to the 70mph linespeed due to the severity of the curve.

[Steve Bray]

Generally, I have been disappointed with the new September and December timetables and have been seeing if improvements could be made.

I've been looking at the 0535 Hereford/Paddington and the new 0715 Charlbury/Paddington.

The 0535 spends 12 minutes standing at Shrub Hill; I assume this is to provide a connection into the 0628 Shrub Hill/New Street service. Other than that, I can't see why it should stay at Shrub Hill for so long. There is a train from Moreton that is due into Shrub Hill at 0619, so there would be nothing in its way on the Cotswold Line.

So I was thinking that if 1 minute was shaved from the Malvern Link/Foregate Street timing; 10 minutes was lopped off the time spent at Shrub Hill, and the 2 minute stop time at Evesham was taken out, then from Charlbury, it could run as the new 0715 service. The benefits would be for passengers west of Charlbury an improved journey time of between 7 and 20 minutes.

So what would happen with the rolling stock for the 0715? I was trying to find a post made by Industry Insider who I think either said it was the stock off the 0517 Paddington/Oxford, or just an ecs working. But if the 0535 was accelerated, would it then be possible to send the stock to Moreton, and start the current 0535 from Hereford at Moreton at around 0710? This would then give Moreton and Kingham commuters an additional peak train, and perhaps if starting from Moreton, an extra stop could be inserted at Shipton or Ascott?

I guess this depends what time the ecs for the 0715 enters the single line, whether this is after the 0518 from Great Malvern has passed Wolvercote. This train (the 0518) is allowed 14 minutes from Hanborough to Oxford with a further 4 minutes at Oxford, so this could easily depart Charlbury 6 minutes later at say 0636, and if the 0517 from Paddington operated several minutes earlier, the ecs could leave Oxford at 0618/20 and enter the new double line at Charlbury in good time for the 0518 from Great Malvern to continue without delay.

Thoughts?   

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

The reason the 05.18 is allowed 15 minutes between Hanborough and Oxford is probably that there are two north bound trains that depart Oxford at 06.36 and 06.41 thus obstructing the train's exit from the CL at Wolvercote. There are a number of similar situations where the Hanborough/Oxford journey times are extended. Incidentally Mark Hopwood told CLPG^» (Cotswold Line Promotion Group - about) at yesterday's Christmas dinner that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is looking closely at where timetabling can possibly be tightened up to improve timings. CLPG committee members have already been in contact with the timetabling team with suggestions/requests for improving Worcestershire area services with existing resources.
MH also confirmed that 4 of the 5 Adelantes would be dedicated to Cotswold Line services so that on weekdays the only Turbo will be that which currently operates the morning Up stopper service. The evening 17.31 stopper will become and Adelante. The Adelantes will receive major refurbishment before entering service. Apparantly the 3 coming from Northern are at present in very poor shape. Lets hope that the refurbishment does not include the very high back standard class seats put into HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) that are so unpopular with many regular rail users. MH also said that Adelantes are coming with an Angel Trains dowry of some ^6M to enable FGW to hopefully cope with the trains' poor reliability record.

[Steve Bray]

The reason the 05.18 is allowed 15 minutes between Hanborough and Oxford is probably that there are two north bound trains that depart Oxford at 06.36 and 06.41 thus obstructing the train's exit from the CL at Wolvercote.

All the more reason therefore for the 0518 to operate 6 or 7 minutes later to enable the ecs off the 0517 (or slightly earlier retimed) Paddington/Oxford to run to Moreton. 


Moderator note: Edited to fix quote. bignosemac

[IndustryInsider]

MH also confirmed that 4 of the 5 Adelantes would be dedicated to Cotswold Line services so that on weekdays the only Turbo will be that which currently operates the morning Up stopper service. The evening 17.31 stopper will become and Adelante.

I've done a bit of work on how the diagrams would work out if that's the case.  What I thought would be impossible with just 4 units, is actually workable, except for one trip and back which there simply is no unit available for if the timetable stays the same.  With some minor timetable adjustments it's the 09:50 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-MIM and return working that would have to be a Turbo, or without adjusting the timetable, it's the 09:21 PAD-WOF and return. 

It also allows scope for one early morning service from Banbury, and two (or one 10-Car formation) train in the evening peak from Paddington to either Henley, Oxford and Banbury, and well as an Oxford service leaving Paddington mid-evening - all of which were other suggested possible destinations.

Here's what I worked out - I'll be interested to see how closely the final diagrams resemble it:

[Steve Bray]

Beyond Charlbury, does the evening halts train warrant an Adelante? Certainly the very slow return working at 1944 from Great Malvern wouldn't demand it in terms of passenger numbers or speed.

If there was a way, I would extend the 1622 Paddington/Oxford up the Cotswold Line, and run the halts train at around 1750 from Oxford and terminate it at Moreton.

[IndustryInsider]

Beyond Charlbury, does the evening halts train warrant an Adelante?

To be honest, no.  Not even beyond Hanborough really.

I should point out that if things did go as per my diagrams below, it would create some pretty uncomfortable overcrowding without any other mitigating measures, especially on the 08:26 WOF-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) (currently a 6-car Turbo from Oxford, with few, if any, seats available beyond Slough), and the 15:53 MIM-PAD (currently a 5-car Turbo from Oxford, and a very popular commuter train from Slough into Paddington at 17:10 - again precious few seats available).

[Worcester_Passenger]

What always surprises me about Slough is that there's only a half-hourly fast service into Paddington in the evening peak. Surely not beyond the wit of man to stop a couple of the other Reading-Padd'n non-stops so as to give the passengers a chance to sit down?

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

I use the evening Down stopper, boarding at Hanborough. Steve Bray obviously doesn't travel on it very often as I can rarely get a seat when boarding at Hanborough until it has lost a lot of people at Charlbury. The train sheds most of its travellers by the time it reaches Moreton but does start to pick people at Evesham and beyond.
My understanding is that eventually it will become a through train from PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) and would undoubtedly become much more popular. However it would be very over crowded as a single Adelante. At present the stopper is formed by the Turbo that terminates its return journey from the CL at Didcot at 17.04 so some timetable juggling would seem to be necessary for a London departure and that now seems unlikely with the timetable freeze until after the Olympics.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

re Worcester Passenger's comment on Slough, the original DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) specification for CL trains omitted most Slough stops in CL trains but the Slough commuters protested strongly as they like the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and Adelante comforts over the Turbos and the faster run for their 20 minute run into PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains). I think that for CL travellers a stop at Didcot rather than Slough would be more popular but as we know the Didcot congestion prevents this. I was amazed some while ago to be on what was really the 05.18 ex GM but was running in the path of the 05.35 from Hereford about an hour later and which does not call at Didcot, that when the delayed 05.18 reached Oxford many travellers alighted but then reboarded or went back to standing in the aisle when the platform announcement said that it would call at Didcot. It was obvious that this considerable number of people had thought they were on the 05.35 ex Hereford but travelling to Didcot were expecting to have to change at Didcot.

[Worcester_Passenger]

the original DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) specification for CL trains omitted most Slough stops in CL trains but the Slough commuters protested strongly as they like the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and Adelante comforts over the Turbos and the faster run for their 20 minute run into PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains).

On the occasions that I've been on these trains, the Slough commuters don't see much of the HST and Adelante comforts - they're standing.

Perhaps it comes down to the idea that standing for 20 minutes is better than standing for 30.

[IndustryInsider]

On the occasions that I've been on these trains, the Slough commuters don't see much of the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and Adelante comforts - they're standing.

Though some passengers seem to prefer to stand - at least from Paddington. 

Case 1:  08:21 Paddington-Hereford.  2+8 HST.  Seen the other week leaving London.  Approximately 50 people standing in coaches E through C (with a few more in the vestibules of 1st Class).  About 25 seats free in Coach B and Coach A probably only had about 15 people in it!

Case 2:  23:20 Paddington-Oxford.  Now rostered for a 5-car Turbo (it used to be 3-cars - well done FGW^▸ (First Great Western)).  Travelled on it the other week and reckon about 40 people were stood in the rear 3-car, and again plenty of space left it the front two coaches.  Somebody (presumably the driver) even announced that there were loads of seats at the front, but nobody seemed bothered and I had a bay of six seats to myself at the front.

I will freely admit that overcrowding on many trains is horrendous, and let's hope that all this extra capacity will solve many of the problems next year, but sometimes the punters just don't want to help themselves!

[Steve Bray]

Steve Bray obviously doesn't travel on it very often as I can rarely get a seat when boarding at Hanborough until it has lost a lot of people at Charlbury.

I don't catch this train, but in fairness to myself, in my earlier post, it was beyond Charlbury that I questioned whether this service merited an Adelante.

[IndustryInsider]

Steve Bray obviously doesn't travel on it very often as I can rarely get a seat when boarding at Hanborough until it has lost a lot of people at Charlbury.

I don't catch this train, but in fairness to myself, in my earlier post, it was beyond Charlbury that I questioned whether this service merited an Adelante.

Yes, it was me that mentioned Hanborough.  I take CLPG's point about occasions where people are still standing after Hanborough - though this is the height of rush-hour of course - and still wonder (along with Steve) as to whether a Class 180 utilised on a diagram between 15:09 (when it arrives at Great Malvern) through to the end of service that day when there's only just over 20 minutes where the current Turbo struggles a little between Oxford and Charlbury, and the rest of the time it'll be mostly empty, is a sensible use of resources.

[IndustryInsider]

Another question, concerning Hanborough, is with the new morning peak service starting back from Charlbury at 07:15 calling Hanborough at 07:23.  Would it be a good idea to remove the Hanborough call from the following 05:35 Hereford to Paddington which call there just 16 minutes later at 07:39?  Given the views of people that, where possible, faster journeys should be provided on the peak express services, isn't that a little bit of overkill?  The following service to call is the 'Halts' train at 08:01.

So, with that stop removed, there would still be five commuting options from Hanborough, reasonably well spread at 06:14, 06:38, 07:23, 08:01 and 08:39.  Isn't that enough?