Great Western Coffee Shop

Spending the afternoon overhauling and givng my steam tram loco it's first run of the year. I became
aware of HSTs passing by slowly. I can't see the trains despite being only 50 metres away because of the dense vegitation.

But I could work out they were on the Up Main by doppler and the Turbos on the Up Relief seemed to be running normally either acceelrating from their Taplow stop or coasting if not stopping at Burnham.

Problem?

Big problem - trains arriving at SWI between 45 and 50 late, due to signalling problems "between Slough and Reading".

There was a signalling fault in the Salt Hill area, all the loc case covers off and techs standing around them just under the Farnham Road bridge on the UP Relief side

"Signalling problems in the Slough area" meant a 15 min late departure from PAD on the 1615 to Swansea that I crammed on to as far as RDG this afternoon.

For a short while just before that everything seemed to be at a stand.

"Multiple track circuit failure at Burnham affecting all lines"

17:35 - Normal working resumed.

Reading peak was a nightmare - had received a warning that there were problems but got there about 1720 to find everything to appearing pretty much OK......then the fun started......1742 showed as "on time", then AT 1742 it switched to "Delayed" then "Cancelled" within a minute or so........this infuriated a number of people who wanted local services but had just missed a service which would have got them closer to home due to listening to the advice given...........the atmosphere was somewhat lightened by some impromptu cabaret - one bloke going berserk and demanding a taxi to Bourne End instantly, and the almost inevitable American threatening to sue everyone.......then we're told the 1818 is going to be cancelled too.....but not to worry, change platforms as we've arranged extra stops at Taplow/Burnham on the 1808..........errrr no you didn't.....so back to platform 13a as the 1818 is "definitely" reinstated and on time...........then it shows up as "delayed".......cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth......it eventually arrived at 1830............OK the lineside problems were outside FGWs control but the communication, as always seems to be the case when this happens, was appalling....in addition to the total confusion described above, the announcements were pretty inaudible - the automatic ones were OK, but those by "humans" were hesitant and mumbled............ah well at least the sun was shining!!!  :)

I experienced the tail end of this disruption. I got to Paddington for the 7.48 departure.. All appeared normal. Showing as on time. First class at the rear.. It usually goes from platform 1 but that train definitely didn't have first class at the rear though a lot of people were getting on it anyway even though the platform hadn't been announced.

About 15 minutes before departure the board changed to preparing.. All good.. Then about 10 minutes before it went to delayed. A man asked the information guy (who did what they all do at Paddington when asked a question and looked behind him up at the board (as if we can't do that ourselves  ::))) and he declared he didn't know but perhaps it might be due to the train crew arriving late on another train (this in fact turned out to be a very lucky guess).

Anyway shortly it was announced as platform 1. We got on the train and after that the information by the train manager was really good. The train crew had in fact just arrived and the driver needed a break and that we would be leaving around about 8. She also mentioned the train being in reverse formation even though the indicator board was still merrily telling us it wasn't.

So all in all not bad and I'm glad I watched the football before heading to Paddington otherwise the disruption would have affected me much more.

It has been a very rough couple of weeks in general for RDG <-> PAD with what seems like near daily signalling problems coming through as text alerts for both morning and evening peak periods.

............agreed, and combined with all the short formations/"train faults" its really not been much fun at all  :(

Sympathies to all those caught out by the signal failure.

It's funny how I can sus out problems on the line after a short spell in the garden just by hearing the speed of the trains passing. I suppose I'm so used to the normal pattern that any train going slow stands out.

So far so good today.

Seems we aren't the only region to be affected by infrastructure related faults and daily delays.  There have been some serious delays out of Liverpool Street recently which goes to show Network Rail aren't performing much better in other regions.  The annoying thing is should a train operating company perform this badly day in, day out the DfT would be having words.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27901663

NR aren't under contract to the DfT though

It was very interesting to look at the graph on recenttimetrains and see the knock-on effect on arrivals into Reading of these problems ... graph attached showing delays taking a long time to clear

It is complex ......... not so much a contract with DfT there is an agreement that has allowed this quasi organisation to exist since 2002 

It is a real (not a quasi) organisation with its own legal status.

It is its autonomy that is quasi

Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd is the main NeR company that everyone knows to 'be' NeR, which was the former Railtrack.

NeR have a very interesting group structure, and upon digging into it I never knew they operated the Shopping Centre above Victoria as a separate concern.


Network Rail Ltd is the parent company of Network Rail HoldCo Ltd. Which is the parent company of Network Rail Infrastructure.
Network Rail Infrastructure is the parent company of.
Network Rail (High Speed) Limited
Network Rail (Projects) Limited
Network Rail (Spacia) Limited
Network Rail (Stations) Limited
Network Rail (Vy1) Limited
Network Rail (Vy2) Limited
Network Rail Certification Body Limited
Network Rail Consulting Limited
Network Rail Development Limited
Network Rail Property Limited
Solum Regeneration (Gp) Limited
Spacia (2002) Limited
Victoria Place Shopping Centre Limited

They also have a PLC in the form of Network Rail Mtn Finance plc.

Also digging into Solum Regeneration NeR seem to have an interest in Kier Ventures Limited. Kier being the property developers.

Like all large companies this is done so they are legally separate entities, High Speed for instance is where NR has a contract with the owners of High Speed 1 to operate and maintain the infrastructure.

Looks like yesterday was pretty bad, worse than during the week. Its still ongoing today!