17:15 Taunton - Paddington Sunday 14th April

[whole diary]

[Wilf19]

Does anyone know what caused the 17:15 from Taunton to be cancelled on Sunday evening?

I left home having checked National Rail Enquiries and it showed 'on-time', by the time I got to the station the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) system said 'delayed' - which I know is never good news,  interestingly phone app still said 2 minutes late. Train got cancelled 10 minutes later. Result was panic stations to get back home, get car and drive to Heathrow. I made the flight but it was uncomfortably close. Now waiting for an argument with my boss about the huge car parking bill at Heathrow. :-(

It must be said that this is the first time in years of doing this journey that the train going up has been cancelled, I've had it happen on the way home before, but that only results in stroppy wife, threats of divorce and upset children so that's OK. Missing an outbound flight results in the Spanish Inquisition from the expenses people - which is far worse.

[bobm]

Sorry to hear of your rush to Heathrow. As you will no doubt be claiming the price of your train ticket back that should provide the proof that you had no alternative but to drive.

It seems the train left Plymouth on time but developed a fault en route. Despite attention at Exeter St David's it wasn't possible to cure it in a reasonable time and the train had to be terminated.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Glad to see you made it ok to the other end and here is hoping you didn't have to park in the "short term".

[Wilf19]

Thanks for the information, I had assumed that something had gone badly wrong with the train.

I contacted TheTrainLine and requested a refund and sent a followup email explaining the sorry tale, they have indicated that they will refund the full ticket price, which I'm pleasantly surprised at without having to go into battle. Of course I will  believe that when the refund comes through.

Drive up to Heathrow went amazingly well, no holds up at all which I would think was unusual for a Sunday night and I didn't break the speed limit too many times to do it. I'm sure the drive back on Friday afternoon at around 5pm will be a different story which is why I take the train! As i drove up I was working out a mental map of the car parks to I would try in descending order of cost and ascending distance from terminal 5. I managed to make it using number 3 on my list so that's slightly less reason for my boss to have a heart attack. Even so, I think my parking bill is going to be  the best part of ^150, that and the petrol cost will easily exceed the train fare. Another reason for using the train.