Another lineside fire

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Just heard news about this at the end of the TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) news. Apparently, nothing is moving around Westbury, and services further afield are affected too. JourneyCheck mentions the lineside fire as the reason for termination of Cardiff to Portsmouth Harbour at Bath, but doesn't paint such a grim picture as BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) West.

[trainer]

I have just returned from Salisbury having left there at 18:40, arriving only 15 or so minutes down at Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) (BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)).  However, the following service to Cheltenham was 45+ mins down at BRI and went on to be terminated at Gloucester.

Meanwhile my connection to Yatton was supposed to be 20:18, but owing to 'technical problems' with a train nothing was arriving from Paddington.  We were moved from Platform 15 to 12 so that a replacement HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) could arrive from St Phillips to take up the path of the non-arriving train that would have formed the 20:30 to Paddington.  Eventually a time was given for our train to arrive at 20:56 and we were moved back to Platform 15, as the 20:30 was long gone. Then HSTs started to arrived in quick succession and one was terminated at about 20:45 on Platform 15 where it stood with no driver and we were clearly warned not to board. 

At 20:54 we were moved to Platform 8 for the delayed 20:18 service to Weston-s-Mare, but on that platform was the 20:55 for Taunton, so as the wave of displaced pax^▸ (passengers) wearily tramped along the platform the guard had the choice of an on-time departure or allow as many who were able to jump aboard.  She chose the latter and only couple of minutes down we left and on arriving at Bedminster were held to the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service could overtake.  They were running late because of a points failure north of Birmingham.

It was, shall we say, a less than satisfactory experience and I'm sure the heat was part of the problem. The last I saw of the 20:18 off BRI was that it was predicted 60mins down at Yatton. 

I was only an hour late home and am grateful that many people must have worked hard to make that possible.  However, the three changes of platform at BRI seems unnecessary.  Perhaps only at the point where the signaller can be reasonable sure a platform is available at the point of the train arriving should we be shunted around on a hot evening.

I now retire to put my head in a bucket of water.

[bobm]

As well as the fire near Trowbridge there were problems on the mainline from Paddington too as trainer mentions. One HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) broke down near Chippenham and it took the best part of an hour to get it moving again. According to Journeycheck one of the following services was sent via Chipping Sodbury missing calls at Chippenham and Bath Spa in the process.

Fingers crossed all is well in the morning for my trip to Southampton vis Trowbridge. 

[trainer]

Thanks for the extra info, Bob.  I must say I was very pleased to find the air con working well on the two 158 sets I was on and the trolley attended had put her chocolate in an Ice Bag.  Nuggets of consolation to be found in all situations. 

[thetrout]

The HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) that failed at Bathampton Junction was moved onto Bath Spa Platform 1 where I understood it failed again. Between Chippenham and Bathampton Jn is bad enough a place to fail.

But in Bath Spa station is borderline worst case scenario in the evening peak as you have too many trains and down to only one platform. By this point it is enevitable that there are going to be fairly hefty delays.