Problems at Ashchurch, Mon Jul 18

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

Train companies affected

CrossCountry, First Great Western

Routes affected

Birmingham New Street, Longbridge, Bromsgrove, Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Lydney, Chepstow, Newport and Cardiff Central;
also Birmingham New Street, Longbridge, Bromsgrove, Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Cam & Dursley, Yate, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads;
also Great Malvern, Worcester Foregate Street, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Cam & Dursley, Yate, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads

Description

A signalling problem is causing disruption in the Ashchurch for Tewkesbury area.

Because of this, the following alterations will apply until further notice.

    CrossCountry services between Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central / Bristol Temple Meads are currently suspended. A limited bus service is running between Birmingham New Street, Cheltenham Spa and Gloucester.
    Buses are replacing First Great Western services between Worcester Shrub Hill and Cheltenham Spa.

Arriva Trains Wales services are now able to run normally at Cheltenham, and London Midland services are now able to run normally at Bromsgrove

Alternative Routes

    Customers travelling between Birmingham and Bristol / Newport / Cardiff should use CrossCountry services between Birmingham New Street and Didcot Parkway or Reading to connect with First Great Western services to / from Bristol, Newport or Cardiff.
    Customers may use London Midland services between Birmingham New Street and Hereford to connect with Arriva Trains Wales services between Hereford and Newport / Cardiff.
    Customers may use London Midland services between Birmingham New Street and Worcester Shrub Hill to connect with buses to Cheltenham Spa, then Arriva Trains Wales services between Cheltenham Spa and Newport / Cardiff

Ticket Acceptance

First Great Western and CrossCountry customers may use either any operators service on reasonable routes to complete their journey.

London Midland and Arriva Trains Wales will also accept First Great Western and CrossCountry customers on all reasonable routes.

[ChrisB]

No mention of the buses then @ Ashchurch?

[phile]

I presume the limited bus service between birmingham and Cheltenham on behalf of Cross Country would be for West of England passengers as no mention of them elsewhere.  Rather long journey from Birmingham to Newport/Cardiff/Bristol via Didcot/Reading.   These situations tend to result in overcrowding on alternative routes.    I recall some years ago when Virgin X Country terminated a West of England train at Bristol Temple Meads  they advised passengers to board what was a Wales & West train at the time and booked to be worked by a single 153 !!!

[JayMac]

Are CrossCountry putting in an additional stop at Didcot Parkway? Otherwise all connections will be at Reading.

[inspector_blakey]

Don't know how viable it would be for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to make all those additional calls at Didcot - means that trains would have to be routed through the station (obviously!) rather than round the avoiding line, and I'm not sure if the service pattern of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) trains would permit this. That said platform 5 spends a great deal of time empty so it ought to be possible to work something out.

However it would mean XC services incurring a time penalty of several minutes, given the relatively slow linespeed into Didcot station from Oxford compared to just whizzing round the curve at the back of the railway centre. It could also lead to pathing problems between there and Reading as a result. Plus all FGW services to Bristol/South Wales call at Reading, only about half of them at Didcot, so it may be that Reading offers the better connections anyway.

Just my thoughts... I'd need to take a look at the timetables but my hunch is that if I was sitting in a controller's chair somewhere I probably wouldn't risk causing further disruption with the Didcot option!

[paul7575]

Are CrossCountry putting in an additional stop at Didcot Parkway? Otherwise all connections will be at Reading.

Wouldn't better advice have been to use XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services changing at Oxford for Didcot?  I get the impression that the people writing these bulletins are unaware of the normal calling patterns - and that line should have been:

"Customers travelling between Birmingham and Bristol / Newport / Cardiff should use CrossCountry and FGW services between Birmingham New Street and Didcot Parkway [...] to connect with First Great Western services to / from Bristol, Newport or Cardiff."

[phile]

I very much doubt XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) would have arranged to call at Didcot Parkway anyway knowing their repotation for Customer service in times of disruption.      Did they cover their Cardiff Nottingham services between Cardiff and Cheltenham I wonder.  There would have units on the Cardiff side.     However, notice XC now running Bristol trains through Cheltenham with delays up to 45 minutes (Network Rail Website)

[ChrisB]

Running fast Oxford-Reading at 1900. Packed, leaving pax^▸ (passengers) behind...