I have been involved quite a few times in the conference calls that are managing service disruption, there are so many moving parts and demands.  I as the electrification Engineer or my colleges PWay and S&T Engineers may need access to fix a fault  this may add to the initial impact but ultimately will result in a full recovery but that has to be balance against the urgent operational need to provide even a limited service also more importantly we have to say sometimes it is unsafe to use this section of the railway.  The TOC and NR Ops have to consider train crew, suitable rolling stock, train pathing out and return


I'm not involved in the Western Region but each Region has a Silver Command head by senior leaders of NR and the TOCs this will be Route Director level.

 
Following up on a-driver's comments on the transfer of some of the class 387s, I am afraid this seemed inevitable. The fleet was procured when it was anticipated not only that electrification would get to Oxford, but also would extend to the Windsor, Marlow, Henley and Basingstoke branches. The Elizabeth Line has also absorbed quite a proportion of GWR stopping train traffic east of Reading.

The result has been that services west of Reading that 10 years ago were run by 3 car Turbos now run often with very lightly loaded 387s. Some have (of course) already been reallocated to Heathrow Express duties, but the rolling stock shortage across GWR territory extends to all non-electrified Thames Valley services too (remember the 769s?).

The contrast with the glacial progress in introducing the 185s further west is striking. If all that I have learned as a member of this forum over the years, this bears the fingerprints of DfT. Will GBR, when it eventually takes over do better (or be allowed to)?

 

I'm often less than impressed with decisions operators make during disruption, but I genuinely don't think that minimising repayment claims figures highly, other than as a by-product of the underlying "how can we best sort out this mess?", for which there are various meanings of the word "best".  Where the cost more directly affects the response is likely to be in areas such as arranging alternative transport (bus, taxi etc), for which there are probably guidelines on severity/timescale of disruption etc and someone will need to authorise it.  Staff overtime may be another area, though working time limits will restrict that anyway.

 

GWR were instructed to release the 387's by the DfT.  As Oxford wasn't electrified the DfT calculated that GWR had a surplus of 387's


There was I believe, a points failure at Didcot with no access from Reading to Oxford.  Trains used Foxhall Jn which requires a reversal and free platforms at Didcot.


Multiple failures at Didcot, Maidenhead and Ladbroke Grove simply means a constantly changing situation and an overstretched controller juggling resources and attempting to perform miracles!

Decision are never made to benefit the company.  The controllers sole intention is trying to keep things moving with what you've, some days whatever decision you make minutes later something else happens that scuppers that plan. 

 
A miserable couple of days relying on the UK train service.

I’ll start elsewhere and then bring it back to GWR towards the end.

I needed to go to Cambridge on Thursday (actually a day early than needed but the extortionate day return price meant going a day before was 1/2 the price).

My Thames Valley stopper gave up at Reading - no reason given, just an announcement from the Driver pulling into Reading. Not to worry - hustled across to platform 10/11 to catch a fast 5 car IEP at 12:34, pausing briefly to notice the number of delayed services on the list. Hmmm - glad I went now as later on could be a mess.

Arrived at King Cross at the start of a major meltdown - the next 3 Cambridge Great Northern train all delayed/cancelled. RTT actually showed all running. Message on the boards said due to a signal failure journeys north of Cambridge would be delayed and subject to cancellation.

Hmmm - but surely running to Cambridge should be fine? Jumped onto OTT and started looking at the maps and it was clear the issue was at the Kings Cross/Cambridge box boundary - south of Cambridge, hence no trains. Gate line staff were pretty hopeless, basically telling people to wait. Jumped onto National Rail where they said fault would not be fixed until 10:00 pm

I started sharing this with other stranded customers - amazingly much to the clear annoyance of the Great Northern staff.

Back onto RTT/OTT - and worked out that if I jumped on the Victoria line to Tottenham Hale I could catch a slow all station stopper from Liverpool Street to Cambridge. Yes it was going to take forever - but I should get there.

Apart from a protracted discussion with Great Anglia gate line staff who had to be convinced that this was a valid route for my ticket I arrived at Cambridge at 5pm (to a scene of armageddon as hundreds stood in the longest queues for taxis to Royston from which trains to Kings X were running.

In total my 2:15 scheduled journey took 5 1/2 hours.

Friday was the return trip - leaving Cambridge at 1:00pm on a GWR liveried  Class 387, albeit with logo removed. I actually spotted 3 more on this trip - I was unaware GWR were transferring these to other operators. Even the WiFi onboard was GWR, so it must be a recent movement.

Kudos to Network Rail who had repaired the signalling interface problem and it’s was a smooth, fast 45 trip to Kings Cross and then onto Paddington.

Arriving at 2:30pm the Thames Valley Didcot stopped was cancelled - alongside several others. Again, back onto RTT and I could see the train actually scheduled to start from Reading.

So why were GWR announcements saying to wait for the next train in 30 minutes.

Jumped into a 10 car IEP bound for Penzance and actually found a seat ! Things were looking up and a smooth ride to Reading took place. This where the GWR customer experience really bottomed out.

I arrived to see the train I was trying to catch showing for Platform 12. Five minutes after the supposed departure  this changed to Delayed - which a s everyone knows is GWR speak for a coin-toss as to whether the train will depart or not.

Some disgruntled customers started merging to for a group to get a taxi to Pangborne - as the previous train has been cancelled.

Time ticked by the the next service was due - but it too fell to the dreaded Delayed banner. I started talking to some friendly GWR staff who like me were glued to their OTT like app trying to work out what the hell was going on.

We finally got an announcement - as they officially Cancelled the first train I was going for - to say there was an issue as Reading Traincare meaning units could not be released. By now the next service has appeared and was showing as Delayed.

To summarise - for at least 2 hours GWR had failed to run 4 local services to Didcot.

Finally, around 4pm Class 387’s started emerging from Reading Traincare.

Excellent news, or so I thought - surely at least one of these units would service the crowd of hundred customers on Platform 12 and send a train to Didcot. (By this time I have seen a service at Slough, in bound).

But No! GWR sent all these units (I witnessed at least 3) towards London.

At 4:30 I board the Class 387 - the one that arrived from Slough. This was a sauna as the aircon on-board was not working and people arriving fell out of the train gasping for air, and issuing us dire warnings.

So here is my ire (in no particular order)

Why oh why didn’t GWR send a unit to Didcot once they had overcome the Traincare issues?  Is it because those poor customers who had been stranded at Reading for 2 hours were already a lost cause in terms of repayment claims - so to minimise the damage to the GWR coffers it was better to send units to London?

Why at Paddington did they not tell customers that the cancelled train would start at Reading (OK - it did not in the end but did they know that at that point in time?)

Why do customer service facing staff have no better (and in some cases less) information that Joe Public? If I wasn’t aware of RTT or OTT I would be completely at the whim of the train companies

Why are GWR 387s being released elsewhere when they can’t hold/recover the timetable together with the stock they have.

… I could go on.

I have watched and read much on the coming of Great British Railways - and have been neutral about the pros and cons. Privatisation has brought investment to the railway (alongside large shareholder payouts) but this investment has done nothing to allow the railways to continue to operate on days when it is stressed. So what is the point? Maybe public ownership will correct some my experiences - but maybe not.

But most importantly I want a railway that puts customers FIRST and the banishment of operational decisions that benefit no one except the train operating company themselves.

I’ve written this 24 hours after arriving home - giving at lease my blood pressure time to fall, if not the actual temperature. My original draft was far far more spicey.

 

The lines may have been open but certainly around 1900 when I arrived trying to reach West Drayton, nothing was running on the relief lines with TfL having given up completely. Only reported delay was west of Reading, and nothing had been mentioned in the banner on the NRE app or I'd have taken a very different route from my starting point of Alton having already had to detour thanks to two successive GWR cancellations on the line from Gatwick.  The information booth seemed to know less than I could work out from the departure screens and kept telling people to ask gateline staff; I'd expected the booth would at least have a feed of the signal diagram showing actual locations, train running info etc.  Eventually got on an eastbound IET which I'm sure was shown as calling additionally at Slough to get me closer, but ran non-stop to Paddington. By that time Lizzie trains were running west to Heathrow via Hayes so took that option followed by a bus. Fortunately I was in no hurry and the trains had working air conditioning.

 

All lines appear to be open though.

 
From National Rail.......not mentioned on JourneyCheck.....

Route(s) affected
between Maidenhead and Reading

Description
A fault with the signalling system is means all lines are blocked between Maidenhead and Reading. Stations between these stations will not be served.

Trains will be cancelled or revised.

Disruption is expected until 21:00.

Trains between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Maidenhead can still run but may be delayed

 
Cancellations to services between Reading and Didcot Parkway

Due to a points failure between Reading and Didcot Parkway some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 20:00 11/07.

 

I'm not in the UK at the moment and they seem to do things differently here.  As I understand it earlier today, there was a fault on the train we were waiting in, and we all transferred to another just along the platform. There seems to be an appreciable supply of parked trains at most operating centres, some of which I suspect are spare donors but some are in running order, and this provision of a few spares - no doubt each given a run from time to time - seems to make sense.  I would prefer and older train occasionally to no train.

Such a system could not be easily adopted in the UK due to the rolling stock leasing regime and the need for every train to pay its way every day.

 

Updated;

Customer Advice

The train being used on the Slough to Windsor route has developed a fault, and we have been unable to fix the problem.

No spare trains are currently available, therefore the service along this route is suspended until further notice.


..............unhappy tourists/commuters, happy taxi drivers.

 

...........and another

Cancellations to services between Slough and Windsor & Eton Central

Due to a fault on this train between Slough and Windsor & Eton Central fewer trains are able to run on the line.

Train services running to and from these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 
Another Turbo has sat down.

 
Mini melt down at Reading taking place. Announced as an issue getting u its out of Reading Traincare Depot.

Three missing Thames Valley services (Delayed)
Cancellation to Basingstoke and Newbury

Seems the Class 387 don’t like the heat !

 
Delays to services between London Paddington and Reading
Due to a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines towards Reading.
Train services running to and from these stations will be delayed by up to 15 minutes. Disruption is expected until 1130

 

Ah, fair enough, it looked like you were after a more radical change of wording than that.  Though I would suggest the phrase ‘on the branches’ would mean nothing to a fair few passengers, so you would still want to list them like in the original message.

 


That would be a more customer centric approach, perhaps with a suggestion to consider other means of getting to the stations in question to pick up the branch lines with links to local bus timetables, car parking information etc.......but that would require a customer centric culture........and this is the railway.

 

"The trains on the branches will be running at normal times, but connections may not be made so you may have to wait for the next train?

 
Particularly disruptive missing Twyford, given it is Henley Royal Regatta this week.

 

You’re saying it would have been more sensible to write “We apologise, but this will increase the likelihood of a passenger disturbance on branch line trains, but your train might well be quieter.” 

 

Oh yes it does - won't it reduce the loadings by having people miss connections, and increase the passenger angst and chance of passenger disturbances on the branch trains?   The JourneyCheck wording written from an operational rather than from a passenger journey viewpoint?

Edit to correct quoting

 

Delays/cancellations now until 0830

The majority of our services between Reading and London Paddington will not be able to call at Twyford, Maidenhead or Slough. Please see details on alternative services below. Please note, this does not affect our Henley, Marlow or Windsor branch line services.
-
Our high speed long distance trains that only run between Oxford and London Paddington will not run. Our high speed long distance trains between Worcester and London Paddington will still run which means Oxford will see an hourly service to / from London Paddington.
-
If you're travelling to or from Twyford, Maidenhead or Slough, you will need to use Elizabeth Line services. Please note, Elizabeth Line services are also affected by this problem. For more information regarding Elizabeth Line services, please visit www.tfl.gov.uk. Your GWR tickets are being accepted on this route at no extra cost.
-

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to engineering works not being finished on time between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 07:10 04/07.

Customer Advice
Due to engineering works not being finished in time, the line between London Paddington to Reading will be delayed; altered or cancelled.
-
Rail replacement services are not in operation

 
Delays still occurring at Slough

 
Delays to services at Slough

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires at Slough trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.

Train services running through this station may be delayed. Disruption is expected until 17:30 02/07.

 
Delays to services between London Paddington and Slough

Due to a points failure between London Paddington and Slough some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 20 minutes. Disruption is expected until 15:30 01/07.

Elizabeth Line suspended Paddington to Reading/Heathrow.

 
Alterations to services at Twyford

Due to a fault with the signalling system at Twyford trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.

Train services running through this station will be delayed or terminated at and started back from Reading.

Some stations between Reading and London Paddington will not be served. Disruption is expected until 18:15 24/06.

 
Alterations to services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway

Due to a safety inspection of the track earlier today between Oxford and Didcot Parkway all lines will be blocked.

Train services running through these stations will be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 12:00 23/06.

 
Line side fire at Acton causing delays from paddington now. Most Elizabeth Line trains cancelled.

Lovely day for it.

 
Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a fault with the signalling system at Burnham fewer trains are able to run on some lines. Disruption is expected until 15:00 20/06.

Train services between Reading and London Paddington may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough will not be served.

Customer Advice
Due to a fault with the signals in the Burnham area, we have had to reduce our train service in the Thames Valley this afternoon.

 

Better than I expected though considering air temperatures hit over 32°c in London

 
Not a very good day......

Alterations to services at Didcot Parkway
Due to a points failure at Didcot Parkway some lines are closed.

Train services running through this station may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 18:45 19/06.

 
Cancellations to services between Newbury and Bedwyn

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Newbury and Bedwyn all lines are disrupted.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Due to an issue with the signalling system between Newbury - Bedwyn the service will be suspended until further notice.

 
Delays to services between London Paddington and Reading

Following a fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Reading some lines are now open.

Train services running to and from these stations are returning to normal. Disruption is expected until 14:30 19/06.
Customer Advice
Due to a signalling issue lines between London Paddington - Reading, some services maybe delayed, altered or cancelled.

 
Cancellations to services between Newbury and Reading

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Newbury and Reading some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 12:30 19/06.

Customer Advice
Due to a fault with the signalling system at Newbury, the lines are block between Newbury to Reading in both directions.

Services will be delayed; altered and cancelled as a result.
-

 
Cancellations to services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway

Due to a fault with the signalling system at Oxford fewer trains are able to run on some lines. Disruption is expected until 18:00 18/06.

Train services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway may be cancelled, delayed or revised.

 
Description

A fault with the signalling system at Slough means that Elizabeth line trains must run at a reduced speed on some lines. Services operating through Slough may be delayed by up to 15 minutes or cancelled.

Disruption is expected until 12:15

 
Delays to services between Twyford and Maidenhead

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Twyford and Maidenhead trains have to run at reduced speed on the line towards London Paddington.

Train services running through these stations may be delayed by up to 10 minutes. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
A small section of the railway line between Reading and London Paddington is closed whilst Network Rail carry out a safety inspection. GWR can still run trains safely, as other tracks are available for use, but this will lead to some congestion and slower running as trains make their way through.

 
Another bridge strike at Burnham this morning. Trains being cautioned over the affected area.

 

Doesn't seem to be causing significant issues at the moment but the disruption until guestimate has been extended from 11:15 to 13:45 so far...

 

Report in a local news paper https://www.sloughexpress.co.uk/news/traffic-and-travel/201654/major-disruption-on-london-paddington-to-reading-train-line-after-casualty-on-tracks.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawKz5whleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBYRnJvRkR2RzlQTXE5SURwAR7k8vmJj-al5-L4zohMl9WOPau7kOswUS93SrOABFN-7PQzBg3_My5mDdXnDw_aem_J2_-9E6iEUR1Ri7n9xWwOw#Echobox=1749471219

Casualty on the tracks at Hanwell station

 

Rapidly pushed out to 1400 & now 1500
 
National Rail reporting no Elizabeth Line services between Paddington-Heathrow/Reading......Advice seems to be to go via Waterloo.

 
Alterations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident between London Paddington and Reading some lines are closed.

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 12:45 09/06

 

https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/25214998.burnham-station-bridge-lorry-crash-roof-ripped-off/

Would seem to have been a bit of sandwich 

 
Burnham Station, according to the Bucks Free Press.

 

I believe it was Burnham.

 
Does anyone know which bridge was struck?

 
Cancellations to services between Slough and Reading

Due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge earlier on this train's journey between Slough and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed.

 Disruption is expected until 14:00 04/06.

 
There's an article in this month's Rail magazine with some of the people working on Project Brunel (the project tasked with improving the performance of the infrastructure between Reading and Paddington). Fairly interesting read.

My main recollections: undergrowth was cut back that was tripping the OLE, too many/heavy trains using it (broken rails), pigeons nesting in bridges culled particularly at Ealing Broadway as they were tripping the OLE when a train passed, 777 axle counters replaced that still get loose, but are monitored/tightened before they fail again, addressing wet bed issues to do with drainage being covered over when track was realigned.

This may not have been the sentiment intended or I misread it: the team want to maintain the current level of progress without slipping back (!).

 
........and it's fallen over again.....

Cancellations to services between Slough and London Paddington

Due to urgent repairs to the railway between Slough and London Paddington some lines towards London Paddington are closed.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 16:15 29/05.

 

IETs will probably run diesel Paddington to Reading.  Possibly a minor issue like a broken dropper wire

 
Interesting - GWR has said that all lines are open, speed limit imposed, expect delays - proper fix tonight

 


.......and almost inevitably.....

Route(s) affected
Elizabeth line between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5, and also between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading

Great Western Railway on all routes to / from London Paddington

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description
Damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Southall means some lines are blocked.

Trains between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading may be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 


........and it's now pushed out to 1800 on National Rail.....

 

Delays & cancellations now until 3pm......or will it be the familiar/dreaded "until the end of the day"?

 

No damage confirmed. A trains pantograph automatically dropped. That could be caused by damage to the overheads but it could also be an issue with the pantograph itself or just a spurious fault.

NR will inspect all 4 lines first as a precaution

 
There was a signal failure yesterday between Reading and Paddington. Journeycheck then reported further delays due to trespassers on the line. Was there an unexpected detraining somewhere?

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Reading some lines will be blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 13:30 28/05.

 
Cancellations to services between Bourne End and Marlow

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Bourne End and Marlow all lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 06:45 28/05.

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to engineering works not being finished on time between London Paddington and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 07:00 21/05.

Customer Advice
Due to engineering works not being finished on time between London Paddington to Reading, trains will be delayed, altered or cancelled as result. Speed restrictions may apply.

 
From National Rail, apparently the problem is at Southall.

Route(s) affected
between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminals / Reading

Description
Lines have now reopened following a safety inspection of the track between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminals / Reading. As normal service resumes, trains may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 10 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 21:15.

 
Ongoing from yesterday.......

Alterations to services between Bourne End and Marlow

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Bourne End and Marlow all lines are blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations will be suspended.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 

The ORR regulate health and safety (eg 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act for workforce safety) for the entire mainline rail network in Britain, as well as London Underground, light rail, trams, and the heritage sector, were as for highways this duty lies with the H&S Executive

 

Many a true word written or asked in jest - "reductio ad absurdum".  At times it feels like the spirit of thoughtful comedy.  And that is - emphaticlally - not - a joke.

 
(Caution: this is a joke)

Might be interesting to see how that works out. Perhaps everytime a repair is necessary on a motorway we can shut it completely until it’s fixed.
Customers/drivers can just find another way home, like taking the M40 and M5 rather than the M4.

 

Would it be a good idea if the Office of Rail and Road also had responsibility for regulation of road safety? It might, for example, encourage ORR to develop policies that minimise overall casualties, instead of deterring people from using rail and pushing them onto a more dangerous mode of transport.

 

There is are a number of reasons why the repair cannot be undertaken in the day.
NR has geared up it workforce to carryout maintenance on track to nights, for a number of reasons first is workforce safety, the ORR has made it quite clear to NR that working on a !live" railway is basically no longer permitted without very stringent control measures, second is performance maintenance during the day would impact on service performance.
On and Off tracking the OTM's (on track machines) to move the equipment and materials to site during normal train running is high risk, also the OTM's may be in the wrong place and need transporting by road.   

If a temporary repair could have been made then it would have with reduced speed.

The question that I am sure the Route and TOCs will be asking is why yet another "catastrophic" broken rail on the Western ML

 

I tend to reserve my feelings for the customers- those who have paid for a service and end up being massively inconvenienced, time & time again on this route.

Those "having to put a time on disruption" at least have the comfort of being paid to do so.

 

I suspect that the issue may relate to access for staff to a live railway.   In older day and you still see it in other counties, trains run on adjacent lines while work is ongoing but in order to reduce / eliminate as far as possible casualties, it's very rare if at all these days.  So that means as nighttime stoppage ...

I feel for staff having to put a time on disruption and how long it will go on.  The honest thing to say is "we don't know" but that is not helpful without an estimate, and systems are not set up to say "probably" and "possibly" and "if we're lucky", and I'm not sure how such terms and information would be taken by members of the public who are less analytic than readers here.

 

Very good question, certainly the habit of routinely forecasting disruption "until the end of the day" seems quite a recent development.

I too do find the idea that there is no-one available from Network Rail to react to this type of incident for 12 hours incredible, especially given the significance, and state of the infrastructure in the Paddington-Reading area - these are hardly isolated incidents.

 
Is the absence of crew that are able to make the repair during daylight hours a new thing or a recent (past 5yrs) thing?
From a non-expert/passenger perspective it seems remiss not to be able to fix problems for 12+ hours after they occur, but is the logic that the disruption to fix during daylight hours is => than managing the closed line for a day?

 
Correct, no staff available during the day to replace the rail. There is tonight but it means cancelling the booked possession on the relief lines.

I've seen a picture of the broken rail and it is a bad break with the pandorol clip detached from the hook and a few inches away from the rail.

 

And now........"Disruption is expected until the end of the day"

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a broken rail between London Paddington and Reading some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed by up to 60 minutes. Disruption is expected until 09:30 09/05.

Customer Advice
Due to a broken rail at Slough services passing through this area will be delayed, altered or cancelled.

 
Cancellations to services between Newbury and Reading

Due to a points failure between Newbury and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 10:00 01/05.

Customer Advice
Due to an Axle Counter Failure near Thatcham Station, the line towards Reading is delayed. Trains maybe cancelled, altered or delayed as a result.

 
........for future reference, a warm (26°) sunny Spring day now apparently constitutes "severe weather" for the purposes of the railway.

Customers on platform/concourse utterly incredulous (especially those from genuinely hot countries struggling to get to Heathrow) when the announcement was made.

Kudos to rail staff who were advising people of this dramatic meteorological phenomenon and managed to keep a straight face.

 
First warm day of the year so of course the railway melts down........

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a speed restriction because of high track temperatures between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 17:00 30/04.

 

Still ongoing, now forecast disruption until 2000

 
Cancellations to services between Reading and Newbury
Due to a points failure between Reading and Newbury some lines are blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled, delayed or diverted between Reading and Taunton. Some stations between Reading and Taunton will not be served. Disruption is expected until 13:15 29/04.

A few diverted trains resulting.

 

Disruption still ongoing.

 


Previous train (13:03) terminated short at Reading.  And it looks like this one can slip through the single line section between Chippenham and Trowbridge between local trains - good.


"Until 14:30"?  No - the disruption to the 14:03 has it being forecast 33 minutes late into Penzance at 19:58 rather than 19:25,  so disruption until 20:00?

 
Cancellations to services between Reading and Newbury

Due to a points failure between Reading and Newbury some lines are disrupted.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Some stations between Reading and Taunton will not be served. Disruption is expected until 14:30 28/04.

 

Held together with tape and bits of string.

 
Guess what?

 

Not strictly damage to the overheads. 

The pantograph on a train heading into Paddington automatically dropped. This could be due to a defect with the overheads but it could also be a train fault or just a spurious fault.  NR will examine the overheads on the line or lines where the fault occurred as a precaution, especially if the driver can not see any obvious damage to the pantograph on the train. 

 
Now 20:00
But let’s face it, in a few minutes it will change to ‘until the end of the day’.

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Following damage to the overhead electric wires at London Paddington all lines are now open.

Disruption is expected until 19:00 22/04.
Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled, delayed by up to 45 minutes or revised

 
Agreed.

Perhaps what the industry could avoid though is the appearance that they're still promoting 'X' as their primary channel for information - the National Rail web site's a case in point and it's a practice that has a very 2012-era vibe. A current example: regarding the issue with the bridge in Cardiff, on the NR disruptions list, the site's (again) advising 'End of the day' and the first source of information offered is a web link to a (hijackable) hashtag on their 'X' feed - so they're linking to something that is no longer a public web site: there's little to no information in the public domain as to what the issue actually is and the time needed for a temporary/permanent fix.

Mark

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/cardiff-central-20250420/

 

Yes and no - reducing it purely to that is poor - however, to get something out quick when time is of the essence of staff are rushed of their feet makes sense

 
Good point. An issue is the quality, style, and depth of the information that finds its way to rail industry web sites, and the fragmentation of the industry itself.

South Eastern Railways, or was it the part of Network Rail that cares for the track in that part of the world, when something happened that impacted the service, developed the habit of using Twitter to communicate in detail & in an accessible form, as to how a particular issue was being tackled and when something would be fixed, and many people found this genuinely helpful in planning their use of the railway.

Reducing the comms to a template pick-and-mix template message of the sort:

'Due to'... a fault on a train/lack of staff/delay to a previous service ... 'the' {service} 'is' delayed/cancelled/scrapped. 'We're very sorry for the delay.'... is an approach that delivers an information-poor environment to the intending traveller.

Also, starting a sentence with 'Due to' is less than ideal.

Mark

 

Agreed - a single site with web site and app interface to the same data.
Perhaps at a URL like https://www.greatbritishrailways.info


Correct - and especially avoiding a requirement to sign up to a network of private content, especially one that has gained political overtones.  There IS the need to run 24x7 and to be robust and have a findable alternative in the event of IT issues, a need to cope with high volumes, to protect against spam, to make it easy to find what's needed, and to answer both privately where appropriate, and in public where lots of people will have the same questions.

 
Seeing the discussion above (and being very glad that our "stay at home over bank holiday weekends" policy was vindicated again!), can I make what might be a controversial suggestion on social media?

If you have a smartphone, and access to social media, you will have access to the train operator's own website and on-line information system. The world of social media is an ever-fragmenting one, making it ever more difficult to keep all their subscribers informed by their means.

So, wouldn't it be sensible for train operators instead to concentrate on keeping their own sites up-to-date (and more importantly, supplied with full and up-to-date information on all train problems, so that (for example) Grahame would have been able to find out whatever caused the two cancellations immediately it happened - or at least have been warned about them in good time.

There's no need for train operators to maintain teams looking after all the various social media outlets, just one well-resourced one supplied with up-to-the-minute information from "Control" and the depots and staff on the ground. Perhaps if there are spare staff as a result, they can be employed in liaising with bus companies and taxi operators to summon help, and perhaps recruiting and running a back up system of out-of-hours emergency services from them run on a retainer contract basis.

There's no reason why anyone should expect X, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or any other such service to be a main source of travel information, any more than they should rely on them for up-to-the-minute football scores or commodity market prices. Just have plenty of posters and notices at stations and in trains with the operator's web address - or better still, screens with live information relevant to the site or train in question.

 

I was caught up in the situation last night, trying to catch the 1950 from Plymouth to Swindon direct, initially cancelled from Plymouth onwards when I arrived at the station on foot (about 1920) we were told to catch the 2025 to Exeter, then a service from there to Bristol and then the last train might be held for us there, or taxis etc.
In the end after the train pulled in to Plymouth (about 1944) and everyone got off I noticed at 1956 that the relevant platform departure board was now saying the 1950 to Paddington was going to leave at 1957....then we had an announcement that it was reinstated but would be leaving at about 2010 awaiting the driver....it eventually left at 2025 as the original 2025 to Exeter (coming up from Penzance) was cancelled. In the end I got to Swindon about 40 minutes late.   

 
It'll all be down to what the DfT wants these days

 

In defense of anyone working on the task of fielding enquiries via social media, carrying that role out well does draw on various skills.

That aside, there's an argument in favour of the railway changing the tools they use for this. Twitter very much proved its worth for timely customer support, and it might be that a response to an individual enquiry helped several others in the process and also possibly helped staff be informed of situations.

'X' has very much changed in the way it works and is now a closed system, its content not available on the web, responses are available only to people with an account and logged in. A percentage of people who use the trains have moved away from 'X' entirely and companies who use 'X', given the general shenanigans, are starting to see a certain amount of tarnishing of their brand.

Perhaps railway managers view social media for customer support in times of disruption isn't as useful as it once was - evidenced by the fact that the hours of the day during which rail companies offer support via 'X' are shrinking, and there's less of an effort to react to events by strengthening this support in time of need.

One of the decisions to be made is whether to let this slide continue, or as an alternative, follow the users of their services to the social media that they now use. GWR looks to be on the way to doing this, in that they've created their account on Bluesky (~35 million users of which ~7.5% are in the UK) and are using it for the time being for promotion rather than customer support.

Now, it's very difficult for an organisation to walk away from an account where they see they have a million followers, so, it would be informative to know the cost implications in using both of these two platforms in parallel for customer support - given the tools that they'll be using, the additional task would likely be a small percentage, and for a considerable gain in terms of reach. One aspect alone, the open-ness and far greater availablity of other systems, is well worth consideration.

Mark

 
............really couldn't make it up..........

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to earlier engineering works not being finished on time between London Paddington and Slough fewer trains are able to run on some lines. Disruption is expected until 10:00 22/04.

Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled or delayed.

 

That's good, because there is no defence for the railway here.

At an absolute minimum, customer service channels such as Twitter should not be closing in the early evening when these sort of (increasingly frequent) meltdowns are ongoing - it never used to close so early, then we had a spate of early closures due to "staff sickness", and since then it closes at 7pm every day - it really doesn't take long to train someone to answer Tweets, and it's a means by which customers at home/in the office can make an informed decision as to whether it's worth trying to travel.

Friends got back to Paddington last night to find the familiar carnage - few or no staff in evidence and absolutely no visible management presence to be seen. Those few staff did their best but were overwhelmed.

Families with children with long distances to travel in tears. Vulnerable older people simply not knowing what to do and not being helped.

On the infrastructure subject, I read this on another forum "GWML has had a huge amount of investment in it over the last decade but has become the most unreliable main line in the UK. The kit on WCML and ECML is much older but doesn't suffer anywhere near as much with incidents that collapse the whole route. ORR should be having an independent investigation to get to the root of the problems".

Interesting point?

 
Fair comments, Timmer. 

We had a weekend guest here in Nailsea who was inconvenienced on her journey home this afternoon by the emergency bridge work near Cardiff Central.

Altogether, not a good Bank Holiday weekend for the railways. 

 
Not defending GWR here, but I don’t think there was much advice they could offer. Almost the entire service far and wide across the GWR network was shot to pieces because of this major infrastructure failure this afternoon.

Thoughts with the passengers and staff who are still stranded this evening. This really was a bad one on such a major travel day.

 
"South Western Railway ticket acceptance is now revoked, due their operations being severely affected by a fatality at Putney.

Chiltern Railways ticket acceptance is now revoked"

Given that GWR Twitter packs up and goes home at 1900 these days, what help/advice is available to travellers on a day when once again the decreptitude of the infrastructure between Reading & Paddington causes a complete meltdown?

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2044029/paddington-station-live-rail-train-cancelled