These posts have been split off from an ongoing topic on the Coffee Shop forum.

One of our members made the valid point that we could split that topic, year by year, for comparison purposes:


I have now started that process. 

 

At each depot establishments are calculated by adding in the service that needs covering + spare coverage + standby coverage + annual leave requirement and then rounded up.

Annual leave is a red herring, as a minimum number allowed off is agreed and built as part of the link (usually 15% at any one time).  I don't know any service/catering/retail industry that would say "oh sorry we cannot cover xyz so your annual leave is cancelled".  Extra leave will of course be granted but only if the service is covered.

Of course if there are vacancies in the link and not enough overtime volunteers or training hasn't happened for route/traction then you start getting uncovered turns.  Then add the fact that more people are sick this time of year (genuinely) and no doubt the odd extra case that may not be genuine (a problem that is faced by all service industries in the winter/xmas time), and you have problems.  Apart from the odd case who may not be genuinely sick, those problems are not caused by operational staff, but the recruitment policies and higher management off them.

You have drivers who are moving from West & LTV depots to HSS to allow a full service to run on HSS while IEP training happens, and there is a massive recruitment programme going on across all depots and business areas for the long-term, but training drivers takes approximately a year if not longer, and whether you like or not, the current running of the railway means decisions will be made with money in mind from both a FGW (business/profit view) and a DfT/taxpayer view (deficit reduction anyone?)

Ultimately though, if depots were fully trained on traction/routes required and all vacancies fully filled then you wouldn't see this problem.

 
Graham in the case of the TLP London Bridge blockage alternatives this is easier south of the Thames the Victorians left a myriad of cross connecting routes, also TLP have been working away improving these divisions for the best part of 10 years, most of it was needed anyway.

TLP is a big and well established team as I said almost 10 years and I do mean team it is a very collaborative set up if you walk in the offices you would not at first glace identify NR staff from the contractors staff, indeed normally rival contractors sit side by side.

The Reading blockades did have alternatives set up which worked well, it gets more difficult once you get east of Reading to do a full 4 track closure, reopen the Maidenhead - High Wycombe line? build the Windsor link? I have done the Maidenhead to London Waterloo a few times, an odd occasion is ok to do it every day for 2 weeks folks would loose the will to live

 
Yep.

I think doing work in August is the way ahead for big engineering projects so long as good alternatives are provide be it diverted services or express coach services. We are going to see work taking place next July and August when Box Tunnel and Sydney Gardens in Bath is wired giving us a chance to see how well it works.

The important thing is to give as much notice as possible along with details of a revised timetables, ticket easements etc.

 

I'm reminded of the Thameslink "Alternatives available if the trains aren't running" maps.
http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/your-journey/planning/alt-maps-tl/
and see attachment example on this post.

Is there a similar map for the Thames Valley or for any other FGW areas?

 
Isn't this what Network Rail wanted to do around Watford this year? And everyone got up in arms and said it wasn't right so they changed it to a much longer series of weekend possessions.

 

(Very) simplistically for the Thames Valley - commuters via Reading use the Waterloo line as can those from Slough via Windsor/Datchet (slow but doable) - Tubes run from Chesham, Uxbridge, Heathrow into town and as you say there are various buses from larger commuter centres such as Maidenhead which could be beefed up giving quite a few options- loads of buses doing nothing in August whilst the schools are off..........not sure about the longer distance services.......use Reading as a terminus for services to the Westcountry/Wales with a reduced service? (if the work is taking place between Reading/Paddington? .........very much back of a fag packet stuff but I'm sure someone with more expertise than me can comment on practicalities?

 
It is an interesting idea as long as it was advertised a long time in advance... It think it would still affect commuters more though as I bet more take time off over Christmas than on a random week in August since the "summer holidays" are longer than the Christmas holidays.. I think it might be a no go though for longer distance travellers..

There are certain places where it's easy to get alternative trains/buses but some where it's not...

From Maidenhead e.g. there is a bus that goes to Heathrow (to connect with the tube if it's running), plus High Wycombe and Bracknell on other train lines are 10 miles away (in opposite directions) though the buses to get to Bracknell in particular are rather non existent.. 

It would need to be carefully thought out obviously but it's not impossible and if it removed the chaos of Saturday well why not at least work out if it's feasible..

 
It would certainly need advertising at/before January each year.

Interesting thought, though. Everyone would expect a week free on their season ticket....

 
Read an interesting article in the paper tonight suggesting that in order to avoid this chaos a week long "shutdown" in August for engineering might be better than the 52 hour rush over Christmas - the idea being that there is more daylight to use, lots of people on holiday so less impact on commuters, and fewer "occasional" travellers going home/travelling long distance for a major event such as Christmas...........any thoughts on this?

 
Agreed - just the definition of "reasonable" relating to payroll uplift that has to be agreed.

Maybe the same as the majority of other staff that have to work over that day,. eh? :-)

 

.....or you'll take your football home and then no-one will be able to play?

Sorry but you're not remotely comparing apples with apples......but if you think its a valid argument the business of Government goes on 24/7/365....hospitals, defence, emergency services etc........Banks provide a service online and via ATM etc......they make adequate provision to cope with the nature of their customers demand........the railways, with a few exceptions, provide no service in the face of high demand......I am sure Nurses, soldiers, paramedics would all like 2 guaranteed, untouchable days off over Xmas but like the majority of us who have chosen to work in service organisations we realise that its not always possible so we get on with it as best we can. My last word on this subject anyway.

 

And presumably all boxing rings?

 

In that case I demand that Parliament sits on Boxing Day and all other business are open as normal, including schools, Banks et all

 

Sounds to me like 6 of one and half dozen of the other - to an extent the tail is wagging the dog, in most situations the starting point is "we need to have enough staff to maintain the service" before any A/L is considered, but if there are not enough staff with the necessary skills to start with without relying on people giving up rest days then that becomes tricky.......agreed though, money talks, but again it comes down to having the right people available, not just lots of bodies....both sides probably need to consider their positions to find a solution....suspect staff will cling onto their "right" to have Xmas day/Boxing day off as of right however that's not sustainable in the longer term if the politicians/public demand a Boxing Day service (which they already are) and Xmas engineering possessions become less of an issue........sometime around 2100 then?  

 

Have you highlighted the lines in your track plan booklet?

I've not done it in the Up direction so i'm jealous, but have done it in the Down on a service train.

i've also done it a couple of times on railtours to the Brentford branch.

 
Yes, more staff do want time off over Christmas - no surprises there (and for the record that doesn't impact on my belief you could easily get enough volunteers for a skeleton Boxing Day if you paid a descent amount!).  The rostering should be robust enough to deal with that as there are only a certain number of drivers (or TM's) allowed to be off on a given day.  For example, just this week it looks like over 20 days of holiday requests have been declined at Oxford drivers depot alone!

But a huge backlog of route and traction knowledge amongst established staff, and a large number of vacancies still to be filled is causing even more problems than it would normally do.  The fault for that lies squarely at FGW's door.

 
As discussed, weekend working relies in a lot of rest-day volunteers. Staff voted with their feet to show that they *do* want time off over Christmas, hence the staff shortages.

Happens across the industry, no inquiry needed

 
I was held up by this - the 2027 RDG-PAD was 25 late in the end. On the plus side I got to travel some very rare track at Southall where we passed through the old Brentford branch platform and then corssed right over to the up relief!

 
I believe there's a points failure at Southall (loss of detection) which affects the main lines.  Not helped by the closure of the relief lines for engineering works

 
According to National Rail (not made it onto journeycheck just yet)

"A signalling problem at Southall is causing delays of up to 30 minutes to services to and from London Paddington. There is no firm estimate yet of how long disruption will last but it is likely to continue until at least 22:30"

 
Fingers crossed it's not going downhill again but the 21.15 from Paddington to Reading has just lost 20 minutes between Acton and Ealing Broadway..

 
There were a large number of traincrew shortages resulting in cancellation of trains, or legs of, so as a review of the whole picture as suggested this matter must be examined also.

 

FGW hi vis guy very helpful at Reading, announced that passengers for the Westcountry should take the Swansea train to Bristol Parkway.

 However the train manager on said train only made the standard announcements and no info on connections was offered, resulting in a lot if worried people. Finally she walked down the train after Didcot, but was in no mood for stopping, and I literally had to run after her. She gave me answers to all my questions, but still no announcement for everyone else. Very poor.

 

Although I understand that service disruption and delays can and do cause frustration for passengers I'd like to commend WP on his objective comments regarding his own experience.

I'd also like to add that when I have been at Paddington and there have been major delays most of the FGW staff on the ground are very helpful - I certainly wouldn't want their job at times

 
Trains appear to be running ok from Maidenhead currently.. We have a half hour service which is the norm for a Sunday.. My son is going to have his second attempt this weekend at a day in London.. Hopefully he will be more successful this time

 
Yesterday (Saturday 27th), we got to Paddington at about 10:50, intending to catch the 11:06 back to Worcester, due into Foregate Street at 13:44.

I have to say that customer service at Paddington was really good. A lot of people in hi-vis jackets, who had spread out, which meant that there wasn't a queue. They were very apologetic. They'd got an empty station to point to. Their suggestion for Worcester was that we go to Marylebone and go round via Birmingham.

Too much luggage for that, so we retired upstairs into Sloe to wait and see. We'd got plenty of Christmas books, so waiting wasn't a problem. Downside about being in Sloe is that you can't hear the PA, so from time to time we went off to find out what was going on.

Each time the same thing - very apologetic, very courteous, but we don't know when we may be able to get things going again. Meanwhile, Marylebone is our best suggestion. It probably helped that they'd got an empty station to point to, and that their basic message was to go somewhere else. I'm sure that that meant that the crowds didn't build up in the way that they did at Finsbury Park.

We cracked at about 13:10, and went off to Marylebone. Caught the 13:36 to Birmingham. Back at Foregate Street at 16:40.

Tried posting from the Chiltern train, but their WiFi is not very good.

 
When all the petty arguments, semantics and point scoring have died down, there needs to be a fundamental examination of the offering given by FGW to its customers at the moment and going forward.......yesterday the rail industry as a whole failed utterly and dismally - no ifs, buts, blaming each other as to who did what to who etc.....what matters is that tens of thousands of customers were let down.....again - this seems to be overlooked in the battle to apportion blame to NR etc.

It seems that every year at Christmas, when demand for long distance travel is at its highest, overcrowding is endemic, reliability lowest, services do not match customer demand (I won't revisit the Boxing Day issue here but clearly it needs to be explored and addressed), and above all, engineering works, which we are promised will make all the difference, overrun and cause chaos, albeit not to the extent of yesterday's meltdown.

For the last 3 months, since early October the level of service offered by FGW which is normally inconsistent at best has been unacceptable - there have been individual days when things have virtually ground to a halt, and hardly a day goes by without increasing levels of signal failures, non availability of staff, mechanical failure etc etc causing cancellations, delays and short formations......all this against a background of rising fares, overcrowding etc - customers are being asked to pay more for a deteriorating service.

Hopwood and his senior cohorts seem to be virtually invisible - aside from the occasional feeble apology and soundbite - any senior manager worth his salt would be visibly and extensively all over the other organisations causing  problems for his customers - he seems like a bit of a mushroom.

Alongside this the whole customer ethos has to change - aside from pockets of excellence, there is a general air of indifference, lack of information/communication and sense that the organisation is run largely for the benefit of those within it rather than its customers (admittedly not unusual for large public/quasi public sector monopolies) - the Business needs to fit around the needs of its customers, not the other way around, and there needs to be a reassessment of the sense of entitlement amongst a lot of the staff.

There needs to be an honest examination and explanation of the level of service that can be offered over the next few years before we reach (what we are told) is the holy grail of new rolling stock etc - expectations need to be managed and priced accordingly, if FGW care at all about its brand and its customers perception of it.

Some of this will get peoples backs up - tough - its nothing personal but its my perception based on my experience as a long term paying customer, it's up to FGW to turn my opinion around by providing a service worthy of the name, in return for the thousands of ^ that I and countless others hand over on a regular basis.

I hope that Hopwood, NR etc are sat down in front of a select committee and publicly given an almighty bollocking and instructions to come up with a recovery plan very, very quickly.....I can't see anything else that will catalyse a swift improvement, other than pegging their salaries to customer satisfaction/performance figures which may have a similar effect!!!

 

In Scotland, at least, they were warned of Kings Cross, the truth being in the caption:

 
Ironically I think the main focus has been on Kings Cross because the problems were signposted by the announcement on Boxing Day that the work was not running to plan.  That allowed the news crews and photographers to make plans to get there and see the disruption.  The problems at Paddington unfolded on Saturday morning and while they did receive some coverage later on, the focus was on Kings Cross because that's where the pictures were coming from.

 
TV this morning talks about old people in their 80s and 90s with luggage and families with children being stranded for hours, though main focus is on King's Cross.   Is that because that was a worse (more people) mess, a worse (more cancellations) mess, or because signalling and system failures and overruns don't happen often there and are more newsworthy?

Talk too of the Office of Rail Regulation fining Network Rail, and of Network Rail having to pay compensation to the Train Operating Companies.   Talk of further disruption today (and indeed I see London to Hayes and Harlington trains starting at Ealing Broadway), and that tickets from yesterday are valid today and tomorrow, so trains are expected to be very busy.

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day on the forum - 125 posts.   As we were open on Christmas day and Boxing day, that wasn't caused by people having to put off their contributions - I suspect it was the lift that we see when things aren't going quite right.   To give you a 'measure', average daily traffic somewhere in the 60 to 65 messages range.  Figures have only been higher this year on 11th and 12th February (178 and 151), and on 6th October it went just higher to 127.

 
See post #554 previously for a quote that sers out current compensation.

It is rumoured that FGW are moving to Delay Repay in the new franchise, we'll have to wait & see.

Now 0915 with further updates promised

 

My bolding. Updated 23:48.

 
And let's not forget that those Season Ticket holders who travel with TOCs that have the 'Delay Repay' scheme get compensated for every delayed journey, regardless of the day of the week or purpose of the journey. For an annual Season Ticket you divide the price by 546 for a single journey price, then are awarded 50% of that price for a delay of 30-59 minutes, 100% for 60-119 minutes, and 200% for 120+ minutes.

 

Just so I am clear in my head with this Chris B. Are you saying that by paying for 40 weeks out of 52 weeks. Those additional 12 Weeks of 'free travel' that the Railway is not obliged to for-fill its contract in getting the passenger from A - B? Also to renegade on offering compensation for significant delays?

Not sure I can agree with that. NickB is entirely right to say "I expect compensation if the trains are timetabled to run and they don't" What you seem to be suggesting is that passengers who travel on Weekends / Bank Holidays are not entitled to compensation if everything goes horribly wrong?!!

Maybe I've read too much into that. But if we take a different approach here. What about those who use their season tickets to get to work to serve us Sunday Lunches who work Wednesday - Sunday inclusive? Why should they be held at disadvantage because they have their weekend on Mondays and Tuesdays?

I hold a season ticket and will be required to work Saturdays every so often. If the train gets me to Bristol over an hour late. I would expect to be entitled to compensation.

Day of the week is irrelevant in my view. Whether you hold a CDS, FOR, Season Ticket. If trains are advertised to run as per a timetable. If they do not, then rightly so you should be able to seek redress.

 
It might be interesting to look at how compensation works on the newer franchises operating Delay Repay.

Do season ticket holders on Delay Repay get compensation for delayed weekend services? Yes (though at a lesser value than that of a weekday delay).

East Coast and Southern both specificially refer to how this is calculated and this is done on the basis of the season ticket being used 1 in 4 weekends. Other franchises such as London Midland refer to 546 as the presumed number of journies comprising an annual season ticket.

When you also take into account that Sunday performance and reliability are excluded from FGW's calculation of compensation for holders of season ticket longer than one month, it does seem that FGW season ticket holders are getting a bit of a raw deal on weekends (and even more so for those on former FGW Link services who are calculated on a Monday-Friday basis only) ...


Maybe this will all be addressed with FGW moving to Delay Repay in the proposed extension...

 

Who dictates what are working days and which aren't though?.. Surely a season ticket would still be cheaper if (hypothetically) someone worked Tuesday to Saturday every week (so 5 days each week)? That hypothetical person who bought that season ticket would definitely not have made it into work today

 
NickB....no, you're paying for 5xdaysx52 weeks of travel, less public holidays.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Network Rail (NR) journey planner is promising a bus between Slough and Hayes up until the 7.40am departure from Maidenhead so work is obviously starting up again overnight in the same place.. So maybe don't be too hopeful

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

 

I pay a year in advance for 365 days of travel. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday - if there is a timetable then i expect a train. If the timetable goes out the window for a whole day then i expect compensation.

 

or National Express ...  also an option ? ... local buses to Brighton then change at Heathrow.  Coach time 8 hours 30 minutes - not sure if I would trust the 5 minute connection that Traveline gave me, though!

 

My understanding is that season tickets are priced based on five days in seven of travel by the typical full time worker, as that's the typical number of journeys that the rail industry expects them to make.  Careful study of a lot of pages makes no reference to the weekend travel being "free" in any way - and I think it's more because the majority of people work a Monday through Friday week that comparisons are made in relation to peak journeys on those days, and void days are declared for those days because that's when most are using their seasons.

You have a fair point on 7 day compensation, though, Chris ... void days / compensation has to be paid from somewhere.  FGW gets the money from Network Rail (if it's their fault) who get the money in line access changes from FGW who get the money (in fares) from the passengers.   There's going to be some leakage along the way from this financial merrygoround, but I suspect that shareholders and directors are but little streams off this big river flowing. The sad thing is just how much of the river must leak into the bedrock of administration that it flows over.

 
Anyone know what tomorrow is likely to bring ? I thought that the overrunning engineering work was now done and the line handed back to the TOC.
Whilst one would expect some knock on delays, it now appears that most services are cancelled until late evening.

 
NickB - if you are paying for weekday travel by buying your season ticket & are offered travel for free on weekends, how can you be compensated for something that is free.

Alternatively, you might request a season based on 7day travel, and you might get compensated - but the cost of that ticket if it were available, would be dearer to start with

I know which version I'll be buying.

 
My family live near Heathfield in East Sussex, and I am at present based in Truro. I have the option of driving (no thanks) the train or flying to/from Newquay. I believe in the train as the best environmental option - and preferable to driving -  and in an ideal world, we should not be flying anyone from Cornwall to London.

But this is the second year running that my Christmas holiday trip has fallen foul of delayed and cancelled trains, and I've had enough. As I stood freezing cold on Bristol Parkway Station waiting for a (fortunately) late and crowded Cross Country service to Plymouth (not Truro) I knew that the Flybe plane had already landed in Newquay.

 
One of the best pieces of advice to give to anyone is this: - never travel by rail over the Christmas period!

 
Apparently they were not even allowing people to buy tickets at Maidenhead about 1.30pm and weren't letting people up to the platform. Despite the fact that a train did go on from there to Paddington about that time..

My son was there and was told there were "no trains" and even when people started leaving the station from the train that had just stopped  there (and they'd seen on the departures board) one of the members of staff said he'd just been up on the platform and had seen no train..

Marvellous.. You couldn't make that up 

I imagine the train that did run (the first I think) may have been full and standing and all the rest but why the information couldn't have been factual rather than make believe I can't quite work out

 
I think that Network Rail had a very lucky escape today.

On our way from Marylebone, we came flying past a waiting Virgin West Coast train at South Ruislip (it had to follow us all the way to Leamington Spa). These trains were running hourly from Euston to Birmingham International to avoid the Watford blockade, routed by way of Acton Main Line and the Greenford branch. The one that I saw was a 15-car Voyager.

If the signalling problems in and out of Paddington had knocked these out as well, then I hate to imagine what the media would've made of it all!

 

This may be a rambling answer but here goes.

I think one of the problems I have in commenting on delays caused by (for example) overrunning engineering works is that I work in an industry (IT) where project overruns are all too common. The big difference is that in the case of IT projects I work on the delays don't normally have a direct impact on the public.

I would like to see a break down of the delays (and causes of) since October. As has been discussed previously the majority of causes of delays are not down to the TOC concerned but due to infrastructure issues. I would be curious to know, for example, how many of the delays since October can be attributed to a root cause which was that due to the damage caused on October 6th

In my opinion the odd delay caused by signal/points failure (as an example) is to be expected but as you know TG delays seem to be the norm rather than the exception at the present time.

I would like to also understand better the interaction between Network Rail (NR) and the Government (via the transport minister). I would hope there are weekly reviews of performance levels for previous weeks.

Regarding the issues starting up services after Christmas engineering works I think in hindsight it would have been better to have shut down public services for a longer period and then bring them back on stream earlier if circumstances allowed. From a planning perspective I know this is not ideal but it is probably more realistic given the history of restarting segments of the rail network after major engineering works.

Please (anyone) do not read this as a criticism of staff on the ground - I do not believe this is an issue here . There may be many causes of the problems we are facing  but I don't think this is one.

Am I satisfied with the service being offered by the TOCs which rely on NR to provide a service? Definitely not! But probably - like you TG - I have to tolerate the delays and disruption which cause my working day to be stretched at both ends.

Sadly, I don't have the answers to the current delays - if I did I wouldn't be sitting here typing this!

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

 

Well said. Just made it back to Truro from Gatwick Airport Station and whilst I was not overly delayed, I had to change at Bristol Parkway and Plymouth post-Reading and it was only because the Cross Country Parkway - Plymouth was ten minutes later that I wasn't at least an hour late. Also my seat reservation was lost and all trains in every class were packed after Bristol.

Sick if this routine now, every Christmas holiday period the service is a farce and yet the fares get dearer. By the way, even on the way up (23rd) the air con was broken (freezing cold) and the buffet boiler broken (so no hot drink).

 

Yes, I fully agree that nothing can be done about the whims of nature, that was my point....and your thoughts on today's (entirely man made) events, which have inconvenienced tens of thousands?

 

In my opinion the extreme weather was a "reasonable cause" rather than "excuse". My in laws (who like us were flooded in 2007) were flooded 6 times in succession in February and March this year. That to me is extreme weather for this country.

 
Its interesting that the "delay map" now quite closely resembles the same picture this time last year when we had extreme weather as an excuse - but all that is responsible this time around is good old fashioned incompetence.

I really hope that some of the FGW devotees on here really understand what it is to try to get from London to Plymouth/Penzance during periods of massive disruption, which seems to be pretty much a weekly (at least) event these days.

 
Well, at about 13:10 we gave up waiting at Padd'n and went off to Marylebone. Where we caught the 13:36 to Birmingham. And got back to Foregate Street at 16:40.

 
So if we, as season ticket holders, can't travel at weekends due to collective network failure then we have no recompense?
I bet NR still pays FGW for today's delays. A nice little earner for FGW.

 

Because season tickets are priced / based on a five day [Monday through Friday] use. 

 

Why not?

 
Yes, they'll be ongoing delays for the rest of the day, but at least trains can now get through.

 
Network Rail have tweeted that the lines outside of Paddington have been handed back.  

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailPAD/status/548838948790095872
https://twitter.com/NetworkRailPAD/status/548839209327661056

 
I got lucky with this today. I turned up at Southend Victoria station and boarded the train about 20 minutes before it was going to leave to head back to West Country. A member of platform staff spotted me and leaned in and asked if I was going back to the West Country. I said that was the plan and he asked me to come and take a look at something. That something was the Sky News Channel from the door of the Mess Room.

Needless to say I left Southend Victoria station pretty rapidly and not by means of a train

 
So after both Kings Cross and Paddington closed due to overrunning engineering work, we await to see on Monday if Network Rail can complete the hat trick and overrun the work at Watford keeping Euston closed.

 
I've driven into London today but I've just popped into PAD to see what's happening, and breaking news is that a train has just arrived into P8, an High Speed Train (HST) which has disgorged some weary travellers. And now one also arriving into P9. Departure indicators showing 'delayed' departures to PNZ at 1328 and BRI at 1333.

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

 
I don't think they offer void days at weekdnds

 
Good to see plenty of staff by the 'information' screens in this photo.

https://twitter.com/HUTCHfilms/status/548808702783131648/photo/1

 
But that work isn't meant to be finished until the new year.

I see at least one train has been sent out prospecting for a way through the battlefield ...

(from JourneyCheck)
09:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 11:26 This train has been delayed at Slough and has been further delayed at Southall.
This train will be diverted from Reading.
This train will be terminated at Ealing Broadway.
This train will call additionally at Ealing Broadway.
This train will no longer call at London Paddington.
This is due to over-running engineering works. Last Updated :27/12/2014 12:45

(Currently -12:55 - it's at Hanwell.)

 
I'll be fascinated to see if this warrants a void day. If it was a regular day and no trains ran into Paddington then I'd be confident of it being void, but will fgw just chance it and not declare a void.
IMO the void/no void decision needs to be taken out of the TOC's control and awarded by a regulator.

 
Following along on Twitter things still look far from finished.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PaddingtonTrains&src=hash&mode=photos

 
This though predictable is a very poor performance from network rail (and/or contractors whom they chose to appoint) and whilst I presume that another review or enquiry will be announced, does anyone think that it will be better next time ?

Electrification, new signalling and other preparations for the new shorter trains are expected to take some years so this is unlikely to be a "one off"
And of course events like todays will discourage train travel at holiday times.

I recently met, at a social event, a West country MP who stated that a massive road improvement and road building programme was needed in the West because "the railway always closes at Christmas and Easter, and in bad weather, and you never know in advance if the trains will be running"

 
And now it's disruption until 6.30pm at least...   Oh well it's not like there are any big sales on that people might want to get to  (not me btw - I don't like shopping!)

 
Journey check is now saying no trains into Paddington until 13.30

 
In that link, it says:


Whilst I agree that the Christmas and New Year period is a wholly excellent time to close some lines to undertake major works on them, I can't help feeling they the "two million a day" average over Christmas and the New Year is to some extent caused by the almost complete absence of trains on 2 of those days.   Kinda pushes the average down.   If we call the Christmas / new year period 10 days (24th Dec to 2nd Jan) and say that trains only run on 8 of them, then would the average over the days they run be 2,000,000 / 0.8 = 2,500,000 passengers.   Is Mr Network Rail being naughty with his use of statistics, or has he already and correctly discounted the 2 shut days?

I'm afraid I've learned to be a cynic over the years - long experience of messages like "fill the existing trains and we'll provide more" which were pretty darned hard to do in the days when there was a choice between the 06:12 and the 18:44.

 
Currently sitting in sloe at pad, having arrived to catch the 1106. Too much luggage to consider going to Marylebone. Nothing in the station.

 
Looking at the bbc news web site it's not just FGW services being hit by overrunning engineerng works

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30607689

Personally I am not affected by either dispruptions But it doesn't stop me feeing sorry for those who need access to the transport system today

 

probably immaterial now.....latest from Journeycheck.....

Due to over-running engineering works between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington all lines are closed.

0900 to Exeter cancelled, as is 0928 to Penzance - best advice, give up and go home? (unless that's what you're trying to do?)

What a farce.

 
"Additional train".... Likely to only be carrying those transferring from PAD as few others will know its running

 
That one will be nice and cosy especially as the next PAD-PLY is also cancelled.

 
Advice for passengers from Reading and west thereof intending to use the first Penzance was to travel to Temple Meads where an additional train will run to Cornwall.

 

It's the same every year so I don't suppose anyone is really very surprised.....first Penzance service of the day cancelled, next few (assuming they run) will be hideously overcrowded........first Penzance to Paddington starting from Plymouth too.....due to....yes you've guessed it......"a member of the train crew being unavailable"

 
Not looking very good this morning with numerous cancellations and many other services delayed or diverted or not serving the whole route.

Looks like a mixture of the expected over running engineering works outside Paddington and signal failures around Southampton.

 

Merry Christmas ET, when you get time to celebrate!

The figures show that the rail service is quieter over holiday periods, although some may say that is because of there being fewer trains. That makes it the best time to carry out major work, and I don't mind not being able to take a train on Boxing Day in exchange for the removal of the mail conveyor at Temple Meads and all the other pre-electrification work being done over Christmas.

 
I've just received ^140 back on this year's season due to the 7 void days. A real bonus, as only 1 of those days particularly inconvenienced me, but then I recognise that many others would have been much more severely impacted.  (And if you're wondering what the inconvenience was, I had to share a table for 2 in first class with someone for the last 15 minutes of my morning journey into Swindon due to overcrowding. )

 
So pretty similar to the Thames valley through that week.

 

What is 3rd world service? I remember a friend once recalling his travels in India. One day he expressed surprise that the train he was about to catch (the one train each day) was on time rather than a few hours late.  He was corrected however "No this is yesterday's train". 

 
I received a 7th void day letter from FGW today. It relates to 8th December I believe.
I welcome FGW's speed in recognising their 3rd world service that week, and for them getting the notification out pre-Christmas.

 
Thankfully, for me at least, I've only had to travel from Thatcham to London twice this December. In the October - November months when I was commuting daily I gave up telling her indoors what tine I expected to be home because until I walked through the door I couldn't rely on anything outside of my control

Here is hoping that the new year will bring a new start

To all of you helping to build a better railway - I thank you for your hard work

 
Well on FGW land it you won't be able to blame me ...................... I'm playing with a different part of the train set 

 

Whether it is unavoidable or not I do not know but this does seem to be normal though whenever major improvements are carried out to a live railway that is running at near full capacity.  Remember the WCML work in the days of Railtrack?

 

Let's hope the 'more' isn't an unplanned more due to overruns in too many places this year.

 
Some of us are working over Christmas to build a better railway ...................

Which can do best when no trains are running a whole 52 hours (and more in some places) to take things to bits and put new stuff in

 

If your point is that there are sometimes problems on other forms of transport then it is well made, it doesn't however mitigate against the ongoing poor performance of the railways (NR/FGW) on the Thames Valley and other lines over the last few months which as you may have noticed is the theme of this thread.....I am however grateful for your good wishes 

 
I refer you to post #494 and hope the many reported road delays don't affect you.  Of course, in reality, reports today of...

A multi-vehicle accident closed two lanes between junction 5 near Otford in Kent and junction 6 near Oxted in Surrey has caused a two lane closure, while a broken-down lorry forced one lane to be closed at the M25^s junction 12 south of Heathrow airport.

In North Yorkshire, the A64 was closed in both directions between the B1249 and the B1248 due to an accident at West Knapton, with drivers advised to take alternate routes.

Those planning a break across the Channel via Kent were delayed by heavy traffic near Folkestone,

...actually affected only a small percentage of those people trying to travel by car, as do the majority of the train incidents listed.  Probably not the 'travel hell' and 'nightmare' for everyone the article the quote above came from tries to portray:

http://metro.co.uk/2014/12/23/travel-hell-for-brits-looking-to-get-away-for-christmas-4997518/

 

...........I guess it's an indication of what is now "normal service" when I am criticised for pointing out a situation that caused the cancellation of a number of services to Cheltenham, several to Bristol and delays elsewhere on the network.........you have to see this in the context of a totally unacceptable level of service over the last few months which shows no signs of improving, an isolated incident here and there would not be worthy of comment, it's the relentless failures on a daily basis that all add up.......from now on I will count my blessings, chief amongst which is that I am able to drive home for Christmas!

 Have a good Christmas all, and may all your delays be little ones! 

 
Thankfully things are pretty much back to normal in time for the post-work London exodus!  At least this time you highlighted delays that were of some significance I suppose, rather than jumping on anything listed on journeycheck.

It's disappointing to see further signalling problems on the route into Paddington, even if disruption was contained to only a couple of hours this time and the majority of the long distance trains made their way through eventually.

 

Due to signalling problems between London Paddington and Slough some lines are blocked.

Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 mins or revised. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

Customer Advice:
Owing to signalling problems affecting a couple of running lines in the Southall area, we are unable to operate the full timetabled service to and from London Paddington at present. There will be a reduction in the frequency of train services (in both directions) between London Paddington and Reading / Oxford. Any other train service cancellations or alterations will be advised on an individual basis.


..............Merry Christmas everyone! 

 

In my opinion (and yes, I know I have said this before) these automated systems can be both a benefit and a pain in the proverbial - let me give you an example.

When I am travelling by train as soon as I can I check the app on my mobile (we are often talking 530 am here). If there have been overrunning engineering works then up until the last minute the services will show on time. However because the back end systems work on the principle a service is on time unless it is reported late (what else can it do!) local services in my part of the world (B&H line) will show as on-time until their due departure date has passed.  As has been discussed previously the systems seem to have difficulty coping when services are delayed/cancelled/reinstated following interruption of service

On balance though they are an invaluable aid when planning my journey so I accept the limitations

 

Again though, I'm struggling to find much real disruption from either issue - one early PAD-BRI cancelled and its return at 09:30 and a couple of trains in the Westbury area about 10 minutes late.  I'm sure if disruption of that magnitude is all we get this Christmas then staff and customers will be pretty pleased.

I think it was Graham that pointed out with modern information systems like journeycheck to refer to it can look like the network is always in turmoil when the reality is that a tiny percentage of passengers are actually being disrupted and without that information the rest would not realise anything was wrong.

 

I guess the question must be then why was no-one available to take the stock from Bristol to Swindon?

Signal problems again this morning it seems - Bristol TM & Westbury/Pewsey......cancellations over the next couple of days are likely to cause real problems with trains already overcrowded for Christmas.

 
There was over-running Engineering work twixt Didcot & Swindon till 1300, according to Journeycheck

 
I think the problem in the morning was no one to take the HST stock from Bristol to Swindon to provide a set for the run to Cheltenham and thence to London.  That therefore meant three cancellations.

In the afternoon the problems weren't helped by the unit booked to work the service in between the cancelled Paddington services running with the sole toilet locked out of use.

 

Unless of course you're travelling to Cheltenham, as virtually every service seems to be cancelled due to "a member of staff being unavailable" - Christmas parties?