London Euston Blockades August-September 2018

Metal_gee_man said:

I cant be the only one that thinks, a other valid route that Virgin and others ignored for Birmingham new street was to use XC to Reading, Reading to Paddington!

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Wedged when there isn't disruption so not really an option trying to divert more passengers that way.

Metal_gee_man said:

I cant be the only one that thinks, a other valid route that Virgin and others ignored for Birmingham new street was to use XC to Reading, Reading to Paddington!

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Been there, done that. The first time there was an incident on the WCML and the public address at Euston advised us to do that. This was before the Chiltern service was operating at its current level.

Second time I was actually issued with tickets for this routing on line. I had just checked the departure time and not the arrival time so it was a surprise when I got my tickets. I had to rescue a Chinese student on his way to Aberystwith University who was having trouble with the guard on the FGW train who would not accept the itinerary that the student had been given showing routing via Reading and Birmingham New Street. I had to explain very slowly and using short words that there were no Virgin trains out of Euston that day and that FGW were accepting Virgin tickets between Paddington and Reading.

Another time the fire alarms went off in Euston so I did not hang about and went straight to Marylebone

15 car voyagers won't fit in Paddington with the exception of perhaps platform 1. Also Virgin Drivers don't route-learn that segment. It still would have involved at least 1 change to get to B-Ham.

Heck and I don't even think voyagers are cleared Reading-Paddington.

Of course, if the electric-spine ever gets brought back to life and Acton Wells Junction area is electrified, you could in theory run train electric train services into Euston via Oxford, Reading, Acton and Wilsden. I imagine it would add about the same amount of time FGW diverts used to take when they were occasionally routed into Marylebone.

jyte said:

Heck and I don't even think voyagers are cleared Reading-Paddington.

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(not my pic)

Metal_gee_man said:

I cant be the only one that thinks, a other valid route that Virgin and others ignored for Birmingham new street was to use XC to Reading, Reading to Paddington!

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They won’t advertise it if XC advise that they can’t carry the numbers expected.

They were carrying passengers but were sending messages to their crews telling them to tell people to get off at Leamington for Chiltern services as they were leaving large numbers of their own South coast bound passengers behind.

It's a similar issue when people decide to divert themselves to Stoke and Manchester via Derby and 200 plus people turn up for the Crewe bound 153.

ATW Alex 101 said:

(not my pic)

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Well I guess I was wrong (back whenever that photo was taken). Don't know if a decade on if I'm still wrong.

Ooh but it does look pretty....

Metal_gee_man said:

I cant be the only one that thinks, a other valid route that Virgin and others ignored for Birmingham new street was to use XC to Reading, Reading to Paddington!

Click to expand...

XC services are always wedged at the best of times.