Worcestershire Parkway - High Level

Is the absence of WOP HL in table 126 in the Dec 2019 timetable meaningful? LL is fine - table 57. The "Additional Notes" pdf just mentions T57 as well.

Unixman said:

Is the absence of WOP HL in table 126 in the Dec 2019 timetable meaningful? LL is fine - table 57. The "Additional Notes" pdf just mentions T57 as well.

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No, it's just yet another of the many errors that appear in this publication time after time and render it a pretty useless exercise nowadays.

It definitely appears in the GWR timetables and in National Rail Enquiries.

The council (which is responsible for building the station) is aiming for late January or early February opening.

And your evidence for that would be what, exactly?

Worcestershire County Council has not made any official statement about the station since late October, which included the line:

Journey times from Worcestershire Parkway will be even faster when the station opens later this year.

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http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/ne...o_london_paddington_by_train_in_under_2_hours

Construction work is complete, lighting around the station and site generally is all working now, etc, so unless a serious last-minute problem is encountered in the process of certification and signing-off, I would be surprised if the doors are not open as planned on Sunday the 15th.

If there had been major doubts about hitting the target, I doubt GWR and XC would have allowed tickets to go on sale in the first place and just put the whole thing on ice until January some weeks ago. Something that the council would go along with, as the station remains a controversial subject locally, so they really want it to be good news all the way now - a further delay within sight of the finish line when people have already bought tickets would not come into that category.

jimm said:

And your evidence for that would be what, exactly?

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A work meeting this morning.

Not all tickets are on sale, searching for after the 15th brings up tickets to New Street with cross country but not Cheltenham spa.

So if it doesn’t open are Cross Country going to bus to Shrub Hill / Foregate Street for onward connections with West Midlands Railway?

pdeaves said:

A work meeting this morning.

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So why not say so? Some indication of where info comes from does not hurt.

If true, then there is going to be a lot of egg on faces - equally, one has to wonder why no one has said anything by way of an official statement at this stage if the opening will have to be put back again - the longer they leave it, the greater the fallout will be after number of times the opening date has slipped back.

Breaking news. Opening postponed. Official announcement due later.

So yes, egg on faces. Including here.

I would be surprised if the doors are not open as planned on Sunday the 15th.

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Just found this thread,w has helped to clear the problems I was having having earlier today buying tickets to and from Worcestershire Parkway (WOP).

I was on the Trainline website this morning looking to buy tickets for 18th December. Both Trainline and Great Western were still selling them to WOP (high level platform).

When I tried to get ones from WOP to Birmingham (BHM), I could not get through tickets for 18th either on the Trainline or on the Cross Country website, yet just a couple of days ago they were selling them for this date.

After a lot of trial and error I found out on the Cross Country Website that you can buy direct tickets to/from WOP (low level platforms) for travel from Sunday 26th January 2020.

So presumably that is going to be the new date for the opening of the station?

I just wish someone would announce it soon if the opening is going to be delayed.

Luckily I hadn’t bought any tickets, so not out of pocket like some people may be.

bnm said:

Breaking news. Opening postponed. Official announcement due later.

So yes, egg on faces. Including here.

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I'm so glad to be able to provide you with some amusement.

Although it is pretty obvious that trying to make fun of me was all you were bothered about, as you didn't then rush to reveal your breaking news on another forum you frequent, where others have recently commented on the station looking complete.

I think it was clear who I meant would have egg on their faces - you know, those responsible for this project at the county council and GWR - perhaps even including your top-secret, top-level source at GWR...

The people who have allowed things to get this far, with timetable and ticket information in databases and pocket and pdf timetables issued without any kind of rider next to the station name saying 'station will open during the currency of this timetable' - which was standard practice in ye olden days, just in case all did not go to plan.

No one would have been to surprised/shocked if they had said in late October that they were going to hold over the opening until early 2020 - this is a station that was initially supposed to open in spring 2018 (they had just about started work on the site by then), then last December, then this May (with GWR adjusting the existing timetable to allow as many trains to call as they could).

The only reaction would just have been shrugs of shoulders and what did you expects all round...

Which won't be the reaction now, with less than two weeks to go.

I gather from the other Parkway thread

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/worcestershire-parkway-station-progress.103108/page-23

that GWR has finally admitted today that all is not well, so a terse official statement will presumably follow, with the press office phones at GWR and County Hall in Worcester getting busy soon after that, and a lot of angry comments from the public when they find out. Especially if there still isn't a definite, nailed-on opening date available.

Yet another sorry episode on the way to this station finally opening.

And the delay has nothing whatsoever to do with GWR. They were ready to go with services calling. As were CrossCountry.

The delay until at least mid-January is down to the contractors. Those hired by Worcestershire County Council and Network Rail.

The official announcement will come when all stakeholders have sorted the blame game and are singing from the same song sheet. Train Operators GWR and CrossCountry put their necessary plans together in good faith. They could only take the assurances coming from County Hall, Network Rail and the contractors in good faith. Announcements are being drawn up regarding alternative travel arrangements and/or refunds for those who've already bought tickets.

Upton said:

Both Trainline and Great Western were still selling them to WPW HL. Then when I tried to get ones from WPW LL to BNS on the same date I could not get through ones for 18th either on the Trainline or on the Cross Country website.

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Just to point out that the station code for Worcestershire Parkway is WOP. Not WPW. There's no distinction between the Cotswold Line platform and the Birmingham - Bristol ones either. It's all one station.

Oh, and Birmingham New St is BHM. Unless you really meant Barnes (BNS) in South West London.

bnm said:

Just to point out that the station code for Worcestershire Parkway is WOP. Not WPW. There's no distinction between the Cotswold Line platform and the Birmingham - Bristol ones either. It's all one station.

Oh, and Birmingham New St is BHM. Unless you really meant Barnes (BNS) in South West London.

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Actually I wasn’t putting in the station codes in my post, merely using the initials of the stations concerned for brevity......

bnm said:

And the delay has nothing whatsoever to do with GWR. They were ready to go with services calling. As were CrossCountry.

The delay until at least mid-January is down to the contractors. Those hired by Worcestershire County Council and Network Rail.

The official announcement will come when all stakeholders have sorted the blame game and are singing from the same song sheet. Train Operators GWR and CrossCountry put their necessary plans together in good faith. They could only take the assurances coming from County Hall, Network Rail and the contractors in good faith. Announcements are being drawn up regarding alternative travel arrangements and/or refunds for those who've already bought tickets.

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Nice bit of buck-passing on behalf of GWR and XC there. Whether you - and they - like it or not, they are the face of the railway, they sell the tickets, they are responsible for getting people to their destinations, not the other parties involved in the project.

If I was anything to do with an organisation that was going to be in the firing line should something go wrong - whether or not that may seem unfair - I would have been questioning and querying everything I was being told for months now.

Indeed, I would be astounded if GWR had not been doing just that in this case, given that it is responsible for managing and staffing the station, and has been party to working groups and meetings about the project for a very long time now - not some innocent bystander.

Unfortunately, none of the parties involved seems to have wanted to be the one saying 'hold on a minute' instead of letting things drift on until there is rather less than a fortnight to go and someone goes 'oops'. I seem to recall a rather big rail project in London where no one wanted to upset the applecart - look how that turned out.

And yet another day has gone by without an official statement. Will they manage it before there is less than a week to go...?

Anyone who has any first-hand experience of snagging a project will appreciate that sudden unexpected delays can (and do) occur with little prior warning, it's a regular occurrence when people have to sign safety-critical systems into service.

Despite all attempts at blaming GWR, who have neither constructed the station, managed the project, hired/overseen the contractors nor funded it, this is quite clearly not the operators fault. I would be astonished if anyone was consciously selling tickets after it became known there was a delay, as that just increases the immediate problems of what to do with the passengers.

Still a train calling there, 21:10 to Paddington, according to National Rail Enquiries. Obviously an error.

Perhaps I have missed a trick here, but the only belt and braces solution to this WOP problem would have been for TOCs not to sell tickets until the station was formally handed over to Network Rail and TOCs had notification of that? I don't imagine GWR are selling tickets from Maidenhead to Reading Green Park yet?

HowardGWR said:

Perhaps I have missed a trick here, but the only belt and braces solution to this WOP problem would have been for TOCs not to sell tickets until the station was formally handed over to Network Rail and TOCs had notification of that? I don't imagine GWR are selling tickets from Maidenhead to Reading Green Park yet?

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The issue here is passengers will complain they can't buy tickets.

Wilts Wanderer said:

Anyone who has any first-hand experience of snagging a project will appreciate that sudden unexpected delays can (and do) occur with little prior warning, it's a regular occurrence when people have to sign safety-critical systems into service.

Despite all attempts at blaming GWR, who have neither constructed the station, managed the project, hired/overseen the contractors nor funded it, this is quite clearly not the operators fault. I would be astonished if anyone was consciously selling tickets after it became known there was a delay, as that just increases the immediate problems of what to do with the passengers.

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If we believe posts on this forum, people at GWR and XC must have been very consciously aware as of Monday that there was a very big problem.

Nothing was done about taking tickets off the system for at least another couple of days (with one or two services still apparently available to book yesterday) and we are now just eight days out from the 15th and there is still no sign of an official statement.

After all the delays there have been to this project, all parties involved in whatever way - TOCs included - should have been damn sure they were going to be able to open on December 15 before letting it become generally accepted that this was what was going to happen.

For the obvious reason, as you say, that something nasty may come to light in the process of snagging and inspections. It is clear from this week's events that not enough time was being allowed in case that something nasty did indeed emerge.

There was no need whatever to try to link the opening to the start date for the new GWR timetable. No one would have batted an eyelid if it had been left until at least January, given that for a long time May this year was being talked up as the target date.

The rate things are going, it could be May next year. What should have been a good news story for the railway will live long in the memories of people in Worcestershire as a byword for bungling. And they won't be blaming the contractors...