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Mark Hopwood's 4 week update

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daveshah

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Mark Hopwood released his plan for SWR today: https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-for-improving-your-journeys

I’m now 4 weeks into my job at South Western Railway, and since I joined my focus has been on getting more of our trains running on time, something I know you all want.

We are gradually seeing signs of improvement, but still face some big challenges – like the derailed freight train at Eastleigh which shut down a good portion of our mainline last week, causing disruption for most of our network as trains were diverted or cancelled.

We run one of the busiest networks in Europe, so there’s no easy fix, but there are a number of things we’re doing to make the improvements our network needs. Here’s some examples of what we’re doing:

1. Making every second count – saving time is crucial on a network such as ours, with a train leaving or arriving at Waterloo every thirty seconds in the morning rush hour.

So, we’re taking a detailed look at stations from which our trains leave a couple of minutes late. Doing this allows us to find small but important ways to get more of our trains running on time.

This can include: helping passengers get on the less busy parts of the train to speed up boarding, working with stations teams to create action plans so that trains leave their first station on time, and our plans to give our teams tablets to provide live information about where our trains are to help passengers plan their journeys better.

We also have more contingency guards on call across the network, meaning if another guard is ill or delayed by a late running train, we have someone ready to stand in, giving us more opportunity to provide a replacement, so the train is less likely to be cancelled.

And we’re recruiting more guards and drivers, as we’re running more services and we’ve promised there’ll always be a guard on our trains.

2. Improving particular lines and routes – we’ve been working hard to analyse some of our worst performing lines, so we can make the improvements they need. Often a problem on one line, can cause issues across the network, so doing this will help improve performance across the board.

The Shepperton Line was one route that was underperforming, so since the start of the year we moved our newer Class 707 trains on to it. Wider doors and more space on these trains helps everyone board quicker, allowing the trains to leave on time. Using just one fleet of trains on this line makes it easier to operate for our teams, helping to reduce delays even more. This has already seen more of these services join the mainline at Norbiton on time, preventing delays on other parts of the network.

Next up we’re looking at the Windsor Line, so we can find each and every point where journeys can get delayed and make the changes needed to reduce delays. We continue to manage performance across the network, but these routes are benefitting from this targeted approach.

3. Speeding up our service recovery – when things do go wrong it’s important for us to get our services up and running as soon as possible. When delays happen during the morning rush hour, we’re making sure our focus is on preventing these delays building up, so we can get our service back to full speed by the evening.

To do this we look in-depth to find ways to claw back those vital minutes and seconds that add up, taking a line-by-line and hour-by-hour approach to analyse what’s gone wrong.

We also want to get our response teams to incidents faster, so we’re trying to get permission for them to use bus lanes, so they don’t get held up in traffic and they can fix the problem quickly, so everyone can be on the move sooner.

4. Improving our infrastructure – disruption to our services is often caused by issues with the railway infrastructure, and whilst this isn’t our fault, it is our problem.

So, we’re working to reduce the number of speed restrictions on our network, making the case to Network Rail for their safe removal, and so help save those crucial minutes from our journey times.

We’re also looking at using more sidings along the route, so when trains do need to come out of service or be stabled when not in use, they can be quickly moved out of the way, so they don’t delay other trains.

There’s a lot going on, and these initiatives are beginning to make some positive changes. Both ourselves at South Western Railway, and our colleagues at Network Rail are working hard to deliver these changes. You may not see a difference overnight, but I’m sure you’ll soon start to see the benefits of the work we’re all doing to keep you moving.

Most of it fairly common sense, good to see a continued focus on trying to persuade NR to deal with speed restrictions. Incident teams using bus lanes is an interesting one, I'm pretty sure TfL have something like that for their incident response units.

Not sure whether making more use of sidings is such a sensible idea, the risk of vandalism seems higher than using depots (or staffed stations).
 
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Bletchleyite

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Hopwood isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he does seem very competent, and did a good job at holding GWR together when it had a far older fleet with far more pressures on it than now. So this is good progress as you might expect - I guess he's now First's troubleshooter!
 

theironroad

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Mark Hopwood released his plan for SWR today: https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-for-improving-your-journeys



Most of it fairly common sense, good to see a continued focus on trying to persuade NR to deal with speed restrictions. Incident teams using bus lanes is an interesting one, I'm pretty sure TfL have something like that for their incident response units.

Not sure whether making more use of sidings is such a sensible idea, the risk of vandalism seems higher than using depots (or staffed stations).


Really not sure his media blitz is anything new. More blah blah blah.

Really not sure what the bus lane thing is about as swt/r and NR have had rapid response units for a few years that are authorised under blues and twos arrangements of emergency services to attend critical infrastructure incidents.

Use of sidings , has been covered under 'bolt holes' route learning that all drivers have come under for a few years also to get trains off the main lines when needed.

MH is seconded to swr for 3 months as the moment and 1 month in and nothing tangible has changed.

Is this a slow burn and all the issues are going to be solved before he goes in 8 odd weeks. You decide?
 

father_jack

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All while a former right hand man visits the beak, some will know those involved.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk...d-gwr-thousands-booze-travel-hotel-expenses/#

A FORMER rail boss has admitted cheating the expenses system to defraud Great Western Railway out of thousands of pounds.

Appearing before Bristol Crown Court yesterday, Mark Heffernan pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud. Co-defendant Jennifer Perry admitted rubber-stamping fraudulent alcohol orders worth more than £3,200.

Heffernan, 47, was deputy operations director at the Swindon-based rail company until 2017.

Between June 2009 and December 2017 he systematically scammed his employers out of more than £10,000 by authorising expenditure on alcohol, hotels, travel and what was referred to in court simply as “personal items”.

It included over £5,900 on accommodation and travel and authorising £3,200 of alcohol expenses. Between December 2010 and December 2017 he fraudulently okayed bonus payments.

Former GWR employee Perry, 46, admitted facilitating the payment of fraudulent alcohol expenses between June 2009 and December 2016.

Heffernan, of Clifford Street, Chudleigh, Devon, and Perry, of Davin Crescent, Pill, North Somerset, spoke only to confirm their names and their guilty pleas.


Prosecutor Benjamin Aina QC said the Crown had anticipated those guilty pleas and had notified the court so the case could be swiftly sentenced.

Judge Martin Picton bailed the former GWR employees to return to be sentenced on Thursday, February 13.

No pre-sentence reports were ordered. Paul Grumbar appeared for Heffernan. Stephen Mejzner represented Perry.

The investigation was conducted by British Transport Police.
 

dctraindriver

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Really not sure his media blitz is anything new. More blah blah blah.

Really not sure what the bus lane thing is about as swt/r and NR have had rapid response units for a few years that are authorised under blues and twos arrangements of emergency services to attend critical infrastructure incidents.

Use of sidings , has been covered under 'bolt holes' route learning that all drivers have come under for a few years also to get trains off the main lines when needed.

MH is seconded to swr for 3 months as the moment and 1 month in and nothing tangible has changed.

Is this a slow burn and all the issues are going to be solved before he goes in 8 odd weeks. You decide?
At least he’s saying something which I think the previous MD was less keen on doing. Many reading/watching will take with a pinch of salt what he’s saying but some might buy it.

TBH I hope he does prove a bit of a success as let’s face it none of us are unhappy with the way things are at present....
 

theironroad

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theironroad

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At least he’s saying something which I think the previous MD was less keen on doing. Many reading/watching will take with a pinch of salt what he’s saying but some might buy it.

TBH I hope he does prove a bit of a success as let’s face it none of us are unhappy with the way things are at present....

Absolutely hope all the NR ESRs ,long term TSRs, 442 issues, retaining guard issues , service recovery issues during disruption and the plethora of other performance related issues are sorted before he goes back to gwr and the country's busiest station gets a train service it deserves. #notthemessiah
 

43096

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Absolutely hope all the NR ESRs ,long term TSRs, 442 issues, retaining guard issues , service recovery issues during disruption and the plethora of other performance related issues are sorted before he goes back to gwr and the country's busiest station gets a train service it deserves. #notthemessiah
No mention of fleet reliability, either, which has nose-dived since First took over. My train home has been cancelled twice in the last three days due to set failure - and it is booked to come off the biggest depot on the franchise. Frankly that is nowhere near good enough - under SWT I can’t recall more than one or two cancellations in a year.
 

Tom Quinne

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It’s all well and good talking about removing speed restrictions, but when does the work get carried out? Especially on “Europe’s busiest rail network”.

Even routine patrol work is getting harder and harder to give lines blocks to, red zone working is being phased out in a lot of areas, so crews need closed lines between trains to work safely.

More trains equal less time for safe access to the train, less time to access the track means less time to do upgrade work, equals more speed restrictions.

Something has to give.
 

Monty

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It’s all well and good talking about removing speed restrictions, but when does the work get carried out? Especially on “Europe’s busiest rail network”.

Even routine patrol work is getting harder and harder to give lines blocks to, red zone working is being phased out in a lot of areas, so crews need closed lines between trains to work safely.

More trains equal less time for safe access to the train, less time to access the track means less time to do upgrade work, equals more speed restrictions.

Something has to give.

Undoubtedly the decision to run more trains at the start of this franchise before the infrastructure issues were sorted out was a huge error in judgement. However some of this stuff has been backlogged over the past decade. NR hasn't got the money or the manpower, and until someone comes along with a blank chequebook to get it sorted nothing is going to change and the TOCs and NR can release as many press releases as they want.
 

dctraindriver

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Absolutely hope all the NR ESRs ,long term TSRs, 442 issues, retaining guard issues , service recovery issues during disruption and the plethora of other performance related issues are sorted before he goes back to gwr and the country's busiest station gets a train service it deserves. #notthemessiah
You’ll have retired by then....
 

3141

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A few miserable responses on here. Of course one person can't solve all the problems in a short time. But you either start somewhere or sit back and whine. it seems that he's getting some things done that can be done now, and should start making a difference. He's also looking at the things that are longer term and require money, and if no-one starts looking at them they'll never be done. I'm pretty sure there are many people working for SWR who will be glad that somebody is trying to get a grip on the problems and will be ready to do their bit to move things forward.
 

kristiang85

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A few miserable responses on here. Of course one person can't solve all the problems in a short time. But you either start somewhere or sit back and whine. it seems that he's getting some things done that can be done now, and should start making a difference. He's also looking at the things that are longer term and require money, and if no-one starts looking at them they'll never be done. I'm pretty sure there are many people working for SWR who will be glad that somebody is trying to get a grip on the problems and will be ready to do their bit to move things forward.

I think people are just drained by hearing the same thing as they heard a year ago, and the year before that, etc. A lot of trust in that line has been lost, and it is much harder to build that trust back up.

Look at the various SWR passenger groups online and you will see how little faith people have in them to turn it around.
 

Helvellyn

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Really not sure his media blitz is anything new. More blah blah blah.

Really not sure what the bus lane thing is about as swt/r and NR have had rapid response units for a few years that are authorised under blues and twos arrangements of emergency services to attend critical infrastructure incidents.

Use of sidings , has been covered under 'bolt holes' route learning that all drivers have come under for a few years also to get trains off the main lines when needed.

MH is seconded to swr for 3 months as the moment and 1 month in and nothing tangible has changed.

Is this a slow burn and all the issues are going to be solved before he goes in 8 odd weeks. You decide?
As someone in pot for three months it could be that he is leaving the Board to day-to-day things and is going out looking, challenging. Things might have been in place but sometimes it needs someone going out and taking a sharp eye on the basics.

With regards infrastructure it was notable that the SWT-NR alliance (The South Western Railway) had a big emphasis on more blocks for NR and also a focus on longer term issues. For example they did a lot of work to tackle wet beds that were causing Permanent Speed Restrictions (PSRs) all over the shop. It was notable how they started to creep back up after the alliance was dissolved.
 

winks

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Really not sure what the bus lane thing is about as swt/r and NR have had rapid response units for a few years that are authorised under blues and twos arrangements of emergency services to attend critical infrastructure incidents.

I think you’re confusing the BTP police vans with a network rail response officer on board . They are not maintenance incident response units
 

Bigfoot

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With regards infrastructure it was notable that the SWT-NR alliance (The South Western Railway) had a big emphasis on more blocks for NR and also a focus on longer term issues. For example they did a lot of work to tackle wet beds that were causing Permanent Speed Restrictions (PSRs) all over the shop. It was notable how they started to creep back up after the alliance was dissolved.

I tried to count the number I drove over today but lost count, there are so many,
 

HH

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I know Mark Hopwood and I think he's one of the better guys out there. He certainly made a difference at GWR. I also knew his predecessor at SWR and was gobsmacked when he got the job, as he wasn't even a very good (engineering) director at GWR - didn't appear to have his finger on the pulse at all. Good operators aren't always good leaders; Mark is the exception. Whether he can sort SWR in 3 months is another matter; but I'm sure he'll make a difference.

I don't know Heffernan, although we've moved in the same circles; he's been at National Express for the last two and a half years. Makes me wonder if there's more to the story.
 

theironroad

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It’s all well and good talking about removing speed restrictions, but when does the work get carried out? Especially on “Europe’s busiest rail network”.

Even routine patrol work is getting harder and harder to give lines blocks to, red zone working is being phased out in a lot of areas, so crews need closed lines between trains to work safely.

More trains equal less time for safe access to the train, less time to access the track means less time to do upgrade work, equals more speed restrictions.

Something has to give.

It has to be sorted out because a lot of the ESRs and TSRs are impacting on performance.

In addition there are many areas of track that need attention in terms of rough ride etc.

Today NR have put their hands up to the Eastleigh derailment last week saying that it was the track that failed. Let's all hope that next time it's not more serious.

Maybe they need to get the high output track machine back and take some planned week or two long possessions and blitz areas to get a good standard back. Will take a while but there has to be found before the network disintegrates.
 

theironroad

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I think you’re confusing the BTP police vans with a network rail response officer on board . They are not maintenance incident response units

I'll have to double check, but I thought there were some NR Vans with kit and spares (for signaling etc) that were given priority but not going to swear on it right now :)

Edit: it was a joint collaboration between SWT/NR/BTP in a dedicated van, (Emergency Intervention Unit) though not sure if it still operates...

I'll take that as we are both right as I had forgotten about BTP, but clearly makes sense as they have the trained drivers.

https://www.networkrailmediacentre....provides-faster-response-to-railway-incidents
 
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Romsey

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High Output Ballast Cleaners are fine for long plain line refurbishments, but come at a very high price and a high level of traffic disruption moving a 2500t train around. They are no good where there are underbridges, pointwork, trap pits in the 6 foot way etc.

The Ballast Vac (Ulrika) was much more useful for local maintainers, cleaning out and refilling wet patches easily in short overnight possessions. As they have proved so useful on the Southern they have been moved elsewhere in the country to less intensively used bits of railway.

Ulrika?? ( Built in Sweden so known as the Swedish Sucker or Ulrika...... )
 

Bletchleyite

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I know Mark Hopwood and I think he's one of the better guys out there. He certainly made a difference at GWR.

He certainly seemed to do well at holding together a TOC that at times felt it was falling apart at the seams. He was often the target of Reading commuter ire, but that's more because he was more visible than most other TOC MDs.
 

alxndr

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Really not sure what the bus lane thing is about as swt/r and NR have had rapid response units for a few years that are authorised under blues and twos arrangements of emergency services to attend critical infrastructure incidents.

Not something that's wide spread. The closest I've known is an anecdote from decades ago of a judge letting someone off a speeding ticket while attending a bridge strike. These days you're more likely to get the sack.

I've wondered about it myself after having seen council response vehicles authorised to use bus lanes. It will only help in built up areas at busy times though.

If they want to reduce response times, money no issue, they'd be better off:
  • Improving access points; recovering those which have been lost, buying land to make more, and getting new ones put in when housing developments take place along the railway.
  • Improving walking routes; nothing worse than being at the access but the cess being so poor that it's impossible to get to the problem without a line blockage.
  • Stop buying vans that are horrifically slow to accelerate and restricted to 64 mph.
  • Increase the number of depots to allow smaller districts; Sod's law always says you're the opposite end of the patch when a fault comes in and that could be over an hour away.
Undoubtedly the decision to run more trains at the start of this franchise before the infrastructure issues were sorted out was a huge error in judgement. However some of this stuff has been backlogged over the past decade. NR hasn't got the money or the manpower, and until someone comes along with a blank chequebook to get it sorted nothing is going to change and the TOCs and NR can release as many press releases as they want.

No amount of money in the world will solve the simple fact that more trains means less maintenance. You can't buy more hours in the day.
Say it takes 10 minutes for a line blockage to be handed back, the train to traverse it, and the blockage to be taken again. If there's two trains an hour that's a maximum of 40 minutes on track. If it's doubled to four trains an hour you're down to 20 minutes on track. If the trains happen to run close together you lose even more time as there ends up being no point going through the paperwork for just 3 or 4 minutes of blockage, so those few minutes get wasted.
 

Dai Corner

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Did anyone catch ITV news West Country on Wednesday at 1800?

I wasn't paying full attention but I think Mr Hopwood was on and they were interviewing passengers at Taunton station (which of course SWR don't serve!).
 

theironroad

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High Output Ballast Cleaners are fine for long plain line refurbishments, but come at a very high price and a high level of traffic disruption moving a 2500t train around. They are no good where there are underbridges, pointwork, trap pits in the 6 foot way etc.

The Ballast Vac (Ulrika) was much more useful for local maintainers, cleaning out and refilling wet patches easily in short overnight possessions. As they have proved so useful on the Southern they have been moved elsewhere in the country to less intensively used bits of railway.

Ulrika?? ( Built in Sweden so known as the Swedish Sucker or Ulrika...... )

Interesting, I guess anything other than plain line will need a lot more careful and individual attention.
 

43096

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I know Mark Hopwood and I think he's one of the better guys out there. He certainly made a difference at GWR. I also knew his predecessor at SWR and was gobsmacked when he got the job, as he wasn't even a very good (engineering) director at GWR - didn't appear to have his finger on the pulse at all. Good operators aren't always good leaders; Mark is the exception. Whether he can sort SWR in 3 months is another matter; but I'm sure he'll make a difference.

I don't know Heffernan, although we've moved in the same circles; he's been at National Express for the last two and a half years. Makes me wonder if there's more to the story.
That'll be the same Mark Hopwood who didn't communicate to his customers (to the extent that he had to offer an apology for not replying to the Cotswold Line Promotion Group - President Lord Faulkner, vice-presidents include David Cameron) and certainly didn't bother with issuing an apology to the rest of his passengers after the spectacularly botched training programme for the IEPs which left services in chaos at weekends for the best part of 18 months.

Sorry, but I remain to be convinced.
 

infobleep

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I thought they already looked into why trains were running late?

In his previous statement he talked of trying to get rid of skip stopping. However if they wish to try and get the services back on track for the evening, as he talks about in this press release surely skip stopping is what they will need to do?

It is great that he is talking about what they are doing rather than maintaining a silence.
 
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