11.56 Non-stop Barnes to Waterloo

[Norman]

Good Afternoon,

I got the delayed 11.56 'stopper' from Barnes to Waterloo today that was altered to go non-stop to Waterloo, I presume to try and make time. It was expected at 12.05, which in turn would have delayed another stopper at 12.04, until this was routed in first. Therefore at 12.06 we departed but immediately before Putney slowed down due to the stopper just in front of us. This happened all the way to just before Clapham Junction where we put on to the fast line, which meant we got in the way off a fast service which had to wait for us. Eventually we passed the stopper at Queenstown Road.

My point is surely it was more sensible to put us on the fast line immediately after Barnes so that we could of overtaken the stopper and made up more time rather than go at half speed the majority of the way; it just seems silly to make the service fast to Waterloo then have it go so slowly most of the way?

 

[michael769]

You do seem some decisions like that that are obviously wrong.

Obvious that is to the folks who travel on the line all the time. I suspect the reality is that whoever plans these things often have to deal with wide scale incidents affecting a wide area, and they don't always have the time to analyze the timetable for every single movement to fully understand the implications of their decisions.

At the end of the day they can only do the best they can within the time and resource constraints they have to work with. I'll lay odds that most of the decisions are perfect, but that inevitably the odd "mistake" will get through, and as with most walks of life it is the mistakes that get noticed and remembered.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Interesting. I was on the 1146 from Feltham and the reason you didn't go on the fast line is because we were right behind you all the way from St Margarets to Barnes. We got the fast line at Barnes but you overtook us while we stopped at Barnes, caught you up outside Clapham but you then got the fast line ahead of us. The result was that we were 11 late into Waterloo and consequently the 1228 to Windsor was also 7 late from Waterloo.

A total of 25 minutes delay from just a simple paperwork error.