Bristol Parkway silliness

[mp01]

Minor rant #2 of 3 for today.

At various points during the day there is this kind of scenario:

1. train from south west to Manchester (or wherever) due to arrive BPW 1808 dep 1809
2. train from Paddington to south Wales due to arrive BPW at 1806, due to dep at 1808 once the cross-country train has faffed its way across the mainline from Temple Meads

Today, the train from the South West was held outside BPW because the 1801 (ex south Wales) to Paddington was late arriving and didn't leave till 1809. The Paddington to Swansea train arrived at 1805 but didn't leave until 1812 because we had to wait for the delayed train to Paddington to leave, then for the cross-country train to faff its way into BPW.

Putting aside debates about whether timetabling should be more streamlined, or whether BPW needs further work, why wasn't the Paddington to south Wales train allowed to leave on time - it would have been well clear of the junction with the lines to Temple Meads before the train heading to Paddington was out of the platform. Seems bizarre, especially given that one's a main line from London and the other's a turtuously slow meander through the countryside. Is it worth giving formal constructive feedback to anyone, and if so, to whom?

 

[455driver]

Booked order, whats the problem?

Signallers are no longer allowed to regulate trains unless they want shedloads of "O" codes and "please explains" on their desk the next time they sign on, easiest for them just to keep everything in the correct order and sod the delays and I dont blame them one bit.

 

[The Planner]

Without checking, what happened with the Parkway to Weston service? That is due out at 18:12 so also would have had to cross the XC delaying it further. Someone in control was playing the PPM game. Stuffing the XC further there would probably really screw it at New St, the Swansea would probably still hit PPM at destination, the Weston might still have had a chance.

 

[mp01]

The 1812 was still there when we left; the Swansea train leaving first of the three wouldn't have affected either the XC train or the Weston train. 455driver - I can understand there are rules, but this just seems one of those bizarre cases when common sense isn't allowed to interfere.

 

[yorkie]

With £millions spent on delay attribution, common sense and the big picture is not the priority. It's all about money and compensation. Not that the passenger gets to see any of it - unless the delay is very long, of course!

 

[The Planner]

Could depend on the signalling time outs on the routes, but in the main I would go with 455driver, run it in booked order then the bobby isn't accountable if something went tits up elsewhere due to the decision. Sadly that is the way of the world now.

 

[455driver]

All the trains arrived within 5 minutes of time, the only one late was the Weston which lost a few minutes after Bristol Temple Meads, the Padd arrived 1 late, the Swansea 2early and the Manchester was RT away from Birmingham New Street.

So all in all everything worked out okay.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

On the 0831 AW Shrewsbury-Birmingham today.
Pulls into Wolverhampton about 15 down (other half late from Wrexham).
Meanwhile in plain view of everybody the LM stopper is let go from P5.
It just added another 10 minutes to our arrival time into New St as we drifted behind on single yellows all the way.
Difficult to see the reasoning behind this move.
I thought the rule was "minimise overall delay".

 

[455driver]

I thought the rule was "minimise overall delay".

Who told you that?

It would be nice if that was true though.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Who told you that?
It would be nice if that was true though.

I think it was in the regulatory documents on privatisation (ie in Network Rail's Licence agreement with ORR).
Something about all TOC trains being considered equal, which was not the case under BR where essentially the class of the train determined its priority.
How it works on the ground may be different, of course.
It comes from the access charging regime.

 

[D1009]

On the 0831 AW Shrewsbury-Birmingham today.
Pulls into Wolverhampton about 15 down (other half late from Wrexham).
Meanwhile in plain view of everybody the LM stopper is let go from P5.
It just added another 10 minutes to our arrival time into New St as we drifted behind on single yellows all the way.
Difficult to see the reasoning behind this move.
I thought the rule was "minimise overall delay".

In this case, overall delay probably was minimised. The stopper to New St was already 5 late, so any further delay would have reacted even more on the Liverpool - Brum and Glasgow Brum which follow it. The first rule of regulation is indeed minimise overall delay, though there are regulation policies applying to specific circumstances.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Minor rant #2 of 3 for today.

At various points during the day there is this kind of scenario:

1. train from south west to Manchester (or wherever) due to arrive BPW 1808 dep 1809
2. train from Paddington to south Wales due to arrive BPW at 1806, due to dep at 1808 once the cross-country train has faffed its way across the mainline from Temple Meads

Today, the train from the South West was held outside BPW because the 1801 (ex south Wales) to Paddington was late arriving and didn't leave till 1809. The Paddington to Swansea train arrived at 1805 but didn't leave until 1812 because we had to wait for the delayed train to Paddington to leave, then for the cross-country train to faff its way into BPW.

Putting aside debates about whether timetabling should be more streamlined, or whether BPW needs further work, why wasn't the Paddington to south Wales train allowed to leave on time - it would have been well clear of the junction with the lines to Temple Meads before the train heading to Paddington was out of the platform. Seems bizarre, especially given that one's a main line from London and the other's a turtuously slow meander through the countryside. Is it worth giving formal constructive feedback to anyone, and if so, to whom?

The chances are the XC was allowed up to the signal between the junction and the platform, so the back of it would have been foul of the junction, preventing the down HST leaving. If the up Hst was delayed at Parkway, then this delay to the up HST could not have been foreseen.

 

[Paul Kelly]

If the up Hst was delayed at Parkway

Looks like it was already delayed:

the 1801 (ex south Wales) to Paddington was late arriving