markymark2000
Established Member
Just travelled on 1V96 from Chester on a 158. I want to understand what is the logic in holding this service by 12 minutes at Chester to allow 1V41 (class 150) to overtake. 1V96 then got delayed again at Wrexham for around 4 minutes longer (overall 22 late off Wrexham) than needed to await 1V41 to get more ahead.
The line from Crewe to Shrewsbury is blocked due to signalling issues so services are diverting via Chester which explains why this situation ever occurred.
1V96 is pretty full, around 250 people on the train because Wrexham is playing at home. Given Wrexham has a the loop or given that the 158, while it may serve some stations, is faster overall, why choose Chester to hold 1V96 when instead it could have got to Wrexham, unloaded all the football fans and then been looped awaiting 1V41 to pass. Or even better, let 1V96 run to time and sort it out at Shrewsbury since by that point, both trains would have been basically together rather than holding a service back for so long for the other train to overtake. It makes no sense. The point of overtaking is the fact the other train would get there quicker but instead, it won't have got down to Shrewsbury much quicker but instead it delayed another service by quite a hefty amount. As it turns out (as could have been predicted earlier if the so called professionals did their job properly), 1V41 which overtook 1V96, didn't even get into Shrewsbury until 13:15. Had they let 1V96 run on time it would have arrived into Shrewsbury at 13:10-13:13ish depending and 1V41 would have picked up an additional delays of around a minute or two.
Once again, our railway excels itself in just how down right stupid it is. Delaying a service by overall 23 minutes, to let a fast train overtake? Come on, isn't the railway meant to be full of professionals? Anyone can see that this isn't a good plan! Short sighted decisions and no one held accountable. Instead of running 1 train on time (or mostly to time) and then having the diverted one delayed slightly longer, no no no, can't do that. If one is delayed, everyone must be delayed. And people wonder why folk are getting more angry with how the railways are being ran, especially in TFW land. And all of these decisions are taken by nationalised firms! You wouldn't get this stupid logic on the WCML, private companies would be wanting their compensation.
Adding to this, I think it's high time that Wrexham General gets resignalled for BiDi signalling in P1/2 or a link it out in from Chester to Platform 3, it would ease situations like this and would save the few trains per day reversing in Croes Newydd so enable better engineering access and save on staff pay as they could cut 20 minutes off the start or finish of shifts.
The line from Crewe to Shrewsbury is blocked due to signalling issues so services are diverting via Chester which explains why this situation ever occurred.
1V96 is pretty full, around 250 people on the train because Wrexham is playing at home. Given Wrexham has a the loop or given that the 158, while it may serve some stations, is faster overall, why choose Chester to hold 1V96 when instead it could have got to Wrexham, unloaded all the football fans and then been looped awaiting 1V41 to pass. Or even better, let 1V96 run to time and sort it out at Shrewsbury since by that point, both trains would have been basically together rather than holding a service back for so long for the other train to overtake. It makes no sense. The point of overtaking is the fact the other train would get there quicker but instead, it won't have got down to Shrewsbury much quicker but instead it delayed another service by quite a hefty amount. As it turns out (as could have been predicted earlier if the so called professionals did their job properly), 1V41 which overtook 1V96, didn't even get into Shrewsbury until 13:15. Had they let 1V96 run on time it would have arrived into Shrewsbury at 13:10-13:13ish depending and 1V41 would have picked up an additional delays of around a minute or two.
Once again, our railway excels itself in just how down right stupid it is. Delaying a service by overall 23 minutes, to let a fast train overtake? Come on, isn't the railway meant to be full of professionals? Anyone can see that this isn't a good plan! Short sighted decisions and no one held accountable. Instead of running 1 train on time (or mostly to time) and then having the diverted one delayed slightly longer, no no no, can't do that. If one is delayed, everyone must be delayed. And people wonder why folk are getting more angry with how the railways are being ran, especially in TFW land. And all of these decisions are taken by nationalised firms! You wouldn't get this stupid logic on the WCML, private companies would be wanting their compensation.
Adding to this, I think it's high time that Wrexham General gets resignalled for BiDi signalling in P1/2 or a link it out in from Chester to Platform 3, it would ease situations like this and would save the few trains per day reversing in Croes Newydd so enable better engineering access and save on staff pay as they could cut 20 minutes off the start or finish of shifts.
