Flooding and Weather Disruption (Nov 2012)

[fgwrich]

Im fairly sure that this is another reason why they closed the line -

Look's like thats going to take a while to clear up then, especially as as soon as you start moving one section of earth, the stuff behind it will follow.

Time to start looking at one of these again NR

 

[Rich McLean]

Not good.

Replacement Buses are running, but very limited, and all shacks to Newton Abbot. If your off down that way, best bet is to get a coach

 

[Goatboy]

So no direct coaches to Exeter for XC and London passengers? How come?

Newton Abbot and Exeter (or Tiverton) are linked by direct dual carriageway and motorway! Were they running direct coaches journey times would be as close to normal as is reasonably expected. The arrangements in place for the Cowly Bridge closure were sensible and well implemented with direct coaches provided. I'm confused as to why a different approach is being taken with the Dawlish issue.

Why the focus on intermediate stops, already served by local buses, instead of the long distance passengers who make up the bulk of the route?

What provisions are Crosscountry making for passengers of their trains - surely they must be organising replacement road transport too which would have no reason to call at all stations to Exeter given that XC do not serve these stations?

 

[Eagle]

What provisions are Crosscountry making for passengers of their trains - surely they must be organising replacement road transport too which would have no reason to call at all stations to Exeter given that XC do not serve these stations?

(Actually, XC do serve Teignmouth, Dawlish and Starcross. Only a couple of times a day though.)

 

[Goatboy]

Fair enough but you get my point

 

[Zoe]

According to the FGW site, road transport is limited due to road conditions.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/disruption

Trains cannot run between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot. Bus services will run to intermediate stations, however road conditions mean these services will be very limited, and will add considerable time to journeys.

 

[Goatboy]

Road conditions near Dawlish.

There are no problems on the A380, A38 or M5.

 

[ushawk]

According to the FGW site, road transport is limited due to road conditions.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/disruption

Would also be restricted by the same problems as last week - trouble sourcing buses/coaches as companies have other commitments, if you dont have many buses, you will run them all stations so they arent left without a service.

Id rather a slow bus than absolutely no service.

 

[starrymarkb]

IIRC it took about 24-48 hours to ramp up the coaches to the numbers they were at. I suspect someone at FGW control has all the Devon/Somerset coach companies on speed dial at the moment!

 

[GodAtum]

Anyone know whats happening to the 1729 from Maidenhead to Paddington? It seems to be delayed at Pewsey.

 

[CC 72100]

IIRC it took about 24-48 hours to ramp up the coaches to the numbers they were at. I suspect someone at FGW control has all the Devon/Somerset coach companies on speed dial at the moment!

Buses also being supplemented by what appears to be recent London withdrawals. X and 51 reg red first London darts are also down at the station, hope they're kept away from the longer distance stuff!

 

[starrymarkb]

Buses also being supplemented by what appears to be recent London withdrawals. X and 51 reg red first London darts are also down at the station, hope they're kept away from the longer distance stuff!

Ah those will be the ones that were sent down to Plymouth Recently. IIRC one is now in the new first livery, destination equipment remains a sheet of A4...

What were the Wessex Scanias on last week? Taunton/Bristols or the Barnstaple locals.

 

[D1009]

Anyone know whats happening to the 1729 from Maidenhead to Paddington? It seems to be delayed at Pewsey.

It was 10 late at Hungerford.

I find it difficult to believe they are having trouble resourcing coaches. There was a huge number of vehicles involved with the Tiverton Parkway shuttle, surely they didn't send them all back as soon as the line at Cowley Bridge was reopened when it was already known there were problems at Teignmouth. Exeter - Tiverton and Exeter - Newton Abbot are similar distances. I travelled down on the 0730 Paddington this morning en route to Exmouth, and there were a fair number of coaches being loaded in the forecourt with passengers going further west. I'm sure they weren't stopping intermediately.

 

[Goatboy]

It was 10 late at Hungerford.

I find it difficult to believe they are having trouble resourcing coaches. There was a huge number of vehicles involved with the Tiverton Parkway shuttle, surely they didn't send them all back as soon as the line at Cowley Bridge was reopened when it was already known there were problems at Teignmouth. Exeter - Tiverton and Exeter - Newton Abbot are similar distances. I travelled down on the 0730 Paddington this morning en route to Exmouth, and there were a fair number of coaches being loaded in the forecourt with passengers going further west. I'm sure they weren't stopping intermediately.

Exactly my thoughts. This is also not a new problem is it - there has been a landslide at Dawlish every day since Saturday - ok the line opened again for a small period of time but it didn't even make a full day before being closed again.

So really, I'm at a loss to understand why the only bus provision is an all-stations service?

You can run a coach between Newton Abbot and Tiverton Parkway in about the same time as the train would take so in theory it's possible to run a connecting service which doesn't result in 1-2+ hour journey time extensions.

It's all very well saying a bus stopping everywhere is better than nothing but frankly if you are making a trip to the Midlands after work like many are on the often loaded XC services then a bus stopping everywhere might well be as good as nothing given by the time you do make it to Exeter connections you'll have been making will be gone.

After well over a week 'Don't travel unless neccesary' becomes infuriating rather than sensible advice. People cannot put travel plans on hold for ever.

Mind you - everyone was saying this last week about how limited the bus services were, how they stopped everywhere. In reality I got to Exeter and got straight onto a bus - it was organised really well.

Hopefully this is what is happening now as I've got another journey to make up North on Friday.

They seem hopeful of a single line being opened tommorrow - will this be Westbound trains only or some sort of single line working do we think?

 

[D1009]

- will this be Westbound trains only

Well if it was westbound trains only there would soon be a shortage of stock in the rest of the country!

 

[Martin_1981]

(Actually, XC do serve Teignmouth, Dawlish and Starcross. Only a couple of times a day though.)

About 3 of XC's direct Manchester/Birmingham-Paignton trains in each direction serve Dawlish and Teignmouth, but they don't call at Starcross. There is one FGW HST service in each direction between Paddington and Paignton which call at Starcross though.

Going back to the bus issues, in the past FGW have run replacement buses non stop between Tivvy P and Plymouth, with separate buses running all shacks Exeter-Nabbot and also buses between Exeter and Plymouth calling at Nabbot and Totnes, at least one of each each per hour in each direction. Tivvy Parkway to Plymouth non-stop by road takes approx 1 hr 15 mins, which is the same time as a Voyager or HST would take.

Martin

 

[DarloRich]

There will be icing problems as it is frosty up north today.

 

[Goatboy]

All the XC trains from Plymouth and Totnes after 3pm today have been removed from both the planner and the live departures. Not even showing as cancelled? The pre 3pm ones are still there.

Seems odd.

 

[D1009]

All the XC trains from Plymouth and Totnes after 3pm today have been removed from both the planner and the live departures. Not even showing as cancelled? The pre 3pm ones are still there.

Seems odd.

I think they are in the process of putting full amended schedules in. The first few trains today were retimed to allow for starting from Leeds, terminating at Exeter and the diversion via Severn Tunnel Jn. There are a lot of trains showing as cancelled which are actually running at the moment, so there may be more problems with system interfaces. Apparently the latest estimate for restoration of service over the down line at Westerleigh Jn is Wednesday 5th December.

 

[Goatboy]

As with last weekend the situation is far better than people think. FGW staff are doing a fantastic job with every FGW service timed to connect with express coaches direct to Exeter.

XC though? No staff, no advice, no connections with coaches. Frontal passengers perspective its like they have deleted all the trains off the departure boards and given up on anything west of Exeter.

 

[YorkshireBear]

First great western just put a comment on facebook in reply to someone stating that the good news is network rail believe they will be able to reopen teignmouth in the morning.

 

[paul1609]

As with last weekend the situation is far better than people think. FGW staff are doing a fantastic job with every FGW service timed to connect with express coaches direct to Exeter.

XC though? No staff, no advice, no connections with coaches. Frontal passengers perspective its like they have deleted all the trains off the departure boards and given up on anything west of Exeter.

Surely FGW staff should be looking after the XC passengers West of Exeter- they run all the stations?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Surely FGW staff should be looking after the XC passengers West of Exeter- they run all the stations?

thats what i was thinking. Cross country dont have an awful lots of staff on the ground. I believe they should have more and start to operate some stations.

 

[Goatboy]

True, but FGW are showing the through services as cancelled and running relief services in their path as far as Newton Abbot.

Whereas all the XC services have simply vanished - they are not even showing as cancelled. The only evidence that XC even serve Plymouth and Totnes was an abandoned 221 in the ex mail bays at Ply.

Surely they should at least be reporting the XC services as cancelled rather than erasing them from history instead?

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Sat in Leeds at the moment. There is an XC voyager pair in p6 which is new (only ever see EC in there). It must have terminated here then running back, destination listed as Bristol TM. Oddly though the Network Rail times app shows this service as completely cancelled.

 

[Goatboy]

Does anyone know whats going on between Bristol Parkway and Cheltenham?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Does anyone know whats going on between Bristol Parkway and Cheltenham?

It has been discussed in this thread, landslip i believe.

 

[Goatboy]

I meant right now - staff at EXD are saying its open but NRES says its closed. Are XC diverting?

 

[YorkshireBear]

I meant right now - staff at EXD are saying its open but NRES says its closed. Are XC diverting?

Last i heard XC were diverting, not due to open till next week possibly.

 

[Paule23]

I've just been on a XC train that went through Cheltenham at about 1645 this afternoon so no diversions then.

Train arrived at Bristol TM approx 50 minutes late, I spent 2 1/2 hours sat on the floor in first class and arrived at Birmingham nearly 2 hours late. Recovering with a glass of vino on a Voyager heading north.
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Sorry, just realised the diversion question was not about Cheltenham, maybe the wine is working too well