Another day ... another shambles.
Now I don't go down the GWML part of the Elizabeth Line daily, but honestly cannot recall the last time it all went to plan.
Yesterday, Thursday 14th Dec, another go. I started off fine. However at 12 noon, otherwise quite quiet, when we got to Hayes & Harlington there was what looked like a broken-down Heathrow train over in the bay, and an enormous crowd with substantial baggage now on the westbound platform waiting for the next one, they must have all staggered over the bridge, and the crush actually looked a bit dicey at the bottom of the steps.
Meanwhile, had noticed a Class 800 service stopped on the Up Main, whereupon we pass a whole string of what might have been following it running us on the Up Relief instead. Looking at RTT it then seems that the entire service had deteriorated, Up Main line trains losing 30 minutes into Paddington, thereafter Down trains starting comparably late, and the Liz service mixed in with all this just running as and when.
Look on the computer in the afternoon, Liz Core service now deteriorated to a real "Banana Service" of bus world style, three consecutive Abbey Wood services followed by two Shenfields, etc, and long gaps. I come back in the evening, when hopefully sorted out. But No. At 1800 two consecutive eastbound services at Slough are cancelled, one the GWR semi-fast to Paddington (which is surely becoming the most cancelled service in the country), so train finally arrives all seats taken. Some strange regulating follows, held for some minutes outside Hayes until a Heathrow service is allowed to precede, which being a stopping service means we are then held behind it outside all subsequent stations where we would be nonstop. At least not as bad as on the Mains, where much of the service is still cancelled or grossly late. I also notice while waiting at Slough that what westbounds are running, both Liz and on the Mains, seem to have near-crush standing loads. And despite so much cancelled, what a lot of GWRs in the peak are down to five cars.
Honestly, there must be times when the Controls of both NR and the GWR despair of the day the Purple Trains came to their fiefdom, and wish the confounded things had never been allowed west of Bond Street.
