Why not, they tend to only be in wrong place because of unplanned (ad-hoc) move, or a planned move that didn't happen.
I know how it is supposed to work, and how a run down, stretched railway, where staff have been ground down over the years to where a low standard becomes the norm, works in practice.
You can't have it both ways, if the infrastructure is weak, then need to increase fleet contingency to cover higher than normal failures
Agreed, standard problem when operate mixed fleet, need spares of each type, which is more spares than if have one type of diesel unit
Again insufficient units, so units get taken to wrong places by overstretched controllers who think of sorting immediate problem regardless of consequences for tomorrows allocation. Shouldn't need to run them at night, but the days unplanned changes are often unsuccessful at getting later shuffled again to unwind the swap get trains to correct finishing place.
True, not at all outstations, but it takes about 3 hours to take a train from Bristol depot to be ready for service at Portsmouth. Any outstation that far away with a series of trains departing before a replacement could arrive ought to be worthy of a spare, especially when we are dealing with a 31-35 year old aging diesel fleet that doesn't just fail once a year, but is prone to fail multiple mornings each month. These aren't rarely fail electric units.
Yes which it is imperative to try and get correct train there by end of day, even if it was borrowed or swapped around during the day.
Welcome to the nationilsed-in-all-but-name railway where the Government specify the timetable, allocate the resources, pay the costs and receive the revenue.
My sense as a regular commuter on this line is that it isn't getting any worse or any better, but that the expansion of local services around Bristol did see an understandable reduction in capacity on Pompey-Cardiff.
As a resident who uses line at times, and can see line from my house, it does vary day to day, and different times of day, possibly not getting worse overall, but 2car sets are much more common on Portsmouth-Cardiff than under the old timetable until May.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
I'm surprised they didn't use the usual in spinning it at Newport to allow the return leg to start on time, all be starting at Newport instead of Cardiff
I now directly work next to the line and would agree with your observations. The numbers of 2 cars has increased considerably of late.As a resident who uses line at times, and can see line from my house, it does vary day to day, and different times of day, possibly not getting worse overall, but 2car sets are much more common on Portsmouth-Cardiff than under the old timetable until May.
We are not talking about occasional short 2car trains, now happens many times every week, so no longer exceptional.
I suspect that it is still at 0% for managing a full days timetabled service without any short forms or cancellations in the 6 months since timetable changed, unless anyone can find a day where everything ran fully.
Today looks like 1F03, 1F12, 1F19, 1F28 are just a 2car 158.
1F12 has managed to lose 41 minutes so far, it will struggle to meet start time of return from Cardiff, unless they can reverse and clean it in a minute or two
Realtime Trains | 1F12 0923 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central | 17/11/2023
Real-time train running information for 1F12 0923 departure from Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central on 17/11/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
The times aren't only constrained by the departure times from Bradford-on-Avon, but by the various single lines, the timing of southbound services, the availability of platforms at Bristol etc.
Unlikely. One of the first rules of open access is that a viable plan has to include running services to London.
There would be, if the Weymouth train had more capacity than the following train.
It is worth mentioning that Adhesion has been absolutely terrible today, was on a service that past you I believe at Oldfield Park and was the slowest crawl from Oldfield Park to Twerton and then on to Keynsham that I have ever been on, which could explain the power being put on and off a lot (WSP Wheelslip Protection)
I did wonder if it was this, the guard said in the PA, engine fault, but it had the hallmarks of wheel slip to me. Also service I took from Salisbury to Bath was taking it easy from Dilton Marsh up to Bradford.
Yes, stations with such short platforms are local door only. Where there’s normal platforms though, we’d lock the rear coach or rear portion of the train out, so as to run normal 5 car formations etc, although we’d stop at the stop car marker relevant for the actual physical formation not taking in to account we’ve locked a coach out.
You’ve obviously visited the Depot control room and seen our essential bit of kit - much fun is had on nights!
There’s a limit to how long you can run a stopper “directly” in front of a faster service without holding the latter up! Even without any other considerations the stopper has to be far enough ahead of the Portsmouth at Bradford to allow for 4 additional stops.
I know their are diagrams, my point is the same train will regularly be a different length, or swap between 158, 165, 166 different days of the week, and also be different on same day of the week, a week laterYou’ve obviously visited the Depot control room and seen our essential bit of kit - much fun is had on nights!
The Snow1964 random carriage generator!
Why look at the traction diagrams when you can just spin the wheel!
Same again today.
Shortage of sets I would guess and less HST availability to cover it up?
