Belperpete
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Aug 2018
- Messages
- 1,650
Did you check the GWR website or journey check? This currently shows:As a commuter on the Reading-Newbury line this morning, I'm interested in how cancelled trains are communicated to customers. I checked the live times before I left for the station, discovered that the 0734 and 0803 were cancelled, but that the 0834 was still listed as running. Before I left, that too was listed as cancelled, but the 0849 was still apparently running. I arrived at the station to find that had been cancelled in the intervening ten minute window, but the 0911 was running. At 0900, that was listed cancelled and I gave up.
As this was apparently a fallen tree and damage to the OHLE, wouldn't it be apparent to schedulers that none of these trains would be running? The idea that no one knew they would be cancelled until ten minutes before their scheduled time is somewhat incredible, but that's the impression the information boards give.
Due to a tree blocking the railway between Reading and Newbury the line towards Reading is blocked.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled, delayed by up to 120 minutes or suspended between Theale and Reading West. Disruption is expected until 13:30 10/02.
Customer Advice:
Limited Rail Replacement Transport in operation.
This was by far from being the only disruption on GW today, and I imagine that the schedulers would have been stretched keeping up with all the changes, particularly as situations changed. I suspect that many of the trains did actually run, just not between Reading and Newbury, being started or terminated short. Each train would have been shown as running up until the point that it was decided to cut it short, and the schedulers had time to input the revised running details. They would want to re-open the line as soon as they were advised it was clear, so would not want to revise the running details too far in advance, only to have to unrevise them.