Cleared: Service disruption between Birmingham Snow Hill and Kidderminster

Update: Chiltern trains are now running between Birmingham Snow Hill and Kidderminster.

A full normal service is expected tomorrow morning 1st October 2014.

Trains suspended between Kidderminster and Birmingham Snow Hill

Edit: The problems referred to below have now been resolved. A normal service is expected to run tomorrow morning.

Owing to a line side fire at the Hawthorns all Chiltern trains are suspended between Birmingham Snow Hill and Kidderminster.  Disruption is expected until 09:00 01/10.

All Chiltern trains will start from Birmingham Moor Street tomorrow morning 1st October. Passengers travelling tomorrow from stations between Kidderminster and Birmingham Snow Hill are advised to leave earlier than usual to take a London Midland train to which, depending on the state of the fire, will either stop at Birmingham Moor Street or Birmingham New Street where a walk to Birmingham Moor St will be required. Please allow plenty of extra time to reach Birmingham Moor Street, from where Chiltern trains will run at their normal times to London.

Tonight, local bus services are conveying passengers between Birmingham Moor Street and Kidderminster in both directions until further notice.  Arrangements have been made for Chiltern Railways rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys. 4M, 9, 53, 80, 87, 120 and 127. Ticket acceptance on all London Midland trains via any reasonable route is in place until further notice.

Cable Fire at London Marylebone

Sunday 15th June 2014

Overnight, there has been a cable fire just outside London Marylebone. This means that the signals don't work, so there are no trains running to or from Marylebone at present.

Full guidance from Chiltern Railways is available here.

In a nutshell....

• Passengers for the High Wycombe line should travel to/from West Ruislip using the Central Line.
• Passengers for the Aylesbury via Amersham line should use the Metropolitan Line. Chiltern Railways trains will start/finish at Harrow on the Hill. 

The situation could change during the day, so check before you travel. 

Information is also available via the National Rail Enquiries website.

Edit: 1038. It appears that some trains on the High Wycombe line may be starting / finishing their journeys at Wembley Stadium station. However connections by public transport there are poor into Central London (and it won't be all trains anyway. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that passengers follow the official advice and travel directly to West Ruislip for travel to railway stations along the High Wycombe line. 

Edit: 1345. Most trains towards London (on the High Wycombe line) are currently stopping at South Ruislip to drop off for connections to the Central Line. Trains out of London however are still picking up at West Ruislip. It is clearly proving difficult to run all trains to time - many have extra stops, so allow plenty of time and expect delays.

Edit: 1630. The Central Line is currently suspended between Westbound between Marble Arch and a White City. Not good news for Chiltern Railways passengers trying to get to West Ruislip. 

Options seem to be:

1. Northbound Bakerloo Line to Wembley Central and then a 10 minute walk to Wembley Stadium station or
2. From Bakers Street or Edgware Road (H&C) stations take the Hammersmith & City Line to Wood Lane. White City station is a 3 minute walk from there, from where the Central Line runs to West Ruislip. Allow at least an hour from Marylebone. 

The day just got worse. 

Edit: 1715. Unsurprisingly, the Central Line suspension between Marble Arch & White City is now both ways. Expected to last until 1900 but no guarantees on this. 

Edit: 1745. It appears that a through service has now resumed on the Central Line. Severe delays are reported at present. 

Edit: 1950. Central Line has improved. Now just 'Minor Delays' reported. 

Email received at 1920 from Chiltern Railways re tomorrow morning:

"Dear Customer,

Marylebone station is closed due to a cable fire. Around 2 metres of signalling cable in the tunnel into the station has burned away meaning the signalling system is not working. Without signals we cannot safely run trains, so are not running to or from Marylebone until new cables are installed and tested. Engineers are on site however, disruption is expected and Marylebone will be closed into Monday morning and until further notice.

We strongly advise passengers to avoid travelling on Monday unless essential.

Chiltern tickets are valid on Virgin Trains, London Midland, FGW, CrossCountry & London Underground services."

Final Edit: 2320. Marylebone is not expected to open in time for the Monday morning rush hour. An emergency timetable has been published for the Amersham line. The Wycome line version will hopefully be out in the next hour or so.

Good night everyone.

Passenger Engagement and Public Toilets

Before reading any further, I must first of all point out that I am not in the habit of taking pictures in public toilets. Honestly.

A significant part of the role of a corporate Marketing & Communications team is to increase customer engagement with your brand. 

The word engagement is something that means different thinks to different people. Thanks to the English language, context is of course important. 

Employee Engagement is part of the modern management lexicon of corporate-speak. A cynic might say that someone with a high level of Employee Engagement is likely to accept less remuneration (or lower pay rises) and is less likely to leave, than would otherwise be the case. 

For a train company, customers are in the main your passengers. Passenger Engagement can therefore mean different things, but if a Marketing & Communications team can successfully increase brand perception, then that is good. It is what they are there for. 

A strong brand increases loyalty from existing customers and will also help attract new ones. For a train company, that means new passengers.

I am probably fairly high up the target list of a passenger that a train company would want to keep loyal. I do not say that because I have an over-sized head but because (a) my local Train Operating Company gets sack loads of my dosh every year (b) I use twitter to communicate with and about them and (c) I occasionally write blog posts about my experiences. 

For me, there is no chance of another TOC getting my day-to-day business. Chiltern Railways operate a monopoly in my area so, along with thousands of other commuters, I am not going anywhere else. 

It's a different story however for Chiltern Railways when looking at the entirety of their route. The London to Birmingham route is highly competitive. 

Here are the options and a snapshot view of each brand and offering (my views alone). 

• Virgin Trains. London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Fast. Expensive. 
• Chiltern Railways. London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street / Snow Hill. Not so fast, better value. 
• London Midland. London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Really slow. Good value. 

So, see what I've done? I have ranked and compared three multi-million pound businesses based on just two comparatives and my perceptions. 

Each of those comparatives (speed and price) can easily be challenged, or proven wrong, or may be completely irrelevant to particular passengers. 

Speed (time a journey takes) is affected by a number of factors including your specific start and finishing points, ease of connection to onward trains and even the time or day of the week. 

Price, as far as the UK railway industry is concerned, should be the subject of a Masters Degree in Confusion and Complexity. I will simply say that a single one-way journey between London and Birmingham can sometimes be obtained for as little as 50 pence (a newspaper promotional offer) to as much as £135. Of course the vast majority of passengers pay somewhere in the middle and well below the mid-point of those two prices. 

Other passenger relevant variables might include;

• The availability of wi-fi and it's cost. 
• Tables
• Refreshment services
• Station ambience
• Plug charging points
• Types of trains
• View out of the window
• Friendliness of staff
• Availability of seats
• Awareness of what choices there are
• Cleanliness of toilets

Everybody is different and each individual will have their own personal decision-making matrix that they use. That is complicated and is difficult to model or to communicate effectively. 

That is where the Communication and Marketing team comes to the front. Can they encapsulate little snippets of information that subtly make people want to use their services over those of a competitor? Perhaps a self-deprecating choice of language. Humour. Honesty. Integrity. Everything helps, almost anything goes. 

So, what has all that got to do with toilets?

Take a look at the toilets at Marylebone Station and you'll find out!

CU

Random musings about running a railway

I am generally a real fan and advocate of the train services offered by Chiltern Railways. From this starting point, I do however try to remain objective about my experiences and have, on occasion, been openly critical about some aspects of what they do.

A little bit of background. 

Upon privatisation, Chiltern Railways was a tiny franchise operating fairly limited services from London Marylebone station*, with services along two separate lines through the Chiltern Hills to Aylesbury and stations along the M40 corridor. 

* If you are a gentleman, the toilets at Marylebone have a giant Monopoly board on the wall, cleverly reminding you where you are. The ladies facilities are currently being refurbished, so we wait to see what droll humour emanates from the minds of the marketing gurus in respect of the decor there. 

A huge amount of money has been spent in improving the line over the years and the consensus view would probably be that passengers along the Chiltern Railways routes generally benefit from the way the franchise has been managed. 

The Franchise itself is unusual in that it was extended to a 21 year term (with an option to extend), the longest in the UK. The train services are operated by a company that is now ultimately owned by the German government. 

The number of passengers using Chiltern Railways has grown phenomenally over the years. However due to a combination of investment, and the profile of agreed payments due to the Exchequer, the train company is currently loss making. 

Infrastructure spending continues - the line between Bicester Town and Oxford has just closed for over a year, to enable that stretch of railway to be completely rebuilt and linked up to the main line to Marylebone. This is the last phase of Project Evergreen 3, which saw a huge amount of track work leading to much faster journey times during the project's early stages, a couple of years ago. 

Interestingly much of the infrastructure spending is initially paid by Network Rail, with the costs paid for by Chiltern (including interest at reasonably commercial rates) by way of increased track access charges over time. From later in 2014 Network Rail's large (huge) borrowings will be accounted for as part of the National Debt. Bear that in mind when the railway company talks about investment - Yes they have spent many millions of their own money, but they have also spent lots of ours. The audited accounts make for an interesting read. 

With the exception of the London Underground tracks between Harrow and Amersham, the Chiltern routes are not electrified. This means that all their trains are powered by diesel powered engines. In the national context much electrification is planned. Other than the stretch of replacement railway between Oxford and Bicester, and much of the line heading North from Oxford / Banbury, the Chiltern Railways routes are unlikely to be electrified anytime soon. 

This causes a problem, because due to the increasing passenger numbers throughout the UK, there is a real shortage of passenger carriages and trains. Yes, there are plenty of new trains in the pipeline, but none of these will be powered only by diesel.

With an ever increasing demand, clever time-tabling can only get you so far.

A few years ago, Chiltern 'acquired' four 2 car Class 172 train sets. Capable of 100 mph, these trains were originally planned for the 'inner' services. Typically Marylebone / Gerrards Cross. However with huge chunks of the Birmingham line now running trains at 100 mph, it has made perfect sense for these new trains to run much further afield.

It is not unusual to see the Chiltern Class 172s bolstering the Class 168 'Clubman' trains, and they often provide the rolling stock for services to Stratford upon Avon. 

However, in the overall scheme of things, eight carriages doesn't get you very far. The new carriages are also not popular with many long distance travellers as they don't have wi-fi or tables. 

A failed service was the acclaimed Wrexham & Shropshire train service, which used to run an occasional but regular service between Marylebone and Wrexham. The last services ran on 28th January 2011. The trains used were refurbished Mark III coaches with a Class 67 locomotive at one end and a Driving Van Trailer at the other. 

These trains provided the catalyst for Chiltern's solution to the nationwide shortage of rolling stock. What they did was to acquire a job lot of the old Mark III coaches which were originally built in the 1970s & 80s, retro-fit most of them with plug doors, and put them into service with diesel locomotives providing the traction at one end and DVTs at the other. Result!

Yes, four posh 'new' trains have made it possible to run a significantly enhanced service following Evergreen 3 (part 1). They also have an old un-refurbished 'Blue & Grey' train that makes up a morning commuter train from Banbury to London, with a return trip in the evening. 

The problem is, the Class 67 locomotives have proven to be prone to breakdowns. A few months ago, Rail magazine said that they were the least reliable fleet in the country. The measure was the average number of miles between breakdown. 

I know that Chiltern have invested a lot of time and money in trying to improve the reliability of their locomotive hauled trains. The problem is, of course, that if one fails en-route (a) it's likely to have a lot of passengers on board and (b) when this happens, the nearest available 'Thunderbird' rescue engine may be many miles away with possibly lots of 'normal' trains sandwiched in between. 

Oh, the joys of running a railway.

A final thought. The current timetable is said to include train paths that will be used to run the new services to Oxford. It will take a lot longer to run a train from the new curve at Bicester to Oxford than it currently does to turn the Bicester terminators round in the siding.

Anyone got any spare trains?

CU

A question of ticket checks...

A question was asked on Twitter this evening as to why, having just passed through the ticket barriers at Marylebone, a passenger's ticket was then checked on the train a few minutes later. 

A perfectly reasonable question. 

It got my mind racing in a number of different directions - The following are some of my thoughts on the topic, from the perspective of an ordinary honest fare paying passenger, traveling mostly with Chiltern Railways. If you a reading from the perspective of someone less scrupulous, please go elsewhere. 

From a revenue protection perspective, Chiltern Railways will want to check that (a) a ticket is valid on a particular train and (b) that a ticket covering the journey is held at all. 

I suspect that the barriers are not that clever and will open with any ticket that is valid from that station at roughly that time of day. That could include tickets to any one of literally hundreds of destinations, tickets that are valid only during peak periods, or even tickets valid on just one specific train. 

The vast majority of passengers are honest and travel with valid tickets, some honest passengers travel on trains for which their tickets are not valid due to ticket-type restrictions, and some passengers travel dishonestly. 

It is possible to buy tickets in advance, for specific trains, that can cost as little as £6 or £9 to travel between Marylebone and Birmingham. By buying an 'Advance' ticket at such bargain prices, the passenger forfeits much of the flexibility that a more expensive ticket would provide. If you have an Advance ticket for a specific train, you must travel on that train, otherwise you you can expect to have to buy a replacement full fare ticket if it is checked by a ticket inspector. 

On a weekday, trains arriving into or departing from destination stations at peak times have specific ticket restrictions, meaning it is more expensive to travel at those times. Peak time restrictions do not apply on weekends or Bank Holidays. 

London stations are peculiar in that a tap of an Oystercard (a smart card ticket) will make the ticket gates open. Oystercards are valid from London Marylebone, but only as far as West Ruislip or Amersham. A surprisingly large number of people travel outside of the London Travelcard zones having simply tapped in, in London. If caught, they will usually be made to buy a full ticket and will also have the problem of an unresolved (unfinished) journey on their Oystercard to contend with. 

The unscrupulous passenger might buy a ticket far short of their destination, in the hope that they don't get caught. That is totally illegal and anyone who knowingly does this deserves to have the book thrown at them. 

The busiest stations (Marylebone, Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Leamington Spa and the Birmingham Terminii) have ticket barriers, as do London Underground stations at which Chiltern Railways trains call. Banbury will have barriers installed later in 2014. As most passengers have valid tickets, staff only have to deal with the small number of exceptions. Ticket barriers have to be left open if a station is unstaffed, so they are not a complete solution. 

South of Banbury, only the locomotive hauled trains (plus one other) have Train Managers on board. Other than that, surprise ticket checks are carried out on-board by a small band of roving ticket inspectors. 

There are also random 'blockades' at stations, where tickets are fully checked. 

North of Banbury, every train has a guard on board, so tickets will usually be checked. This extra presence is because a Driver Only Operation is only permitted between Marylebone and Banbury. DOO is not possible on the locomotive hauled trains and is not allowed on the one eight car weekday morning commuter train. 

Revenue protection is all about checks and balances. A commercial decision has been taken to not have ticket inspectors on every train. However when a member of staff is on board it makes sense for them to check tickets, for the reasons I have given. 

Most people welcome their tickets being checked on-board as it provides reassurance that the money they have paid is not subsidising people who have not paid the correct fare. 

During the week, it is not possible to check many tickets on-board, because the trains are too full and uncomfortable. That is however an entirely different story...

So in summary:

-Ticket barriers help prevent ticketless travel and, broadly, help to enforce peak / off-peak ticket restrictions. 

-On-board ticket checks help to minimise the number of people traveling with invalid tickets. 

The ticket checking regime is not perfect, but I for one welcome anything that stops my fares going up unnecessarily due to people not paying the correct fares for train travel. 

Chiltern Railways - Early Services on Thursday 13th February 2014

Chiltern Railways had a torrid day yesterday. Major problems were caused following a power / signalling system failure in the Banbury area.

This caused the total suspension of services between Bicester North & Leamington Spa for almost six hours.

I expect many long distance commuters will work from home today, simply due to the times that they eventually got home.

Anyhow, at present, it would appear that the problems at Banbury have been fixed and the vast majority of trains operated by Chiltern Railways are running, and to time.

Good show chaps and chapesses!

The wi-fi service on board Chiltern Railways trains

Chiltern Railways offer 'Free' wi-fi to all passengers on most of their long distance trains. Some might argue that it's included in the price of the train ticket so isn't free of charge, but in my mind it's an extra service that you don't pay extra for, so I consider it free.

The wi-fi service is usually available on all Class 168 'Clubman' style trains and on the fancy 'Silver' trains that have electrically operated doors. If your train has tables, it should have wi-fi, unless you happen to catch the old 'blue & grey' train (with slam doors) that does one trip from Banbury to Marylebone each weekday morning, with one return trip in the evening.

The service is obtained by registering for the service the first time you log on, and then by using your email address on subsequent visits.

The wi-fi doesn't always work for everyone, usually for technical reasons.

You should also be aware that the wi-fi system on board the trains uses the mobile phone network. This means that there is not an unlimited amount of bandwidth (usage is slowed down after 20mb of data) and if the train is passing through a mobile-data Bermuda Triangle, then the data connection will drop off.

The service is provided by a company called icomera, which is based in Göteborg in Sweden. They have staff in the UK, but the company's customer Help Desk is located in Scandinavia. They are a jolly helpful and friendly bunch of people.

What support options are available when the wi-fi doesn't work for you?

Telephone: A geographical London based Help Line number was announced in September 2014. It is  020 8028 0375. [Edit Sep 2014]

 
Email: Provided you have 3G access (presumably the on-board wi-fi is not working), you can email chiltern.support@icomera.com You should include basic information about the nature of the problem and what train you are on. It is really helpful if you can include the carriage number you are in - this isn't always obvious, but is usually above the door to the drivers cab if you are in one of the the end carriages of a Clubman 168 train.

Sending an email will automatically generate a service ticket, with an auto response email. My experience is that these tickets do usually take a few minutes to feed through the system before they come to the attention of an icomera Help Desk agent.

Internet: There is also a support website - Once you have logged an email ticket, you can respond and log further tickets via the support system. I like this because I have a record although, as with the emails, it can take a short while before your problem is picked up.

The web site also offers a Live Chat facility - of course you will need your own means of accessing the internet to use this. Also, if you lose your signal, the conversation may break off. With Live Chat, you can have the system email you a copy of your conversation.

The icomera Help Desk service is supposed to be available from 0600 to 2200 every day. Occasionally response times are not immediate, but please remember that the agent(s) on duty are likely to be multi-tasking. Very occasionally response times suggest that no one is there - When that happens, I tend to get grumpy.

Support is not currently available from icomera via Twitter although the lovely Chiltern Tweeters will occasionally log a fault - I find it much more efficient to do it myself.

All is calm, all is bright

Actually, it's not that bright, but all is calm.

After last night's storm, Chiltern Railways have managed to run most trains, albeit with some quite long delays. 

My train of choice this morning was cancelled - where I live we are often the first to be sacrificed. However I am now sat at the back of the six carriage loco-hauled Chiltern Blue & Grey set. Yes, we are running late, but there are only seven people sat in the carriage, so it is rather soporific. 

Mind you, there is one grumpy old man who ranted that 'They've had all year to check the lines'. Eh? Some people!

South West Trains are running no trains before 10.00 am and other Train Operating Companies are operating very limited services due to various safety / infrastructure issues. 

By contrast, Chiltern started to time and have tried to run the best service that they can. 

Commercially (unlike other TOCs), Chiltern Railways are enforcing ticket restrictions today. Given the paucity of passengers and the worry caused by the Christmas Eve weather, this decision appears Scrooge like, and hopefully will be reviewed as the big chiefs get to work. 

I'll be on a de-restricted Advance ticket this afternoon, on an East Coast train. 

Anyhow, to my reader wherever you are, have a very Happy Christmas!

Chasing the Rainbow

In my experience, it is fairly rare to get sight of a complete rainbow. Even more so to get a complete picture.

Late this afternoon, there was a fantastic complete arch of a rainbow in the Wendover area of Rural Buckinghamshire. 

At the time I was sat on a Chiltern Railways train. The windows were fairly grubby and trees and bushes a plenty, as we bimbled along. This was the best I could do, and not even with a proper camera. 

Darrell Jordan has a much better picture of the same rainbow taken at nearby Little Kimble. 

Virgin Trains along the Chiltern Line - Sunday 25 August 2013

Engineering works are taking place today that will significantly affect Virgin Trains Operating out of Euston.
This means that for much of the day one train an hour, in each direction, will be diverted via the Chiltern Line.

Virgin Trains
Sunday

• Some trains are diverted to run between London Euston and Birmingham International, Birmingham New Street and Crewe via High Wycombe, Leamington Spa and Coventry
• Trains between London Euston and Birmingham New Street / Wolverhampton and Manchester Piccadilly will run to an amended timetable
• Until 12:00 trains will not run between London Euston and Rugby
• After 12:00 trains will not run between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central

For those interested in such things, I have pasted below a snapshot of the anticipated time for all of the diverted trains to pass through Princes Risborough. Thanks to Tom Cairns and the Realtimetrains website.

If you click this link, you will be taken to the live version of the same data - Click away to your heart's content! The data should be retained for 7 days, after which it probably won't work any more.

As a consequence,Chiltern Railways services on their Mainline Route (Birmingham - Stratford-upon-Avon - Banbury - High Wycombe - London Marylebone) will have minor changes to their timetable. There will also be additional carriages on many trains as the planned closure on West Coast Main Line from Euston will mean additional passengers using their services.

___________________________

Virgin Trains through Princes Risborough

Sunday 25th August 201
(Click image to enlarge)

Edit: The original image has been replaced with one that shows what actually happened at Princes Risborough on Sunday 25th August 2013.

A busy time of day and no trains

I am currently rather too frustrated to write a well considered and erudite post.

All I really want to say is that there are today a lot of people who have had a rather bad start to their day, courtesy of Chiltern Railways. 

If you click on the image below, you should be able to see a 67 minute gap in train services to London Marylebone. The information is for Princes Risborough station and was extracted at about 0840.

It is the view of many affected that my local station was ignored by those making operational decisions today.

I certainly hope that as many people as possible from Princess Risborough apply for the refunds to which they are entitled. 

More on Punctuality

I went to bed yesterday evening not long after 11 pm.

Up until I last checked, Chiltern Railways had had 398 passenger trains complete their journeys on Wednesday. Of those, one train had reached its destination more than five minutes late. 

The late train actually arrived at Aylesbury six and a half minutes late, delayed I think by congestion on the Metropolitan Line, caused by a signal failure. 

I didn't wait up till 1.30 am to see the last of the remaining twenty or so trains arrive at their destinations. 

However what I can say is that of the last 830 trains (ie two days worth) run by Chiltern Railways until 11.30 pm last night, just one was officially late. 

In my view, that takes some doing. 

A Good Day's Work

Like all businesses, the UK Train Operating Companies have a number of Key Performance Indicators by which their performance is measured.

One of these KPIs is the Public Performance Measure. The PPM measures the percentage of trains that arrive at their destination within 5 minutes (for London & South East and Regional services) of their planned arrival time, or 10 minutes (for Long Distance services).

Yesterday was a red letter day for Chiltern Railways, the train company that I use day in and day out.

Not only did they record a 100% PPM score for the day, but it was on a day when there was a large event on at Wembley Stadium (a Robbie Williams concert), that did not finish until late in the evening.

I think a pat on the back is deserved!

Well done to all at Chiltern Railways.
 

 [Planned post title "Well, Did You Evah?"]

I wonder how common this is?

Yesterday afternoon, I was heading South on a Chiltern Railways train which had just left Banbury.

After a couple of minutes, the train ground to a halt (in an entirely controlled manner) and we sat there, just North of Kings Sutton.

A quick check of a couple of on-line reference sources showed that, just in front of us was a First Great Western train going from Banbury to Oxford. In front of that was a Cross Country train heading from Manchester to Bournemouth. 

The driver came on the PA and told us that a train in front had broken down and that a rescue locomotive was being sent to assist with moving it. Somewhat erroneously I assumed that the issue was with the FGW train. 

As there was nothing else to do, I let loose on Twitter and discovered something slightly unusual had happened. 

It transpired that the Cross Country Service to Bournemouth (train 1O18, which I had earlier seen pass through Leamington Spa) had actually taken a 'Wrong Route'.

What this means is that the signaller had set the points and signals for the train in the wrong direction. Now, obviously, a train driver cannot actually steer a train but, nevertheless one would hope that the driver would not have knowingly taken the wrong route. 

The reality is that if the train was traveling at say 75 - 100 mph on green signals, the driver would probably not have had time to stop before the incorrectly set signal.

My working assumption is that the Cross Country train diverted off the Oxford Line and, instead started to head towards Bicester North, on the line usually used exclusively by Chiltern Railways passenger trains. I have no idea how far the train got, or what it did to reverse back up the line to resume it's correct journey. 

What I can say is that the incident delayed the Cross Country train by 35 minutes between Banbury and Oxford. It then eventually arrived into Bournemouth 34 minutes late at 1745. From what I can see, the train then set off just 3 minutes later (and 3 minutes late) for a 302 mile trip to Leeds, which it achieved without incident. 

The train I was on eventually arrived into London Marylebone 31 minutes late. 

Given the thousands of train movements that happen throughout the day, over thousands of sets of points, I am amazed that this sort of incident doesn't seem to happen more often. 

I've pasted below the eventual timings of the trains involved / delayed over Aynho Junction, plus a copy of the tweet I received advising of the true cause of the incident. 

Stay happy. Stay safe!

CU

______________

As a footnote, I ought to say that at no time were any men, women, children or animals put in any danger by this incident. The signalling system is designed to ensure that safe gaps are maintained between trains, wherever they may actually be going to. The fact that our train came to a perfectly smooth and controlled stop is evidence of this. 

Railway Children Special

There is a rather unusual railtour happening today down in my neck of the woods. Why unusual? Well it will be a train full of enthusiasts that will travel through Chiltern Railways depots, pass across unusual sets of points and will generally reach areas of track and infrastructure only usually ever seen by insiders.

It is hoped that the event will raise £10,000 - £12,500 for Railway Children with ticket sales, on board raffle and sales etc.

The train is being provided by Chiltern completely free of charge, the trains crews are donating their pay to The Railway Children and Network Rail are not charging for their work in planning and  running  the train etc. The whole day has been facilitated by the Branch Line Society.

Below is full detail of the Working Timetable for this unique, interesting and unusual trip. In Twitterland I occasionally use the hashtag "#traingeek". Well, looking at today's itinerary I think that today's trip possibly takes train enthusiasm to a new level. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I hope that a good day is had by all and that lots of money is raised for charity.

Tickets for this event have been sold in advance. If you don't have a special ticket, please do not attempt to board the train.

For operational reasons the timetable for today has been organised into  six different chunks. Hopefully live tracking will be available via the following links, which may act as a historical record just for a day or two.

The timetable data and Real Time Train data has all been extracted using the Real Time Trains web site.

• 1Z21 (Starts from Maylebone at 1105)
• 1Z65 (Starts from Gerrards Cross Siding at 1320)
• 1Z66 (Starts from Aylesbury at 1500)
• 1Z67 (Starts from Great Missenden at 1710)
• 1Z68 (Starts from Aylesbury at 1733)
• 1Z72 (Starts from Bicester North Turnback Siding at 1952)

 =======================================

Working Timetable Information for the Day

=======================================

1Z21 1105 London Marylebone to Gerrards Cross Siding
Operated by CH
STP schedule UID U50894, identity 1Z21
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Dep	Dly
London Marylebone formed from 2H19 from Bicester North		1105	1105	RT
Marylebone Up Tunnel Sdgs	1108	1115
London Marylebone	1118	1125	1121	-4
Neasden South Jn	pass	1133	1129	-4
Wembley Gcj	pass	1135
Wembley Lmd	1137	1227	1220	-7
Wembley Stadium	pass	1229	1223	-6
Wembley Siding	1231	1238	1240	2
Wembley Stadium	pass	1240	1242	2
Neasden South Jn	pass	1242	1243	1
Neasden South Jn Sig Me525	1243	1250
Neasden South Jn	pass	1251	1247	-4
Wembley Stadium	pass	1253	1252	-1
Sudbury & Harrow Road	pass	1254
Sudbury Hill Harrow	pass	1254
Northolt Park	pass	1255
Northolt Park Jn	pass	1257	1256	-1
South Ruislip	pass	1258	1256	-2
West Ruislip	1301	1302	1259	-3
Denham	pass	1305
Denham Golf Club	pass	1306
Gerrards Cross	pass	1309	1306	-3
Gerrards Cross Siding	1311			-3
1Z65 1320 Gerrards Cross Siding to Aylesbury
STP schedule UID U50895, identity 1Z65
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Dep	Dly
Gerrards Cross Siding		1320	1320	RT
Gerrards Cross	pass	1322	1322	RT
Denham Golf Club	pass	1323
Denham	pass	1324
West Ruislip	1328	1335	1336	1
Denham	pass	1338
Denham Golf Club	pass	1339
Gerrards Cross	pass	1342	1342	RT
Seer Green	pass	1344
Beaconsfield	pass	1345
High Wycombe	pass	1350	1349	-1
West Wycombe	pass	1352
Saunderton	pass	1355	1353	-2
Princes Risborough	1359	1400	1358	-2
Monks Risborough	pass	1406
Little Kimble	pass	1413	1410	-3
Aylesbury	1421			-2
1Z66 1500 Aylesbury to Great Missenden
STP schedule UID U50898, identity 1Z66
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
This train started from Aylesbury due to a decision by the train operating company (TR)
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Dep	Dly
Aylesbury		1500
Aylesbury D.M.U. Depot	1505	1537
Aylesbury	1542	1542
Aylesbury (Sdgs 1-7)	1603	1610
Aylesbury	1613	1619
Aylesbury (Sdgs 1-7)	1622	1629
Aylesbury	1632	1633	1626	-7
Aylesbury North Loop	1637	1640	1639	-1
Aylesbury Sig Me302	1642	1649
Aylesbury	1652	1653	1650	-3
Stoke Mandeville	pass	1657	1653	-4
Wendover	pass	1659	1655	-4
Great Missenden	1704			-4
1Z67 1710 Great Missenden to Aylesbury
STP schedule UID U50899, identity 1Z67
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Arr	Dep	Dly
Great Missenden		1710		No report
Wendover	pass	1718	pass	1710	-8
Stoke Mandeville	pass	1720	pass	1714	-6
Aylesbury	1723		1716		-7
1Z68 1733 Aylesbury to Bicester North Turnback Sg
STP schedule UID U50896, identity 1Z68
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Arr	Dep	Dly
Aylesbury		1733		1734	1
Little Kimble	pass	1742	pass	1742	RT
Monks Risborough	pass	1745	No report
Princes Risborough	pass	1748	pass	1747	-1
Saunderton	pass	1752	pass	1751	-1
West Wycombe	pass	1755	No report
High Wycombe	1759	1805	1758	1801	-4
West Wycombe	pass	1808	No report
Saunderton	pass	1811	pass	1806	-5
Princes Risborough	1815	1816	1809	1812	-4
Princes R'boro Ace	1818	1841	1814	1847	6
Princes Risborough	1843	1848	N/R	1847	-1
Princes Risborough Me666	1850	1855	No report
Princes Risborough	1857	1909	1852	1906	-3
Haddenham & Thame Parkway	pass	1915	pass	1910	-5
Blackthorne	pass	1923	No report
Bicester North	1927	1927	1923	1923	-4
Bicester Signal Me2034	1929	1934	No report
Bicester North	1936	1941	1928	N/R	-8
Bicester North Turnback Sg	1943		1932		-11
1Z72 1952 Bicester North Turnback Sg to London Marylebone
STP schedule UID U50897, identity 1Z72
Runs SuO on 26/05/2013 only
TSC 25217004
Unadvertised Express
	WTT Working		Realtime
Location	Arr	Dep	Arr	Dep	Dly
Bicester North Turnback Sg		1952		1952	RT
Bicester North	1954	1955	1954	1956	1
Blackthorne	pass	1958	No report
Haddenham & Thame Parkway	2007	2008	2006	2008	RT
Princes Risborough	pass	2014	pass	2013	-1
Saunderton	pass	2017	pass	2015	-2
West Wycombe	pass	2019	No report
High Wycombe	2022	2023	2019	2021	-2
Beaconsfield	2029	2030	2027	2028	-2
Seer Green	pass	2032	No report
Gerrards Cross	2036	2037	2034	2035	-2
Denham Golf Club	pass	2039	No report
Denham	pass	2039	No report
West Ruislip	pass	2042	pass	2039	-3
South Ruislip	pass	2044	pass	2040	-4
Northolt Park Jn	pass	2044	No report
Northolt Park	pass	2045	No report
Sudbury Hill Harrow	pass	2046	No report
Sudbury & Harrow Road	pass	2047	No report
Wembley Stadium	pass	2049	pass	2044	-5
Neasden South Jn	pass	2051	pass	2045	-6
London Marylebone	2059		2052		-7

Edit: While the formating is particularly rubbish, I have now (22:50) edited the WTT above to show what actually happened during the day. All data is drawn from an automated system, hence why some places have no data.

An Unexpected Surprise

This afternoon I caught a Chiltern Railways train from London Marylebone to Banbury.

There was something unexpected waiting in the Up Goods Loop when I got there.

Oh, and the weather wasn't particularly nice.

For those interested in such things, the steam engines in the video are GWR 4900 Class 4965 Rood Ashton Hall and GWR 4073 Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Both trains have been featured on this blog before, but never at the same time.

The 1750 Train - My, was that a Mistake

I am lucky in that my job is relatively flexible. This means that I usually catch a reasonably early train to work and a reasonably early train home.

Today I was a little later than usual leaving work, so I had to catch the 1750 Chiltern Railways train from London Marylebone. I also had a party to go to to wish a friend 'Bon-Voyage' on a trip to Australia. She leaves tomorrow.

Problems, problems, problems.

• The train is supposed to be a six car train. Tonight it was three carriages long. That is a significant reduction in capacity on a busy train. The train was absolutely rammed more than five minutes before it was due to leave.
• We did not leave on time. In fact we left eleven minutes late. Apparently the driver was delayed on an in-bound service and a replacement had to be found.
• The slower 1753 train (bound for Aylesbury) left in front of us, two minutes late. The 1750 Sardine Special (which left Marylebone at 1801 and which terminates at Bicester North) caught up the slower train before Denham. A quick analysis showed that we would be a minimum of 19 minutes late from High Wycombe. It would not be possible to overtake the slow train.
• In the event the train left High Wycombe 21 minutes late and arrived into Princes Risborough the same number of minutes late.
• This is where it got annoying.
• Someone took the decision to hold the late running train at Princes Risborough to allow the 1815 & 1818 Marylebone departures to overtake it.
• The original 1750 then left Princes Risborough 32 minutes late. It then left Haddenham & Thame Parkway 35 minutes late and terminated at Bicester North 34 minutes late, according to the Working Timetable.

If the train had been allowed to leave Princes Risborough without being held, It would have arrived at Bicester at about 1906. It would not have delayed any Southbound trains, but would have delayed each of the following two trains by a few minutes. This is a potential problem approaching Banbury - a freight train and a Cross-Country train to York might have been delayed.

The reality is though that passengers for High Wycombe and Princes Risborough would have been better off if they had caught the 1753 from Marylebone.
Passengers for Haddenham & Thame Parkway and Bicester North could have caught the 1818 train and got home earlier.

All in all, catching the 1750 was a bad mistake tonight if punctuality was your aim. The train was badly overcrowded and deeply unpleasant for many. Passengers for Haddenham and Bicester would have been deeply dischuffed to see two trains overtake them.

To rub salt into the wound, the train, while 34 minutes late into Bicester according to the Working Timetable, was actually 'only' 29 minutes behind the Public Timetable, meaning that Charter Claims for late running might be declined, while claims for Haddenham & Thame Parkway will be valid and honoured without quibble.

I have said before that running the railway involves make many tricky decisions with often conflicting priorities. I do not claim to know how to run the railway better than those that do, but instead simply present a passenger's view. Many passengers will however have been deeply hacked off this evening.

Does anyone have a shoe horn?

The 0744 Silver Train from Princes Risborough, supposedly provided by Chiltern Railways,was cancelled again this morning.

The 0715 from Bicester North ran 10 - 15 minutes late and Chiltern Railways got it to stop at Princes Risborough to fill the long gap that would have been caused by the cancelled train.

The 0744 is usually full and standing (calling at just High Wycombe and Beaconsfield).

So today we had all the passengers from the Bicester Train, plus all the passengers on the Princes Risborough train. To say the train was full would be mild understatement.

There were probably about 150 people left on the platform at Gerrards Cross.

Train currently due into Marylebone at about 0831. Lots of annoyed commuters. Not a good start to the day.

Missing in Action

On Saturday evening I suggested that Chiltern Railways might have a problem this morning with their Silver Trains.

Here is exhibit number one:

Hopefully all the Princes Risborough passengers will be able to board the extra train at 0755 (the 0749 from Haddenham & Thame Parkway). It is usually packed to the gunnels, but a lot of people are not travelling today due to the icy roads.

I shall now slink back to my work and carry on. Stay safe.