Euphemism

I was somewhat amused to see this piece of paper posted to the inside of the cafe door at Leamington Spa station, earlier this morning.

It is possible that the door lock was broken, but I would put money on the reality being that "Technical Difficulties" really meant "We don't have a key".

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!

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. 

Track Bashing the new Chiltern Mainline Timetable (Episode 3)

Today saw the third significant recast of the Chiltern Railways timetable in 15 months. Technically the new timetable started yesterday, but the majority of the impact and changes affect weekday travellers.

As has become customary on these days, I have spent just a little too much of my time today stress testing the new timetable.

Disclosure: I pay for an annual season ticket for travel on a reasonable chunk of the Chiltern network. However for today I did approach the railway company for a day ticket that would enable me to travel further afield without paying any extra. They kindly agreed and I am most grateful. It was on the clear understanding, agreed with no difficulty, that anything I wrote would be my own and would not (on my part) just be a piece of marketing blurb for Chiltern Railways.

I should also add at this stage that I have significant and ongoing disagreements with Chiltern Railways relating to local matters, but those are for an entirely different time and place.

So, how did the day go?..... Well I suspect that Chiltern Railways will be fairly please with themselves tonight. Compared with the September 2011 and December 2012 Timetable days, today was considerably better.

Here is a summary of the day, using exactly the same format for the facts and figures that I used previously:

• Total number of individual train journeys:15
• Total distance travelled: 533.9 Miles
• Longest train journey: 111 Miles
• Shortest train journey: 4 miles
• Highest individual average journey speed: 78.5 mph
• Average speed of all journeys: 61.8 mph
• Cumulative delay: 15 minutes
• Number of cancellations experienced: 0
• Number of times my train was pulled over to allow a Mainline (express) service to overtake: 0 

By referring back to my previous posts, immediately it is possible to see that I experienced far fewer problems today than on either of the previous two Track Bash days, despite travelling on more trains and travelling further.

Last December I also made made reference (with a chart) to the PPM (Public Performance Measure) for Chiltern Railways. The PPM is an important Key Performance Indicator used within the railway industry to measure both punctuality and reliability. I believe that there is a target for 'All Day' performance, and also a requirement that the target must be separately hit in the three hour morning and evening 'Peaks'.

From first thing this morning, through to late this evening, I have been monitoring the cumulative PPM punctuality performance for Chiltern. Hopefully you can see from the above graph that while there was a dip at lunchtime (caused mainly by a failed train), the punctuality across the network has been pretty good, particularly for a new and virtually re-written timetable. Senior Management at Chiltern Railways are probably patting themselves on the back - without doubt the performance today has been absolutely stellar compared to the last two significant timetable changes.

A word of caution though: At some times of the day there is a ridiculously large amount of slack built into the timetable, meaning that a train has to be running a huge amount behind what it is capable of, before it is considered to be officially late.

However notwithstanding this, the measure is the measure and performance has improved.

In no particular order (other than vaguely chronological) here are a number of observations from the day:

• I spoke to five people before I boarded my first train of the day. Three were most unhappy with the new Timetable and what it would do to their work / life balance. Two were fine - they both travel just one stop to work.
• Much confusion at High Wycombe with the main 'London Platform' departure board out of order. I witnessed a number of people miss a train because it was unclear from where they entered the station which platform their train would leave from.
• The car Park at Princes Risborough was considerably quieter than normal till much later than normal. This can probably be attributed to the one remaining non-stop train running 20 minutes later than was previously the case.
• One train (the train that started from Princes Risborough at 0644) being full at the front from High Wycombe and roughly a third full in the rear two carriages. If you want a seat on the 0701 from Beaconsfield consider moving towards the back.
• Some people getting significantly animated (again, at Princes Risborough) with two senior Chiltern Railways staff about the withdrawal of their second morning non-stop train (there isn't one at all any more in the evening).
• The look of confusion when a Mainline Silver Train pulled into Princes Risborough (with 15 minutes to spare), to form the 0744 service to London. Quite a few people were on the train when it started. A lot more got on at High Wycombe and it is estimated that 150 people were standing from Beaconsfield, throughout the length of the train.
• I saw a Class 172 train heading to Stratford-upon-Avon, two cars long, capable of 100 mph, nor wi-fi or tables. The first I have seen that type of train on that route.
• A mixed train formed of a 75 mph two car unit and a 100 mph Class 172. The service was timed for 100mph. Not possible.
• Throughout the day, many more trains terminate at Bicester North than was previously the case. I witnessed three instances where terminating trains blocked or delayed the paths of Southbound trains. I have no doubt that this will have already been identified by the railway company, but instinctively it seems plain to me that the timetable modelling at that location has not worked.
• A 'key' service (the 1715 from Marylebone to Kidderminster, first stop Leamington Spa) left with no more than 180 passengers on board (a generous over-guesstimate). Fifteen people in my carriage and three sat in the Business Zone. That seems an under-use of a valuable resource.

So, quite a lot of trains. A fair few facts and some objectivity. However, that is the problem - that is how the railway is run.

None of this measures that countless people have have definitely had their working day extended, or their home day diminished. There will inevitably be delays and cancellations, but the fact is that people need to be where they want to be when they want to be. At some stations the only way this can happen is by passengers leaving for London earlier than was previously the case, or by leaving London later than was previously the case.

Some passengers have praised the new timetable. Many have been most uncomplimentary. Measured objectively, it broadly works. Measured from how people feel, some people are not happy.

You cannot please all of the people all of the time. Many passengers will be happy tonight, many will not. Change happens, but people don't have to like it. For some, change is a positive experience, for some it's a real negative, and some just work around it.

Personally, the new timetable will involve me changing my working pattern and some additional expense. Others won't be affected. I would like to think however that senior management at Chiltern will listen and act on all constructive or heartfelt feedback, not just measure their success by reliability, punctuality and passenger loadings.

I am grateful to Chiltern Railways for giving me the opportunity to Track Bash the Chiltern Mainline today.

For the record, my first journey this morning was at about 6.00 am, while my last finished at about 8.00pm. It would appear to be time for a beer and bed!

CU

Unconfirmed Rumour - Unexploded Bomb?

Late night Chiltern Railways and Cross Country services have been seriously affected by the closure just now of the railway between Banbury and Leamington Spa.

The problem has variously been described as 'a serious incident near the railway' and 'Emergency services are dealing...'.

The good news is that Chiltern Railways have just said that they are able to run trains again, so hopefully the mass of late night cancellations will shortly be uncancelled.

I am hearing that an unexploded bomb (probably an old one) has been discovered somewhere in the Fenny Compton area. It is close to the railway - following a risk assessment it is likely that further action will be taken once the last scheduled trains have run through the area late tonight.

This is all hearsay and innuendo - could be complete rubbish. If it's true, you heard it here. If it isn't, you do read some complete tosh on the Internet!

Sleep well!

Edit:

Emergency services are dealing with an incident near Banbury
Because of this, there are delays of up to 40 minutes to trains between Leamington and Bicester North / Oxford . These delays will continue until approximately 23:30