Steam Train along the Chiltern Line (Sunday 14th April 2014)

There is a steam train passing along much of the Chiltern Line today.

It has just left Paddington for Stratford-upon-Avon, and will be returning this evening. 

Expected timings are shown below - click to enlarge. 

A lovely day for it!

A Day at the Seaside

It's been a long day today (and I still won't be home for another 2 1/2 hours).

Up bright and early for a reasonable time Chiltern Railways train into London Marylebone. Reasonable time because it was 80 minutes later than the train I usually catch during the week.

A leisurely walk along to London Paddington, and then on to a First Great Western train. The train was bound for Plymouth, though I was to get off at Exeter St Davids. Bit of a wibble on the way - a broken down train meant that at Westbury we were diverted via Bath and Bristol, eventually arriving (after a signal failure thrown in) some 50 minutes late.

After a five minute wait, I then boarded a little two car train down the branch line to Exmouth. To say that the train was packed was an understatement. Apparently it has been a little warm today, so all the world and their dog had decided to go to the seaside.Actually there were no dogs on the train, but hopefully you get the picture.

It was then off to the beach. It's really quite a nice beach.

Don't forget that today is the 1st of October. It isn't supposed to be like this.There aren't supposed to be lots of people on the beach. There aren't supposed to be massive queues at the ice cream shop on the sea front. The restaurants are not supposed to be packed. Clearly late Summer warmth is good for trade in Exmouth.

It was then back onto a train for a few minutes up the line for Digby & Sowton, the nearest train station for Sandy Park, the home to the Rugby Union side of Exeter Chiefs.

It's actually the second time I've been to Sandy Park this year. It has a nice atmosphere and the facilities for spectators are good.

Now, I do confess to being a Saracens season ticket holder, so it was quite enjoyable to see my side win by 17 points to 13. It may not have been the most technical game ever played, but it was an enjoyable afternoon and, of course, the right side won!

Due to the number of people who had been enjoying the sun and sea down in Exmouth, the train back up to Exeter was complete carnage. So much so that it was late enough for me to miss my planned 1802 train back to Paddington.

Instead, I am now sat on the 1856 train, still some considerable distance from London, while I had been hoping to be on my last train of the day by now.

Nevertheless, a good day and I've even caught a bit of colour, which is a good thing for October.

Tomorrow it's a 150 mile round trip drive for a joined-up-meat lunch.

Actually, it wasn't too bad

Actually my blog post of Monday evening was probably a tad unfair.

Yes, my train home on Monday evening was cancelled (and I had a further late night delay on Tuesday), but overall my train journeys this week have not been too bad.

Marylebone station has been closed and two Chiltern Railways trains an hour have gone in to Paddington (on the High Wycombe Line) and two on that line have turned around at West Ruslip.

By all accounts not many people chose to face the Central Line in from West Ruislip. However my experience was that the six or seven car trains laid on from Paddington were adequate.

As you can hopefully see from the table to the right, significant leeway was built into the timetables (every train arrived into Paddington early). The red lined journeys indicate the trains I actually caught rather than the delays incurred.

Door to door, my journeys too and from work were about ten minutes longer than normal, so really I have little cause to complain.

For some people the glass is always half empty - they will always find something to moan about. Some people will have had horrible journeys.

I like to look forward (aaarrrggh - next week may be bad!) - I look forward to the new train timetable on 5th September. I will hopefully be able to gain 70 minutes a day at home, spending 10 minutes a day less in the office. I think I may be one of the lucky ones, but here's hoping.

So far so good. Well done Chiltern Railways!

A bad start to two weeks of travel carnage

This week Marylebone station is shut, to enable the points and track layout at Neadsden Junction to be remodelled. Next week the track layouts at Princes Risborough and South Ruislip / Northolt Junction are getting similar treatment.

This means that all Chiltern railways trains from Aylesbury are terminating at either Harrow-on-the-Hill or Amersham. Trains on the High Wycombe Line are either diverted to Paddington (or Didcot), or terminate at West Ruislip, for the Central Line.

Tonight the 1645 departure from Paddington was cancelled, due to a member of staff being unavailable.

I saw no Chiltern Staff at Paddington (I am not saying that there were none, I just didn't see any).

The next train, the 1718, was formed of 7 carriages and was completely rammed.

My journey home took over two hours.

Next week will be worse, with no trains at all on the High Wycombe line.

I do hope that Chiltern Railways get their act together. The occasional cancellation is understood, but to cancel a peak time train when there are only two an hour smacks of a lack of contingency planning.

Many passengers tonight have reason to be grumpy.

HS2 at Northolt

On Saturday I travelled Along the Central Line for a short while, from West Ruislip to Northolt. It was fine.

This picture is taken from the Eastbound platform at Northolt. It is possible to make out the over-bridge station building, which is also where the main A412 crosses the railway.

Running parallel to the Central Line is a little used single track railway line. It runs from Northolt Junction, has a triangular junction at Greenford and then continues on to the Paddington main lines just East of North Acton station. The line used to be double tracked - I think there is a passing loop somewhere just East of Greenford.

The current plans for High Speed 2 involve the entire stretch of parallel line being part of the route from Euston to Birmingham.

There are all sorts of contentious aspects to the HS2 plans - tunneling underneath grumpy people on the route from Euston and carving up parts of the Chiltern Hills, never mind burning truckloads of money that we don't have.

To give some idea of the work involved, never mind the impact on those living nearby, imagine what will be needed to upgrade this single bridge (and probably the entire underground station building) to allow two high speed (up to 400 kph / 250 mph) tracks to pass through the area highlighted. Simply mind boggling.

Steaming through the Chilterns

This picture is GWR King Class 4-6-0 no 6024 King Edward I trundling up through the North Western edge of the Chiltern Hills at about a quarter past nine this morning.

The train was due to have a busy day traveling out from Paddington to Worcester and then back to Paddington later, via Reading.

Quite a few people turned out to see the train which is what I would call a 'Proper' steam train.

Interestingly, while cropping the picture just now, I saw another steam train trundling up the valley with just a couple of carriages behind it. Not sure what it was or where it is going to, as I cannot find the movement detailed on any of the usual websites that show such things.

This morning's train was a few minutes late, so held up a Wrexham & Shropshire service along with a couple of Chiltern Railways' trains.

Edit: Thanks to the tip from Anonymous, I've tracked down this video of the Scots Guardsman traveling through Lancaster, on its way to Carnforth.

West End of Central Line to Close for Weekend of 21 & 22 November 2009

This weekend (21 November 2009 & 22 November 2009) there is no Central Line at all west of Marble Arch. That is a huge chunk of the Central Line that will not be working due to engineering work.

If you are traveling out from Central London heading to the West Ruislip branch this weekend, the advice is to travel to Willesden Junction on the Bakerloo Line. You will then be able to pick up one of a couple of rail replacement bus services.

If you are heading for Ealing Broadway, there is a replacement bus that starts at Sheperds Bush Market (Hammersmith & City Line), which also picks up at North Acton (where the West Ruislip branch buses will be able to drop you off to change buses). I think I'd rather travel out on the District Line or catch a First Great Western train from Paddington to Ealing Broadway.

Chiltern Railways also offer a regular but infrequent service to West Ruislip and South Ruslip from London Marylebone. There is also a half hourly service for most of Saturday from Paddington to Greenford. Do check National Rail times before you travel on a big train.

There are loads of alternative train, tube and bus routes - I can't possibly summarise them all, but it could be a good opportunity to check the accuracy of the tfl Journey Planner. I've just run a sample journey through it (work to where I used to live, on Saturday, and it was spot on for that sample).

I am glad that I chose to go to the Westfield Shopping Centre last Sunday and not this coming weekend.

Bakerloo Line Closure - Zone 1 - 27 August to 30 August 2009

Don't forget.. the Bakerloo Line is closed for engineering works from today (27 August 2009) through to Sunday in the whole of Zone 1.

This means, no underground trains from Paddington through to Elephant & Castle today, or 28 August 2009 or 29 August 2009 or indeed 30 August 2009!

For now, Chiltern Railways have a useful link to the closure leaflet.

Bakerloo Line - Upcoming Weekday Closure

I spotted some posters at Baker Street on Friday that advised of some significant engineering work that will affect the Bakerloo Line on weekdays at the end of August.

From Thursday 27 until Sunday 30 August, inclusive, the Bakerloo Line will be suspended between Paddington and Elephant & Castle. This means that the line will be closed South of Paddington on two weekdays, which will no doubt catch many people unaware.

The word on the streets is that the work is towards reinstating the crossover at Piccadilly Circus. This will enable trains in the Southbound platform to reverse back over onto the Northbound Line. I do not work for London Underground so cannot confirm that this is the case.

I have no idea when or why the crossover was removed, but if it is to be reinstated it must be good news long term, as it will improve operational flexibility for the Bakerloo Line in times of stress.

Running Trains to Time

Certain European countries have longstanding reputations for railway systems that always run to time. Switzerland is the obvious one, though Germany also springs to mind in the regard.

Talk to anyone who has traveled on German Trains regularly and they will tell you that they achieve their punctuality by way of the simple mechanism of building in lots of spare time to the timetable. This means that if a train has actually traveled between two major stations at its optimum speed, there will usually be wait of several minutes before the journey continues.

A similar system now operates on many of our lines in the UK - London bound South West Trains trains frequently wait at Basingstoke, off-peak, to enable the timetable to catch up. Similarly during a recent journey from Edinburgh to London on a Sunday, there was a fair bit of waiting at major stations.

Chiltern Railways, so far as I can tell, automatically build in an extra three minutes leeway to all their final destination arrival times. That is on top of the magic leaf-fall timetable currently in operation.

I've just spotted the most blatant attempt so far for trying to make sure that a train reaches its destination without being late:

Most long distance Chiltern Railways services from London Marylebone terminate in Birmingham at Birmingham Snow Hill station. It takes about three minutes to travel in a tunnel under Birmingham city centre from the preceding station, Birmingham Moor Street.

There is, as a type, a train running towards Birmingham. It left London Paddington on time (diverted due to engineering works) and is currently running just over 20 minutes late. Trains that are 10 minutes or more late show in red on the National Rail Live Departures boards.

If you look at the current journey board for the train, you will note that rather than being timetabled to take 3 minutes (or six, or nine) between the last two stations on the journey, a total of fourteen minutes have been built into the timetable. It's magic - all of a sudden a 'Red' journey turns into a 'Blue' journey and the bean counters are kept happy.

What a con!

Grotty mornings on the Underground

Monday morning wasn't a good start:

Unusually, my Chiltern Railways train got in to Marylebone ten minutes late. The Bakerloo Line was suspended due to a broken down train at Oxford Circus. I then walked to Baker Street but could not get to the Jubilee Line due to overcrowding. I then stood on a Metropolitan Line train which was terminated after ten minutes (without going anywhere). It then took six or seven minutes to even get off the platform due to the number of passengers, so I walked to Soho. I should have done that in the first place. Very wearing.

Thursday wasn't particularly good:

There was absolutely no way I could get on the first Southbound Bakerloo Line train that arrived. I waited ten minutes for the next one- I suspect crowd control must have been in place at Paddington, because when it came in I was able to get a seat. I was at the back of the train- things must have been really bad in the middle of the train, because passengers were stood several layers deep as we left the station. At Oxford Circus I changed to the Central Line for one stop- really bad move. I got on the seventh train that came. It would have been way quicker to walk.

I am usually the train geek at work. On these two days I did not initiate the water cooler conversations.

Day off tomorrow. Yippee!

But Trains Can Also Be Good

Yesterday I went by train from London Paddington to Hanborough Train Station in Oxfordshire. Hanborough Station is a few miles North-West of Oxford.

Hanborough has one platform (it is on a single track stretch of line) and the trains I caught to and from London were a couple of carriages longer than the platform. There are not many trains- should there be any in the next couple of hours, this link will provide their details.

Fortunately my reason for visiting the area ran to time and I caught my return train fine- it was two hours until the next one!

• Both trains were on time.
• The journey from London Paddington was only 64 minutes, with Hanborough being the 4th stop.
• With my Annual Gold-Card Discount, my Cheap Day Return ticket only cost £11.35.
• The were plenty of seats and the "Adelante Class 18" were comfortable.

The ticket machine on the platform wasn't working, but the guard was perfectly happy to sell a ticket.

Now, I don't carry my camera around with me for work, so you will have to imagine the scene...

• Me, stood on small platform in the middle of nowhere. Nobody else there.
  
• Massive train train thunders into platform (two carriages too long for the station).
• Doors opened by cheery guard right by me. Nobody gets off.
• I get on.
• Guard says "Welcome to Hanborough International".

Brilliant!

It is lines, stations and services such as this that say so much about traveling around this country by train. Sometimes clearly what is being offered is, indeed, a world class public service. Well done First Great Western.

There are obviously issues about the sustainability of ongoing train services along small country lines. The existence and membership of groups such as the Cotswold Line promotion Group should, in my view, be encouraged.

After a bit of rural idyll, there were Chavs on the Line at Reading, but that is the fault of society not that of the railway company.

First Great Western have no sense of history

Actually, what I mean is they are poo. They couldn't catch a cold, are as much use as a chocolate teapot and do not deserve the word 'Great' in their company name.

Today there are some invisible engineering works which mean that the Heathrow Connect services from London Paddington have been cancelled. Also the 1/2 hourly service between London Paddington and Greenford has been replaced by an hourly train between Greenford and Hanwell plus a replacement bus service between Ealing Broadway and Greenford.

I suggest the works are invisible only because I have just spent 45 minutes standing at Hanwell waiting for a train to Greenford and can confirm that (1) all four mainline tracks are in use and (2) there is no mention of engineering works in the are on either the National Rail site or the First Great Western Site. There may well be some works going on somewhere, but goodness knows where.

The train to Greenford never arrived. Other travellers and myself ended up catching a train back to Ealing Broadway, then getting the Central Line (changing at North Acton) back out to our destinations. Not so much as a by your leave from the cretins at the railway company in charge of communicating with their passengers.

Dictionary.com has an abundance of definitions for the word Great. You may wish to remind yourself of some of them. The company has 'Great Western' in its name as a historical reminder of the Great Western Railway. There is no comparison. Anyone with any sense of railway history will know that a mention of GWR is highly evocative: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Box Tunnel, the age of steam and Victorian Britain. The modern day company has purple trains that run late, stations with clocks that don't function for months on end and no real evidence of appreciating that their passengers are anything other than cattle.

First Great Western should remove the word Great from their name forthwith. They do not deserve it and certainly will have no positive impact on the history of railways in this country, if my experiences are anything to go by.

I also missed out on the unusual train journey from Hanwell to Drayton Green, a very short stretch of line that does not usually carry passenger trains.

I've Gone Off Chiltern Railways

On a number of occasions in the last few weeks, I've dashed up to Marylebone to find that Chiltern Railways have cancelled the 18:37 High Wycombe service.

It's quite annoying when this happens as my next train is not until 19:03.

Chiltern Railways don't seem to make a habit of cancelling many other trains. Just the 18:37.

It was particularly annoying today as I'd had to go to Cardiff today and had left London Paddington at 7:00 am. After a long journey back to London, to say that I was peeved at having half an hour added to my journey unnecessarily would be an understatement,

Grrr.

PS Cardiff was good - I even managed a side-trip to visit Llandaff Cathedral.

Rant: The Art of Communication (First Great Western)

First Great Western (until last week 'First Great Western Link' and previously called 'Thames Trains') operate a service from London Paddington to Greenford and back. The service runs twice an hour for about 15 hours a day, Monday to Saturday.

Having previously checked posters for any mention of engineering work, I went to catch the 09:56 Greenford to Paddington service yesterday morning. The train never arrived. At about 10:05, I decided to proceed with my life and left the platform.

Please bear in mind the following points:

• No announcements were made at Greenford station
• At no time did the departure screen show any train times
• Engineering works posters made no explicit reference to service altertions to the line
• Despite extensive searching, I could find no reference on the First Great Western website to any amended service patterns. I am not saying they weren't there, just that I couldn't find them.

For those who have been bothered to read this far, the reality was:

• Due to weekend engineering works affecting the main lines between Hanwell and Hayes, the services to/ from Greenford were reduced to one per hour, departing Greenford at xx:43.
• The only place I could find any indication of the revised service was on the National Rail Live Departures page.

While travelling on the line later in the day, there were people waiting on 'opposite' platforms at most stations (ie they didn't know that there was only one train per hour).

I hope that ignoring the effect of service changes on Greenford branch line passengers from publicity material is not a sign of the new Franchisee's attitude to the line and its continued existence.