A New Year and An Inauspicious Start to it by Network Rail

After a stormy night across the British Isles, a fantastic New Year's firework display from London (seen on the box) and a pleasant evening with friends in Abbots Langley, Network Rail have decided to scotch the best efforts of the Silverlink and Southern train operating companies at offering a good train service today, by offering a major signal failure just south of Watford Junction by way of a New Year gift. Thank you Network Rail.

I am not going to carry this on for the year, but... time lost so far in 2007 due to train delays... 60 minutes. As the song goes; "It can only get better."

Happy New Year!

Signalling problem between London Euston and Watford Junction
Time Reported:	12:18
Route Affected:	London Euston - Watford Junction - Milton Keynes Central - Northampton/Rugby - Birmingham New Street/Manchester Piccadilly/Liverpool Lime Street
TOC/s Affected:	Silverlink, Virgin Trains
Description:	Train services between London Euston and Watford Junction are being disrupted due to a signalling problem. Alterations and delays to services can be expected. There is currently no estimate for a normal service to resume.
Updates:	14:35 Train services are suspended again between London Euston and Watford Junction in both directions. Alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes can be expected. Silverlink County are running two trains per hour between Hemel Hempstead and Northampton in both directions, departing Hemel Hempstead at xx:06 and xx:36, departing Northampton at xx:02 and xx:32. Silverlink County tickets are being accepted on the London Underground between London and Watford, also on Midland Mainline services between London and Wellingborough, on First Capital Connect services between London and Bedford, and on Chiltern Railways services. Virgin Trains services are making additional calls at Tring for Silverlink County passengers travelling to/from Watford Junction. Virgin Trains are terminating services at Watford Junction. Passengers can complete their journey to London using Silverlink Metro services. Midland Mainline are accepting Virgin Trains tickets. 14:58 Southern services between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction are now starting from/terminating at Wembley Central. Passengers can use Silverlink Metro services between Wembley Central and Watford Junction.

	18:34 Train services are able to operate normally again between London Euston and Watford Junction. But residual alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes are still likely for the next 2-3 hours.
Time reported cleared:	20:29

New Year's Day Train Services from Watford Junction

I am a creature of habit and will once again be travelling through Watford Junction, towards London Euston on New Year's Day.

My second post of this blog was a rant at the timetabling of trains from Watford Junction during engineering works.

Silverlink Trains do not appear to be having to endure significant engineering works from Watford Junction this year on New Year's Day and appear to be offering a pretty good service. Good News. A link to their timetable page is here.





Have a very Happy New Year!

Christmas Shopping (and Blogging) Splurge

Traveled like a maniac today around North West London, Hertfordshire and Central London in an attempt to get my Christmas Shopping nearly finished. Nearly was the end result.

I travelled on a bus, Silverlink County, Silverlink Metro, Southern, the District Line, the Central Line and Chiltern railways.

All ran to time (though another mini-rant about Chiltern later).

I used to live in the Watford area 20 years ago and it is now definitely a major regional shopping centre. It has everything from Poundland (no, I didn't go in) to a John Lewis, with much else beside. It is also full of track suited, bangled and blinged up individuals.

PS Although I have included a link to Poundland, they seem to be so cheap and cheerful that their website is currently slow enough as if to appear to be running their site off a ZX80 or similar. Either that, or my ISP is having a really bad hair day.

Watford Junction - New Year's Day Timetable Rant

See if you can fathom this one out:

New Year's Day, lunchtime.
Silverlink County operating hourly stopping services southbound from Northampton. ALL terminate (contrary to published New Year's Day Timetable), arriving at Watford Junction at xx.26

Silverlink Metro operating hourly stopping services southbound from Watford Junction departing at xx.22

Southern operating hourly service southbound services from Watford Junction departing at xx.22, first stop Harrow & Wealdstone then Kensington Olympia.

What sort of idiot makes up these timetables? I was of course aiming for Harrow & Wealdstone. In the end Virgin Trains agreed to accept southbound to Euston- so with 95% of the passengers having been herded outside to catch a 'Fast Coach' to Euston, a small number of us lucky cattle were able to get on a big fancy red train resulting in me going the long way round, probably quicker than any other means. Oh- and the screens weren't showing any Virgin Trains going south, because they are only timetabled to drop off.

What exactly is it that Network Rail do? Grrrrrr...