Chiltern Railways - Cattle Problems

No, nothing to do with overcrowding.

Trains are currently seriously disrupted / at a stand, due to cattle being struck on the line between Gerrards Cross and Seer Green & Jordans.

Not the most straight forward of incidents to recover from at the tail end of the evening rush hour.

Coaches are being rustled up between Princes Risborough and West Ruislip, to try to get people mooving.

Where possible trains from up North are being diverted via Aylesbury and then down the Metropolitan Line.

It looks as though the 'shiny new train (Class 172), which entered service yesterday, will probably not get back to London for a while, as it cannot travel down the Metropolitan Line.

It will be interesting to see how this affects tonight's Late Night engineering work.

I do hope all the people involved in the incident are - it seems that the same cannot be said for at least one silly cow.

Other train operators are accepting tickets via reasonable alternative routes.

** I am not Chiltern Railways **

Updated @ 2013 on 9 June

Slack in the timetable

Here is a classic case of the amount of leeway built into today's timetables.

This morning's 11.53 Chiltern Railways service from London Marylebone to Bicester North left on time.

It was delayed at Gerrards Cross due to a minor fault and left there 9 minutes late.

It is due to arrive any moment now at Bicester North, on-time.

Hmmmm.

Edit: For the record, the train actually arrived at Bicester North at 13.10. I think I must be a little light on blogging material at present.

The Storage of Gas Cylinders

There has been much comment recently regarding the storage of gas cylinders near public transport infrastructure.

Much of this has of course been as a result of a major fire at a scrap-yard in North London earlier this month. The particular scrap-yard is under the M1 Motorway and was so severe that the road had to be closed for several days.

Initially the major problem was that there were Acetylene cylinders thought to be involved with the incident. The London Fire Brigade doesn't like these particular types of gas cylinder as they can become exceedingly unstable and dangerous if involved in a fire. It subsequently transpired that the real issue was that the fire was so serious that the concrete structure holding the motorway up was seriously damaged. This took some serious engineering to repair enough to enable the motorway to be opened.

My local train station, which is in rural Buckinghamshire, has had lots of Network Rail engineers in attendance over the weekend. Actually, so far as I can tell, they were sub-contractors employed by Bam Nuttall. They worked hard for four days with their engineering work (though most of their work is not visible to mere mortals), and they made a fairly good attempt at clearing after themselves.

They've left just one thing. I don't think it's acetylene, but it is quite literally plonked in the middle of the car park. I wonder if it's been forgotten? I wonder if I should tell Chiltern Railways? I wonder if they'll be interested?

Democracy at work in the Chilterns

In my part of the country (rural Buckinghamshire), there are three sets of voting taking place on 5th May.

Elections to the Parish Council were due to take place. There will be no vote in this Parish, because there are fewer valid nominations than there are seats on the council.

Elections to the District Council were due to take place. The current representative of my ward (a hard working and caring individual) is not standing for re-election for family & work related reasons. Another resident of the ward has been found to stand instead of the departing incumbent. There will be no vote because just the one valid nomination has been received. A virtually unknown person will therefore be elected, with no public scrutiny, presumably because nobody could be bothered to do anything else.

The third vote taking place on 5th May is a referendum to decide on the voting system to be used for future parliamentary elections.

I suspect that few round here really care. That's a shame.

West Ruislip Depot Full

I noticed just now, while whizzing past on my Chiltern Clubman, that the Central Line's Ruislip depot is extremely full

All the trains are neatly lined up - I have never seen the depot with so many trains.
Ah! That'll explain it. Just checked - no trains West of Marble Arch

Have now just gone past chiltern's Wembley depot. That has just one 2 car Turbo (165) train and lots of Mk 3 stock. Ah! And that could be because for the first time in yonks, Chiltern are playing with a full train set this weekend.

For the avoidance of doubt, Chiltern Railways have no engineering work this weekend.

Yellow Lines

I travel from a small country station in Rural Buckinghamshire.

There will be no trains stopping at, or passing through, the station until Monday morning. This is perfectly normal - Chiltern Railways are currently spending lots of money to shave a few nano-seconds off my regular commute, so for the majority of weekends we have no train service near where I live. This ongoing engineering work means replacement buses running - we actually get more buses than we normally get trains.

Today the Chiltern Railways maintenance people have descended on the local station to take advantage of the lack of trains. They appear to have:

• Painted white lines along the edge of the platforms
• Painted yellow lines along the platforms
• Fixed lots of 'Stand behind the yellow lines' signs to the lamp posts along the platforms

I actually find this maintenance work rather sad. Yes, it makes the station look cared for and maintained, but really it is only being done for elf & safety reasons. We don't have masses of trains call at the best of times. We certainly don't suffer from over-crowded trains and the station could never ever be described as busy.

This isn't a rant - It's rather just a whimsical sigh. I like living in the country and, somehow, these signs of modern rules & regulations appearing in the heart of Rural Buckinghamshire just make me feel somewhat deflated. Sigh.

Soon, they'll be wanting to paint yellow lines down the road as well. Oh! I forgot - they do want to do that!

District Dave

District Dave (Dave Maloney) passed away yesterday morning.

Dave was the founder of District Dave's London Underground Site and the separate (but now much bigger) District Dave's London Underground Forum.

Good people like District Dave, people capable of inspiring others, are such an important part of what humanity is about. Sometimes you get used to sitting at a computer with information scrolling past and over you. News of Dave's death brought me to a shuddering stop - he will be missed.

My sincere condolences to Dave Maloney's family at this difficult time.

CU

Temporary break in service

Chiltern Railways - Update

Chiltern Railways have just been given the OK to run trains through the South Ruislip area after the over running engineering works.

It's going to take a while to get things back to any sense of normality - a train has just left my local station on time, so they are obviously trying their best. I suspect a fairly important contingency plan has leapt into place this morning!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

Sooner or later, it was going to happen

Chiltern Railways are currently going through transformational engineering works. Generally this means that weekend trains are significantly affected. Between now and the end of February, for example, there is only one Saturday or Sunday where there is going to be a normal train service running on the line through High Wycombe..

It's horrible, that is the disruption is horrible, but hopefully the pain will be worth it in the end.

Up until now, with the exception of a tiny number of very early morning trains, the months of weekend engineering works have had no knock on impact to the weekday train services.

No so today.

Currently Chiltern Railways have over-running engineering works, South of High Wycombe, with the line not expected to reopen until 0730. Services from Aylesbury to London over the Metropolitan Line are not affected.

I think it is going to be one of those days!

The end of an era

I am currently on the last ever Southbound Wrexham & Shropshire service. It's rather full, with a strange and rather mournful atmosphere.

I wonder what the welcoming committee will be like in London?

I know that there are some Chiltern Railway, big cheese, train buffs on board - oh, if only more train services were like this!

A sad day.

More later ........

High Speed Broadband for Wendover

Crikey! This is only the fourth time that I have mentioned Wendover since I started this blog five years ago, and it is the second time this week. This post is nothing to do with trains.

Yesterday, BT announced that Wendover is to be one of 41 market towns that will receive high-speed fibre broadband connections of up to 40Mbps by spring 2012.

I suppose that it is good news. I can't immediately think how high speed  broadband would change my life, but I suppose it will be a bit like widening a motorway -  many people will use it more and more. For the avoidance of doubt, my home is not connected to the Wendover telephone exchange.

Better than expected

Happy New Year!

For reasons I won't bore you with, this evening I travelled out form Marylebone to Wendover, a small town in the Chilterns, just South of Aylesbury.

I caught the 1716, which runs fast to Great Missenden. There has been a bit of on-line grumbling recently about overcrowding and short-formed trains. So, as I wandered down to Platform 4, I groaned to myself when I saw that the train was to be formed of only two carriages.

It is however pleasing to report that nobody on the train had to stand (they may have stood, but there was no need to), and it arrived at Wendover only 1 minute late - not bad given that Chiltern Railways trains run the gauntlet of sharing track with the Metropolitan Line for much of the way.

All in all quite a pleasant journey.

Oh, and I've added a Twitter feed to the right - I hope it doesn't distract too much.

The same again (but not quite)

I hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas.
Back to the grindstone this morning, although I do hope to be able to bunk off early today to attend a family celebration in Hampshire.
In one way, this morning's journey to work has been remarkably similar to last year's return from the Christmas break. I was the only person to board the train at my station.
The principal difference to last year is that the train was already a third full. That is unusual for a normal day. A check of the timetable shows that the train has come from Banbury - that explains why everybody looks half asleep.
It seems that we are following a First Great Western service (on diversion from Oxford) and a train that started from High Wycombe. The result - only a handful more people have got on since I did and we are now running fast to Marylebone.
I've just noticed that, according to Live Departure Boards, the first two FGW trains from Oxford are due to stop at West Ruislip (interchange with the Central Line). I cannot say that this is a first, but it is certainly highly unusual.

Christmas Greetings

I would like to wish my reader a very Happy Christmas and all best wishes for a fruitful, happy and peaceful New Year.

Apologies for the re-use of the card, but I like it!

CU

Chiltern Railways This Morning

It's Christmas Eve, I am going to work and I am just about ready. Ready, that is, except for the wrapping and the packing.

Chiltern Railways should have been running a special Christmas Eve timetable today. They are, but I think it's a "Special Special" timetable. At this moment, believe nothing except the Chiltern Railway's website as to what is going on.

Why?

Well, after two days of fairly well organised chaos, station Passenger Information Screens are either wrong or blank. Also the Live Departure Feed on the National RAil website is displaying a normal timetable.

On the up side, today is a long train and the front carriages only 50% full. It must be like the Marie Celeste at the back.

Sent from my iPhone

Getting Better

It was definitely less cold last night - the station car park is now a slush pool.

Train only six minutes late (don't ask about yesterday's journey) and it has plenty of carriages.

AND the Passenger Information Screens have been uploaded with the emergency timetable being operated today by Chiltern Railways.

All a vast improvement on the last couple of days.

Chiltern Railways - Snow

The trouble with running a railways is that (a) Drivers and other staff have to get to work themselveand (b) Snow and ice do not do much to help improve the reliability of the infrastructure.

As a consequence of this weekend's snow, Chiltern Railways are today running an emergency timetable.

The problem is that the train I am on has another eight stops before it reaches Marylebone. The aisles and vestibules are completely jammed with people already.

It's going to be a fun day. Stay safe.

Chavs breeding Chavs

I've previously mentioned Chavs on the trains.
Well, I am currently sat near two, with an accompanying gaggle of screaming Chavlets.
Said one of the bigger ones "Look - when you shout, they all turn their heads and look at you. Shout ('Shaart') as much as you want."
Charming. Roll on Marylebone.
By the way, it is bitterly cold today in Rural Buckinghamshire, with freezing fog. Well done Chiltern Railways for keeping the trains running bang to time.
Edit: OMG - one of them called "Sky". Aargh.

Boris Bikes Go Casual

Tomorrow, 3rd December 2010, the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme (aka 'Boris Bikes') becomes available for casual users.

I hope the launch goes well and that everything goes well technically. There should be plenty of bikes available as during the current inclement weather, fewer bikes than usual are being used. Yesterday afternoon at Soho Square there were about 15 spaces available in the docking station - the most spaces I have ever seen at that time of day.

Be safe!

By the way, I'm back, but still with a small backlog of holiday posts.