On time, early or extra early?

Chiltern Railways generally have a pretty good reputation for trains rarely arriving at their final destination late.

One of the reasons for this is that they pad out their 'Public Timetables' like mad.

For example the weekday 1907 train from Bicester North to London Marylebone is currently due to arrive into London at 2027. That's 3 minutes later than usual because lots of brown things are currently falling off the trees causing train wheels and tracks to occasionally disagree with each other.

Officially though, according to the 'Working Timetable', the train is due into Marylebone at 2019. It cannot arrive much earlier because the platform into which the 2027 arrives is only vacated at 2014.

Tonight the train left Bicester 2 minutes early and was officially two or three minutes early at every stopping station or monitoring point along the route. The train arrived into London at 2017 (it couldn't arrive any earlier) some 10 minutes ahead of the public timetable and even 2 minutes ahead of the Working Timetable.

I can only think that the clock in the driver's cab must need adjusting - why would anyone deliberately leave so early as to potentially make many people miss the train?

Apologies for the dodgy formatting... If you don't believe me, the table below shows the comparison between the Public Timetable, the Working Timetable and the Realtime Record for the train I have decribed. A train showing a negative delay is early.

This isn't a theoretical exercise - I nearly missed the train because it was running so early.

Goodness only knows what will happen when the clocks go back this weekend!

Public WTT Working Realtime Location Arr Dep Arr Dep Arr Dep Dly Bicester North 1907 1907 1905 -2 Blackthorne pass 1910 No report Haddenham & Thame Parkway 1919 1919 1919 1919½ 1915 1917 -2 Princes Risborough 1926 1926 1926 1926½ 1923 1923 -3 Saunderton 1931 1931 1931 1931½ 1928 1929 -2 West Wycombe pass 1934 No report High Wycombe 1937 1938 1937 1938 1934 1935 -3 Beaconsfield 1944 1944 1943½ 1944 1941 1942 -2 Seer Green 1947 1947 1946½ 1947 1945 1945 -2 Gerrards Cross 1951 1952 1951 1952 1948 1949 -3 Denham Golf Club pass 1954 No report Denham 1956 1956 1955½ 1956 1953 1953 -3 West Ruislip pass 1959 pass 1956 -3 South Ruislip 2001 2001 2001 2001½ 1958 1959 -2 Northolt Park Jn pass 2002 No report Northolt Park pass 2003 No report Sudbury Hill Harrow pass 2004 No report Sudbury & Harrow Road pass 2005 No report Wembley Stadium 2008 2008 2007½ 2008 2004 2005 -3 Neasden South Jn pass 2010 pass 2007 -3 London Marylebone 2027 2019 2017 -2

De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bunkum

I stopped Latin lessons after a couple of years. However the magic interweb thingy can quickly reveal what the above heading may be literally translated to mean.

The sentiment is absolutely right.

Move along please, there is nothing to see here. Oops sorry, that may not be right.

Beardie Rail Lives Longer

My view is that the Government's announcement that they are negotiating with Beardie Rail, in order that they might continue to operate the West Coast Main Line for an extended period of time, is probably sensible.

It will be interesting to see what pans out. The commercial terms of any contract extension will I suspect be even more sensitive that would normally be the case.

And today's news is...

The Department for Transport have today announced that the competition to run trains on the West coast Main Line has been cancelled.

I have seen examples of what I consider to be inadequate and erroneous analysis, by officials, of rail related information submitted to the DfT. I am therefore pleased to see an acknowledgement that the Department is not always right.

It is early, so I have to go to catch a train, but this story clearly has plenty of wheels. I wonder if many more are going to fall off?

September 2012 Mileage Data

This month saw a couple more trips on the Olympic Javelin Shuttle plus a weekend trip down to Exeter to see Sarcens play rugby.

For the record:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	3,373.45
First Great Western	420.4875
South Eastern	11.975
Virgin Trains	105.375
Cross Country	39.775
Total for Month	3,951.0625

Life moves on

This has been a good Summer for London.

Time that has been a long  while coming.

Tens of millions of people's expectations have been exceeded.

Thousands of people have had their hopes dashed.

There have been two flames at the heart of the most recent memories.

Tonight the second of those two flames will be extinguished.

The cauldron will then be dismantled.

Two hundred and four scorched petals to be despatched to every corner of the planet.

They will never be reunited.

The petals will move on, as life moves on.

The World will remember London in 2012.

The heat.

The rain.

The people.

The celebrations.

The endeavours.

The World has been reminded what we are about.

This land is full of good.

This planet is full of good.

The flames have been temporary.

The Games have been temporary.

They have helped remind us how to feel good.

Celebrate and move on.

Life moves on.

Olympic Month Mileage Data

A good month for a number of different reasons.

For the record:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	4,251.7375
Southeastern	17.9625
Cross Country	107.8375
Total for Month	4,377.5375

The second month running with a new Train Operating Company. The South Eastern mileage was all on the Javelin shuttles running between St Pancras International and the Olympic Park at Stratford International. That particular station will never ever see so many passengers again once the Paralympics have been and gone next month.

Well that was a little strange

I am not even sure how I found out (because I wasn't following him on Twitter), but today is Geoff Marshall's fortieth Birthday. Happy Birthday Geoff!

Before today I had never met Geoff and had never spoken to him either. Our only interaction had been a brief exchange of emails some years ago.

Just to give some background, Geoff was for a period the World Record Holder for travelling to every London Underground station in the shortest possible time. He also undertook a road trip to visit a place in each of the forty eight connected US States that had the same name as a London Underground station (and blogged about it). I am sure that you will notice a certain theme here - probably not a million miles from the sort of stuff that I have been known to blog about.

Anyhow, there I was up in Birmingham, about to catch a Chiltern Railways train home when I discovered that Geoff was organising a flashmob at five forty this evening at Forty Lane in Wembley.

I decided to go....

I did the proper thing and picked up an appropriate birthday card at Marylebone Station. I then checked my phone to discover that the Metropolitan Line service to Wembley could best be described as 'erratic'. While on the train, the adjoining Jubilee Line was suspended, followed shortly thereafter by the Metropolitan Line. Fortunately I had successfully wended my way through the tube detritus to reach the appointed place, about twenty minutes early.

Being just about the warmest day of 2012 so far, I needed no excuse to sit outside the local pub, soaking up the late afternoon sun. Meanwhile Geoff was tweeting away, mildly swearing and generally berating the misfortune that he and his friends were having trying to reach Wembley.

We were communicating by tweets, but at the appointed time it was clear that without Geoff & Co the flashmob was to consist of one person. Me.

It didn't happen.

Having had notice that the mob had arrived at Wembley Park shortly after the arranged time, I wandered back down towards the station. I then successfully stalked the party crowd up the road and successfully merged into them as they approached Forty Lane.

All a bit weird really.

Anyhow, I was made to feel most welcome, took a group picture, handed over aforesaid birthday card, and then travelled with most of the group back down to Baker Street, having been asked to sign a tee shirt on the way.

I am not sure why that all happened and, as I say, it was a little strange, but all in all it was rather fun.

Happy Birthday Geoff!


Oh, and check out the professional show reel - Geoff's pretty good at what he does for a living.

Friday Travel

Far more early Olympics spectators traveling into London this morning than any other morning, so far!

Still managed to get a seat on Chiltern Railways though... Every day so far.

July 2012 Mileage Figures

Back up to decent mileage this month, but this time just two Train Operating Companies:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	3,848.7125
Cross Country	62.4625
Total for Month	3,911.175

The 24th & 25th of July were poor performance days for Chiltern Railways, but other than that, not much to note really.

First day of the Olympics -

Leaving the house, I check my phone. There's a message from someone further up the line to say that my train is carryng a lot more people than usual. Damn - should have caught the earlier one.

Getting to the station I see two families of four wander in to the coffee shop before me - Oh, and there's a Gamesmaker in there already. It looks as though the normal coffee-making routine has gone out of the window.

Five minutes later - Oh dear, there are lots of people on the platform. Aforementioned Gamesmakers, little darlings clearly dragged out of bed, oh and the usual motley crew of commuters who keep the railway mandarins in their accustomed manner for the rest of the year.

Another message comes through - train really full. It's running 2 minutes late (it rarely does that - a measure of how full it is?). Our little cluster of regular travellers all start to collectively sigh, resigned to standing all the way to Marylebone.

The train come around the corner. We shuffle into a short line.

Deep breath.

Elbows deployed.

Train decelerates quickly, doors stop directly in front of us. Hmmmm. Something's wrong.

There are seats-a-plenty. We each sit down, puzzled.

The train pulls out three minutes late. We look around - the train now runs fast to London Marylebone and there are two empty seats. Chiltern Railways have not done anything special (they can't - they don't have spare trains), but the expected carnage has not appeared.

Actually, that isn't true - I think it is pretty full at the front of this train. Our little group of hardened commuters just made use of the really secret ingredient of successful commuting - the back door. Shush though - don't tell anyone!

Capacity?

According to the Chiltern Railways Passenger Charter, nobody should have to stand [on one of their trains] for more than 20 minutes.

I am currently sat on a train (which left Marylebone at 20.37) on which dozens and dozens of people are standing. The first stop is / was scheduled to be 25 minutes after leaving London Marylebone. We set off 30 minutes ago and have not yet reached that first stop.

I really do worry about what passengers are going to experience during the Olympics. The opening ceremony is two weeks tomorrow.

Oh, and it's still raining. Does anybody have a spare Ark?

Holiday Month

This month I was abroad for almost two weeks, so, as promised my rail mileage has proved to be the lowest for quite some time.

As usual, here is the detail split by each Train Operating Company:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	1,638.50
Heathrow Express	14.5375
South West Trains	25.075
Cross Country	19.8875
Total for Month	1,698.00

Given that my blogging is being artificially inflated by these Railmiles posts, I'd better root out some holiday snaps in due course.

Never Seconds - Some Thoughts

Martha Payne is a school girl in Scotland. With the support of her father, and a camera, she has been blogging about school meals. Martha's blog had also been raising money for 'Mary's Meals', a local charity that aims to provide school meals in many parts of the world.

I understand that the blog was originally set up as part of a school project.

All was going swimmingly well until a Scottish newspaper wrote an article about the blog "Never Seconds" that said some things in a not nice way about Martha's school meals. It is clear from Martha's writing that she is a bright and very polite young lady. The impression that I get is that her father is also very wise.

As a result of the not-so-nice newspaper article, the local council instructed Martha's school to prevent her from taking any further photographs of her school meals. At that point, Martha's JustGiving page had raised about £2,000 for Mary's Meals.

The photography ban caused a national and international firestorm, which resulted in Argyll & Bute Council rescinding it last Friday.

The publicity has been such that at present the funds raised by Martha's blog have increased to just over £76,500. That is phenomenal and is to be applauded. In just four days!

What I find somewhat charming is that Martha and her family have managed to keep a low profile over the last few days, with a simple blog post on Friday that starts "I think you know why I don't have a picture today....".

The other thing that I note is that Mary's Meals (a Scottish Charity No SC022140 which was rather boringly called 'Scottish International Relief' until the beginning of last month), had gross income of £7,624,426 in the year to 30 November 2010.

Mary's Meals is clearly a reasonably sized charity that seems to do fantastic work. I suspect that they will benefit both financially and publicity wise from Martha Payne's blog and from her fund raising.

However Martha's fund raising is so far about 1% of the charity's annual income (say half a week's worth). It needs to be kept in that perspective.

I hope that charity successfully manages the extra publicity and income. I wish Martha, her blog and her family well. I hope all involved in this story manage to keep themselves firmly grounded and worldly wise.

All power to the interweb!

Somewhere Different

I spent last week in a large, well known, city that is not London.

My expectations of a city holiday were not great, but I have to say that 'A good time was had by all'.

Toodle pip!

Back to normality

This month saw relatively work travel, so the mileage for the month is pretty much what I would expect.

As usual, here is the detail split by each Train Operating Company:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Arriva Trains Wales	62.3
Chiltern Railways	3,606.6375
Cross Country	24.6875
Total for Month	3,693.625

As I shall be away for a while next month, June's numbers will definitely hit the doldrums!

National Mills Weekend

Today (Sunday, 13th May 2012) is the second day of National Mills Weekend.

It has the making of a beautiful day - Currently there is not a cloud in the sky in my neck of the Chiltern Hills.

If you are anywhere near Princes Risborough, I recommend that you visit Lacey Green Windmill which is open today from 11.00am to 5.00pm.

It's a big day for the volunteers at Lacey Green. The weather forecast is for 8 mph winds today, so all things being equal, today is the day to see the sails turning.

For more information, please visit the windmill's website, or see my blog post of last August. The photo above / to the right is from last year - currently it's a blue sky day.

Travel information, including directions, is available here. Chiltern Railways are operating a normal Sunday service today to Princes Risborough.

Twenty Nine and A Quarter or Thirty Three?

OK. My Chiltern Railways train to London was cancelled this morning. Actually, my stop was taken off the usual train.

The next train arrived into Marylebone just over 29 minutes after my original train should have done, to Platform 5.

My usual train arrives on Platform 2.

I got to the ticket barriers more than 33 minutes later than usual.

Should I waste a stamp on trying for a 30 minute Charter Refund? Hmmm.

Grrrr.

Tippety tap, Tippety tap

On the usual early train to work.Last stop before London. I look for seat and find one.

Oh no! It's that woman.

Tippety tap.

"Woman"? No, not a sexist comment, more a statement of fact regarding an individual with exceedingly long painted nails.

Tippet tap.

Working on a lap top. Fair enough.

Tippety tap.

Wearing earphones (can't hear any noise overflow), fair enough.

Tippety tap.

All else in the carriage is silent.

Tippety tap Tippety tap.

I can't help but feel that the individual sitting opposite me is wearing headphone so that she does not need to listen to the sound of her tainted painted calcium enriched shards hammering into the keyboard of her inevitably soon to be replaced computer.

Tippety tap. Tippety tap. Tippety tap.

And you know the worst thing? I think she is employed by same company that I work for.

Tippety tap.

April 2012 - The most miles yet in a month

The heading says it all really. I am not sure whether it is an entirely good think but this month has seen plenty of work travel as well as quite a bit of play time.

For the record:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	3,528.3625
First Great Western	290.25
Northern Trains	81.0125
Cross Country	305.1
Total for Month	4,204.725

The second month running with a new Train Operating Company.

May should be lower and expectatons are that my Railmiles will now continue to drift downhill for the next couple of months.