On 2015\09\19 00:22, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2015 21:58:06 +0100, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2015\09\18 16:54, Robin9 wrote:

I travelled on this train this morning. Very interesting. There was one
other
passenger - with the regulation camera - and a member of staff in
civilian
clothes who seemed to be the guard. He said the reason for the service
was
to maintain Chiltern's right of way into Paddington and seemed to think
that
staff training was a secondary consideration.

He also confirmed there was no chance of Chiltern sending more trains to

Paddington because of a lack of train paths and platforms.

What use is maintaining Chiltern's "right of way" if they don't have the
right to more than one path a day?

It avoids the horror, for the DfT, of going through the formal closure
procedure. DfT are undboubtedly happy to avoid drawing any attention
to the route, its appalling condition and the poor train service. If
people became aware of the route all sorts of outrageous demands, like
a decent train service or, horror of horrors, linking into Crossrail
might be suggested and we can't have that. You can guarantee that if
anyone did anything about closing the service in the next few months
that it'd become a Mayoral election issue in West London and London
Travelwatch would never, ever agree to a closure of a main line link
into a London terminal.

That sounds far more likely than Chiltern wanting to maintain a right of
way.

I'm wondering... if a link from the line to the West London line was
built, perhaps using an S-shaped curve from just south of Old Oak Common
Depot to Hythe Road / Salter Street, would an hourly service from, say
Aylesbury and Princes Risborough to Shepherds Bush and further (say,
Brixton and Orpington) be popular? And would that remove the legal need
for the daily Chiltern service to Paddington, and the parliamentary bus
service from Ealing to Wandsworth Road?

Basil Jet wrote:

On 2015\09\18 16:54, Robin9 wrote:

I travelled on this train this morning. Very interesting. There was
one other
passenger - with the regulation camera - and a member of staff in
civilian
clothes who seemed to be the guard. He said the reason for the
service was
to maintain Chiltern's right of way into Paddington and seemed to
think that
staff training was a secondary consideration.

He also confirmed there was no chance of Chiltern sending more
trains to

Paddington because of a lack of train paths and platforms.

What use is maintaining Chiltern's "right of way" if they don't have
the right to more than one path a day?

The main use is as a diversionary route at weekends if Marylebone is
closed.

Peter Smyth

The May 2017 issue of Modern Railways (Page 58) says that
Chiltern's return service from Paddington in future "will instead
run non-stop to High Wycombe."

On Monday, August 10, 2015 at 9:12:21 PM UTC+1, Barry Salter wrote:
On 06/08/2015 00:44, Recliner wrote:

It arrives empty, presumably from Marylebone or Wembley, at the down
platform 3 at South Ruislip. I assume the Chiltern drivers all take turns
on this service after bringing in a peak train to Marylebone, so they have
up-to-date route knowledge.

Runs empty from Wembley LMD to South Ruislip as 5V35, forms 2V35 to
Paddington, 2M30 back to West Ruislip, then 5H43 back to Marylebone,
though that's only part of the unit's diagram for the day.

The trains in question are only worked by Aylesbury drivers, and I
believe they need a Guard as well.

Cheers,

Barry

--
Barry Salter, usenet (at) southie (dot) me (dot) uk

Disclaimer: The above do not necessarily represent the views of my
employer.

Barry

The May 2017 issue of Modern Railways (Page 58) says that
Chiltern's return service from Paddington in future "will
instead run non-stop to High Wycombe."

I was at Paddington today and I noticed the destination was
High Wycombe. I asked the staff member on guard duty if the
train still stopped at West Ruislip. The reply was no, but the
inbound journey from South Ruislip is unchanged.
Wycombe non-stop. My Freedom Pass is not valid beyond West Ruislip!N

On Sat, 08 Aug 2015 19:06:12 -0500,
wrote:

In article

rg, (Recliner) wrote:

Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:

Also a rather big clue that the clockwise trains have a set of buffers
just to the west of the platform

You might think it's a big clue; my experience of the Great British
Travelling Public begs to differ

I agree. I'm amazed how often I've got on at a terminus and have people
(usually women) asking in what direction the train would move.

The confusion may be because there is in fact no buffer stop on the main DC
platform because the track continues past the footbridge on the stock
transfer link that has yet to be used. even though there are no buffers the
track is obviously disused and some of it lacks electrification.

I was talking in general, even when people have walked past big red
buffers at a terminus, a surprising number are then confused about
which way it'll depart.

In message , at 12:28:14 on
Tue, 15 Aug 2017, Recliner remarked:

I was talking in general, even when people have walked past big red
buffers at a terminus, a surprising number are then confused about
which way it'll depart.

And surprisingly often, such as at Kings Cross platform 9 this morning,
the driver apparently doesn't even realise the big red buffers mean
"stop before colliding with me".

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:28:14 on
Tue, 15 Aug 2017, Recliner remarked:

I was talking in general, even when people have walked past big red
buffers at a terminus, a surprising number are then confused about
which way it'll depart.

And surprisingly often, such as at Kings Cross platform 9 this morning,
the driver apparently doesn't even realise the big red buffers mean
"stop before colliding with me".

That's assuming there wasn't a technical failure.

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 20:33:06 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017, Recliner
remarked:
I was talking in general, even when people have walked past big red
buffers at a terminus, a surprising number are then confused about
which way it'll depart.

And surprisingly often, such as at Kings Cross platform 9 this morning,
the driver apparently doesn't even realise the big red buffers mean
"stop before colliding with me".

That's assuming there wasn't a technical failure.

Failure of the emergency braking system would be very serious indeed.
The whole fleet would surely be out of service for inspection by now?
--
Roland Perry

On Wednesday, 5 August 2015 13:48:37 UTC+1, Recliner wrote:
As most people here must know, Chiltern runs one service a day, M-F,
to Paddington.

There is a YouTube video about this, dated 7/12/2017, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiZGRA_yCE
in case anyone's interested.

It came up in my recommended videos column, which is slightly worrying.

That YouTube video was sent to me too. It's misleading in that
it does not mention the inbound journey from South Ruislip to
Paddington. I also question the forthright assertion that Chiltern
are required to run this service. If that is correct, why were
Chiltern originally allowed to terminate at West Ruislip?