Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say, Langley,
the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If you want to
go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck - even though
Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and certainly miles from the
200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's incident). What's wrong with
running a temporary service which would avoid days of inconvenience for
people who, rather unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling
anywhere near Langley?

Poldie wrote:
Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say, Langley,
the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If you want to
go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck - even though
Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and certainly miles from the
200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's incident). What's wrong with
running a temporary service which would avoid days of inconvenience for
people who, rather unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling
anywhere near Langley?

At a guess:
1. Not enough trains/drivers at the Paddington end
2. Availability of an alternative (Central/District lines)

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

Dave Arquati wrote:
Poldie wrote:
Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say, Langley,
the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If you want to
go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck - even though
Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and certainly miles from the
200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's incident). What's wrong with
running a temporary service which would avoid days of inconvenience for
people who, rather unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling
anywhere near Langley?

At a guess:
1. Not enough trains/drivers at the Paddington end

They can't get to Paddington (or the stations at the other end of the
line) using whatever method the hapless passengers are supposed to use?
The trains are going to be stopped until lunchtime tomorrow - they're
going to have plenty of time!

2. Availability of an alternative (Central/District lines)

The tube doesn't extend to Iver/West Drayton etc.

Poldie wrote:
Dave Arquati wrote:
Poldie wrote:
Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say, Langley,
the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If you want to
go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck - even though
Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and certainly miles from the
200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's incident). What's wrong with
running a temporary service which would avoid days of inconvenience for
people who, rather unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling
anywhere near Langley?
At a guess:
1. Not enough trains/drivers at the Paddington end

They can't get to Paddington (or the stations at the other end of the
line) using whatever method the hapless passengers are supposed to use?
The trains are going to be stopped until lunchtime tomorrow - they're
going to have plenty of time!

Maybe they'll have an emergency timetable in place tomorrow. However,
another problem may be that high demand for a restricted service will
result in endless delays and problems - and sometimes it's better just
to tell passengers to find a different way rather than rely on a limited
service.

2. Availability of an alternative (Central/District lines)

The tube doesn't extend to Iver/West Drayton etc.

No... but places from West Drayton inwards have frequent bus connections
to nearby lines like the Piccadilly and Central.

Anyway, I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm just saying what the
thinking *might* be...

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

On 17 Sep 2006 10:42:01 -0700, "Poldie" wrote:

Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say, Langley,
the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If you want to
go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck - even though
Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and certainly miles from the
200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's incident). What's wrong with
running a temporary service which would avoid days of inconvenience for
people who, rather unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling
anywhere near Langley?

Not sure that the signalling and points will be set up to handle the
short shuttle you desire. I don't know, but it may be that the trains
have no easy way to turn round at Ealing and go back to Paddington,
remember the public is not allowed to be carried over unusual routes
these days, which can mean even a single set of points if they never
normally carry passengers, so a lot of reversing manoevres may be
impossible.

It's only for two days, I am sure the line was closed for a lot longer
when the big train crash happened, how did you cope then?

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On 17 Sep 2006 10:42:01 -0700, "Poldie" wrote:

Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say,
Langley, the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If
you want to go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck
- even though Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and
certainly miles from the 200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's
incident). What's wrong with running a temporary service which
would avoid days of inconvenience for people who, rather
unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling anywhere near
Langley?

Not sure that the signalling and points will be set up to handle the
short shuttle you desire. I don't know, but it may be that the
trains have no easy way to turn round at Ealing and go back to
Paddington, remember the public is not allowed to be carried over
unusual routes these days, which can mean even a single set of
points if they never normally carry passengers, so a lot of
reversing manoevres may be impossible.

There's a bay platform at Hayes which could be used. Heathrow Connect
used that for its first week when there was a problem at Heathrow
preventing it reversing there. Incidentally, was Heathrow Connect still
running today? Was the Greenford service still running?

It's only for two days, I am sure the line was closed for a lot
longer when the big train crash happened, how did you cope then?

Irrelevant. The issue is whether a service can be run now to serve some
or all of the 9 stations at the London end of today's incident. Seems a
reasonable point to raise.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Richard J. wrote:
Peter Frimberley wrote:
On 17 Sep 2006 10:42:01 -0700, "Poldie" wrote:

Someone here must know this! When there's a problem at, say,
Langley, the trains between Slough and Paddington are stopped. If
you want to go from Ealing Broadway to Paddington then tough luck
- even though Ealing Broadway is nowhere near Langley (and
certainly miles from the 200 metre `exclusion zone` around today's
incident). What's wrong with running a temporary service which
would avoid days of inconvenience for people who, rather
unsuprisingly, have no interest in travelling anywhere near
Langley?

Not sure that the signalling and points will be set up to handle the
short shuttle you desire. I don't know, but it may be that the
trains have no easy way to turn round at Ealing and go back to
Paddington, remember the public is not allowed to be carried over
unusual routes these days, which can mean even a single set of
points if they never normally carry passengers, so a lot of
reversing manoevres may be impossible.

There's a bay platform at Hayes which could be used. Heathrow Connect
used that for its first week when there was a problem at Heathrow
preventing it reversing there. Incidentally, was Heathrow Connect still
running today? Was the Greenford service still running?

It's only for two days, I am sure the line was closed for a lot
longer when the big train crash happened, how did you cope then?

Irrelevant. The issue is whether a service can be run now to serve some
or all of the 9 stations at the London end of today's incident. Seems a
reasonable point to raise.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

*Pedantic mode* :-) Actually on Sunday, it would only be 4 stations as
the Greenford train doesn't run and Hanwell and Iver don't get a
service either. Heathrow connect was still running yesterday and FGW
apparently laid on a bus from Hayes to West Drayton, Langley and
Slough.

IIRC in you're interested, after the Ladbroke rail crash, Thames Trains
ran half - hourly 5 carriage trains stopping all stations from Reading
to Ealing Broadway. Very busy as I remember, some times you couldn't
get on at West Drayton going into town. Luckily for me, I only worked
in Hayes at the time. and started using the H50 which was cheaper and
about the same journey time to where I worked, so I stuck with the bus
after that...