So we gotta say goodbye for the summer...

A sombre, subdued mood on the train into London this morning. Why? Because today is the last day on which the 7.05am Chippenham-Paddington will run until 8 September. Yep, my favourite train is now off on its own little summer holiday - being sent back to the sidings for a while because there won't be enough of us to keep it sufficiently populated over the summer months - or at least that's what First Great Western's management is thinking.

Anyway, being Friday, I though I'd pen a brief tribute to this least crowded of peak hour services. I was thinking of basing it on that old song 'Might as well wait until September', which is a pretty accurate description of what will be happening to anyone who turns up this coming Monday morning expecting the service. Or 'Gotta say goodbye for the summer'. But instead I decided it was time for a spot of poetry. So here goes. Ahem...

So farewell then to the 7.05
You were a breath of fresh air, a train with room to breathe
After Swindon this train is fast to Paddington, that was your catchphrase
But now the summer holiday has come
So First Great Western has sent you on yours
Will you send me a postcard?
Having a lovely time in Didcot
Weather good, food ok, carriages having a great time on the beach
See you in September
PS How are you getting on with my mate, the 6.55?
With great difficulty because of the effing crush caused by cancelling you!
Doh


Fin. I thank you.

All aboard the midnight express

It is the blackest midnight of the soul. It's like dying. One can almost feel the life force being sucked from one's body as one's will to live ebbs away. It is the closest thing in this world to being stranded in a formless limbo - a hellish void in which all of one's desires, one's joys, one's ambitions are systematically stripped away leaving nothing but an all-consuming ennui, a paralysing torpor. It is...the last train home. And I hate it.

And you know what's so strange? The last train home - the train that runs when the rest of the world is asleep and the line is empty - is the slowest effing train of the day! And that was certainly true of last night.

After an enjoyable evening on the town with a work contact, I make it to Paddington for 11.20pm and clamber aboard a fairly empty first class carriage. At least I have my off peak upgrade to look forward to. For a moment my mood lifts...but then it is slammed to the canvas and crushed there.

The train manager makes that most hated of announcements: the replacement bus service from Swindon. Argh! The 12-13 minute journey from Swindon to Chippenham immediately elongates to a 40 minute haul through the back streets of Swindon and a darkened motorway. Not good.

Then the next blow. The train manager again: the service is going to be delayed for 30 minutes before leaving Paddington because some crew are stuck on a delayed incoming service. We haven't even left the station yet and already my journey through the sleeping hinterland of England has grown by an hour! Will I ever get to bed? I've got to get back up at 6am to return to London so it's not looking good.

After 15 minutes, the train manager announces that the staff have arrived but have foregone their break in order to get the train moving. I'm grateful - we all are - but that gratitude soon wains as the train crawls agonisingly slowly to Reading, struck behind another service.

After Reading we virtually grind to a halt. Engineering works. I try to concentrate on reading my novel, but I can't: the frustration is enormous. All the time the delay is getting longer and longer and my chance of getting a half-decent kip is being eroded. As we chug through the darkness, men in bright orange clothing out on the track wave to the driver. It's a surreal sight.

We're approaching Didcot, comes the announcement. No we're not, it transpires. It's a further 10 minutes before we reach the soulless armpit of Oxfordshire and then head off into the night once more. But at least now we're moving at a decent speed. But only as far as Swindon, then it's onto the bus and we wait 10 minutes for the stragglers, the time slipping away. It's now 1.20am and my brain is turning to mush.

We finally reach Chippenham Station just before 2am. I repeat: 2-a-fucking-m. Unbelievable! Then I have to walk over the station bridge right down to the far end of the car park to where my car awaits - a welcome sight.

On the walk I chat to a fellow hapless passenger, a woman. She tells me she's in the music business and often catches the last train. "It's never on time," she tells me. "Every night, something different. Some problem or delay or failure. It's a nightmare."

Literally, I muse to myself. A nightmare.

I make it home at 2.10am and crawl into the spare bed without waking the family. Initially I can't sleep - my mind is whirring - maybe falling into unconsciousness around 2.30am. I wake briefly about four, then am woken at 6.10am by my wife and children getting up.

I get up, shower, drink a cup of tea and then drive back to the station to catch the 7.25am, a zombie whose hopes and dreams still seem to be lost somewhere out there in the endless miles of darkness between Reading and Didcot.

Good news travels fast - well, faster than my train

Here’s an interesting little example of the strategic timing of announcements. First, we have Network Rail putting out a jolly interesting bit of news that they’re planning a feasibility study of a series of new high speed rail routes to ease congestion and improve Britain’s railways. A couple of days later this is followed by the launch of a campaign by a group of MPs asking for greater public control over Network Rail.

Now call me an old cynic, but could there be some link between the two stories? Could it be that Network Rail, having gotten wind of what the dastardly MPs were up to, decided to bang out their bit of good news ahead of the MPs’ announcement? It’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility and, from my own career, I know that this type of thing does happen. After all, no harm in announcing a study – particularly as it appears to be the third study of its type in a decade. And even if the study concluded ‘God damn it, let’s build these tracks!’, nothing’s going to happen till at least 2014, by which time I hope to be working slightly closer to home.

Organisations often use press comment as a way of putting pressure on Government or seeking to influence policy. Wednesday’s edition of The Times reported Network Rail’s CEO Ian Coucher saying that the Government’s current expansion plans are inadequate. Oo-er! (Clutches handbag in shock!) That certainly sounds like a bit of pressure being applied by Mr Coucher, or he’s getting tired of Network Rail being the whipping boy of the industry.

But if the prospect of this study and the potential for new high speed lines gets you excited – as I must confess I experienced a brief moment of interest which supping my oaty breakfast cereal – let me calm you with a few words from The Times’ coverage. I quote:

The study, which is due to be published in July next year, will not consider specific routes and is unlikely to set a clear timetable for expansion. It will set out whether there is a business case for new lines and which routes would deliver the greatest benefits. Asked when construction could start, Mr Coucher said: “I have no idea.”

Ah…one of those studies, then. Oh dear.

Debacle at Didcot

Well, more fool me for shooting my big mouth off! One day after I write that things are going pretty swimmingly on the the old Chippenham-Paddington commute, then the entire signalling system around Didcot falls apart. Que sera sera.

I knew things were going to be bad when I checked the FGW website before heading to the station this morning. Saw a rather sketchy announcement about signalling problems at Didcot and 60 minute delays, but according to the site, no trains were actually shown to be running late. Puzzling. Maybe it was just a local problem affecting only Didcot trains while the Bristol HSTs sped by on some other relief track. Maybe, maybe not.

The moment I arrived the station and saw the crowd on the platform and the cancelled signs I knew we were in for a morning of commuter chaos. But having been through this scenario too many times in the past, I wasn't having any of it. No, I turned the car around and headed straight home - and didn't make the usual mistake of buying a ticket for the car park. Thought I hang about at home and keep an eye on the website to see when things cleared up.

Back at home, however, the warnings on FGW's website had become more grave. 'Don't travel unless it's absolutely necessary', was the message to the residents of Cheltenham and Oxford. That was enough for me. I called the office and declared myself to be working from home for the day rather than spending hours being diverted via Melksham, Trowbridge, 27 over small towns in Wiltshire and a line originally closed by Dr Beeching.

Actually, serious point here: trying to decipher what's actually happening from some of the stuff written on the FGW website is nigh on impossible. Let me give you an example: this morning the site said that trains departing from Bristol on the hour were being diverted to Westbury, then onto Reading. Not stopping at Chippenham, I thought, so I didn't bother to go for the 8.25am. But 20 mins later, this was re-written to say that trains leaving Bristol on the hour were actually calling at Bath, Chippenham, Swindon and then going to Westbury. Not the same thing at all. So I could have caught the 8.25am - but by then it was way too late.

God knows what happened at Didcot. Some sort of power surge is mentioned in the press. Probably a badger urinated on a cable. Or maybe some sort of electro-magnetic pulse from Didcot power station (oo er!). One for the conspiracy theorists. Anyway, let's hope things are back to normal tomorrow - that's normal in the FGW/Network Rail sense of the word as opposed to the dictionary definition.

The summer time blues loom

And there you all were thinking I'd gone... but no, still here, still keeping an eye on all things First Great Western. Just been away for a while so not had a chance to put fingers to keyboard. And, to be frank, things have been going pretty smoothly of late. Very few delays, very few cancellations. Well done Andrew Haines for getting things back on track. (Pun intended, ho ho!)

But, to be truthful, there are a few things I now needto bring to your attention.

First, another month has gone by and still no new ticket machines in Chippenham Station car park. I'm beginning to think the whole thing is just some sort of long-winded joke at motorists' expense. Will our promised new wonderful chip-and-pin machines ever make an appearance?

Second, the Shell tanker drivers strike. Dunno about where you live, but in sunny Chippenham we went from normality to Mad Max in the course of 24 hours. Having made a decision not to panic buy, did I ever regret it on Saturday morning when all of my four nearest petrol stations were either closed or out of diesel, my fuel of choice. This weekend coming I will be panic buying. To hell with stiff upper lips and British restraint.

Third and finally, the fate of my much loved 7.05am Chippenham-Paddington over the summer months. I, like many of my fellow commuters, have migrated from the 6.55am to the wondrous 7.05am because it's proving to be more reliable and, as it's fast from Swindon to Paddington, you stand a fighting chance of having a double seat to yourself all the way. Fantastic.

Imagine my horror, then, when on the platform this morning, a fellow commuter and like-minded soul told me that the 7.05am is being suspended over the summer holiday. Surely not, I cried, but a quick flick through the timetable section of the FGW website proved me wrong. They are suspending it - from June 27 to September 8. Nightmare! That means I'll be forced back onto the inhumanly early 6.55am. which will no doubt to packed to capacity.

What kind of train company cancels its services just because it's the summer holiday? The whole point of the summer holiday is that you actually get a nice bit of room on your train for six weeks and get to remember what a normal train service should be like.

Come on First Late Western, how mean can you get! And how many other services are going to be canned over the summer holiday? Not the spirit at all.

Anyway, on this blog at least, normal service is about to be resumed. Catch yer later, commuters.