I note that virtually all the now replaced equipment boxes are still in place around the network decorated with graffitied X's sprayed onto them and looking grim. Is there anything planned to clean up and remove this kit, or will it be left to decay over the next century and beyond?

 

There's a subway too ... and I didn't go up onto the transfer deck. On my return I had around 20 minutes which was long enough (just) to queue for reservations (which feel like a surcharge - I am now 40 euros poorer) for one of our train tomorrow.

 
It was absolute chaos at Oxford station tonight as a man was arrested at Oxford Station for making a bomb threat on board the 1523 Paddington to Worcester Foregate St.
https://bsky.app/profile/oxfordclarion.bsky.social/post/3lt34idpads26

Platform 4 was out of action for about 1 hour meaning all  GWR/XC services had to use Platform 3 and Platform 3 was also out of action for a period of time.

Access to the platforms was also stopped for a while due to overcrowding on the platforms and of course it had to happen when there was an Open Day at the University of Oxford.

 
 Well it's definitely not Taunton .

 

My emphasises.

I'll take that final sentence as a question, Phantom. No expertise beyond my own dealings with the DWP and its handsomely rewarded, but poorly performing, contractors. No expertise beyond studying up on all the legislation, reading the Decision Makers Guidance and Health Professional's Guidance. I have the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the Social Security Act 1998 bookmarked in my browser. No expertise beyond reading case law. No expertise beyond helping several other people navigate the PIP claims and assessment process. No expertise beyond helping someone else successfully appeal at tribunal where, but for Covid, I would have appeared as a McKenzie Friend. No expertise beyond contributing and discussing my experiences with those involved in Upper Tier Tribunals and judicial reviews for PIP. No expertise beyond my OWN lived experiences.

Am I an expert? Far from it. But I do have some expertise borne from lived experience of being in the 'system'. All that said I continue to dread my next reassessment. It's a soul destroying, demoralising, dehumanising process that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

 
Another station I've not visited since it was done up, though more recent. While being built, it looked distinctly Readingesque - does it strike you that way? Or perhaps like Reading would be with an indoor upstairs forest.

 

Not me - although I do have inside information.

 
With full expectation that one member in particular will know exactly where I was when I took these pictures - the first arriving (late) to form our service and the second at the end of the line ... it had turned around and left back quickly by the time I took the photo.

A typical "triangle" loading service as I call them - starts rammed / nearly every seat taken, many more get off than on along the way, and there's just a handful or two by the end  terminus

 

My Cornish friend tells me that they belive the site has already been cleared of rail infrastructure.

 
Not sure if this is the right topic section - please move as appropriate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyl7ql6qy4o

Plans for new park and cycle facility approved
A project to turn vacant land at a Cornish railway station into a new park and cycle facility has been granted planning permission.

Cornwall Council said the project at Ponsandane aimed to improve travel in and around the town.
...................continues.........

So not a railway station then!

 

It was insufficient trains, or train, wasn’t it?

 

Might be just one train, but still insufficient crew to run it.
Unfortunate if that was the one a passenger had selected to travel on earlier.

 

And the trains have to be rebuilt from their original District Line use of course.

Probably three years away at least?

 

Yet again, quoting false statements as facts, it does not help anyone that you write things like above
So many inaccuracies and incorrect claims.

But of course you are the expert here aren't you!

 
The incentive is to get the assessments done, not get the assessments right.

There is something very wrong with a process where 60% of assessment decisions that are appealed at tribunal are overturned. That doesn't include any decisions changed through the DWPs 'Mandatory Reconsideration' process. Which, incidentally, is a stage everyone who appeals a decision has to go through first. This stage puts a time limit on the claimant to claim, but then there is no time limit for the DWP to respond.

For my own case. The assessment, Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) and tribunal were all decided on exactly the same supplied evidence. Healthcare 'professional' report suggested to the DWPs Decision Maker that I didn't meet the criteria for any points for any of the Daily Living tasks. DWP didn't change that score at MR stage. Tribunal gave me nine points.

I don't give a toss about how well trained these healthcare 'professionals' allegedly are. My experience is all that matters to me. Her report contained lies. Her report was patently wrong, contradicting evidence provided by genuine professionals with direct and ongoing knowledge of my healthcare. Her report was described as 'shoddy' by someone with years of experience dealing with benefit claimants.

For the record, I keep ALL my DWP paperwork. Whenever a decision is made I request the Decision Makers paperwork on that decision. Where anything important is discussed over the phone I request transcripts and/or copies of the recording. Where I haven't kept copies of submitted paperwork (usually because of DWP timescale pressure) I request copies from DWP. I have three box files of paperwork that contains ONLY documention pertinent to my welfare benefit reassessments.

 
I tend to use National Rail for checking for delays etc., and on the odd occasion I've tried RTT I've found it's not showing the problems being reported by the National Rail app. Like on Monday, while NR showed the diversion via Bristol Parkway and a delay, RTT didn't.

So while RTT is great for history, I'm sticking with NR for predictions.

 
Would it be over-pessimistic of me to think that despite the success of this trial, it may still be several years before we actually see any of these in regular service on GWR?  Infrastructure, training, certification, contracts and more still to do, and nothing ever seems to happen quickly.  Might still beat HS2 opening though!

 
I don't disagree with the message, my point was as orange on cream I didn't spot it.   It was only when I went to quote the message and it was black on white that I saw it.

 

The 80% figure caught my eye, I've an app on the phone that monitors state of charge and makes a small fuss when the phone's charging and a set level of charge is reached to allow the user to stop charging it.

80% advised but this can be set to any value.

The app also tracks battery degradation, and indicates that up to 80% is efficient from that perspective, and that it's the 80 to 100% segment that causes the majority of wear to the battery. I'd been wondering about this with respect to electric vehicles and their owners' thirst for range.

Mark

 

My naughty little postscript in orange was supposed to point out that [they/we] are treating the symptoms and not the cause / disease - easing the pain when what is needed is action to fix the causes as far as possible. 

My guesstimate is that 75% of the problems are fixable at source. Whilst that would cost money to do, it would also bring about a huge saving on the work stress of those who are trying to ease the pain, a big saving on delay/repay, and a boost to confidence in the system so that people who are wary about using the train because of its unreliability would (re)turn to rail.

I am disappointed that these fixings at source have not been done - it almost defies logic that they have not. I do have indications that much background work has been done so "they" know what to do.  Perhaps they are waiting for GBR for it to be a flagship policy of improvements once the government takes over the TOCs? 

 

Thanks so much for that Bob - I have to agree that leaving it to the last minute is NOT the way to go.  And indeed the very good and often successful work of those involved to getting a service back, which is appreciated, leads to them being criticised for a false "the xx:xx train is cancelled" but it ends up running.   The very last thing  I would want encourage is a mentality that says "once a cancellation is broadcast, it is never re-instated".

I guess that a sizeable minority of cancellations are reversed - if only there was a tag line that could be added "but we are still trying to find a way of running it"; my understanding is that's a systemic problem - the options available don't include that ...


Again - a systemic option.   Journeycheck assumes once delayed, always delayed.  It is often "hilariously" wrong on certain trains such as the sleeper ... and the very train in question in this thread - the 05:11 from Gloucester to Southampton can be as much as 20 minutes late as it passes Standish Junction, projected as 08:30 rather than 08:09 into Southampton and yet arrive there on time.   Real Time Trains makes rather better predictions, by various methods like taking the time that trains sit at intermediate stations (Swindon, Salisbury and a little at Westbury on the 05:11) and trimming then back as it predicts.  In reality, once a train is significantly delayed, it comes down to a complex mesh of factors such as platform availability at Westbury which can add significantly to the delay, together with factors already mentioned like timetabled intermediate dwells, and it's pretty unpredictable by current algorithms as to whether the delay is recovered, maintained, or gets worse.

 

I think he based the 4 mins on the Greenford round trip.   The battery charge on the train never normally exceeds 80%, that's to do with battery life.

The charger is quick around 800 Volts at several hundred Amps, the train BMS (Battery Management System) controls the charge rate and the train uses 2 sets charging rails each set of rails has its own shore side battery bank

 

No - less than that.   On the Greenford Branch, charging is once an hour at West Ealing - enough for calls at three intermediate stops (which they did make) to Greenford and then the same three stops on the way back. Total running time perhaps 40 minutes.

 
He says charging takes 4 minutes (2:30 in the video), but not how often it needs that; at every stop?

 
YouTuber Jago Hazzard was invited to this week's test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qeK3182aPQ

 
In the interests of context and ease of future reference, I have expanded the heading of this topic and moved it here.

As ever, I hope this helps.

CfN.