European Railroad Discussion > Great Western's emergency timetable

The cracking issue with the Hitachi IETs is no closer to being solved. Great Western are reintroducing some units back in to service, but only after rigorous checks. A long term fix is still some way off and will probably require each unit to be withdrawn from service for a protracted period whilst whatever remediation Hitachi decide is necessary is applied. As things stood yesterday (and each day is different) this is what Great Western was operating.

London to Swindon, an hourly service in each direction calling at Reading and Didcot using Bombardier built class 387 110 mph EMUs in 12 car formations - the 387s are usually employed on outer suburban stopping services, these are being covered by a mix of 387s and the Transport for London Crossrail class 345s, which are sitting around without much to do waiting for Crossrail to open. I believe that GW are running a trio of 387s to Bristol Parkway today, so it is possible that the Paddington to Swindon service will be extended to Bristol Parkway. By now the 387s should have been passed to run all the way to Cardiff through the Severn Tunnel but Covid restrictions have meant that hasn't happened.
Swindon to Bristol, an hourly shuttle using Cross Country stock, yesterday the two diagrams were covered by a four car class 220 and a seven car HST
Reading to Newport, South Wales is being served (just) by an hourly shuttle which uses what 800s are available, changing at Reading for London. Yesterday this was very problematic, with some trains either starting or terminating at Didcot and Bristol Parkway. I only saw one 800 yesterday, 800 009, one of the three diagrams wasn't covered whilst the third was a 90 mph class 166 DMU. Passengers for Cardiff and stations to Swansea use Transport for Wales, XC or other GW services from Newport.  
Oxford to Worcester, 165 / 166 DMUs providing a limited service on the Cotswold Line, but only as far as Worcester. Onward passengers for Malvern and Hereford have to use West Midlands trains.
Swindon to Gloucester, another DMU shuttle service.

Yesterday there were no through services from London or Reading to the West of England, and no service at all to Pewsey on the West of England Mainline. Today I believe there is an Exeter to Reading diagram but only one, which means three train or four trains in each direction instead of the normal hourly service. Local services on Great Western operated by class 165 / 166 DMUs, the Castle Class HSTs and 158 DMUs are operating normally.

I went out yesterday to see for myself what was about, here are three pictures of the emergency service.

1: This 166 was on the 10:33 Newport to Reading. It had left Newport about 40 minutes late and would terminate at Didcot over 50 minutes late.
2: The 11:28 Paddington to Swindon (arr 12:26) speeding past Uffington
3: Emerging from Middle Hill Tunnel, Box is the 14:30 Bristol Temple Meads to Swindon, the on loan XC HST.

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I hope people are rushing to travel on some comfy trains! There's always a bonus.  chris uk.

Question about photo #3 of the train exiting the tunnel. The tunnel portal appears to be twice as high as it needs to be. Is this the result of the photo angle or is it actually that big?
Charlie

1019X Wrote:
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> Question about photo #3 of the train exiting the
> tunnel. The tunnel portal appears to be twice as
> high as it needs to be. Is this the result of the
> photo angle or is it actually that big?
> Charlie

The portal is that big, it's visible from what was the main road from Bristol to London, the Great Western and their chief engineer, Brunel, were making a point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/21 09:46 by 86235.

East Midlands Railway are taking HST sets out of service with the new timetable on 16th May 2021. I wonder whether they will be reallocated to either GWR or LNER to help out in this situation plus any that can be reformed from storage. Or will they still take the one way trip to Sim`s Metals in Newport ( scrap yard ).

markshelley Wrote:
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> East Midlands Railway are taking HST sets out of
> service with the new timetable on 16th May 2021. I
> wonder whether they will be reallocated to either
> GWR or LNER to help out in this situation plus any
> that can be reformed from storage. Or will they
> still take the one way trip to Sim`s Metals in
> Newport ( scrap yard ).

Great Western are expecting to have 66% of their fleet back in service by Monday, I expect it's a one way ticket to Sims for the HST trailers. Their ongoing future on Scotrail, XC and Great Western rests on the Carmont enquiry looking at the crashworthiness of rebuilt HST trailers after last summer's disaster in Scotland.