Cambrian Line delays

[OrangeJuice]

I recently travelled on the Cambrian from Birmingham to Machynlleth in the evening and over the last few days I've noticed delays of 10-15 minutes always seem to build up in the afternoon. (I've looked from Tuesday this week until today).

This is despite the coast being shut for engineering works and less attachments/joins/divides at Machynlleth.

Could this be because of the opening of Bow Street and the reduction in turnaround at Aberystwyth?

Or does sorting out/booting up ERTMS/ETCS (the on train signalling system, sorry I can't remember which it's called) at Shrewsbury take time too. On Wednesday we sat at Shrewsbury for 8 minutes after the previous train arrived and left for Birmingham before leaving to enter the single line to Welshpool.

I was mainly just wondering why the timekeeping seemed so poor this week, I suppose another reason could be leaf fall/speed restrictions?

 

[Llanigraham]

There is a severe speed restriction between Welshpool Station and Buttington LX, and there has been another speed restriction around the Talerddig area that has affect timings. I also wonder whether a speed restriction was put on at the rebuilt Black Bridge by Machynlleth due to the severe rain we suffered in the last 2 days.
ERTMS log-outs/ins doesn't affect anything and is remarkably quick generally.

 

[seagull]

I doubt that Bow Street would be causing this (although given the time of year it's a distinct possibility that the more defensive driving needed to avoid sliding through it on the way from Aber to Mach may have an effect).

There may be one or more temporary speed restrictions along the route which are the cause.

And yes, sometimes ERTMS can cause minor delays.

Probably a few different minor things adding up. It is a line which all too easily suffers from the knock-on effects of delays for the remainder of service. Although less so now than in the days of the turnaround at Birmingham New Street which rarely worked well due to not enough time.

 

[Caaardiff]

Could be connecting train crew. Machynlleth drivers only sign the Cambrian, not Birmingham lines.
Also crossing points cause delays if the train heading the other way is delayed.

 

[markymark2000]

The Cambrian trains are all scheduled to pass at 2 key points and any delay to any train means the trains going the other way are then also delayed. I believe that it's often something small which causes the delay but it slowly snowballs with no space for recovery so every subsequent service is then late.

 

[wobman]

There's so many problems with the route such as ertms is very slow to boot up and this causes delays sometimes, then there's the fact that Mach drivers only sign as far as Shrewsbury.
So cross depot cover with Salop drivers is not possible if there's severe delays or resource problems, which happens quite often on this route.

 

[chris_in_salop]

Birmingham/Telford/Shrewsbury has been horrendous in the last week for cancellations and short forms, both WMT and TfW. I assume it's connected to half term.

I'm hardly surprised that Covid is running rampant among local schoolchildren when I see 2 or 3 trains worth of passengers packing onto a fun-sized 2 carriages of a 158 at Telford.

Announcement coming into Shrewsbury on the TfW at 5.30pm Friday: in a voice dripping with sarcasm, the guard us to clap the driver. As he put it, we were the only train on time into Shrewsbury that afternoon.

 

[Llandudno]

Are many passengers using Bow Street station, could it be made a request stop…?

 

[Llanigraham]

Are many passengers using Bow Street station, could it be made a request stop…?

According to the staff I know, both TfW and NR, Bow St is not a problem.

 

[Caaardiff]

Are many passengers using Bow Street station, could it be made a request stop…?

It's nothing to do with bow street. The stop has been timed in the schedule.

 

[cambran]

Bow Street does have an effect on timekeeping as it reduces the turnround at Aberystwyth to six minutes, giving no chance to recover from delays- previously four or five minutes could be regained.

 

[Parallel]

Are many passengers using Bow Street station, could it be made a request stop…?

I've used Bow Street 4 times in the past month and there have been other passengers boarding/alighting each time - I know that's not really a representative sample but I'd imagine the train would nearly always stop there if it was made a request stop - at least during the the day. From using the line regularly previously, there was usually some waiting time for some trains at Machynlleth, Talerddig and Shrewsbury. The problem is the delays seem to be more substantial lately east of Machynlleth.

 

[berneyarms]

Bow Street does have an effect on timekeeping as it reduces the turnround at Aberystwyth to six minutes, giving no chance to recover from delays- previously four or five minutes could be regained.

It really doesn't. You are quoting the public timetable. There is recovery time built into that at Aberystwyth.

The working timetable still shows trains arriving at Aberystwyth at xx:19 and departing at xx:30.

 

[Llanigraham]

Bow Street does have an effect on timekeeping as it reduces the turnround at Aberystwyth to six minutes, giving no chance to recover from delays- previously four or five minutes could be regained.

Not according to the staff on both sides of the trains.