North Downs Line disruption leads to 3 stopping trains running to Reading within 5 minutes.

[infobleep]

I know we no longer talk about disruption unless it's on the national nees but I found this rather interesting and to me rather unusual, hence my post. If anyone disagrees then close it.

A shopping trolly on the track cased the 15:43 Guildford to Reading service to depart 56 minutes at 15:39.

It is still showing as stopping at the booked stations such as Ash and Sandhurst, along the line.

The 16:16 departed 26 minutes late at 16:42 and that is also stopping at all stations, including Ash and Sandhurst

At 16:44, the 16:43 departed 1 minutes late and it too is stopping at stations such as Ash and Sandhurst.

So that is three stopping trains to Reading within 5 minutes. I don't think I've ever come across this before.

I get why the trains behind can't overtake, but I am surprised the first train isn't running fast and may be the second train semi fast, to enable the service to recover.

As it is the 17:07 from Guildford and 17:37 have bith been cancelled due to a passenger being taken ill, so may be there are two issues and there is some other reason why they can't run them back so they might as well all stop at every station, except the last of the three, which isn't delayed that much but also can't overtake.

Are there examples of this elsewhere? It may be more common than I realise. I'm just so use to trains running fast and skipping stations.

 

[JonathanH]

I think that in this instance the train with the primary delay was at North Camp for just over an hour. Turfing out passengers at North Camp to allow the train to run fast to Reading doesn't really appear practical, with no passenger facilities there. The others just had to follow.

1V52 1429 Gatwick Airport to Reading was at North Camp from 1532 to 1641, arrived Reading at 1707.

1V53 1459 Gatwick Airport to Reading was held at Guildford from 1548 to 1639, arrived Reading at 1727

1V54 1529 Gatwick Airport to Reading was held at Guildford from 1618 to 1641, arrived Reading at 1737, noting this appears to have lost time due to signal spacing.

1V55 1559 Gatwick Airport to Reading ran on time from Guildford at 1644, but then appears to have lost time between North Camp and Farnborough and then north of Blackwater due to signal spacing, and arrived at Reading at 1752

I don't see how 1V52 or 1V53 could realistically have run faster given the time since the previous trains that had run, but note that the signal spacing issues could have meant it was better to put 1V53's stops in the later trains. It would be interesting to model what the best outcomes are with different strategies. Although 1V53, 1V54 and 1V55 left Guildford within a few minutes of each other, their arrival at Reading was quite spread.

What are now signals 967 between North Camp and Farnborough North and 2979 north of Blackwater always used to be the ones where trains would be held but maybe the resignalling now changes that.

 

[infobleep]

I think that in this instance the train with the primary delay was at North Camp for just over an hour. Turfing out passengers at North Camp to allow the train to run fast to Reading doesn't really appear practical, with no passenger facilities there. The others just had to follow.

1V52 1429 Gatwick Airport to Reading was at North Camp from 1532 to 1641, arrived Reading at 1707.

1V53 1459 Gatwick Airport to Reading was held at Guildford from 1548 to 1639, arrived Reading at 1727

1V54 1529 Gatwick Airport to Reading was held at Guildford from 1618 to 1641, arrived Reading at 1737, noting this appears to have lost time due to signal spacing.

1V55 1559 Gatwick Airport to Reading ran on time from Guildford at 1644, but then appears to have lost time between North Camp and Farnborough and then north of Blackwater due to signal spacing, and arrived at Reading at 1752

I don't see how 1V52 or 1V53 could realistically have run faster given the time since the previous trains that had run, but note that the signal spacing issues could have meant it was better to put 1V53's stops in the later trains. It would be interesting to model what the best outcomes are with different strategies. Although 1V53, 1V54 and 1V55 left Guildford within a few minutes of each other, their arrival at Reading was quite spread.

What are now signals 967 between North Camp and Farnborough North and 2979 north of Blackwater always used to be the ones where trains would be held but maybe the resignalling now changes that.

I didn't think to look ahead down the line. Thanks for the additional info. There was no disruption notice for this, so it obviously wasn't important enough for one or no time to create it.

Surely the passengers at North Camp could join the train behind but it's possible that was busy.

I know someone was complaining on X, formerly known as Twitter, about having to wait outside platform 1, with others, in the rain, during a storm, at Redruth station, for a delayed train, when the waiting rooms were locked.

The waiting room qaa locked because no staff around and they would get vandalised. So there are times when people have to wait with no facilities. But I imagine less waiting than would be on the train stuck at North Camp.

Either way I found it interesting so many trains ran to their booked stations today and I was glad I spotted it in time so didn't get caught up with the lack of trains between 17:00 and 18:00.