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Old October 2nd 14, 08:31 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Walter Briscoe Walter Briscoe is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Oct 2005
Posts: 392
Default FGW at Paddington Excelled Itself This Evening (Wednesday).

[Crossposted to UTL]
In message of
Wed, 1 Oct 2014 19:42:28 in uk.railway, CJB
writes
I would have found reading CJB's posting easier if s/he had broken the
posting into reasonably short lines. I use 72 characters; YMMV.
Due to problems on the BedPan line, followed by a Circle Line train for
Paddington and Hammersmith being suddenly taken out of service without
warning at Edgware Road, I got to Paddington at about 23.35.

What reason was given? What warning could have been given?
I suppose a warning at Baker Street would have allowed Bakerloo usage.
A London Underground (LU) 15 minute delay entitles CJB to a fare refund.

All the above is incidental to the reason for my posting.
How did CJB travel between Edgware Road and Paddington.
TfL's Journey Planner has it as a fast 7' walk; I reckon nearer 5'.
It is not much slower to the Paddington concourse than LU and walk.

[As I crossposted, I have not snipped the long story below.]

There was supposed to be a train at 23.49 ('ish) for Reading - but it
was apparently cancelled due to a 'shortage of staff' aka the driver
failed to turn up.

The next train for Reading was 00.34. There were no staff on duty - as
usual during a disruption they do tend to hide. There were no
management in sight - par for the course anyway.

At 00.34 the CIS suddenly said that trains was 'delayed' - like they
didn't know where it was before it failed to turn up - apparently again
due to a shortage of staff. Huh - don't FGW staff do any work at all?

There were about 200 passengers trying to get home to Reading and local
stations in between. As usual during a disruption there were no staff
visible, no announcements, no apologies, no taxis arranged, no buses,
etc.

Eventually the 00.34 arrived at 00.50 - and then just sat in platform
9. It was announced as going anywhere.

It finally left at 01.00 and I got home well late - too late for a bus
and had to walk through the darkened streets of the local Council
Housing Estate.

Actually it took 3 hours to get home. Normally its an hour.

CJB.




What complaint has CJB made to FGW?
--
Walter Briscoe