I
would like to give you all a quick report regarding the delays I’ve seen
recently.
It's
late in the morning on 30th March 2016 and I'm
looking at Real Time Trains
and Open Train Times
(diagram map) of the 0953 service from Romford to London Liverpool Street
station. The service is a fast train which runs alongside the Shenfield Metro
which is branded as TFL Rail. I should point out that TFL
Rail is
operated by MTR Crossrail.
The
service I'm monitoring is 2K43, operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. I was expecting the 0953 service to London
Liverpool Street [LST] from Romford Station [RMF], but instead a freight train
(Duty code 488V) went past Romford Station at 0952¼ which is three minutes
behind their schedule. Then shortly afterwards the expected 0953 train arrives
at 0954¾ and departed at 0955¾ making it two minutes late.
As
I watch the signalling diagram from the Open Train Times of the 2K43 service, it approaches
Stratford [SRA] and changed platforms from 9 to platform 5 as I witnessed a
train on platform 9.
The
‘fast’ train arriving at platform 5 is handy for commuters switching to the
Central Line which is adjacent; usually TFL Rail services going towards London
Liverpool Street stop at platform 5.
The
2K43 service departed at 1005¾ which is four minutes behind its schedule as it
usually departs at 1001½. Then the 2K43 train arrived at London Liverpool
Street at 1013 making it three minutes late. Its expected arrival on the
timetable is at 1010.
Below
is the timetable of the services which logged the 2K43 service on 30th March 2016.
At
11am on the same day, Abellio Greater Anglia reported a speed restriction at
Gidea Park.
Due to a speed restriction over defective near #GideaPark trains have to run at reduced speed on the line from London. RS— Greater Anglia (@greateranglia) March 30, 2016
Let’s
take a quick look at the diagram showing where every pound of income from fares
go to:
Interesting
how 22p out of each pound goes to maintaining track and trains while 3p goes to
the operating company profits. This image is taken from the National Rail website.
I’ve
also found out from National Rail that the passengers who've been delayed
for more than 30 minutes (for most train companies) will get a refund for their
fare. This also applies with London Overground and TFL Rail as well.
Countries
like Japan and Germany provide passengers a delay certificate which is issued by the railway company to show that the
scheduled passenger train arrived at the station later than the scheduled
timetable. Users of the C2C (London Tilbury Southend line) have an automated delay repay for those who have been delayed
after 2 minutes. This only applies for users of the C2C smartcard holders.
In
my view, in order to have a decent service, the railway infrastructure, such as
the signalling system and rails need to be in good condition in order to
maintain a good service for the train companies. So who owns the railway
infrastructure? Network Rail, which
is owned by the UK Government since Railtrack PLC went into “Railway Administration” in 2002.
In
my previous article I mentioned that Arriva
won the London Overground contract. In the TFL press release, it says:
“To support this, new incentives have
been incorporated into the new contract including financially penalising Arriva should incidents caused by Network Rail, train and freight operators
impact on London Overground services. Along with the tightening of the rail
industry standard measurement for punctuality for commuter services to three
minutes within the scheduled arrival time. These
measures are being implemented to encourage closer working with Network Rail
and Bombardier to continue to improve reliability and provide high quality
services for customers.”
I
can't see a reason why TFL would have to penalise Arriva over the incidents caused by Network Rail, freight and train
operators. But at least this new rule will persuade Network Rail and other
train operators to give priority to the London Overground services. Plus it’s
quite important to have staff at the platform to observe the boarding and
alighting of the passengers because during rush hour times they may cause delay
by trapping objects between the doors.
So
what about the trains? The trains are leased to the train operating company by
a Rolling stock operating company
(ROSCO). They have the responsibility of maintaining the trains and carriages
which they lease to the train operating company. Their trains have to be in
good condition which in turn improves the performance of the service.
The performance of services is very
important to the train operating companies in order to reduce delays so they
can make more profits by having a reliable performance.
I know I haven’t posted for a while so
I decided to do this quick article giving my views on the railway delays.
You can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Multimedia
Image attribution
By mattbuck (category) - Own work by mattbuck., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33077127
