It may purely be my imagination, but is engineering work getting
progressively more likely to cause disruption with each passing year?

For the first time I can remember, there were closures in August, on
Saturday evenings and (I think) much of Sunday between Southampton and
Portsmouth. And from the end of September to the beginning of June,
practically every Sunday, and many Saturdays, they have to send the
Weymouth-London trains round via Havant, there always seems to be some
blockage on the main line somewhere...

I'm sure it wasn't such a problem in the 80s; I regularly remember
travelling on Saturdays then and it was rare for the service to be
disrupted.

Nick

nick150971@yahoo.co.uk wrote:


> I'm sure it wasn't such a problem in the 80s; I regularly remember
> travelling on Saturdays then and it was rare for the service to be
> disrupted.



Definitely not unusual at all.


Portsmouth direct routinely used Sats and Suns for Bomo line train
diversions on several weekends each year ever since I can recall to
1970 or so and I've no reason beleive they were anything new then.

Bristol Portsmouth, Waterloo Exeter via Southampton, or via Westbury,
routinely diverted via Eastleigh and so on and on, Sats and Suns. There
really was something each weekend.

What is different from olden times is

[a] that they would have dragged Rep+TC via Laverstock and not bussed
the service as they are doing around this block north of Southampton

[b] there is much more advance information about work so now when you
read websites you see the full extent of work whereas 20 or less years
ago you'd only get to find out this weeks work.


--
Nick

nick150971@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> I'm sure it wasn't such a problem in the 80s; I regularly remember
> travelling on Saturdays then and it was rare for the service to be
> disrupted.


<cynic>
Maybe that's the problem.  Lack of work then means a whole heap of
closures now ...
</cynic>

Regards

Matt,
Salisbury

nick150971@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> It may purely be my imagination, but is engineering work getting
> progressively more likely to cause disruption with each passing year?


Well, for the first time that I'm aware of (but only been aware of the 
last couple of years!), it will be impossible to get a direct train from 
Canterbury to London on a couple of weekends next month. They have 
bustitutions from Canterbury West to Ashford *and* from Rainham to 
Rochester (if you were going from the East station).

Unfortunately, this means a *really* early start when I have to be in 
Maidenhead by 10am on the 15th October - it will take nearly 4 hours :-/

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

nick150971@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> It may purely be my imagination, but is engineering work getting
> progressively more likely to cause disruption with each passing year?
>
> For the first time I can remember, there were closures in August, on
> Saturday evenings and (I think) much of Sunday between Southampton and
> Portsmouth. And from the end of September to the beginning of June,
> practically every Sunday, and many Saturdays, they have to send the
> Weymouth-London trains round via Havant, there always seems to be some
> blockage on the main line somewhere...
>
> I'm sure it wasn't such a problem in the 80s; I regularly remember
> travelling on Saturdays then and it was rare for the service to be
> disrupted.
>
> Nick



In the earlier days of privatisation I remember all routes from London
to the East Anglian seaside, from Southend to Cromer (inc Clacton,
Great Yarmouth etc) being closed for the entire August Bank Holiday
weekend for two years running.

However, I don't remember huge chunks of the Underground being closed
every weekend as they are now.  In the late 1970s and early 1980s I was
always on the Underground at the weekend and closures were almost
unheard of.

Perhaps it's partly because that's the period of neglect that created
today's problems, but also I suspect that it was done more expensively
at night etc.

wrote in message 
news:1127258091.683691.120500@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> It may purely be my imagination, but is engineering work getting
> progressively more likely to cause disruption with each passing year?
>
> For the first time I can remember, there were closures in August, on
> Saturday evenings and (I think) much of Sunday between Southampton and
> Portsmouth. And from the end of September to the beginning of June,
> practically every Sunday, and many Saturdays, they have to send the
> Weymouth-London trains round via Havant, there always seems to be some
> blockage on the main line somewhere...
>
> I'm sure it wasn't such a problem in the 80s; I regularly remember
> travelling on Saturdays then and it was rare for the service to be
> disrupted.
>
> Nick
>


Definitely much worse than in the past. Engineering work was almost unknown 
on Saturdays, and usually finished by mid-afternoon on Sundays so that 
weekend travellers could return home. Now, there is less consideration for 
the traveller - too bad if you have to change to / from a bus en route, and 
hard luck if your connecting train departs just as your bus enters the 
station car park. Also we now have the  unhelpful HSE, which for example, 
seems to stop trains running just because someone is working on the next but 
one track on 4 track sections - safety precautions gone mad ?

Also no logical planning - often possible alternative routes have 
engineering work on the same dates, and no consideration for holiday 
destinations or big sporting / cultural events. The fragmented railway makes 
thing worse - there was a time when train crews knew most of the alternative 
routes - now they mostly know only regularly scheduled routes for their own 
company. The words brewery, up & pissssss come to mind.

Bevan.

"matt"  wrote

>
> It's not a level playing field for some reason... it seems quite
> acceptable to work on a closed lane of a motorway with just a line of
> cones protecting you [1] albeit with a traffic speed restriction.
>

Some years ago I used to see signs reading 'Lane Closed to Protect
Workforce', but I haven't seen them recently. Have TPTB dispensed with this
precaution?

Peter

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:43:28 +0000 (UTC) someone who may be matt
 wrote this:-


>It's not a level playing field for some reason... it seems quite 
>acceptable to work on a closed lane of a motorway with just a line of 
>cones protecting you [1] albeit with a traffic speed restriction.


I made this point perhaps a year ago. A few people said it couldn't
be done, though I did not find their reasoning convincing. Blue
cones and a speed restriction of say 50mph seems to me to be an
acceptable balance of risks against providing a service.


>Can't do this on the railway of course, evidently trains are far more 
>likely to suddenly veer off into the coned off area than say a 42-ton artic.


The argument is about staff walking onto lines which are still open
for traffic.


-- 
 David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
 I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
 prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

In article <dgsabd$2tu$1@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>,
   Peter Masson  wrote:

> > It's not a level playing field for some reason... it seems quite
> > acceptable to work on a closed lane of a motorway with just a line of
> > cones protecting you [1] albeit with a traffic speed restriction.
> >
> Some years ago I used to see signs reading 'Lane Closed to Protect
> Workforce', but I haven't seen them recently. Have TPTB dispensed with
> this precaution?


Those signs were displayed on the M1 a couple of weeks ago.

-- 
David Wild using RISC OS on broadband

Bevan Price wrote:


> Definitely much worse than in the past. Engineering work was almost unknown
> on Saturdays,


Have to dis-agree there.

Saturdays were not as extensive as Sundays disruptions but to say
''almost unknown'' is plain wrong.


I only to have to look at my haulage moves book to see how many times I
have taken advantage of diversionary routes and rare haulage on
Saturdays - on the Southern with those examples cited above, many other
SR diverts, and just about every diversion you can think of in the West
Midlands, complete closures of Rugby Coventry for a weekend with hourly
Paddington diverts on at least 3 or 4 weekends every year for example.
Further north there were routine WCML via S&C all weekends, or Crewe
Preston via Manchester or Crewe Warrington via Northwich and so on.


--
Nick