First (not-so-) Great Western delay fiasco

devondiver

Customer services guys at Reading said the train was 20 minutes away. 20 mins @ 125mph = 41.6miles. Perhaps it was between Pewsey and Reading. Had no idea where Pewsey was until now.

timbo58

to be fair it wouldn't do 125mph from the moment it left station A to station B, it can only do that when it has a long enough distance to build up to that speed and where the rail speed limit allows it.
i.e. Reading west/reading is probably around 60mph, braking distance at 125mph is 1.25 miles max etc.

devondiver

Forgive me, I'm just repeating what the rail staff said.

Previous stop was Taunton. The problem was actually logged by FGW as initiating at 15.26 and the train was due at Reading at 15.49 - so I guess their figure of 'about 20mins' is not far out. Initially the train staff thought someone had pulled the communication cord (or whatever its called these days).

Anyway, had nice reply from Markyboy - offering refunds plus free tickets. Hmmm...Thinking about it.

timbo58

ah understood. 'communication cord' is correct still I think?

Since it can be easily checked from inside the train that is the 1st port of call for the Train manager to check (usually pulled in the toilet IME), after that it's a case of communicating with the driver and agreeing a safe system of work to check the brake pipe integrity between each coach