Since the beginning of November, not one of the 91 services scheduled to run on Sundays from Wales’ capital city, Cardiff, to London arrived on time. Almost a quarter of planned services were cancelled and 14 were cancelled before reaching London.
Passengers on the 5.20pm from Cardiff Central to London Paddington had the longest delay, arriving 105 minutes late after their service was diverted to pick up passengers in Bath and Chippenham.
WalesOnline has looked through data for every service due to run on each of the Sundays. In total, services were delayed for 1,095 minutes between Cardiff and London.
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On one of those dates, November 17, all services were diverted to Euston rather than Paddington because of works relating to HS2, the rail scheme Wales is missing out on hundreds of millions of pounds of funding over despite there not being a single piece of track in Wales. You can read more about that here. Ironically, four of those services diverted to Euston actually arrived earlier than scheduled along with one which went to Paddington.
In the opposite direction, on the London to Cardiff Central route, of the 93 Great Western Railway Services scheduled to run in the same seven week period, 33 were cancelled and just two ran on time.
The longest delay passengers endured was anyone travelling between the capitals on November 24 on the 1.34pm when arrival in Cardiff Central was 86 mins later than planned.
Four of the services left London but were cancelled at stations en route to Wales’ capital.
With so many cancellations, services which have run have been busy, with no seat reservations and standing room only. Services have been diverted to extra stops to pick up more passengers, resulting in delays to customers and further cramped journeys. Customers can apply for compensation if their journey is delayed by more than 15 minutes.
On December 15, the operator warned passengers were told to only travel if “absolutely necessary” with “significant disruption” with customers being told it was due to “crew availability”.
A number of reasons have been given by the operator for the huge impact on Sunday services in particular. In their explanation, GWR quote the impact two named storms had on the network, as well as engineering works, some planned and some now. There were delays due to engineering works, on November 17 there was a speed restriction due to a defective track, on November 3 “urgent maintenance” of the track was needed. On December 1, engineering works weren’t finished on time at Paddington leading to a closure between Reading and Paddington. On November 3, engineering works at the Severn Tunnel Junction were not finished on time, nor were works between Carmarthen and Port Talbot.
On a number of occasions, passengers were told it was due to “availability of train crew”. One of the issues relates to the way staff contracts for GWR are drawn up where Sundays are not part of the working week so those working on a Sunday do so as overtime.
Train operating companies have different models of weekend rotas. Some consider them as any other working day so if you are down to work, you have to do so. Some allow what is known as “committed Sundays” which is that you can take it off if you find cover, and others it is called “outside” which means being paid overtime and they can be taken off at short notice. In terms of GWR, drivers and guards are on the “outside” contracts meaning if they work Sundays it is on overtime, but can withdraw from shifts with short notice – usually a matter of days.
GWR has confirmed 70% of its drivers do not have Sundays as part of their contracts. While there appear to be some exceptions, GWR drivers are on an “outside” contract where if they work they receive rate their wage, plus 25% and a minimum of eight hours wage regardless of the length of their shift. GWR also say that that figure of 30% of drivers on contracts which include Sundays is actually a better position than most.
The issues have particularly come to a head now due to reported shortage in staff generally, but also because pay rises and bonuses are backdated in staff’s November pay checks reducing the number of staff needing or willing to work on Sundays during this period.
They also say that even if train crew shortages is the reason given, it does not mean the root cause is solely that as on the dates we singled out there were major infrastructure challenges which also impact staff travelling around the network which leads to further delays.
In a statement, the operator said “We are really sorry if you did not get the level of service we want to provide. We would prefer it if we were able to run every train on time, every time, but unfortunately some quite significant challenges to the infrastructure on which we depend occurred during this period. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
“This includes two major storms which closed the railway network in south Wales, as well as major engineering works which limited our ability to run trains. We continue to work with our partners at Network Rail as they make the improvements we all wish to see.”
November 3
On this day, GWR say engineering work was not finished on time Severn Tunnel Junction and between Carmarthen/Port Talbot and Swansea. There was urgent maintenance to track in the north Bristol area led to a short notice change to the timetable (unable to run many services throughout the day) as well as planned engineering work between Reading and Didcot
That meant the first service of the day (the 9.20am) between Cardiff Central to London Paddington was cancelled, the following service was 88 minutes late leaving, arriving into London Paddington 69 minutes late. The 10.20am was 84 minutes late leaving, arriving 68 minutes late. There was a 45 minute delay with the 11.20am service and 20 minutes for the 12.20pm service leaving Cardiff. The 1.20pm ran on time but both the following two were cancelled. There were services at 4.20pm, 5.20pm, 6.20pm, 7.20pm and 8.20pm. The last three of those only served as far as Bristol Temple Meads, missing out Bath Spa, Reading and London Paddington.
On the London to Cardiff route, there were 13 services between London Paddington to Cardiff. The 7.36am left on time, but there were five cancellations throughout the day.
The 1.50pm arrived 81 minutes late into Cardiff Central and the 2.50pm arrived 34 minutes late.
November 10
On November 10, a rugby international day in Cardiff, there were 15 services running between the two capital cities. The first three ran on time but there were delays on the 11.20am and 12.20pm services both leaving and arriving.
Every hourly service from 4.20pm until 8.20pm and the additional 4.36pm service had delays. The delays arriving into Paddington were between 13 minutes and 35 minutes. The 9.20pm service ran on time, arriving four minutes late.
On the London to Cardiff leg, on November 10, there were 15 scheduled services and no cancellations. Most services were less than 15 minutes late arriving into Cardiff, the 7.44pm was 28 minutes late arriving.
GWR say that on this day Reading to Didcot Parkway was closed until 10.15am due to track renewals. The 12.23pm between Newport and Bristol Parkway was delayed because of congestion at Bristol. There were trespassers on the line impacting the 7.24pm between Swansea and Paddington, and the train crew were delayed impacted the 7.44pm between Paddington and Swansea.
November 17
Paddington was closed due to HS2 works. However it was a rugby international day in Cardiff. The services instead went to Euston, where four of the 11 services arrived on time and of those delayed, most were for single figures. The 7.20pm departure was the latest arriving with a 14 minute delay to the service arriving into Euston.
In terms of trains leaving London, 13 left from Euston. The first was eight minutes late arriving into Cardiff. All services had delays but of less than 15 minutes.
GWR say the diverted Reading to Euston service ran hourly but there was also a speed restriction put in place in the morning between Reading and Euston due to defective track.
November 24
This was the weekend of Storm Bert.
On November 24, 13 services between Cardiff and London Paddington were planned with three cancellations, the 5.20pm service, 8.20pm departure and 9.42pm. The 4.20pm service terminated at Bristol Parkway and the 4.36pm at Swindon. The 6.20pm also terminated at Bristol Parkway.
The only afternoon or evening train to complete the whole Cardiff Central to London Paddington journey was the 2.20pm arriving 85 minutes late.
Between London Paddington and Cardiff Central the first service was at 11.34am and was cancelled. There were eight other cancellations that day. The 12.34pm did run but arrived 73 minutes late and the 1.34pm arrived 86 minutes late. The 3.34pm did not travel past Swindon.
GWR say the railway line between south Wales and Bristol Parkway was closed due to flooding; massive impact from Storm Bert across Wales; line also closed between Swindon and Bristol Parkway, and many other parts of the GWR Network affected. The · Cardiff Central to Bridgend line was blocked due to track renewals and engineering works impacted the section between London Paddington to Slough until 11.15am.
December 1
On December 1, 13 services were planned between Cardiff and London Paddington. Three were cancelled including the last service of the day at 8.20pm.
The earliest departure, at 9.21am left the Welsh capital 13 minutes late and terminated at Reading. The 10.20am arrived but 24 minutes late. The 11.20am was cancelled. The 12.20pm arrived 32 minutes late, the service an hour late arrived 17 minutes late. The 2.20pm from Cardiff diverted to Bath Spa and Chippenham arriving into London 46 minutes late.
The service at 3.15pm was 19 minutes late arriving with the following service at 4.20pm cancelled. The 4.36pm only went as far as Swindon, the 5.20pm was an hour and 45 minutes late arriving into London. The train which had departed an hour later at 6.20pm arrived first, at 8.40pm, 31 minutes late. The last service, at 8.20pm was cancelled.
There were 13 services between London to Cardiff and three were cancelled. The first scheduled service at 10.37am was almost an hour late into Cardiff. The next at 11.37am was 26 minutes late arriving. There were lengthy delays on all services on this day. The final train, at 22.03pm was 16 minutes late arriving in the Welsh capital.
The GWR explanation is that there were closures between Reading and Paddington because engineering works weren’t finished on time. Track renewals blocked Cardiff Central to Bridgend. There was a points failure between Reading and Didcot and a fatality between Reading and Newbury.
December 8
On December 8, in the aftermath of Storm Darragh of the 14 services running from Cardiff to London Paddington, all but four were cancelled. The 12.20pm arrived eight minutes late, the 3.15pm a single minute late, and the 4.36pm arriving 69 minutes later than planned.
Between London and Cardiff, 15 trains were cancelled. The 8.33am stopped at Bristol Parkway, the 9.31am arrived in the Welsh capital 35 minutes late. The 12.43pm stopped at Bristol Parkway also, and the 2.06pm arrived 72 minutes late.
The storm meant that the railway line between Bristol and South Wales was effectively closed until Monday afternoon, and services were unable to operate. There was also a blockage on the Cardiff Central to Bridgend line because of engineering works and track renewals.
December 15
Between London Paddington and Cardiff Central there were 15 services of which seven ran on time and six were cancelled. The 11.37am was 18 minutes late leaving while the 18.37pm was two minutes late leaving and 24 minutes late arriving in Cardiff. In the other direction, between Cardiff Central and Paddington, there were 14 departures of which four were cancelled. There were some relatively minor delays with the 8.20pm arriving 22 minutes late. The 4.36pm ended at Reading.