The Old Worse and Worse Railway is certainly living up to its name; it surely can’t get any worse can it? I think the First GWR slogan should be ‘travel more in hope than certainty of reaching your destination’. Throw the timetable out of the window as a work of fiction - hang on though they don’t do a printed version anymore do they? Oh, and where do I get my ticket if the ticket machine malfunctions at Shrub Hill, because the booking office is only open for part of the morning most of the week? God’s Woeful Railway incarnate!
There are 29 trains on Sunday, 44 trains each day Monday - Friday and 34 trains on Saturday, so the horrendous percentages figures for North Cotswold Line this week excluding Saturday’s strike, based on 249 journeys Sunday to Friday =
Over 10 minutes late: 58.2%, Over 15 minutes late: 29.3%, Cancellations: 18.0%.
If Saturday’s strike cancellations are included based on 283 journeys for full week =
Over 10 minutes late: 63.2%, Cancellations: 27.9%.
This of course doesn’t include the TOC’s own target of running services within 5 minutes of advertised times, and RTT (Real Time Trains website) is littered with red marking the instances of trains running 5 or more minutes late – very few escape. All joking apart, the GWR set-up in this area needs vast investment improving track, signalling, points, general infrastructure, IET performance/lack of reliability on diesel engines and urgent redoubling of single line sections, especially if CLPG’s (Cotswold Line Promotion Group's) aim for a half-hourly Paddington service is ever to be achieved.