Virgin Voyager woes, part 220

The BBC have now caught up with the woes of Virgin Voyagers, proving that it's not just us rail anoraks that find "Operation Princess" deeply flawed.

Hugh Dady recalls a typical day in the West of England on the SWRG mailing list

Waiting on platform 5 at Exeter this morning I was comforted to see the monitors were showing FGW's 0657 service to London as on time while all around the 0712, 0740 and 0812 from a certain other company had the blue line treatment on the indicator (i.e. cancelled). Life is full of little surprises and at that rather unsociable time of the day I had to rub my eyes as 47815 came into view actually 1 minute down at this stage. For those that don't know, the 0555 Ply - Pdn is an all stations job and since it is timed for an HST it presents quite a challenge to one of Brush's finest. 'Abertawe Landore' put in a commendable performance arriving at platform 2 at Pdn a tad over 5 min late, which considering the train is timed to take 25 min Reading - Pdn alone , I though wasn't a bad performance. The ecs was taken out by 47813 for the record.

Overrunning business meant that I missed the Golden Hind and was saddled with the 1833 ex-Pdn for my return, not a favourite train as it is another all stations job. The stock was late arriving presumably as they were trying to step up an HST rather than rely on a loco formation again, but an HST finally arrived in platform 9 and we set off some 7 min late. Now at this stage you might wonder how I am going to get Virgin into a trip from Dawlish to Pdn by FGW! Well it goes like this. We had just about pulled back all of the 7 min late start by the time that we drew up at Westbury, when I was startled by a Voyager which scuttled by on the adjacent line. Now Voyagers don't belong at Westbury do they? What was it doing - to Eastleigh for maintenance perhaps - that was my first though anyway. After 5 min delay we were on our way again with the booked stop at Castle Carry and an unscheduled stop west of Cogload. After a few min. I went to the end of the coach , looked out and beyond our signal were the tail lights of a Voyager. Soon it moved but we didn't. Eventually we got a green, drew into Taunton where sitting in the island platform were 221108 leading 220006 both apparently collapsed. Passengers were being urged to get off the Voyagers and cross under the subway to join our train. Eventually about 100 very weary looking passengers did so and the debrief of some of them was interesting. For a start the units that had passed us at Westbury were these two! It looks as if the first Voyager coming south to Bristol had suffered brake problems through much of its journey. When it got to Bristol it would apparently only go in one direction and that wasn't west. It looks as if the service behind it coupled up (both were apparently full and standing at this stage - presumably about 1730/1800 at Bristol so right in the middle of the rush hour) but they could only move in an easterly direction so they were sent via Bath and the Limpley Stoke. The whole lot ground to a halt outside Taunton according to the passengers - they then managed to get into the station where all the lights went out and the units shut down.

We left at 2054 as they were splitting the Voyagers having powered up 221108 again. Very comprehensive announcements were made by FGW on our service to the VT passengers joining us and I was glad to note that the train manager did use the word 'passengers'. A coach would be laid on at Plymouth for those pass. for Liskeard and Bodmin etc. The news for passengers wanting Truro Redruth Cambourne and Penzance was not however to good as they were hoping to provide a rail service leaving Plymouth at 2305.

While waiting at Exeter for my connection to Dawlish the announcements confirmed that most VT services from the north were either one, one and a half hours late or just cancelled. 220031 came in smartly behind us at 2125, I think forming a service from Darlington but it was hard to tell and it was followed by 221108 (empty from Taunton) which went into platform 5 and within three mins set off back north with no passengers which all seemed pretty odd. Meantime I left on the 2136 for Paignton formed of 153372/305 and very nice they were too, perhaps a little noisier than a Voyager but at least they work. Passengers on the 2132 to Exmouth were in for an even better treat with a sparkling 158816. Mr Green - when are you going to accept that it isn't working - FGW might even loan you the odd 47 but surely you have enough of your own and Rivera trains could supply you with the coaches? You gave away the finest diesel train in the world bar none (HST) to other operators - don't say people didn't warn you that it would be like this.
H.D.