Single Heathrow Express Platform at Paddington from December
Nov 8, 2019, 1:38 am
#16
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Looking at RealTimeTrains, it went pretty well - between 6am and just before 9pm, all trains used platform 7 and were on time, give or take a minute or so. Something happened after that, though - couple of cancellations, and all sorts of platforms. Not sure if that was disruption or engineering.
Nov 8, 2019, 9:53 am
#17
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Nov 11, 2019, 12:34 am
#18
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Nov 11, 2019, 7:48 am
#19
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To make it a single platform operation (which kind of makes sense now Paddington is fully electrified and there is no longer a luggage service), the dwell time will be reduced from 20 to 7 minutes, which is obviously more efficient, but offers a lot less service recovery. I wonder if this will mean fewer units in operation too?
Nov 11, 2019, 9:03 am
#20
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One of the benefits of the 2-platform operation was that, under normal operation, there was always a train there to board, which could be done at your leisure. Reducing to a 1-train 7-minute turnaround will mean that most passengers will now have to wait on the concourse/platform, and endure the scrum race when boarding is announced. Puts a bit of a dent in a premium-fare experience.
Nov 12, 2019, 2:21 am
#21
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That said, if it's moving to a two-platform operation at T5, complete with the longer dwell time there, then you'll have an end to the wait, followed by the "no, get off the train, we need to do security stuff", followed by the scrum at that end. Swings and roundabouts, perhaps?
Jan 31, 2020, 10:35 am
#22
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Quick data point from this evening, both the 1710 and the 1725 departed 5 minutes late. I guess the knock on effect is minimal since they still depart every 15 minutes but it looked quite rushed between one train and the next.
ETA: someone has had to go through the trouble of removing all the purple round stickers on platform 6, can't have been fun!
ETA: someone has had to go through the trouble of removing all the purple round stickers on platform 6, can't have been fun!
Last edited by alex67500; Jan 31, 2020 at 10:44 am
Feb 1, 2020, 9:57 am
#23
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Quick data point from this evening, both the 1710 and the 1725 departed 5 minutes late. I guess the knock on effect is minimal since they still depart every 15 minutes but it looked quite rushed between one train and the next.
ETA: someone has had to go through the trouble of removing all the purple round stickers on platform 6, can't have been fun!
ETA: someone has had to go through the trouble of removing all the purple round stickers on platform 6, can't have been fun!
Feb 4, 2020, 8:26 am
#24
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Wait - are they down to one platform, or just one track? IIRC each platform serves two tracks, one on each side. From the context of the discussion it sounds like they're down to one track though, is that right? Should still be doable with 15 minute headways, but it's a bit tight as has been mentioned.
Feb 4, 2020, 8:34 am
#25
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The way you describe it, yes it was always one central concrete block between 2 tracks, but it is labelled as platforms 6 and 7 (one on each side). HEX trains now only use platform 7, so single track, and the turnaround has to be a lot faster for each train.
Feb 4, 2020, 9:45 am
#26
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Wait - are they down to one platform, or just one track? IIRC each platform serves two tracks, one on each side. From the context of the discussion it sounds like they're down to one track though, is that right? Should still be doable with 15 minute headways, but it's a bit tight as has been mentioned.
Though this gets confusing at stations like Cambridge and Edinburgh where you've got multiple platforms on a single platform face.
Feb 7, 2020, 4:46 pm
#27
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