Trying to Ride a Parliamentary Train

Most trains run pretty often with the vast majority at least hourly with significantly better frequencies in cities (up to 24 trains an hour with crossrail). In fact on the Victoria line at peak times there are an astounding 36 trains an hour in peak hours. This means that there is a train every 100 seconds and with a bit of maths with the doors being open for about 15 seconds, it means that 15% of the time there is a train ready to swift you away to your destination. But a parliamentary train is the exact opposite, usually running once or twice a day to fill contractual obligations to have a specific service. And the one I tried to ride runs once a week in one direction only.

The Chiltern Railways train that was supposed to take me to West Ruislip arriving on platform 5 at West Ealing

The Service

The 11:17 from West Ealing to West Ruislip runs only in one direction and only on Wednesdays (the service runs out of service other days of the week) and I tried to ride it. This parliamentary train is unlike every other train departing from West Ealing as it is run by Chiltern Railways. You might now be looking at your maps and trying to fathom the route this train takes. Well after leaving West Ealing this train runs over the entirety of the Greenford branch, without stopping, then instead of going into the island platform at Greenford it traverses a secret piece of track. Which takes it parallel to the Central line on a single track to South Ruislip and then joining the Chiltern Main line to West Ruislip, where it terminates.

A side view of only Chiltern Railways train to operate, in passenger service, a week from West Ealing

How Did this Train Get to West Ealing

Side note: this is correct as of late December 2021, parliamentary trains are known to be adjusted regularly with this specific parliamentary train changing every few years (starting and terminating at various points including Paddington, High Wycombe, West Ruislip, South Ruislip and West Ealing, with it sometimes running in both directions and sometimes just one). As this parliamentary train is the only Chiltern Railways service from West Ealing (in the week) it has to get here as an empty coaching stock service. This service starts at London Marylebone and then makes its way to South Ruislip (taking a valuable path on the Chiltern Main line) then reverses and makes its way to West Ealing arriving at 11:03 just after the Greenford Shuttle departs. Then somewhat pointlessly it then returns back to London Marylebone. And intriguing as mentioned before this service runs every weekday with it being in passenger service only on Wednesdays.

The GWR 165 coming back, from a failed attempt at the Greenford Shuttle, into platform 4, the usual slow line to Paddington, to reverse into a siding
The Greenford Shuttle terminating on the wrong platform

What Happened To Me

Well yesterday 22nd December I tried to ride this elusive service. And unlike in My Adventure the train did arrive at West Ealing, on time, a few minutes after the Greenford Shuttle departed. So then after noting the train enthusiasts also with me, I got on the train and waited until 11:17 for its departure. What I didn't realise was that the Greenford Shuttle didn't make it to Greenford, because of a points failure, and reversed early and was making it way back to West Ealing to go into a siding to wait for the points to be fixed. So my train wasn't going anywhere anytime soon so slightly defeated I decided to go to West Ruislip the normal way via Ealing Broadway and the central line. On this journey I spotted the bit of track that we were supposed to go on and the semaphore signals used. Later I discovered that the parliamentary train I wanted to on departed 98 minutes late.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London's Hail and Ride Sections

Image
What they are, what they try to do and why we should probably get rid of them. What is Hail and Ride In London many routes ( including the 969 which is London's least frequent bus route ) have sections which don't have any physical bus stops and are defined as hail and ride. These sections are almost always on very minor roads going "round the houses" which means the route is almost certainly not the most direct way to a destination. But the routes themselves have their uses, and whilst routes with hail and ride sections are generally somewhat infrequent, they fulfil TFL's aim for every resident in London to be within 400m of a bus stop. But these buses are not just a box ticking exe...
Read more

10 Interesting and Unique Bus Facts

Image
A mid bus card reader Boarding from the middle door of a London bus used to be quite common (especially in central London) but the number of routes where this is allowed has now decreased substantially to two. They are, in fact, both of the remaining red arrows routes the 507 and 521. The former of these routes runs from Lon...
Read more

Bees And What Is Really Vegan

Image
Bees, through being pollinators, are vitality important in fertilising many flowers which grow into plants for us to eat (and for other animals to eat which we then eat). This is why the declining bee population is so concerning with some people believing that bee extinction will be the cause of human extinction. Bees are small animals and are the right size to fly into a flower, collect pollen, and then play their role in fertilisation by releasing their pollen into another flower. But bees are just like humans and they need to get something out of their work which is fertilising plants. This is the role of nectar which has a sweet smell that invites the bees to a flower and when consumed the pollen of the flower is unknowably transferred onto the bees body. T...
Read more