railways
I tend to think of myself as quite a frequent rail traveller and fairly knowledgeable about how they work however this does not prevent me regularly being baffeled by delays on our railways. As I get the train from Reading into Paddington every morning the train (whether it is the 9:35, 37 or 45 from Reading) almost always stops outside Paddington for a few minutes. Im pretty sure there are set platforms that they are supposed to go into, if there is a train that does not leave until mine is supposed to be arriving to free up the platform then why not change the timetable by a minute? What is even odder is that it even seems to happen when late, how can there not be a platform free?I assume this must all be down to a lack of capacity for the number of trains meaning that the staff in the signal boxes must be juggling trains and platforms right up to the moment the train arrives. So we need more investment and no real chance of getting it until after the recession is over. Crossrail in 4-5 years time should mean even more trains running along the line to maidenhead, I wonder if it will help or hinder?