Mark Hopwood replies!

Dear Dom

Thank you for you for your emails the week before last and I am sorry for both delays.

Our 08:06 on the Tuesday was delayed following a signalling issue which we are investigating with Network Rail.

On the Thursday, our 18:51 left late after we had to undertake a further safety check and the delay was compounded by a signal problem near Slough.

I am also disappointed that we caused you problems last week too.

Our 18:51 on Monday was delayed by a failed Freight Train.

The cancellation of our 08:06 on 15 February was very frustrating. Jo (and I agree she does do a fantastic job on Twitter) was right to explain that we did have a shortage within our HST fleet. We can usually cope well in these situations and draft in a replacement or a Turbo. It is vary rare that we have to cancel a service outright but I am sorry this was the case on Wednesday.

Your return train was delayed in its way into Paddington by a track problem. It then lost its departure path. Although we are starting to see an improvement in our overall performance these last few weeks, services between Oxford and London have not been as reliable. We are working very hard to address this.

Kind regards

Mark Hopwood

Managing Director