Standing Room Only The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track

Britain's railway...

'We are sorry to announce...'

..the oldest and one of the busiest in the world.

Thank you.

Just slow down. Slow down.

Surely this is illegal to be packed in like this.

A huge network under constant pressure.

Absolutely mental today.

-No driver.

-No driver?

Come on, guys, look for the driver and guard.

Where anything and everything...

Start on it, son.

..can mean delay and chaos for thousands.

Backs against the wall.

He's got a suicidal female on board.

Train now 90 late, owing to hitting a pheasant.

I've heard everything now.

Filmed over a year across the nation...

-You're in that one, fella.

-That one?

-There's a seat next to the banana.

We go behind the scenes of an industry

we all love to complain about.

Do you want a hand?

So oh, no, that's £323.50.

Oi!

With the railway people determined to keep Britain moving.

To infinity and beyond.

In to battle.

Can I renew my monthly pass, please?

December at Reading Station.

It's Monday morning rush hour.

40 miles west of the capital, this is the hub of

the Thames Valley commuter belt, connecting Oxfordshire

and Berkshire in to London, Paddington.

'Unfortunately, after the one that's just landing now at number eight,

'the one behind it has been reported as leaving Newbury

'absolutely rammed.

'You might have a problem trying to squeeze them all on this one.'

It's full and standing...

That's delivering shareholder value.

Why would you want to do this every day?

WHISTLE BLOWS

More than 400 trains and 15,000 passengers

pass through here every morning.

PHONE RINGS

Station control, Reading. Wheelchair user.

The station's control room is run by Phil and Mark.

Passengers with off-peak tickets travelling in to London,

your tickets are not valid on this service.

Your voice is much more photogenic than mine.

Phil's probably about the best one we've got.

Very clear and he's pretty darn pro-active.

Sometimes they get a bit frustrated with us when trains are late

or disrupted, but we do our best to keep them moving.

Shall I do another pro-active announcement?

'Please use all available doors when boarding the train on platform five,

'and move well down inside the coaches once boarded.'

They'll stand next to a door and that's it, all go in one door.

The door to Narnia.

Ensuring the trains leave Reading on time is the job of

dispatch staff like Angie Allen.

-I'll see you later.

-All right. Bye.

I've got on my thermals today.

-Have you?

-Because I was freezing yesterday.

But it's been a lovely night.

It's not been raining and it's not been belting down yet,

so even better.

Stand back, please, let everyone off. Stand back.

Move in, please, move right down the carriage.

You've got a million and one things to remember.

You've got all the times of trains, you've got all the trains,

where they're going, all the connections.

It's absolutely full. If you want to move up that way, please.

Making sure people are safe on a train,

making sure the trains aren't over-crowded.

Totally full. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry, you need to stand back, sir. It's completely full.

It keeps you fit, that.

Before she came to the railways, mother of five, Angie,

worked as a care assistant in a hospital.

Hospitals are quite manic, but we don't deal with as many people

in a hospital per day as what I do on a train station.

There's spaces here if you want to go in here.

So you've got a big responsibility on your shoulders.

And I think if people would understand it,

they'd be a wee bit more lenient.

What's the first one to Paddington?

-Paddington, that'll be the 8.14.

-8.14?

-Yeah.

Is it going to be on time?

-Hopefully, fingers crossed, yeah.

-I wouldn't have thought so.

OK. Thank you.

They don't realise that I've got a life beyond railway.

It's full, it's full here.

I go home, I cook, I clean, I'm like any other mother.

WHISTLE BLOWS

It's a job, just like their job.

They go in to an office every single day,

and you get lawyers, you get doctors.

We're here, we keep the trains going.

Just one small problem on this congested route

can cause big delays.

Incident response staff are on constant alert.

25-year-old economics graduate, Ben Rudkin,

shunned a career in the corporate world to work on the railways.

This morning he's track-side in Berkshire.

Trains on the lines closest to us, which is the mainlines,

are travelling at anything up to 125mph.

Incredibly dangerous place for people to be.

I haven't seen it yet, but it's supposed to be...

Do you know what, I can see it from here.

Half an hour ago, a driver reported seeing a dead dog on the line.

OK, yeah, no worries. Well, look, I'm...what I'll do is,

I'll wait for one to go past each way, shall I?

And signallers have told Ben he has just two minutes to retrieve it

before the next train passes through.

Ben will return the dog to its owners.

Right. I really hope the dog is that big.

Cool.

Do you have any identifying marks?

Ronnie. It's got a phone number on.

Hi, there.

I'm afraid I have what is probably some quite sad news, but...

Yeah, I'm afraid I've found...yeah, I've located Ronnie,

who sadly sort of was deceased on the railway line.

No, you know, she...he or she is in...she's in quite...

You know, she's in quite a good state, so if you'd like Ronnie back.

The guy was...no, the guy thanked me and things for ringing,

but he did sound...

I think they sound like obviously Ronnie was definitely a loving pet.

Platform 13, if you're quick. Change at Slough.

But you have to be quick, you've only got a couple of minutes.

London Paddington is the gateway not only to the Thames Valley,

but to Wales, the West Country and Heathrow Airport.

You can't stand there, it is too dangerous for kids.

Excuse me, excuse me, can you find somewhere for nine of us to go?

-Sorry?

-There's nine of us stood there.

Leave your luggage. You and the little two go down to C,

there's two seats for a disabled person.

Surely this is illegal to be packed in like this.

So if you wanted me to rate this train, it would be zilch.

It reminds me of the train abroad, that's what it reminds me of,

in the poor countries.

Hi, is that Ron Newman?

Hello, good afternoon, I'm calling from Lost Property

at London Paddington, concerning your laptop computer.

If you want to just come to Paddington

and when you get here just pop in and come and see us.

My name's Hayley.

In the run-up to Christmas, thousands of passengers' belongings

find their way to Paddington's Lost Property Office.

Yeah, OK. My name's Hayley.

I'll just jot it down at the back for you.

This is where all the magic happens.

We get from pushchairs to skateboards to rollerblades,

to three suitcases at a time sometimes.

A family have got off

and left everything on there.

So somebody left their pedal bike and their little trailer thing

on the train, and I don't know how you forget something like that.

I mean, we've come across a few things that are not very nice.

I don't even want to say it, a pooey pair of pants.

Seriously, I am so sorry, but, yeah, that's true.

-I'm the person you spoke to...

-Yes, that's right.

..who's had a heart problem, and left my laptop on the train.

-OK. As far at the moment it hasn't come in.

-Right.

Now the best thing for you to do is,

-if you head down here to the gate lines...

-Yes.

..if you see, there's a lovely lady there,

-First Great Western member of staff.

-Right.

Just get her to either radio through to a manager or to get

someone to come over and see you and see what they can do for you.

More than likely, they can let someone on that train know now.

-OK, thank you very much, indeed.

-OK, I've got your number anyway,

so if I get any information, I'll call you.

-Right you are. Thank you.

-OK.

Some of these bags they have people's lives in them.

For you, you don't understand what the sentimental value is for it.

Sometimes it can be like, you know, their grandma or their parents

or somebody that's bought it for them that is no longer with them.

We get loads of bags with just loads of wrapped up gifts.

It is nice to be able to reunite the people with the stuff, especially

at Christmas time, you know, not everyone's got a lot of money.

You go out spending

and losing stuff like that on the train it does kind of...

You know, it's difficult.

Actually, I spoke to the owner today about that item,

so they're going to head down, I think it's tomorrow

about lunchtime, and come and collect it, so that'll be nice.

So I'm going to reunite them

with their Christmas presents before Christmas.

We got on it at Swindon. 14:41.

A member of staff has found Mr Newman's laptop

and returned it to Lost Property.

We've got it.

Right, OK.

We're at Paddington, it's been found,

they found it on the train, the train was still here.

As at other major stations, Lost Property is

operated by an outside commercial company.

There's a charge for every item that comes through the office.

He should be charged.

I mean it's only been in ten minutes,

it hasn't been put through the system,

and he is an elderly man, it is Christmas.

So I'm going to take the decision, I hope,

to release the bag to him without a charge, bless him.

I'm going to charge him £5 for the bag,

and not £20 for the laptop computer.

Brilliant news.

So if you want to just check the contents is all there.

It looks fine to me.

-OK. There is a collection fee.

-That's fine.

Usually it would be £20 for a laptop computer,

but it's only £5 for a bag. So it'll just be £5 today.

Right, I haven't got the money. Can I give you a card?

Yes, of course you can, yeah.

How's about that? Luckiest man alive.

Somebody else could have walked off with that.

-That's your two receipts.

-Thank you.

-And that's everything. You're welcome.

-Thank you very much.

Have a lovely Christmas.

-Have a nice Christmas yourself.

-OK. Bye.

-Thank you.

We get a lot of different property,

we get a lot of different people, so it's nice.

We're always dealing with customers and members of the public,

-so no, pretty cool day we have here.

-SHE LAUGHS

The commuter belt between Reading and London

has some of the busiest trains in the country.

50 million passengers use the route every year.

Can I have one bacon and tomato toastie. One cheese

and onion toastie. One cheese and bacon omelette with toast.

-We've only got white.

-Yeah, that's fine.

Thank you, that's fine, thanks, babe.

Tonight, the 20:15 out of Paddington has 500 people on board.

Anything else? 7.65, please.

-So we've got a cheese and onion and cheese and tomato?

-Yes, please.

-Oh, thanks, babe. Big smiles.

-Excuse me, I'm coming through.

Buffet staff, Lisa and Karen, look after the catering for

First and Standard class.

Omelette?

Up and down, up and down.

But it's good, because we work together

so often we're like left and right hand.

-Wherever she goes, there's chaos.

-Just look at it.

Constantly cleaning up after her.

Oh, mummy's off.

No-one else knows where anything is.

I've tried, I've worked with her for months and I've tried to clean,

but she won't let me, will you?

She's got OCD. My boyfriend Gary, he's got OCD.

So I come in to work and I've got to be like this in work and at home.

It's like, "Oh, help me, help me."

Here you are, darling.

Mind, it's hot, you enjoy, don't burn yourself.

People don't realise that when we say it's freshly made,

it's freshly made.

I think they just think it's bunged in a microwave, you know.

Scrambled eggs, a tiny, tiny little bit of milk, a tiny bit of butter.

SHE SINGS

Anything else? 3.85, please.

I am not Delia Smith. I am just a chef.

I'm the same age as Nigella.

I wish I had her money and her cooking ability.

There you are. Not bad for train food, is it?

It's taken me three minutes. Lisa, baby.

Oh, thank you, hon.

Oh, my God, Lisa, there's hundreds getting on.

It is. Full and standing right through.

Bacon and tomato on brown, Lis. Bacon and tomato on brown.

You've got bacon and cheese coming now.

OK, thank you.

We might be running out of cheese.

Sausage baguette and cheese and tomato toastie on white, please.

Thank you.

I'm going to ring somebody in stores now to see if they can get me

some more on board.

That's 4.35, please.

Joe, it's chaos. You haven't got any cheese there, have you?

Is there a Tesco or something?

If you get it, I'll give you the money and I'll claim it back.

Anything else?

I've done lots of jobs.

I've been in night-clubs, bars, hotels.

This time of night, the similarities are very much the same.

I deal with drunk men, drunk women. Hi, babe.

A can of Guinness, please.

Fights, you name it, we have it on the 20:15. Anything else?

-3.40, please, babe.

-How much?!

-Don't start.

-BLEEP

-Don't swear. Ooh.

Did he swear at you, babe?

Didn't swear at me. He wouldn't dare.

She's quite fit, verbally fit.

I've seen her reduce grown men to tears, and we've loved it.

SHE LAUGHS

Thanks, babe, lovely. These are absolutely fabulous.

Oh, what a darling. We've got cheese.

Thank you. Anything else?

That's 5.30, please.

Thank you.

-Hooray, finished.

-Hooray.

We need another drink. You could open the bar, couldn't you?

HE LAUGHS

No, no, no, this is a very sensible plan.

We're pleased that we've been able to reach agreement with

the Department for Transport.

I think our customers will see the difference.

Unchanged since it was last expanded 25 years ago, Reading Station

lies at the heart of the Thames Valley's congestion problem.

But relief is on its way.

All the new platform changes as well.

To reduce disruption and make room for more trains,

Network Rail has begun a massive ten-year upgrade.

£900 million is being spent on new lines, platforms and signal systems.

Over Christmas, the railways will shut down to allow

some of the most ambitious work yet.

The schedule is on the next slide here, a lot of work at Reading.

New 12-car platform, new train detection in the station platform.

Programme Director, Robbie Burns, has to make sure it's done on time.

These platforms are going to be worked on at Christmas,

and then a key bridge, over to the west of Reading,

is going to be slid in to place over a period of about 94 hours.

So that's kind of high risk, and unless we do that in the time

we've got we're going to have a queue of trains

coming from Southampton waiting to use that bit of railway.

And we have one slight glitch.

Rightly, the public is unimpressed,

and the Department for Transport is unimpressed.

Just maintaining the old railway in this part of the world

is a full-time job.

Five minutes.

Funded by both the government and train companies, Network Rail

is responsible for keeping every inch of track up and running.

And their engineers have to work around a nonstop train timetable.

Everyone stand clear.

TRAIN HORN BLOWS

A lot of times...

..passengers are sat on that train watching us thinking -

what are we doing?

We can't obviously work while their trains are running over us.

The train must be there in another 30 minutes.

Or there's a bus to Gatwick.

But as Christmas shoppers and football fans

make their way home on Saturday afternoon,

the 24/7 railway has come to a halt one mile outside Reading Station.

Mate, this is...this is a...

Julian, this is a bloody circus, mate.

Someone needs to take control of it.

The wheels of a freight train have cut through vital track cables.

As a result, Route Control in Swindon are unable to monitor

the position of trains or control signals.

Have the techs given an ETA on how long they'll be?

Until the problem's solved,

trains are running at just 5mph.

Engineers have been instructed to wait for rail investigators

to arrive before repairing the cables.

After three hours, track technician, Mark Kislingbury,

is told that the investigators won't be coming after all.

I'm on site, of course I'm on bloody site.

Thank you very much. Cheers. Bye. "Are you on site?"

2.5 hours ago I could have done it in perfect daylight.

2.5 hours ago we could have cured this in 20 minutes.

It's all the arguing amongst themselves.

It's weird. I just don't understand it.

Nige, can we get this lead off.

Well, we've had a train come off.

You've got two feeds that go to one rail,

two feeds go to the other rail.

He's managed to cut the same cables going to the same rail.

Miraculous. Just done untold damage.

The train has just gone past,

sat there for three hours waiting to be safe enough to go across.

All we've got to do now is cut out this damaged section

and replace it with a new one.

Hopefully.

As a further result of the signals problems, Network Rail will be

fined up to £200 per minute by the train operating companies.

Go on to the front of the carriage.

Keep going, there's no more room up here.

And until Mark fixes the fault, most of the 2,000 passengers

at Reading Station will be going nowhere.

Right, keep going up the train.

Busy.

Where are we going?

It'll take me an hour to get home.

Why are you doing this? But it's not right.

I know, madam, it's not down to me.

It will take me an hour and a half to get home.

-Yeah. It's not my fault.

-Yeah, I know, but why did they do that?

It's not fair on the passengers, it's not fair on the staff.

He's saying he's not taking anybody else.

It's going to Didcot and there's a bus.

You just have to let things ride over the top of your head,

otherwise you'd just end up giving in.

-It's just chaos, isn't it?

-Yeah, where do you need to get to?

Bas..to Southampton.

Southampton. Yeah, you need platform two, down and around the corner.

-Platform two?

-Platform two. Change at Basingstoke.

Oh, no, I've just changed. I'm handicapped.

The trains running to Manchester have been cancelled.

I suggest you to go to Oxford and then catch a train onwards.

-Oxford? Which train to Oxford?

-We're running buses to Oxford.

PHONE RINGS

All right, Paul.

Mate, you have to be quick, mate.

I'm on it now, mate. Yeah, as we speak.

Don't cross over, mate.

No, I've got my head in here, mate.

All right. Bye.

HE HUMS A TUNE

One way or the other, we have to fix it.

What the lads are doing now is they're putting the cables back in.

They've done the assessment on the track and hopefully we'll be back up

and running in about maybe an hour, to get everything moving again.

Right, that's done, so...

-Can someone start stripping that other one down, please.

-Yeah, yeah.

I mean, the minutes are mounting.

This has been going on since 3.00 this afternoon,

so every minute it's hundreds of pounds really.

And this is going to cost a lot, a lot of money.

'The train arrived on platform seven... '

Does everything stop in France for signalling problems?

Does everything stop in Spain for signalling problems? No, it doesn't.

I'm not exactly over the moon.

And as for happy bunnies, you've got to find somebody else.

OK, if you'd like to fill in a comments form and send it off.

It'll be more than a bloody comment, I can assure you.

He's done his first mend,

is it still showing all-clear the track circuit?

-Oscar Foxtrot is showing clear.

-Hee-hee.

OK, lovely. OK, thanks a lot. I'll speak to you soon.

So we can now carry on and be in total confidence

when we've finished, we'll have a good working railway.

Five hours after the cables were cut, normal service is resumed.

By the time they were repaired, the signal problems led

to 90 cancelled trains, and 4,500 minutes of delay

across the Thames Valley, costing Network Rail £200,000 in fines.

Things are going to go wrong. These things...these are moving parts,

they've got tonnes and tonnes of trains running over them

at 50/40 miles per hour on the mainlines,

120/90 miles per hour over a set of switches.

You're going to get wear, you're going to get tear.

They're going to fail.

There's 24 hour cover, 365 days a year.

We have quite a large section.

We have a lot of assets to look after and, really and truly,

we're really struggling.

It puts the lads under a lot of pressure.

And when you put people under pressure,

and when you give them short time,

something goes wrong or they make a mistake,

you haven't got any time to correct it or anything like that.

That's what we're up against.

It's just all the time,

a barrage of pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure.

6:00am, and in the Berkshire village of Twyford,

station master Norman Toxan, is starting work.

The trick with a small station is get ahead and stay ahead.

'Doors opening.'

Six miles down the line from the urban sprawl of Reading,

Twyford Station connects the affluent commuters

of Henley on Thames to the mainline in to London.

Morning. Morning.

A quiet village station that springs in to life

for just two hours every morning.

Once I've got the train clean, I like to keep it clean.

It looks better that way. Nothing worse than a dirty train.

Norman started work on the railways nearly 50 years ago.

Apart from selling tickets,

he looks after every aspect of life at Twyford by himself.

Right, we're ready for anything now.

We've got a broken window in the booking hall.

Some little git smashed one of the windows.

I like to keep it nice for the passengers.

It's all part of your duties, especially at a small station.

I mean, when you're on your own, you've got to do it.

When I came on the railway, it was all sir and madam, and don't

you dare call them anything else or they wouldn't speak to you.

We didn't even have a public address system, you had to walk up

and down the platform shouting out the information to the passengers.

Wargrave, Shiplake and Henley this way.

Wargrave, Shiplake and Henley this way.

No? All right then. Ooh.

It's too easy to sit in the office and do nothing.

I like to get out and put myself around.

Oh, and I could have retired, I could have gone in October.

I was 65 in October, but I decided to carry on and do 50 years.

If it had been a bad job, I would have gone.

But no, it's a very good job.

-Yes, sir?

-Next train for Henley on Thames.

-Henley?

I mean, which platform will it be on?

9:53 the train, platform five.

Up the stairs and over to the right. Platform five.

Good morning, good morning. Go for it.

-Thank you.

-See you later.

-Thank you.

Mind now, toodle-oo.

Passengers are tolerant if you treat them right.

There's nothing worse than standing on a platform

waiting for a train and not know what the hell is going on.

Waiting for the 8:26, is that faster?

If you're going to Paddington, yes.

It gets in 19 minutes before this one.

Station announcement, next at platform four,

the 7:56 fast service for Maidenhead and London Paddington only.

This is a new system.

The old system, as soon as your took your finger off the button,

they couldn't hear what you were talking about.

This system, you have to remember to turn it off,

they can hear what you're saying.

So you have to be a little bit careful.

I treated them last week to Precious Glory without knowing

I was doing it, until I got outside on the platform.

So I've got to remember to turn off.

You don't win every day.

I mean, there are problems and you just cannot get around, and you

have to face that and you have to deal with it when the time comes.

But most people know that at least I try. I don't win.

Sometimes it's bloody disaster, but there you go.

That's how it is, you've got to take that as it comes.

I was just wondering, this crossing,

how far is it off the end of the station?

INDISTINCT RESPONSE

I wasn't a 100% sure exactly where the crossing was.

Ten miles away, a person's been hit and killed by a train

on a foot crossing.

Ben Rudkin's been called to assist.

There's potential here that it's not a suicide,

it might be an accident or something like that.

So you just kind of have to mentally prepare yourself

for what you might see.

With all fatalities,

a 90 minutes target is set for reopening the lines.

There's the ambulance.

There's the train.

There's the people.

Ray Thompson, Rail Incident Officer. We've had a fatality.

The undertakers have now arrived on site.

Ben's assisting Rail Incident Officer, Ray Thompson,

who's in charge of getting the line reopened,

and making sure crossing warning signs were all in place.

Ben, can you do the crossing check for me, please?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Also, can you check for the whistle-board,

and also take photos, Mr Law said.

Take some photos. No worries.

If you could do that for me now, please, I'd appreciate it.

Yeah, no worries.

For the British Transport Police, it's a potential crime scene

and the area has to be thoroughly investigated

before the train can move.

We're trying to establish what the facts are.

We've got a description and a bit of a statement off the train driver,

it gives us an ideal account of what's happened.

The line is then searched for any evidence relating to it.

We have to think of the, you know, the dignity of the deceased.

However, it costs a lot of money to keep the line closed.

Did any of those on the train see it or not?

I don't know. I don't know. There was...

It's not really our job, is it?

There was young students and there was a mother with kids in a pram.

Whether they saw it, I don't know.

Where's the driver, is he this end, other end?

-The driver is in his own end.

-What's the train like?

Train's OK. A wee bit in the front, and a wee bit of damage.

OK, well, I need to have a look at that and decide

whether it goes in to station service.

Obviously, the driver's just watched someone die underneath his train,

and he's seen that from an absolute...

Absolute in the driving seat.

A lot of the time the driver won't be comfortable taking it forward,

and absolutely that's to be expected.

Is it open?

Yeah, yeah, it's open.

There you go, the crossing's open again.

Back open for business.

It's thought this was a tragic accident.

It's Ben's fourth fatality in just five months

of working on the tracks.

I've never done anything close to this sort of responsibility

and it's absolutely a new experience.

I suppose things like this do stay with you and you do remember

things, but nothing that troubles me or causes me to lose any sleep.

-See you later.

-OK, cheers. Thank you, Ben.

If you were constantly thinking about things like that,

I don't think you'd be able to do the job.

Perhaps for me,

it's my kind of youthful enthusiasm that gets me through it.

That's it. Away you go.

There are 300 deaths on the railway every year.

Around 80% are suicides.

Of the three I've attended here,

the first one was a 16-year-old with drink and drugs.

The second one I dealt with, I think the chap had mental problems,

and the third had murdered his wife.

So...

When you ask people, when you ask someone,

"Well, what's the problem? Come on, sit down, tell me."

You're never quite sure what they are going to tell you.

You can't walk away, you've got to deal with them.

If anything happens to them, you've got to live with the thought that

maybe you just could have done something,

you just could have said something.

Christmas Eve and in a few hours the railways will be closed,

and the upgrade work around Reading Station will begin.

Hello. Control.

OK, the 11:29 arrival...

But first, tens of thousands of passengers are making

their festive get-away from London's Paddington Station.

We've got two drivers going out to number five now.

Station Control will have to manage 500 trains and relay information

to 150,000 passengers and staff during the Christmas rush.

Make sure it's locked up, please,

so we can allow passengers to board safely.

Can you move further down? There's still people trying to get on.

-Have you got a reserved seat?

-No.

-Good luck.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Base to Alpha 6SE.

'Receiving.'

It turns out someone's been left behind at the

First Class lounge for the 12:06.

'Received.'

Hello there. Is that where you want us to hold on everything?

I'll stop all movement out the station then on the down.

Everything, no movement, please, at the moment.

Can you stop all...?

Nothing to depart until we get clarification of this incident.

Right...

Every service has to stand at Paddington Station

until further notice.

It's 11:00am, and at a critical junction en route in to

Paddington a driver has reported striking an object.

All lines have been stopped until they can establish

what the train hit.

This train here is at a stand just to the west of Haye Station.

And at the moment, that's a Heathrow Express at that red signal,

and that's a Swansea to Paddington at that red signal.

So at the moment we're...until that actually moves,

neither of these two trains can move.

So currently, the fast lines to London are blocked at the moment.

'This service is being delayed.

'I do apologise for the delay to this service.

'Any passengers travelling to Oxford...'

Are you OK there, Wayne, you're all good?

I'm loving it.

THEY ALL LAUGH

It makes getting up at 4:30 in the morning worth it.

HE LAUGHS

My philosophy is always to stay cool as much as possible when you can.

I always tell any customers out here if there's a bit of disruption,

hang around, sit down, take it easy, have a cup of coffee,

go to the bar and just rest until it's all gone away.

You don't want to have a bad Christmas.

At Lost Property, Hayley Sexton's struggling under a Christmas deluge.

Sometimes they can just put for item lost - black bag, that's it.

It's like well, we've got 50 black bags,

so it's a little bit difficult.

We had a guy not long ago he came in, he said,

"Oh, I don't know what the colour of the plastic bag was, I was drunk."

I'm only doing my job, obviously, I have to ask them the questions.

We still need to make sure that the owners that are claiming

the items are the owners.

You're looking for a white Nokia, is that correct?

OK, we've definitely got nothing in the description

-that you're looking for.

-Nothing's handed in?

Not with the one that you're looking for, sir.

You need to be able to give me the right description

so that I can check for you.

-I'm just asking you nicely, right.

-Yeah, but you've said to me

you're looking for a Nokia phone that's white.

Then you said it's black. Then you said you'd lost a Samsung.

No, no, no, all I said to you... you've got a phone in there,

because it's still ringing now.

Yeah, but the thing is, you would need to confirm SIM card details.

-I can confirm all that because it's a contract phone.

-OK.

So do you want to do that with me now and then we'll do it that way?

No, no. My phone is still ringing, do you understand?

-Yeah, OK.

-And nobody's made a call on it.

-I understand.

But if you can try and get the details for the phone

then that would be great.

I've got the phone number. I can give everything that's on the phone

because it's got all my numbers on it.

I'm not going to deal with you any further,

and if you carry on I'm going to have to call the police.

-Why are you being nasty?

-I'm not being nasty.

I'm trying to do my best to help you, but I can't search for you

if I don't have the correct details of what you're looking for.

-What time do you close tonight?

-5:00.

-All right.

OK, take care.

He basically came in and he said he's looking for

a white Nokia mobile phone.

Then he changed it to OK, it's not white, it could be black.

Then he said, "Well, has any Nokias been handed in?"

So you do get a little bit irritated,

but you have to still stay calm.

I've got used to it by now, so I'm a pro.

Right, permission now is granted for trains to depart, please.

So we can rid of the 12:00s got the road on one,

that can go, and then we'll board everything else as normal, please.

Base to all mobiles, base to all mobiles, we can run as normal now.

We're being told that...

It's been confirmed that the train near Haye Station

didn't hit a person.

HE LAUGHS

So yeah, it's always a bit of a relief,

because we all panic pretty much everywhere that it's going to

go wrong, especially at this ultra busy time.

But it looks as though all good. So no-one dead.

HORN BEEPS

How are you today, Mr Roberts?

I'm all right, thank you, how about you?

-I'm all good. It's good to see you again.

-Yeah, and you.

Are you off to see your lady friend over Christmas?

I am, we're spending Christmas and New Year together.

When not manning Paddington's Control Room, Graham Parker

runs the waiting room for Passenger Assist,

a dedicated mobility service

for elderly and disabled train travellers.

-What time are you travelling?

-Pardon?

-What time are you travelling?

-Sorry?

-What time are you travelling?

-12:18.

12:18. Yes.

Alpha three to Alpha six.

It's a tough place to work.

You can get sort of caught up in the panic of Christmas, but it's...

I think it's a lot of fun, to be honest.

You get a lot of people come in, they're really happy, they're

happy about meeting their family and their friends for Christmas.

You soak it up, it's nice.

Is this Paddington to Newport?

Yeah. I'm going to take you there now.

Is it, oh, thank you. Well, I thank you very much.

Bye-bye. Nice to have met you. Thank you, thank you so much.

Your train will in about five minutes to.

OK.

Before I did this I was working in luxury jewellery retail,

which was a lot of fun,

but in the end, I was sort of serving ultra expensive products to

very, very rich people, and all the time I just wanted to help out.

I wanted to be doing something a little bit more meaningful.

-What's the name, sorry?

-Doutch.

-Doutch?

-Yes.

My dad was on the railway for over 30 years and he helped me

acquire this job here.

I've never looked back since, to be honest.

-Is it William or something?

-That's it, yeah.

Quiet coach with seats as near as possible to the door.

I can't stand...I can't cope with sudden loud noises.

And no matter how many people are being carried on the train,

if the people at Totnes know where I am,

they will fight on to the train to rescue me.

No problem, sir.

After suffering a serious assault 15 years ago,

Major Tim McCoy relies on the service.

On the 6th October, 1993, I was changing lines at Euston.

I was hit from behind, robbed, pushed unconscious down the main escalator.

I was in a coma for five days.

It was three months before I could tell anybody what had

happened to me, by which time it was a little late to do anything about it.

Right, off we go. Cheerio.

I'm not being beaten by my injuries, I'm fighting them.

I think they're looked down upon because all they are

are people in Railtrack uniforms driving the electric trucks.

They are thinking people that take a great pride in their work.

They're empathetic, they're concerned, they're thoughtful

and they're worthy of praise, not derision.

Have a good Christmas, Major McCoy.

-Thank you very much.

-Bye-bye.

-And you too.

-Yeah.

Have you got empty seats in First Class? We'll pay for tickets.

We'll get you on the next available. Where are you travelling to?

-Plymouth.

-Plymouth.

We did book seats, but nothing came out on the Trainline.

I can't believe you sell tickets for overcrowded trains, it's ridiculous.

It's the busiest time of the year, sir, unfortunately.

Down the line at Reading Station,

the last Christmas Eve revellers are making their way home.

Yeah, could just do with some assistance on the footbridge.

For 23-year-old Antonio Chivatilo

and his British Transport Police colleagues, it's a busy night.

-What's going on up here then?

-Nothing.

-Who's kicking off?

-No-one. What can you arrest me for?

-You've been told to leave the station.

-Why do I have to leave?

It's private property and at any given time...

-It's not private property.

-Of course it is.

-It's public liability.

-Unfortunately, it's not.

Yeah, I've got a ticket, bruv. So I'm a paying customer.

Where are they travelling to?

Finished mate, they're getting off in the town.

-Oh, are they?

-Just got a very clever mouth.

You're such jokers. You're such jokers, bruv.

Another fine male on a Saturday night at Reading.

Merry Christmas, Police.

HUMS THEME FROM THE BILL

I haven't heard that theme tune in a long time.

Funded jointly by train operating companies and Network Rail,

British Transport Police have a presence in every major station

across the UK, where they have the same powers as normal police.

This station is quite central to the town and the bars.

We've got two night-clubs just literally outside the door.

People are not so bad going out, but when they're coming back to

catch their last trains back home, sometimes they're a bit

worse for wear, especially with the Christmas parties at the moment.

Arguments can become heated. What's the problem, then?

There was about 20 of them stood in front of me, going,

"Do you want a fight? Come outside." But I hadn't done nothing to them.

-Ant, can you take this young man back to the office.

-Yeah.

OK, we need to get some details, get some details of next of kin.

One of my colleagues was on patrol, one of our PCSOs,

he's seen an altercation between a large group of children,

as they've seen him, they've dispersed.

We're just trying to find out what's happened.

We need to take some details, obviously, the intoxication,

you're only 16, mate, all right.

I'm going to confiscate this alcohol off you.

Let me have this one.

Listen, you're not having any of it. Listen to me...

-No, because the one in the black bag.

-Just listen to me.

Listen to what I'm going to say to you.

You're not having any of it now, but you can have it all back.

Do you want to come in for drunk and disorderly,

or leave the station of your own accord? What do you want to do?

Leave the station now and then you come back?

Can I at least take the beers?

No, you can't take the beer that you're having.

Leave on your own or get arrested.

And are you known to the police at all?

-Yeah, I am, mate, yeah.

-What are you known for, mate?

ABH, GBH. But this was a couple of years ago.

Oh, that's good, mate. All right.

I've got a job now, I've got a place of my own.

What are you doing, then?

That's a good job, mate, that's a good career to be in.

I was a car salesman for three years,

so not the sort of job people would think I would in fact come from.

But your talking skills and the people skills

I received from that have helped me an awful lot in this job.

I'm not a fighter, you know.

I was a boxer for six years, mate.

-Was you?

-Yeah. Not any more, I retired years ago.

You've got the nose. I can tell.

I'm not much older than them themselves.

And a lot of them sometimes might have had a bad history, but want

to look forward and make a few right choices in life, and seeing someone

at my age in the position that I am, it shows them that there is hope

out there to change your life around and improve and move on from there.

I'll take you guys to platform two, all right,

and I'll leave you be from there.

-Thank you very much.

-Have you got a ticket on you?

No, I haven't, no.

The last passengers and trains have left Reading Station

and they won't return until after Christmas.

But for thousands of contractors and Network Rail staff

festivities are put on hold.

They have just 72 hours to complete upgrade works,

and if they miss their target

it will mean big disruption to trains across the South of England.

One of the most ambitious challenges is at nearby Cow Lane.

The old rail bridge has been completely demolished

and preparations are underway to move a new bridge into place.

Site manager, Steve Cornish, is in charge of the move,

and local residents have gathered to watch proceedings.

In terms of size, you know,

we've got a 1,700 tonne bridge to move into place.

The Mammoet system we use is averaging 350 tonne,

so we've got over 2,100 tonne of machine and concrete

to then drive and place accurately with a GPS system guide on it.

We need to get the bridge in and we need to get the railway open.

We have a job, and we have a job to do.

At Reading Station, Jimmy McWhirter will oversee

the construction of an entire new platform.

How you doing? Merry Christmas, fella.

The same to you, yeah.

Santa's landed. He's three minutes late if he ain't.

Ho-ho-ho. This operation over the next few days is massive.

We bring over, via crane, pieces of Lego, if you like,

which will all fit together along the edge of this platform

and over that vale to make a new platform.

Each of the 48 sections weighs in at four tonnes...

INDISTINCT YELLING

..and has to be positioned with millimetre accuracy.

Do you want us to drop it first?

We've got the surveyor guy on the far corner

with his little prism there.

You know, it's 20mm this way, 50mm that way.

Do you want to bring that up first, then we'll see...?

If you really got it wrong, the train would strike the platform.

The muck in the forefoot of the rail is where, with the old trains,

where people flush them in the station, it's all the waste.

It's like concrete.

Hang on, Kev, that's looking at it, mate.

Mate, it's going on to the cable.

Take it out another foot,

Kevin, I'll jump down and lift it over that block.

Don't pull it till it's over the block.

Jimmy, Jimmy, watch yourself mate, Jimmy.

The public think it's all our fault.

"What the bloody hell is the railway doing?"

Well, what we're doing is making it better.

All they see is that,

"Oh, I've got to get a bus or I've been told there's no trains

"now for 48 hours, how am I going to travel down to see my Auntie Flo?"

We would love to be able to turn round and say,

"We need five days," but we can't get that.

We get the 72 hours, which is planned to the minute.

Every 15 minutes we've got to be able to say that

we're still on track.

Whoa!

At Cow Lane, the bridge move

and laying of tracks has fallen nine hours behind the schedule,

seriously threatening to disrupt the first trains after Christmas.

-You've got enough leeway?

-Apparently so, yes.

Apparently so. You hope there's enough leeway.

No, there is.

They do ask some strange questions, such as,

"Have you knocked the old bridge down yet?"

24 hours, 48 hours after it's gone.

Right, lead on then, MacDuff.

Programme Director, Robbie Burns, has arrived to check on the works.

Right, Kevin, we've done a little bit of PR and you

and I will just go and talk to these people here,

see if they're interested in what we're doing, yeah.

Thanks for coming out on a cold day, it's really nice to see you.

-It's not cold.

-No, it isn't.

I put all my thermals on yesterday, it was too hot.

I'm the Director for the works out from London to Didcot,

so this is one my key sites.

-Where the buck stops?

-Pardon?

Yeah, well, obviously it's high risk for us,

we've got a train coming through. Our first train through is the 28th

at 10:52, that's the target for us.

There have been some issues, as you've probably heard.

What we were expecting there and the water table

and the shale wasn't quite what we've actually got,

so it's taken us longer than we thought.

Steve, when you've got a minute, just give me

a minute of your time, will you?

-How are you?

-You all right, how's it going in terms of work?

It's put a lot of pressure on the lads now.

We're getting on top of it again but, you know,

these boys have been working hard all day, from 7:00 this morning.

Having a break on the run and something to eat.

But the spirits are up

and we're trying to crack on and get back on the programme.

Right, how close are we to the margins on that?

I don't know, you'd better speak to the boys fronting the figures

on that one, Robbie, I couldn't honestly tell you on that one.

No, I'd rather hear it from you, Steve,

because you know what you're doing.

I know what we're doing, but we're trying to do the best we can

to get the bridge in place on time and on the button.

A lot's at stake.

When this isn't handed back and the public are affected then, obviously,

there's deep dissatisfaction, and our reputation is at stake.

There can be no excuses, there's no sympathy for us.

We've got to nail it.

You go to Oxford and change. So if you take this second vehicle here...

With the railways shut, Network Rail has provided 35 buses to

keep passengers moving during the upgrade.

Oxford?

-Second one.

-Thank you.

HE CRIES Stay with Mummy.

Maybe next time they'll do it in term time when it's not so hectic.

Do you want to pop your bags in the back there?

At Cow Lane, extra manpower has been brought in

to complete the bridge foundations.

Midnight, December 27th.

-How long?

-Last time you asked, I think I said about half an hour.

-Yeah.

-And I'm probably going to say the same thing now.

-Another half an hour.

-About another half an hour.

Might be back tomorrow.

It might still be there.

Site manager Steve and his team have managed to claw back valuable time.

We've had a challenge all day to get where we are.

We're throwing as much plant and men as we can at it, but the lads

have pulled it off, so fair play, all due to them like, you know.

Now we're firing up the lifting system,

and then getting the bridge in place, and everyone's happy.

A 1,600 tonne bridge is being moved using a 350 tonne

remote controlled lifting system with 266 wheels.

It takes four hours to move the bridge 60 metres into place.

600 high density polystyrene blocks and 2,500 tonnes of crushed rock

are used to rebuild the embankment and secure the bridge in place.

It's been a hard one, but it's getting there now.

I mean, you see what they've done.

They've taken out an old bridge that was failing, and then

when you look over there, there's a lovely brand-new shiny bridge.

We're all looking forward to getting home with the wives and children,

opening up our presents, everyone else has done theirs,

so we've got something to look forward to.

Cow Lane bridge is back open just in time for the first train

after Christmas.

And at Reading Station, the new platform ten is complete.

Cheers, driver.

Thanks very much.

Reading is safe on platform ten.

Now we're going for a cup of tea.

Relief for one of the country's most congested commuter belts

is one step closer.

How much is it meant to be?

Across the Thames Valley commuter belt,

just over 90% of train services run on time.

But as passengers return in the New Year

there's one thing that the railways can't control.

The great British weather.

'London/Basingstoke line has been suspended,

'this is due to a tree on the track.

'Please listen carefully for further announcements regarding

'services for stations to Basingstoke this morning.'

The situation is a train on its way up from Basingstoke to

Reading has struck a tree, and that tree is wedged underneath the train.

If there's one line working, I can't understand why they can't send

one train one way, then something the other when it arrives.

At least it's something running.

It's definitely cancelled then.

'Yeah.'

Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

For Reading West, board the Bramley and Basingstoke,

buses waiting outside.

The prices have gone up today just to rub salt into the wound.

So no, we're not very happy. Public transport, why use it?

There are two buses outside waiting for instructions.

They will be getting instructions from station managers.

They're sitting there blocking up the traffic.

How long will all that take?

-Well, it's gone now, hasn't it?

-Platform six.

It's gone then, hasn't it?

It's running late. Up the stairs across the footbridge.

Thank you. Have fun.

Ooh...fun?