First Great Western had a bad start to the day.
Over running engineering work on the Royal Albert Bridge saw no traffic cross the bridge until at least 09.00. The down Paddington-Penzance sleepers were terminated at Plymouth and run empty to Penzance late morning.
These problems were compounded by the 0548 Plymouth to Paddington starting from Exeter, as no Guard was provided at Plymouth. Passengers from Plymouth, Totnes and Newton Abbot were told to catch 05.32 PLY-PAD and make connections at Exeter, HOWEVER the 05.32 Plymouth-Paddington was 15 late from Plymouth and connection was not held. The 05.31 Bristol to Penzance was calcelled at Taunton due to no guard, it restarted at Exeter and was then delayed around 100 minutes at Plymouth by the late running engineering work. 
 
Over Run Engineering Work on the Royal Albert Bridge caused the 07.18 Plymouth to Penzance commuter HST to be cancelled. The 05.05 Penzance to Paddington (with powercar problems was terminated at Bodmin Parkway). The train was restarted at Plymouth using the 07.18 Plymouth-Penzance stock which was spare. The 06.04 Penzance to Newton Abbot was over an hour late and cancelled somewhere in Cornwall. Its return 09.02 Newton Abbot to Plymouth was also cancelled. The 05.43 Penzance to Paddington was started from Plymouth. The 06.43 Penzance to Paddington and 07.45 Penzance to Paddington both ran, but were delayed by around 70 minutes. Virgin Trains 07.30 Penzance to Glasgow was started at Plymouth.

It has also emerged that the majority of FGWs traincrew lost use of their mobile telephones in the early hours of the day as supplier O2 suspended the service due to a billing issue.