We are hoping to get a week in and out at the end of May.
I called PLA last week and they said there was daily pleasure traffic but apparently there are also regular alarms going off where they have to close river at short notice
Transited outbound on Tuesday, after being forced to abort and return to Teddington Monday (remote alarms closed bridge). The process worked very well. PLA very helpful, but note well that passages are being e being closely policed. It’s clear that communication between the pLA and H&F council is not great.
We went out from Shepperton last Saturday and came back through today all went OK I did hear on the radio Sunday morning that they had closed for a few hours so make sure u have fall backs in place. I had spoken to Chiswick pier as a possible abort for the outbound and Hungerford mooring and imperial wharf for the inbound as both don't require locking in or out but thankfully didn't need them
Apparently, the closure last Monday (31st) was due to remote heat sensors being activated on the bridge, which under standing rules meant that PLA had to close the bridge to river traffic until after the sensors were checked by engineers. I understand that this is now changed (it was becoming a regular occurrence) and the PLA have guidance from Hammersmith and Fulham council that they can ignore the temperature alarms.
Our return passage on Saturday was unhindered and the PLA guard boat waved us on through even though we arrived a little ahead of our pre-booked transit time.