Disruption to services - Storm Dudley & Storm Eunice

[northwichcat]

Last time I checked there were issues at Ledburn and Hanslope.

Also a fallen tree on the wires just north of Stockport.

 

[Horizon22]

GWR have started running some route proving trains - about 3 in total have departed across the network.

 

[800001]

ECML struggling now Retford to Doncaster 1S11 1030 from KGX only just made it to Doncaster, although started from Welwyn at 1259, so 6 hours 10 mins!

There had been several trippings of the Overhead Lines at Bawtry. Line block while investigations took place.
And now, down services are having to use the 1 x engine on the 801/2s between Retford and Doncaster.

 

[CHAPS2034]

However 2N68 1402 Hazel Grove to BPN still in P3 at Stockport and 2H48 1348 Crewe Piccadilly is still at Cheadle Hume where it arrived RT at 1424.

Shortly after I posted this at 1725 both these trains moved off towards Manchester. Now two hours later, 2N68 has got as far as Levenshulme and 2H48 as far as Heaton Chapel. I think both are running empty now despite the headcodes on Tracksy. I think they have been at those stations for some time.

There are a couple of other down trains in between stations - 2H41 1648 CRE -MAN was diverted via Heald Green but is showing on RTT as passing Slade Lane at 1737 and since then has been stopped outside Longsight and 1T73 (whatever that is) and 5K38 are stopped on the down Styal Line between Mauldeth Rd and Slade Lane.

So the whole operation into Piccadilly from the south is stuffed at present although the Guide Bridge lines seem to be open.

Glad I went into Manchester yesterday!

The berths on the down slow from Adswood Rd Jct to Heaton Norris Jct through P4 and the down loops at Stockport are showing BTET. Could anyone tell me what this means please?

 

[Philip]

The 18:27 CC from Manchester Piccadilly made it to Stockport, fast lines except for Slade Lane Junction where it moved onto the slow lines, then back to the fast lines.

 

[Mr_B]

Shortly after I posted this at 1725 both these trains moved off towards Manchester. Now two hours later, 2N68 has got as far as Levenshulme and 2H48 as far as Heaton Chapel. I think both are running empty now despite the headcodes on Tracksy. I think they have been at those stations for some time.

There are a couple of other down trains in between stations - 2H41 1648 CRE -MAN was diverted via Heald Green but is showing on RTT as passing Slade Lane at 1737 and since then has been stopped outside Longsight and 1T73 (whatever that is) and 5K38 are stopped on the down Styal Line between Mauldeth Rd and Slade Lane.

So the whole operation into Piccadilly from the south is stuffed at present although the Guide Bridge lines seem to be open.

Glad I went into Manchester yesterday!

The berths on the down slow from Adswood Rd Jct to Heaton Norris Jct through P4 and the down loops at Stockport are showing BTET. Could anyone tell me what this means please?

Blocked To Electric Traction I'd guess

 

[Trainfan344]

Winds seem to have dropped significantly here in East Anglia. Hoping to slowly make my way West tomorrow

 

[physics34]

Last time I checked there were issues at Ledburn and Hanslope.

Thanks

 

[Mag_seven]

Wires down at Beattock again for the third time in a row like what?

Here's a video uploaded by Railcam of the damage

And today Beattock was well outside the Eunice warning area which means you can still expect trees to come down possibly days after Eunice has gone.

 

[jonnyfan]

Shortly after I posted this at 1725 both these trains moved off towards Manchester. Now two hours later, 2N68 has got as far as Levenshulme and 2H48 as far as Heaton Chapel. I think both are running empty now despite the headcodes on Tracksy. I think they have been at those stations for some time.

There are a couple of other down trains in between stations - 2H41 1648 CRE -MAN was diverted via Heald Green but is showing on RTT as passing Slade Lane at 1737 and since then has been stopped outside Longsight and 1T73 (whatever that is) and 5K38 are stopped on the down Styal Line between Mauldeth Rd and Slade Lane.

So the whole operation into Piccadilly from the south is stuffed at present although the Guide Bridge lines seem to be open.

Glad I went into Manchester yesterday!

The berths on the down slow from Adswood Rd Jct to Heaton Norris Jct through P4 and the down loops at Stockport are showing BTET. Could anyone tell me what this means please?

The had just cleared a tree at Heaton Chapel, sent off some trains towards Piccadilly and then another tree came down near Levensulme. Power all tripped. They then restored power to the lines not affected by the tree and 2H41 (a 319) has decided to have a hissy fit and won't take power and is in the process of being rescued. Probably 2 or 3 trains have left Piccadilly towards Stockport since 3pm.

 

[MP393]

Shortly after I posted this at 1725 both these trains moved off towards Manchester. Now two hours later, 2N68 has got as far as Levenshulme and 2H48 as far as Heaton Chapel. I think both are running empty now despite the headcodes on Tracksy. I think they have been at those stations for some time.

There are a couple of other down trains in between stations - 2H41 1648 CRE -MAN was diverted via Heald Green but is showing on RTT as passing Slade Lane at 1737 and since then has been stopped outside Longsight and 1T73 (whatever that is) and 5K38 are stopped on the down Styal Line between Mauldeth Rd and Slade Lane.

So the whole operation into Piccadilly from the south is stuffed at present although the Guide Bridge lines seem to be open.

Glad I went into Manchester yesterday!

The berths on the down slow from Adswood Rd Jct to Heaton Norris Jct through P4 and the down loops at Stockport are showing BTET. Could anyone tell me what this means please?

2H41 has failed blocking most routes at Slade Lane. 1Z99 319 unit sent from Piccadilly which is on site at Longsight South now.

 

[infobleep]

GWR have started running some route proving trains - about 3 in total have departed across the network.

Does this cover the North Downs Line?

 

[CHAPS2034]

Thanks for the information everyone.

It seems to be one thing after another today. I guess the NR staff and TOC Control Room staff are earning their crust today in order to try and get the railway moving again as soon as it is safe to do so.

 

[miklcct]

What's the situation looking like tomorrow? I can imagine urgent repairs for anything like downed lines to roof damage will take longer than overnight to repair. I was hoping to take a Northern then TPE train across the Pennines, will look at the situation tomorrow morning. It's forecast a calmer day but no use if lines are still blocked and stock in the wrong places.

There is planned engineering work taking place between Bournemouth and Southampton Central this weekend. In the event of weather related events affecting this work, is it likely that the RRBs will still run as planned?

Ditto. I plan to travel on the first RRB from Bournemouth to Southampton Airport tomorrow to connect to a train. If they don't run I'll have no choice but to hire a car to drive to Guildford and London for the day and it'll be very expensive! If I can get to Eastleigh at least there may be an electric vehicle which I can hire which is cheaper than hiring a petrol car.

 

[Horizon22]

Does this cover the North Downs Line?

Nope. Information is incredibly patchy - even for many internal staff. New debris is being encountered on an hourly basis

 

[Bletchleyite]

Was quite underwhelming in Liverpool; although we were only forecast max ~50mph winds anyway, which is not an unusual occurrence.

Liverpool typically seems to get shielded by Ireland and the Isle of Man from this sort of thing.

 

[30907]

That's a bit of a ridiculous post. I've lived in both the North and South of the country, and the winds here in S London are far in excess of anything I have personally experienced anywhere. You could put your big coat on and head out if you wanted but you'd still be likely to be hit by flying debris, falling masonry, etc.

That's a variant on the "big coat" post that comes round with monotonous regularity.

Because one has hit a tree, so another unit wrecked.

A tree has also burst into flames causing passengers to be stranded as service have now been suspended.

I obviously spoke too soon - about 15min too soon by the looks of it

 

[zero]

Is the ECML likely to be OK tomorrow? I'm supposed to be travelling London-Newcastle around noon.

I'm prepared for it to be very crowded and likely some delays, but I still need to go.

 

[Watershed]

It's very interesting to see the different reactions of different operators, with some throwing in the towel early on or even yesterday, and others running the best service they could throughout.

Unfortunately, regardless of blame, the rail industry really doesn't come out of this looking good. Broadly speaking the roads have remained open throughout, and the industry messaging has just been "travel this weekend instead" - which is no help at all to those who have been stranded.

Time and again, the industry demonstrates that the train can't be relied upon to get you to your destination.

 

[Ant1966]

Guys. Need to be at Heathrow mid morning tomorrow. From BSK via RDG. Any views on the chance of trains running then?

 

[John Luxton]

Liverpool typically seems to get shielded by Ireland and the Isle of Man from this sort of thing.

It is the Welsh Mountains that provide most of the protection for Merseyside. We are in the rain shadow.

Much precipitation from West and South West ends up falling on the mountains hence less rain and snow.

When it comes to wind if it is from the west or south west blowing up the Irish sea again Merseyside is protected. However, it is much more vulnerable to winds from the north west as wind gets funnelled up the Mersey.

Advance predictions on xcWeather did sow wind coming from the north west. However, keeping an eye on the half hourly observations in reality the wind did come from the west.

May have been much worse from north west.

 

[gazzaa2]

Liverpool typically seems to get shielded by Ireland and the Isle of Man from this sort of thing.

There was a heavier one here in November, the winds were stronger then.

 

[Melancholia]

Guys. Need to be at Heathrow mid morning tomorrow. From BSK via RDG. Any views on the chance of trains running then?

Nobody's really sure what the service will be like tomorrow, especially in the morning.

I would probably advise either getting the train from Basingstoke to Reading (if there will be one), then probably go for the RailAir coach from there, or risk it going by train (again, if they'll be available).

 

[seagull]

Unfortunately, regardless of blame, the rail industry really doesn't come out of this looking good.

Yes, there should really have been a lot more trains stuck without power/derailed/damaged/broken, so that restoring a normal service would have been much easier with even fewer serviceable trains afterwards.
Plus all the passengers on those stranded trains would have been content in the knowledge that, well, at least they were on a train, even if it never got there.

 

[800001]

It's very interesting to see the different reactions of different operators, with some throwing in the towel early on or even yesterday, and others running the best service they could throughout.

Unfortunately, regardless of blame, the rail industry really doesn't come out of this looking good. Broadly speaking the roads have remained open throughout, and the industry messaging has just been "travel this weekend instead" - which is no help at all to those who have been stranded.

Time and again, the industry demonstrates that the train can't be relied upon to get you to your destination.

What would you liked the railway to of done?
With hundreds of trees falling, building roofs blown on to tracks, garden sheds, trampolines etc?
All things, completely out of the industries hands!
I think considering the circumstances Network rail teams out there on the ground in some horrendous conditions have done a bloody good job!!

 

[Starmill]

It's very interesting to see the different reactions of different operators, with some throwing in the towel early on or even yesterday, and others running the best service they could throughout.

Unfortunately, regardless of blame, the rail industry really doesn't come out of this looking good. Broadly speaking the roads have remained open throughout, and the industry messaging has just been "travel this weekend instead" - which is no help at all to those who have been stranded.

Time and again, the industry demonstrates that the train can't be relied upon to get you to your destination.

It would help if enough funding could actually be made available for the vegetation management policy to be actually carried out in practice i.e. any trees tall enough to fall into the path of a train are reduced or removed, unless exceptional circumstances apply. Well and good to have a policy, but of it is then ignored because you have so few staff able to do the work...

Obviously that's not going to necccesarily help with things like incursions of trampolines or railway building damage, those will be more difficult to solve.

 

[driverd]

Before retiring in 2016 I dealt with, in an operational role, more severe weather days in Scotland than I care to remember. Therefore it is my considered opinion that the decision to withdraw Scotrail services by 1600 on Wednesday, while a drastic measure, actually resulted in far less overall disruption than would otherwise have been the case; Because where damage to and obstructions on the railway occurred, staff were able to attend and make repairs without the huge complication of stranded trains and passengers, which in the past have diverted much effort. The measure was so effective that practically every line had a normal service the next day, with lines being examined and passed clear, and even damage such as the collapsed OLE structure near Kilwinning being fixed overnight, all told a tremendous effort.

I do understand where you're coming from, but equally, you can only consider the withdrawal of all services as 100% cancellation; 100% disruption; for 8 hours.

Continued running may see a handful of lines closed for, perhaps, a longer duration, but would the total number of disrupted journeys be the same? I don't claim to have a whole careers experience (I'm only a decade in), but I'd wager that there would be less cancellations.

Further, my main gripe is the approach that is taken - essentially, "we've given you approx 24 hours notice, therefore, not our problem mate". In essence, stranding people with no options. If there was more protection for customers I'd be more agreeable towards that approach - it's for this reason I won't be using the train to get to the North of Scotland this year (or indeed until something changes, either this practice ceases or more protection is provided for customers) - its just too much risk for me being stranded.

 

[Roast Veg]

Although wind speeds where supposed to drop here in Norwich by 15:00 this was later put back to 17:00 yet it’s now 18:15 & there are still some seriously strong gusts. I doubt they’ll be any train movements until the morning this way & then they’ll be ECS proving runs but not until first light. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I had plans tomorrow which thankfully I haven’t.

Is the ECML likely to be OK tomorrow? I'm supposed to be travelling London-Newcastle around noon.

I'm prepared for it to be very crowded and likely some delays, but I still need to go.

I'm catching an ECML train at 05:40 tomorrow - if it's not running I'll be quite upset!

 

[Horizon22]

It's very interesting to see the different reactions of different operators, with some throwing in the towel early on or even yesterday, and others running the best service they could throughout.

Unfortunately, regardless of blame, the rail industry really doesn't come out of this looking good. Broadly speaking the roads have remained open throughout, and the industry messaging has just been "travel this weekend instead" - which is no help at all to those who have been stranded.

Time and again, the industry demonstrates that the train can't be relied upon to get you to your destination.

There's still masses of debris all over the track in some places and the worst case scenario is getting people stranded on trains. It's fairly unprecedented when every operator has the same problem across swathes of the country. Maybe, just maybe, this was a very rare weather event which caused unprecedented problems.

 

[dk1]

I'm catching an ECML train at 05:40 tomorrow - if it's not running I'll be quite upset!

I shall send you a box of mansize tissues lol