Weather disruption Sunday 17th July and following few days

[Wolfie]

These horrible fires that have started in London are going to mean even more disruption, especially to the east where those horrible scenes are being broadcast on sky news.

Completely unsurprising as are the cancellations in the London area. A Scottish colleague had to be in London for work reasons this afternoon and, as her train was cancelled, drove down leaving early this morning. Her comments on arrival:

It’s bloody meltingly hot down here. It’s like I have walked into the bowels of hell! We have 30C at home and that is a few degrees more than the Scots were built for.

Drive was fine, just a couple of delays…two vehicles on fire!

Well that's a stupid post if I ever heard one. What would you say if he took the train and then had an accident because the heat was affecting him. What if the heat made him ill? Driver's (or any staff) are not robots and can be affected by heat like anyone else.

Absolutely. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone who finds themselves in such a situation.

And this is why we need laws on working in heat.

A far better reason to strike than because, like everyone else, we're affected by the cost of living and want more money

A reason where you would get overwhelming support for eminently sensible reasons too.

 

[Edsmith]

Line closed near Otford and services diverted via Orpington. Southeastern are planning a shuttle service from Ashford International to Borough Green.

 

[Wolfie]

There is actually a point at which you can decline to work because of excessive heat (I forget the exact figure but I do recall arguing the point in past employment - and fans were brought in to address the issue).

Fans may increase airflow and hence bodily cooling but don't actually have an impact of temperature.

I wonder if all will be back to normal in the morning. Sounds like a lot of things to fix and still very hot to consider starting. Some of it won’t be a 5 minute job either.

Absolutely no chance l would have thought.

I've always preferred my driver to be comfortable - no cracked windscreen, working wipers, not bursting for the loo at the end of a long spell of continuous driving, and certainly not suffering from excessive heat.

Yup.

Reckon that you'd have probably had to have paid up.

Yup, the deniers and 1976 brigade have been out in force....

 

[Glasgowbusguy]

I would be tweeting, emailing, ringing, Facebook messaging, WhatsApp (any of these) a message to the train company that I would be travelling with, asking a question about how they plan to operate tomorrow

God no the companies won't know till route proving is done , maybe use some common sense and check your journey work out alternative routes i.e. Monday sagging wires between hyndland and queen st passengers at partick quickly figured out they could go 3 stops the wrong way to annisland and then use the annisland, Maryhill , queen st train

 

[modernrail]

I would be tweeting, emailing, ringing, Facebook messaging, WhatsApp (any of these) a message to the train company that I would be travelling with, asking a question about how they plan to operate tomorrow

Sounds efficient.

 

[800001]

Sounds efficient.

Obviously as I wrote above any of these, that means one of those options , not all like I presume your thinking

 

[AndrewE]

Reckon that you'd have probably had to have paid up.

True... Some you win, some you lose! The forecasts were dead on this time, but (before this) it is a long time since I have experienced anything as severe as a forecast has predicted.

 

[infobleep]

The amount of issues currently affecting South Western Railway and this is just one TOC. Multiply this across multiple TOCs and one gets an idea of the scale of issues.

The current incidents are currently affecting services on our network:

• Track circuit failure at Hook. This means that fast services running from Basingstoke towards Waterloo will be required to run at a reduced speed through Hook.
• Bucked rail at Vauxhall. This means the line used by fast services between Waterloo and Clapham Junction is blocked. Trains will have to divert onto adjacent lines.
• Track circuit issues at Brockenhurst, trains are currently running normally but we are monitoring the situation.
• Points failure at Woking. Some lines through Woking are blocked and trains may be required to use adjacent lines.
• Track circuit failure at Bentley, we are unable to run between Farnham and Alton.
• Points failure at Basingstoke. Some lines are blocked in both direction.
• Signalling problem at Weybridge. Some lines are blocked in both directions.
• Axle counter failure between Sunningdale and Ascot.
• Track circuit failure between Leatherhead and Bookham.

Find details of current incidents | National Rail

A portal into UK rail travel, including information on ticket purchase and promotions, train times and delays, and more.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[jon0844]

Yup, the deniers and 1976 brigade have been out in force....

The Daily Mail had an editorial today from someone saying the Met Office should stop scaring us, because this is just normal weather - absolutely not anything to do with the changing climate.

Shown as a journalist, it turns out he's a writer that represents (lobbies) for the energy sector. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

There's a very coordinated effort to play down the events of today, even though loads of places are literally on fire (there's a wildfire now about 10 miles from me) and people have likely got stranded now, unable to get home after travelling earlier.

 

[DelayRepay]

Prospects for Wed 20th?

National Rail Enquiries have just (1755 Tue) posted "for anyone travelling on Wednesday please take time to check before you travel" - without any indication of where one should be looking (I thought National Rail Enquiries might have been a reasonable place to expect to find information!). East Midlands Trains (my particular concern) hasn't any comment about Wednesday on its disruptions page.

Will it be pretty much "business as usual" tomorrow, or are there known issues that are likely to causer substantial disruption?

The current message on NRE says:

Wednesday 20 July

There is a huge amount of work to do overnight to fix the problems with the track and overhead wires caused by the heat today. Network Rail teams will be working tirelessly overnight to make the repairs so we can get services back up and running for passengers but it is likely there will still be some disruption in the morning. So for anyone travelling on Wednesday please take time to check before you travel

About half way down this page:

Find details of current incidents | National Rail

A portal into UK rail travel, including information on ticket purchase and promotions, train times and delays, and more.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

I think they are suggesting checking in the morning before you leave for the station. At the moment I don't think they really know what will be working and what will still need fixing.

 

[Mowgli]

Happens a few times each season & not surprising when you see some of the idiots navigating the Broads. All clear & Wherry Line to Lowestoft reopened.

Damn thing. If it swings it breaks and if it doesn't swing someone sails into it!

 

[infobleep]

Really? Perhaps someone should tell them that the Eastbourne avoiding line from Polegate to Stone Cross Junction closed way back in 1969!

They since cancelled it east from Lewes.

 

[Wolfie]

The Daily Mail had an editorial today from someone saying the Met Office should stop scaring us, because this is just normal weather - absolutely not anything to do with the changing climate.

Shown as a journalist, it turns out he's a writer that represents (lobbies) for the energy sector. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

There's a very coordinated effort to play down the events of today, even though loads of places are literally on fire (there's a wildfire now about 10 miles from me) and people have likely got stranded now, unable to get home after travelling earlier.

Exactly the same duplicitous deceitful rubbish that they used in the US.

 

[14xxDave]

Exactly the same duplicitous deceitful rubbish that they used in the US.

Look who owns it. Nuff said!

 

[jon0844]

The proving trains are out now on the ECML.

 

[infobleep]

The 21:29, Gatwick Airport to Reading has now been cancelled due to a problem currently under investigation. I had been hoping to catch this service, as it's one of the few direct services from Gatwick Airport to Guildford.

I do accept they are saying only travel if necessary. The 22:29 is still currently running though, as is the 23:20.

Real Time Trains still shows the 21:29 as running but that isn't official.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

NR posted this about OLE issues near Hatch End earlier

https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1549401690062872576



Good to see the con rail doesn't suffer from the same issues and the Watford DC running albeit a bit busier with AWC terminating at Watford

 

[Banham7]

Fire near Bawtry Crossovers on the ECML, literally put on track diagram 10-15 mins after proving train went through.

 

[JonathanH]

Real Time Trains still shows the 21:29 as running but that isn't official.

The 2001 from Reading to Gatwick Airport hasn't set off so it doesn't look hopeful for you.

 

[infobleep]

The 2001 from Reading to Gatwick Airport hasn't set off so it doesn't look hopeful for you.

No, it doesn't. I did send GWR Help a Tweet 30 minutes ago but no response and the problem is still showing as currently under investigation.

I imagine the staff are fairly busy. An understatement.

Interestingly Real Time Trains says it's at the platform. I'm just going to go for it as my ticket isn't valid tomorrow morning. I can go via Clapham Junction if I really must and it is cooler now. This is partly why I waited until now but not until the last train of the night.

I don't usually travel this late, save if I'm out for the night in London or similar.

 

[Meyrick]

Prospects for Wed 20th?

National Rail Enquiries have just (1755 Tue) posted "for anyone travelling on Wednesday please take time to check before you travel" - without any indication of where one should be looking (I thought National Rail Enquiries might have been a reasonable place to expect to find information!). East Midlands Trains (my particular concern) hasn't any comment about Wednesday on its disruptions page.

Will it be pretty much "business as usual" tomorrow, or are there known issues that are likely to causer substantial disruption?

I think it’ll be a hard service to recover. Multiple trains will be out of traffic due to excessive defects and many trains displaced due to disruption (at least on the WCML)

 

[Class 466]

Booked on the sleeper tonight and to my surprise it’s actually due to run!

 

[DelayRepay]

Booked on the sleeper tonight and to my surprise it’s actually due to run!

Provided the air con is working, you'll probably get a better night's sleep than most of us did last night!

 

[Busaholic]

Is this really true? Temperatures of 38 - 40 C sustained over a couple of days makes the things like sagging wires, buckled tracks, lineside fires and stranded trains rather obvious to me.

And you could have foretold precisely where they were going to happen, at what time and in what order? I suggest you make a late application for the vacant role of Prime Minister.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

The 21:29, Gatwick Airport to Reading has now been cancelled due to a problem currently under investigation. I had been hoping to catch this service, as it's one of the few direct services from Gatwick Airport to Guildford.

I do accept they are saying only travel if necessary. The 22:29 is still currently running though, as is the 23:20.

Real Time Trains still shows the 21:29 as running but that isn't official.

Was at Redhill earlier when it all fell apart due to fire outside 3B's ASC (how cable drums are allowed to be stored right next it is another story) and the CIS was just providing false hope to passengers about what was happening. The control point at Redhill didn't know what was happening as control never answer the phone and they can't change the indicators although i did suggest that perhaps using the PA to at least tell passengers not to trust the CIS.

 

[DelayRepay]

Network Rail tweeting that, due to the heat the rail network expanded by 9km today.

https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1549409910693285888?s=20&t=yQ02DTt7W0KLNJG1Cos8_g

In fact, we expect today’s temperatures to expand each kilometre of rail by 30cm. We have about 30,000km of rail on a normal day but the network is 9km longer today!

 

[gazzaa2]

Presumably it's going to be chaos tomorrow as well as knock on effect.

 

[Fokx]

Presumably it's going to be chaos tomorrow as well as knock on effect.

Indeed, my first two trains tomorrow have been already been pre-cancelled.

Presumably because they utilise diversionary routes and pass under OLE that began sagging yesterday

 

[infobleep]

Well I tweeted GWR Help regarding 20:01 Nd 21:29 and they said to Dirsct Message them with more details. I thought my details were clear enough. As I couldn't see how to Direct Message from the screen I was on, I shared screenshots.

The 22:29 is still showing as running but the service that forms it 21:01 from Reading is cancelled.

I'm on the late running 20:48, which is formed of 4 carriages. They declassified first class from Gatwick Airport but did warn us in advance it was due to be full and standing. There aas a train 8 minutes behind but as I have a connection to get, whatever that might be, I decided to stay on board this one.

I am enjoying my journey but I do accept it hasn't been easy today and I thank all the staff for their work.

 

[Wolfie]

Network Rail tweeting that, due to the heat the rail network expanded by 9km today.

https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1549409910693285888?s=20&t=yQ02DTt7W0KLNJG1Cos8_g

Boo.... Bloody disgraceful cuts! It will be 9km shorter tomorrow...... lol