Major Delays following 2 Broken trains near Berwick/broken down train near York 01/10

Unless I've read it incorrectly no WCML ticket acceptance south of Birmingham. Surely Glasgow/Edinburgh-London tickets should be accepted on TPE and VTWC between Edinburgh and Euston. A walk on ticket would be valid that anyway but surely it would make sense for Advance tickets to be allowed to go that way as well.

Any XC passengers still stuck in the north going south of Birmingham you are to speak to the train manager onward road transport will be provided going by XC's twitter

Hadders said:

Unless I've read it incorrectly no WCML ticket acceptance south of Birmingham. Surely Glasgow/Edinburgh-London tickets should be accepted on TPE and VTWC between Edinburgh and Euston. A walk on ticket would be valid that anyway but surely it would make sense for Advance tickets to be allowed to go that way as well.

Click to expand...

I suspect the lack of agreements on the West coast is due to the extra passengers from the NFL at Wembley

185143 said:

Terminating at New Street according to NRE

Click to expand...

As the earlier Plymouth was cancelled as well, there will be lots of Taxi's needed at Birmingham to head south. My son has decided to miss a day at work and travel in the morning. I feel for everyone stuck in this disruption.

My fiancé has been on his stag do in London and they were booked on the 1500 from Edinburgh to KX. They haven't even reached York yet. He gave up trying to make it home tonight (we live in Sussex) and is staying with friends in London. Worst of all is that the catering was shut from Edinburgh to Newcastle (about four hours) and, when it opened, it's so overcrowded they can't reach it. No-one is handing out water and the train manager has given up telling people when (or if) they can expect to make London. The Twitter feed is full of their staff cracking jokes about doing a late shift or their Thunderbird coming to the rescue.

All because Virgin can't maintain their trains properly.

We have the misfortune of commuting to London with Southern every day but I have to say that this chaos almost makes Southern look good.

Passengers south of Birmingham an additional 2012 Birmingham New Street to Plymouth is running

Given the extent of the delays, what happens to traincrew who are over hours but are away from base? For example Edinburgh crew who are stuck at Newcastle, are they allowed to work back to Edinburgh?

21:00 KingsCross to Newcastle has been cancelled the 22:00 will be the last service of the day running to Newcastle

Southbound services now queuing up to get into York as all the platforms are taken due to the broken down train near Joan croft junction

1E19 has now departed York after a further 50-minute delay owing to the broken train south of the station

1E20 has terminated at York it will now form 1N32 York to Newcastle

gavin said:

1E20 has terminated at York it will now form 1N32 York to Newcastle

Click to expand...

That's the service I was referring to. Latest is that everyone has been turfed out at York. Looking at the photo I've been sent, the station is (unsurprisingly) heaving and there is nobody around to ask for assistance. No-one is being told how they will get to London tonight or what VTEC will be doing to assist.

(Bet Theresa May's regretting choosing today to extoll the virtues of the privatised rail system.)

The situation described above at Newcastle sounds shocking and sadly York doesnt seam much better. Really feel sorry for those caught in delays etc tonight.

One of the biggest problems appears to be with what they're doing with people on board - my partner is now on a non-stopping to KX (which is good) but they have no catering and aren't even giving out water. Eight and a half hours on a train without any access to water (let alone food) is simply unacceptable.

Sniffingmoose said:

As the earlier Plymouth was cancelled as well, there will be lots of Taxi's needed at Birmingham to head south. My son has decided to miss a day at work and travel in the morning. I feel for everyone stuck in this disruption.

Click to expand...

I know very well that it's hardly unheard of for long-distance cab rides to be organised by TOCs, but it's hard to think of how to get enough taxis and willing drivers from Birmingham to the Plymouth area, multiplied by however many passengers need it. Juicy fares, maybe - but also a long drive with a lot of "dead time" for the company (or individual) on the way back, probably well into tomorrow.

The longest comparable TOC-organised cab ride I've ever heard of was Redhill to Penzance, but that was only for one passenger, and started right next door to several large cab offices with access to drivers based all over the place.

And, of course, a bus or coach could not be mustered for every conceivable route or connection, particularly on the XC network, so taxis or hotels it would need to be.

Hotels might actually be more sensible. It's a Sunday night on a random weekend in October. There must be a bit of flexibility somewhere.

beefqueen said:

My fiancé has been on his stag do in London and they were booked on the 1500 from Edinburgh to KX. They haven't even reached York yet. He gave up trying to make it home tonight (we live in Sussex) and is staying with friends in London. Worst of all is that the catering was shut from Edinburgh to Newcastle (about four hours) and, when it opened, it's so overcrowded they can't reach it. No-one is handing out water and the train manager has given up telling people when (or if) they can expect to make London. The Twitter feed is full of their staff cracking jokes about doing a late shift or their Thunderbird coming to the rescue.

All because Virgin can't maintain their trains properly.

We have the misfortune of commuting to London with Southern every day but I have to say that this chaos almost makes Southern look good.

Click to expand...

I've heard a lot of similar stuff recently about a lack of consideration given to people needing food/water on VTEC long distance trains. It's one thing to be stranded on a metro-like suburban service, where trains don't have refreshment facilities anyway, but there is an expectation that people on longer journeys will need sustenance. The Virgin brand image also does seem to rub people the wrong way when their network falls apart, which I can totally understand in the circumstances.

(Though, funnily enough, given you mention them, free water and even hot drinks are actually something Southern does have impressive capability to issue! A number of long standing arrangements are in place for doing that.)

Some of the detail on the failures today does make me wonder how well VTEC are maintaining their fleet. If the issue on 1E14 was indeed an interlock failure, there are progressive levels of overrides even on very complex stock, which should get a service moving within (say) an hour or two. Ultimately, there are lots of ways to move trains which can't gain interlock, none of which should take several hours to deal with, and I'd be surprised if this was not one of the longest delays caused by such an issue. However, even the overrides can go wrong if there are enough maintenance failures. More than a bit frustrating, I'll bet.

northernchris said:

Given the extent of the delays, what happens to traincrew who are over hours but are away from base? For example Edinburgh crew who are stuck at Newcastle, are they allowed to work back to Edinburgh?

Click to expand...

Train crew are typically allowed to work for approximately 12 hours, although they may be rostered for maximum booked hours spanning much less. Generally, there is a contractual agreement to continue working on a stranded train for "x" amount of time after your booking-off time (note this booking-off time may be generous, as it could also include time taken to get back to your home depot and book off / deposit commercial equipment), after which you can start asking for someone else to come and relieve you of duty at a safe location. Aside from this, you also can't just abandon your train anyway, if it's not an approved berthing location as defined in the Sectional Appendix, or if you have passengers to look after.

After this point, you'd be looking at the most practical option to get back to your depot - be it train, taxi or replacement bus - then claiming overtime, and making sure you have a minimum of 12 hours until your next duty.

If you are feeling distressed by the incident, you might also ask to be taken off duties for a little longer. This might occur, for example, if somebody has been abusive to you on a stranded train, which is sadly a strong possibility.

Cheers for the info tsr, it's certainly been a rough few days for VTEC with their fleet. Staff must really be feeling the strain now

Also wouldn't like to think how much today has cost Virgin in fines, the disruption looks to have spread much further across the network - the 1611 ex Leeds was 6 hours late departing alone!

northernchris said:

Cheers for the info tsr, it's certainly been a rough few days for VTEC with their fleet. Staff must really be feeling the strain now

Also wouldn't like to think how much today has cost Virgin in fines, the disruption looks to have spread much further across the network - the 1611 ex Leeds was 6 hours late departing alone!

Click to expand...

Perhaps a stupid question but if the delays are VTEC on VTEC, will they need to worrry about fines? And ECML delays likely to affect other TOCs? (The obvious would be Great Northern but can they run on their own lines?

tsr said:

I know very well that it's hardly unheard of for long-distance cab rides to be organised by TOCs, but it's hard to think of how to get enough taxis and willing drivers from Birmingham to the Plymouth area, multiplied by however many passengers need it. Juicy fares, maybe - but also a long drive with a lot of "dead time" for the company (or individual) on the way back, probably well into tomorrow.

The longest comparable TOC-organised cab ride I've ever heard of was Redhill to Penzance, but that was only for one passenger, and started right next door to several large cab offices with access to drivers based all over the place.

Click to expand...

Not quite as long but I have once had a taxi from Edinburgh to near Huddersfield (which then continued with another passenger to Hull)

Redhill to the Zance? That must have been some major disruption/cockup.

Some well impressive delays on that route tonight.

I caught the 20.35 Kings X to Grantham tonight which was extremely full even First was packed. The train manager hadn't managed to get through first and doing upgrades by Grantham. We seemed to have passengers of the cancelled 20.00 who had decided to go to York via Leeds plus passengers trying to get to various points to the north east and finaly more passenger changeing at Grantham for Nottingham with the MML enginering work on the plus was able to grab a sandwich and a soft drink so had catering.

What struck me at Kings X was the lack of staff around when they cancelled the 20.00 didn't see one VTEC member of staff around.

howittpie said:

I caught the 20.35 Kings X to Grantham tonight which was extremely full even First was packed. The train manager hadn't managed to get through first and doing upgrades by Grantham. We seemed to have passengers of the cancelled 20.00 who had decided to go to York via Leeds plus passengers trying to get to various points to the north east and finaly more passenger changeing at Grantham for Nottingham with the MML enginering work on the plus was able to grab a sandwich and a soft drink so had catering.

What struck me at Kings X was the lack of staff around when they cancelled the 20.00 didn't see one VTEC member of staff around.

Click to expand...

I'm surprised the train manager didn't just declassify First due to the severe overcrowding. That would be the most logical thing to do, not like if standing in the aisles a food service could be provided

Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't there a general consensus that under DOR some maintenace was deferred/unfunded and therefore this backlog transferred across to VTEC, and is why there is now a class 90 hired in to cover for a set which would normally do the KGX - Newark shuttles?

I took the 1935 from Kings Cross-Leeds, thankfully only as far as Stevenage. Both First and Standard were packed - no point in declassifying. The 1930 to Newcastle had been cancelled so many passengers for places such as Peterborough and Doncaster had transferred.

That aforementioned 1V64 XC service from Edinburgh to Plymouth is currently approaching Burton-on-Trent a mere 360L - 6 hours in normal speak! Must be a little odd being at Burton now hearing announcements for the 173x service!

Kite159 said:

I'm surprised the train manager didn't just declassify First due to the severe overcrowding. That would be the most logical thing to do, not like if standing in the aisles a food service could be provided

Click to expand...

Every seat was taken by people with first ticket or were willing to upgrade. You have to factor in and I don't know the capacity but the connecting 158 2 coach from Grantham to Nottingham was full and standing as well.

Blindtraveler said:

Redhill to the Zance? That must have been some major disruption/cockup.

Click to expand...

It was. A missed Sleeper connection at Reading, due to FGW (as was) forgetting to organise replacement transport following an incident in the Dorking area...

I believe the failed train across Joan Croft Jn near York was a freight train with brake pipes which parted in the middle of the train. It was assisted by a rescue loco.

Onboard 1V64 now arriving into BHM where taxis have been promised.

Any members still stuck/stranded? Thats gunna be a hellish taxi bill for someone.