High winds affecting rail services [18/01]

GB said:

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk-and-essex-rail-service-cancellations-due-to-high-wind-1-5359722

Dewirement includes 3 bent or twisted stantions

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The irony in all of this:

At one stage the Felixstowe branch line was the only Suffolk service still operating

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Regular users will be fully aware that quite often its the only service in Suffolk not operating !

IainG81 said:

C2C service replaced by buses between Upminster and Greys due to damage to wires from a tree falling.

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IainG81 said:

Damage between Upminster and Ockendon. Trains are diverted via Dagenham Docks but run non stop to Greys

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Funny looking tree.

The plastic sheet is about 3+ metres long

al78 said:

Were the winds in the south stronger than expected? The forecast yesterday said the strongest winds would be in central and northern England, and gusts across the SE would be around 50 mph. That is not normally strong enough to bring down trees in significant number in the winter.

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Ahead of the wind, the Met Office hour by hour forecast for Welwyn Garden City was 26 mph sustained wind, with 50 mph maximum gust. The nearest reporting location (Northolt, London) recorded actual sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts to 56 mph, so I would say somewhat worse, though not massively so. The information screens were forewarning of disruption and possible speed restrictions last night. 50 - 60 mph gusts are not trees down all over the place speeds, but enough for one or two trees or large pieces of debris on the track or OLE...

notverydeep said:

Ahead of the wind, the Met Office hour by hour forecast for Welwyn Garden City was 26 mph sustained wind, with 50 mph maximum gust. The nearest reporting location (Northolt, London) recorded actual sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts to 56 mph, so I would say somewhat worse, though not massively so. The information screens were forewarning of disruption and possible speed restrictions last night. 50 - 60 mph gusts are not trees down all over the place speeds, but enough for one or two trees or large pieces of debris on the track or OLE...

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I've had a chance to look at it further (my job involves generating gust footprint maps for UK windstorms). It looks like the SE received gusts around the high 50's to low 60's mph, with gusts close to 70 mph in parts of East Anglia and Wales. North of a line from Manchester to Hull there were no damaging winds. I was surprised by the amount of tree debris on the roads this morning, as I didn't think it had been that windy. I am also surprised at some of the (possibly isolated) structural damage, I sometimes wonder if the UK's infrastructure and buildings are too fragile, 50-60 mph gusts happen almost every year, or every other year on average. Buildings ought to be able to withstand gusts at the 1 or 2 year return level. When it comes to the rail network it only takes one object to become airborne and land in an obstructive place to cause delays.

Delays on South Western were excepted to last until 16:00. Then it became 18:00. Now it's 20:00 but I can't believe it will end then as there are still delays of over 20 minutes.

There must have been a long line of trains into Waterloo as the 18:08 arrival from Portsmouth via Eastleigh was 8 minutes late as it reached Earlsfield and 20 minutes late by the time it past Clapham Junction. It eventually arrived 29 minutes late.

It then forms the 18:23. I'm assuming their us a crew change there or a PNB required because later arrivals after it left first.

Train traffic in the Netherlands is still severely hindered by the aftermath of this storm. Around 11:00 CET nearly all train traffic across the country was stopped as the storm turned out to be heavier than was anticipated prior to its arrival. In the North (Friesland+Groningen) and the South (Limburg) some local trains could still run, all other services were halted. Passengers were advised not to travel and to look for alternative modes of transportation.

As of 17:00 attempts have been made to restart train traffic, but this is possible on just a limited number of routes as many tracks are blocked by trees or have sustained damage to the overhead lines. ProRail and its contractors are hard at work to repair all damage, it is expected that they will need part of tomorrow as well. Furthermore, NS have warned for a chaotic morning rush hour as much of the rolling stock is displaced.

In Germany, storm "Friederike" grew into a hurricane and has caused a significant amount of damage as it crossed the country from west to east. DB Fernverkehr have completely halted their services, the regional trains have been brought to a standstill in the regions that were affected by Friederike. In some regions traffic has been resumed, but in other regions the damage is quite bad and DB Netze will need time to repair everything.

DB are expecting a rocky start to services tomorrow, especially in NRW and Niedersachsen where damage is extensive.

Disruption now expected until the end of service on SWR. Although the audio announcements speak of delays due to the earlier delays and some trains online say congestion, on the departure screens it was saying poor rail conditions.

I do wonder if they could adopt an approach of giving a percentage rating of how confident thy are that disruption will end at the time given. Towards 16:00 what made South Western Railway staff think it could be resolved by 18:00 and if they were very confident, what changed to cause it not to occur. Towards 18:00 is went to 20:00. By 19:20 I could see it was going to last longer than 20:00 and sure enough it was changed. Not to 22:00 hour though, just end of service.

jamesontheroad said:

A tweet from AGA to a customer earlier this morning suggests that 1K59, the 0633 Norwich to Cambridge, actually hit the tree between Eccles Road and Thetford. It appears to have continued to Thetford and terminated there.

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Sounds like GAs diesel fleet may be under strain again as 156402 working the Sudbury branch also hit a tree near Chappel early this morning and has sustained damage to one cab, no reported injuries to crew or passengers thankfully.

Tree on the line between Horsham and Dorking. More precisely, Holmwood and Dorking.
5:47 Horsham to Victoria stuck at Holmwood for an 1 hour 15 minutes then went onto Victoria.
6:21 Horsham to Victoria stuck near Holmwood for about an hour then terminated at Dorking.
6:56 Dorking to Victoria cancelled presumably due to an ECS movement cancelled.
6:53 Horsham to Victoria diverted via Gatwick but not updated on the system!
7:20 Horsham to Victoria started at Dorking. The 5:52 Victoria to Horsham that formed this terminated at Boxhill and Westhumble and ran ECS to Dorking.

Absolute chaos here at Schiphol airport this evening as no trains as thousands of pax try to wait for the few hundred taxis in huge traffic queues.. Have been on tenterhooks all day with our Gatwick bound train dodging the other late running services along the coast. Phew!

al78 said:

I've had a chance to look at it further (my job involves generating gust footprint maps for UK windstorms). It looks like the SE received gusts around the high 50's to low 60's mph, with gusts close to 70 mph in parts of East Anglia and Wales. North of a line from Manchester to Hull there were no damaging winds. I was surprised by the amount of tree debris on the roads this morning, as I didn't think it had been that windy. I am also surprised at some of the (possibly isolated) structural damage, I sometimes wonder if the UK's infrastructure and buildings are too fragile, 50-60 mph gusts happen almost every year, or every other year on average. Buildings ought to be able to withstand gusts at the 1 or 2 year return level. When it comes to the rail network it only takes one object to become airborne and land in an obstructive place to cause delays.

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I live in West Cornwall, where 50-60 mph winds happen several times a year, and not just gusts! Walking my dog daily in a local wood allows me to study tree and branch damage and, contrary to popular thinking, trees being completely uprooted usually happens during quiet weather periods and is a result of the combination of the previous wind and the base of the tree and roots getting saturated by rain over a period. We've had so much rain these last few weeks that, overall, probably as many trees have come down as happened in any of the Great Storms.

Just a few remaining South Western Railway trains delayed now. Tomorrow it's back to normal until the next storm.

They do seem to be happening more frequently though. Either that or I'm just noticing them more.

Another tree down on the line nr Diss so services disrupted again. Twitter not surprisingly full of remarks about the lack of wind today!

Alfie1014 said:

Another tree down on the line nr Diss so services disrupted again. Twitter not surprisingly full of remarks about the lack of wind today!

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Made me examine the line all the way from Flordon to Diss at 20mph. Ended up 37L Ipswich but thanks to a not to call slip for Manningtree, Colchester, Chelmsford & Stratford I made it to Liverpool St a mere 19L. Apologies (not) to anyone counting on delay repay

Trees, uprooted by the wind, but not fallen, but of course when they do finally fall ! NR OHL guys did a good job the previous day, replacing the OHL structures that were bent by the falling trees , to remove old ones, install new ones and rewire all in less then 24 hours is a good job sadly good work undone by the trees that felt like waiting a while before deciding to topple !

swills said:

Trees, uprooted by the wind, but not fallen, but of course when they do finally fall ! NR OHL guys did a good job the previous day, replacing the OHL structures that were bent by the falling trees , to remove old ones, install new ones and rewire all in less then 24 hours is a good job sadly good work undone by the trees that felt like waiting a while before deciding to topple !

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Noted on the BBC news report that some appeared to be conifers planted as a screen, don’t these have shallow roots making them much more likely to come down?

Alfie1014 said:

Noted on the BBC news report that some appeared to be conifers planted as a screen, don’t these have shallow roots making them much more likely to come down?

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yes they do and the most popular one use for hedging leyandii are very prone to come down in the wind one they get over ten feet tall

Alfie1014 said:

Noted on the BBC news report that some appeared to be conifers planted as a screen, don’t these have shallow roots making them much more likely to come down?

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But were they planted by the Railway as a screen, or the landowner to shield his/her land from the railway and noise ?

oldsiggie said:

But were they planted by the Railway as a screen, or the landowner to shield his/her land from the railway and noise ?

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It's the maltings at Tivetshall.