Delays affecting South West Trains (Friday 25 July)

[jopsuk]

I'd be interested as to where in general gets the highest amount of lightning in the UK

 

[infobleep]

At least SWT's seamed to learn from their mistakes earlier on in the week, as on Monday evening there was little calling between Woking and Basingstoke. Leading to so very irate passengers being observed at Woking station.

Whilst Friday saw a better service and the only "rail staff" visible at Farnborough Main being BTP (implying it kicked off a bit there earlier in the week).

I remember one disruption where loads of trains were going to Basingstoke but nothing was going to Guildford so I really think it varies from disruption to disruption.

 

[infobleep]

Was there more lightening and thunder last night?

Not good for the people trying to the test match at the Rose bowl. If they are in London, they could go via Reading to Basingstoke at least.

Actually someone has sadly been hit at Wokingham so if they took that route to Reading they will be stuck.

 

[Kite159]

The 9:07 service to reading west from Basingstoke is going to be rammed.

I've given up and heading back to Salisbury, via Southampton.

I was surprised they were still selling tickets to London.

 

[30909]

Would it now be inappropriate to speculate on the potential for continued service alterations, at best short formations, for Monday’s morning peak services? With engineering blockades between Clapham Junction and Barnes and Haslemere and Havant alternative routes are either blocked or already utilised.

 

[Bald Rick]

I'd be interested as to where in general gets the highest amount of lightning in the UK

I read some time ago that it was at Alrewas, Staffs. How or why I don't know.

 

[infobleep]

I am sure the signalling problems will be resolved by then. No need to worry. Unusual for such problems to carry on for longer than 24 hours.

 

[infobleep]

Problems were due to end 9.30 but now it's 12. So the signalling problems must be far more severe than the other night.

 

[Bald Rick]

It's a hangover of the same problem, still being fixed.

 

[infobleep]

It's a hangover of the same problem, still being fixed.

Do you mean Fridays problem? In other words did a new problem suddenly occur as a result of Friday? If it was known they would need to work today, I'm sure they would have been more planned.

 

[Bald Rick]

I don't know the detail in this case. But it is quite common that failures are repaired through a quick temporary fix, with the permanent fix coming later. In the process of making the permanent fix, further problems are identified which must be fixed there and then.

 

[hassaanhc]

There was also a brief problem at Waterloo P1-4, while right now emergency engineering works near Byfleet & New Haw have diverted the Chertsey branch services to Weybridge rather than running to Woking as timetabled.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Latest info for tomorrow:

On Friday 25 July lightning twice struck the Woking signalling centre. The strikes caused significant damage to many critical systems and caused disruption to services on Friday afternoon and evening. Further problems occurred on Sunday 27 July when an unexpected but related issue occurred with the system.

The damage caused has reduced the reliability of the signalling system in the Woking area and our engineering teams are working hard to fully rectify the damaged components. It is currently anticipated that this will be completed by Tuesday 29 July. Until the system has been fully repaired there is a risk of further signalling problems affecting the network, to help mitigate for this we have support technicians available 24 hours a day at the signalling centre.

Signalling systems are designed to fail 'safe' this means turning signals to red and bringing trains to a stop, there is no risk to the safety of the railway.

Some of the non critical systems have also been affected by this, real time train data is not being fed into the platform customer information displays between New Malden and Farnborough, Effingham Junction and Worplesdon. Train times are being shown but as the data is not ?real time? some delays may not be shown. This also affects online journey planners, live departure boards and smartphone apps.

We plan to run a full service on Monday 28 July however we have contingency arrangements in place to be introduced if required.

We would encourage you to please check southwesttrains.co.uk for updates before you travel.

Follow us on Twitter @SW_Trains
Plan your journey at nationalrail.co.uk

 

[infobleep]

That's interesting reading. Well done to the companies for getting staff in for 24 cover so quickly. You can't fault the companies for trying on the south west mainline.

If only they could stick a real time web cam in the signalling centre so we could watch how they deal with events like this. I find it fascinating.

 

[Tomnick]

That's interesting reading. Well done to the companies for getting staff in for 24 cover so quickly. You can't fault the companies for trying on the south west mainline.

Everywhere on the network is covered by 24/7 S&T (and other) fault teams anyway, even if it's not provided by the local depot - perhaps this is additional cover, or perhaps it's a sneaky way of making it look good without any extra cost or effort .

If only they could stick a real time web cam in the signalling centre so we could watch how they deal with events like this. I find it fascinating.

You probably wouldn't notice much difference, other than signalmen spending more time than usual talking on the phone, filling paperwork in and so on, and perhaps less than usual sitting with their feet up. They certainly won't resemble headless chickens!

 

[Yabbadabba]

If only they could stick a real time web cam in the signalling centre so we could watch how they deal with events like this. I find it fascinating.

Hmmmm....!!!! How about we stick a webcam in every place of employment up and down in this country from, shop, factory, office floor to nuclear power stations as well as signalling centres, then we can all spy on everyone else in their place of employment, it's bad enough having untold visitors gawking at you like your some kind of zoo animal just sitting there for their pleasure! On the front of every Signalbox door it say private and let's keep that way.

 

[infobleep]

Hmmmm....!!!! How about we stick a webcam in every place of employment up and down in this country from, shop, factory, office floor to nuclear power stations as well as signalling centres, then we can all spy on everyone else in their place of employment, it's bad enough having untold visitors gawking at you like your some kind of zoo animal just sitting there for their pleasure! On the front of every Signalbox door it say private and let's keep that way.

Well tell that to the makers of the Tube and The Railway. OK that's not a Web cam but I was thinking more along the lines of Dawlish and the word one there with web cams. They had to work with such things pointing at them.

I would happily feature my job in a TV series but it wouldn't generate as much interest.

 

[infobleep]

I think I might as well add this here. Unexpected thunderstorms this morning and lightening has managed to hit the signals at Effingham Junction.

All trains being delayed by up to 30 mins. Stuck at Horsley myself.

With all the trees around this station and the thunder and lightning, it's quite atmospheric. Would be more so if the lights went out.

As soon as we hadn't moved for longer than usual and then the driver said the signals were red, I knew it was going to be a while. Once they got news of the actual problem thave been very good in keeping us informed, with regular repeated messages.

 

[Bald Rick]

Slightly OT (sorry) Couldn't quite believe the news about lightning strikes etc this morning. In addition to the problems in Surrey, a substation in Hove(?) has taken a direct hit and knocked out coastway east for most of the morning so far. Most read story on the BBC news website has some amazing pics of streets with rivers of ice flowing down them.

The reason I couldn't believe it is that I'm only 25 miles north of Surrey and have blue skies!

 

[Capybara]

Problems between Walton and Weybridge as well. Down slow flooded earlier so my Basingstoke train missed out Walton to travel on Down Fast. Reports on SWT website that stopping trains are missing Esher, Hersham and Walton. A chance to get the crossover from Down Fast to Slow outside Weybridge

 

[infobleep]

Often travelling on the 18.40 from Surbiton, I've probably done most of the down crossovers. It normally travels fast down the slow but in times of disruption they often but not always, put it onto the fast line. This has happened at various places along the line.

 

[cogload]

That's interesting reading. Well done to the companies for getting staff in for 24 cover so quickly. You can't fault the companies for trying on the south west mainline.

If only they could stick a real time web cam in the signalling centre so we could watch how they deal with events like this. I find it fascinating.

Er. No thanks.

 

[Yabbadabba]

Slightly OT (sorry) Couldn't quite believe the news about lightning strikes etc this morning. In addition to the problems in Surrey, a substation in Hove(?) has taken a direct hit and knocked out coastway east for most of the morning so far. Most read story on the BBC news website has some amazing pics of streets with rivers of ice flowing down them.

The reason I couldn't believe it is that I'm only 25 miles north of Surrey and have blue skies!

Coastway west not Coastway East.

 

[plymothian]

Just a bit damp at Worthing.

 

[Bald Rick]

Coastway west not Coastway East.

Oops. It's east as I'm looking at it, not east as it is

 

[infobleep]

There is a note on the online departure boards that some services may be shown as delayed incorrectly. Seems to match the earlier issues after the lightening strike. Is it connected at all?

Interestingly the note appears on some station online departure boards but not others, which are also affected. May be that's due to the way the information gets used once entered.