Disruption due to poor weather

[Aictos]

It's a good timetable on the Hertford route with a simple 30 min service in both directions thoughout the day which is good, during the off peak it's usually just a hourly service to Stevenage and onward but due to this snow timetable, it's every 30 mins.

0600 Kings Cross to Leeds ran with it's booked headcode but got to Stevenage this morning and seems it was actually not in service - would have though any train not in service would have a 3 or a 5 in the headcode instead of the 1 as it's a express?

 

[the sniper]

I'm not in Birmingham at the moment, I'm down in Bristol where services are all running okay-ish, with the exception of the Severn Beach line being suspended. It is very rare for it to snow in Bristol though, when I woke up this morning I measured snow in my garden at 5cm. But when it did snow in Feb 2009 there were very few delays on local services in Birmingham.

Ah, ok. Good to hear anyway.

 

[brompton rail]

It's a good timetable on the Hertford route with a simple 30 min service in both directions thoughout the day which is good, during the off peak it's usually just a hourly service to Stevenage and onward but due to this snow timetable, it's every 30 mins.

0600 Kings Cross to Leeds ran with it's booked headcode but got to Stevenage this morning and seems it was actually not in service - would have though any train not in service would have a 3 or a 5 in the headcode instead of the 1 as it's a express?

It called (as booked) in Doncaster this morning and departed about 10 late, as did the following 06:15 Edinburgh. Using my iPhone National Rail Enquiries application these (and the next Kings Cross - Leeds) were not shown as existing! Station monitors had them though.

 

[SWT Driver]

SWT's attempt at running a service could be quite easily described as pathetic & puerile.

One "fast" service got to Guildford 3h 56 late, quickly followed by a second 5' later, then nothing, there was no down services at all for well over an hour.

All Cobham line trains were all stations, which was stupid as they were followed by a 15' frequency service from New Malden & preceded by the Woking Bay service by 5' which just cluttered the whole thing up.

Useless, absolutely useless.

And for the service we could put together all we got was the usual pathetic whinging & whining from commuters. Well if that's the attitude...

Sod ya! I won't even bother to try and get to work next time it snows hard, I'll take the day off, like most of the lazy sods did today!

 

[Metroland]

Merseyrail trains are running normally (as they did yesterday) to the normal (not revised!) timetable with PPM for today at 94% at the moment.

And remember, our trains are 3rd rail and there is lots of snow on the ground; not usually a good combo...

There have been no buses at all on Merseyside since 1700 last night and a lot of roads are closed or impassable so we are virtually the only way of travelling into and out of the city.

All of our staff got to work first thing this morning, a lot of them on foot, and all stations are open.

Three cheers!


http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2010/01/snow-plays-havoc-with-adonis-plans-for.html

 

[Trains06]

I agree that LM staff did well today, TM was very apologetic even though the delay was only 20 minutes

 

[dk1]

At NXEA (North) we where all advised that the 06.25 & 06.55 Norwich to Liverpool St & 17.50/18.20 return would be cancelled today & Thursday to slim the service down incase of bad weather. These trains are easy to get rid of as two sets stable during the day at Orient Way & thus still allow an all day half-hourly service. As things were not bad they where hastily re-instated this morning. Will have to wait & see tommorow though.

 

[Pumbaa]

I agree that LM staff did well today, TM was very apologetic even though the delay was only 20 minutes

On the other hand, LM out of Euston is utter farce.

Roughly one train every half hour, still 1 4 car Desiro chucking around on a diagram, just worked out on an MK service. No real timetable being worked to, not their fault but they could attempt to communicate to their passengers just what the hell they're trying to do!

 

[jopsuk]

thanks to it managing take an astounding thirty minutes to crawl from Liverpool Street to Tottenham Hale (which must have been excruciating for those onboard) and then losing a further ten minutes by the time it reached Whittlesford., I got home pretty much bang on time on the train that should have been half an hour previous.

 

[crewmeal]

How's the Caledonian sleeper service doing in all this bad weather?

 

[The Box Photter]

Copied from the FCC website this evening:

"Thameslink route: Trains cannot call at Balcombe today or tomorrow due to ice on the conductor rail."

Any reason why Balcombe is particularly affected by ice on the 3rd rail?

Nice to see that FCC is working hard to solve the problem ..... oh, hang on ... the announcement seems to indicate they've thrown in the towel for tomorrow as well. How hard is it to keep the 3rd rail clear of ice? Aren't there departmental de-icer units that can run "ghost trains" throughout the night?

In January 1987 they coupled class 56s to EPB & VEP units to keep the service running in Kent. Cold, but at least you got home. Today's 21st century railway can't simply hitch a big diesel to the front of a stuck unit because:

1. There aren't enough big diesels
2. Even if there were some big diesels, they couldn't couple up to any of the modern generation of units because there is no common coupling type and no way of connecting the brake pipes

Isn't modern traction technology great?

 

[Minstral25]

Cleaned the car off, created the tracks through snow to the station (Redhill), walked up to the platform, appreciated the station staff who made it in, got a coffee on the platform and watched as a train 500 yds out that was unable to get in the platform, blocking the line.

Drunk my coffee and went home an hour later as obviously unlikely to be any trains soon. Didn't see any passengers complaining at staff because we knew it was bad and appreciated them turning up.

Accepting that there was a stuck train on the line but what really annoys me is that Southern abandoned the Redhill Lines to one very slow train an hour but still managed a full every 15 minutes Gatwick Express service!! Why!!!

 

[SWT Driver]

I noticed that the GatEx wasn't very Express today!

I noticed one called additionally at Clapham Junction & discharged a few very relieved punters, it left but didn't get very far, it was then routed via Stewart's Lane into Victoria.

I came back out of Waterloo & there was still a string trains queueing up to get into Vic.

 

[westcoaster]

Copied from the FCC website this evening:

"Thameslink route: Trains cannot call at Balcombe today or tomorrow due to ice on the conductor rail."

Any reason why Balcombe is particularly affected by ice on the 3rd rail?

Nice to see that FCC is working hard to solve the problem ..... oh, hang on ... the announcement seems to indicate they've thrown in the towel for tomorrow as well. How hard is it to keep the 3rd rail clear of ice? Aren't there departmental de-icer units that can run "ghost trains" throughout the night?

exactly the same thing happens as with gritting the roads, you lay down-de icer the con rail next train comes through and wipes it off, the snow was real bad there today, as i went through the line light was flickering most off the time, and lots and lots of arcing and that was doing 80, now try to get going on that from a stand :roll: plus in the london direction its uphill, plus lots and lots of trees, also balcombe is a bit secluded and in a pertial cutting.

as said above i went through behind a 12 car 377, and in the few minutes since the previous train passing the rails were already covered in the fluffy stuff, and that does not take long to freeze.

Another bone of contention, silly gat-ex's made me late, why do they always get the road over other TOC'S?
Also those flying pigs are more like trotting pigs, always seem to catch them up, they were calling gatwick-east croydon-clapham-vic today.

 

[Barn]

SWT's attempt at running a service could be quite easily described as pathetic & puerile.

One "fast" service got to Guildford 3h 56 late, quickly followed by a second 5' later, then nothing, there was no down services at all for well over an hour.

All Cobham line trains were all stations, which was stupid as they were followed by a 15' frequency service from New Malden & preceded by the Woking Bay service by 5' which just cluttered the whole thing up.

Useless, absolutely useless.

And for the service we could put together all we got was the usual pathetic whinging & whining from commuters. Well if that's the attitude...

Sod ya! I won't even bother to try and get to work next time it snows hard, I'll take the day off, like most of the lazy sods did today!

I'm wondering if you're in the wrong job mate...

 

[HSTfan!!!]

I'm wondering if you're in the wrong job mate...

of course not, it's our prerogative to whinge about the punters

 

[SWT Driver]

Especially when they act like spoilt brats which they are & from NE Surrey & SW London, which hardly had any snow!

Unlike us out on the Downs which got about 30cm.

 

[175001]

Thankfully i'm on Annual Leave, and watching the situation from the comfort of home in Wales, and not my apartment in Manchester!

A fellow Guard at Vic saying he's had quite a few abusive passengers telling him that its his fault that the snow has ruined their day and that they have to PAY! A few think that as its snowing they can get on a train without paying, ahhh don't you just love punters!

 

[2030720310]

Thankfully i'm on Annual Leave, and watching the situation from the comfort of home in Wales, and not my apartment in Manchester!

A fellow Guard at Vic saying he's had quite a few abusive passengers telling him that its his fault that the snow has ruined their day and that they have to PAY! A few think that as its snowing they can get on a train without paying, ahhh don't you just love punters!

Anyway, does anyone know the extent of disruption to FGW with the snow, just interested....

 

[krus_aragon]

Anyway, does anyone know the extent of disruption to FGW with the snow, just interested....

I can tell you what I saw on NRE's live departure board for Cardiff during the day: half the London-South Wales services cancelled (mostly Cardiff ones instead of Swansea), the others keeping reasonable time, delays of up to ~15 mins from London. This evening's Portsmouth-Cardiff service was expected to arrive 30 late, with the return working cancelled (15 mins turnaround if it arrived when expected). On ATW, some down valley services were running 10 mins late, and services from the Manchester direction were about an hour down. Everything else was apparently fine and dandy. Nothing cancelled, but some valley services were already reduced to short workings due to the second round of signalling strikes.

 

[Trains06]

On the other hand, LM out of Euston is utter farce.

Roughly one train every half hour, still 1 4 car Desiro chucking around on a diagram, just worked out on an MK service. No real timetable being worked to, not their fault but they could attempt to communicate to their passengers just what the hell they're trying to do!

Oh dear... Euston doesn't seem to be faring to well then

The LIV-BHM route was doing well though

 

[robertclark125]

Hey once before we had bad snow, and we tried to run as best a train service as possible. In Germany, where the snow wasn't as bad, the railway was totally shut down for three days. Maybe we shouldn't complain too much after all.

 

[starrymarkb]

True, and that windstorm in 2007 IIRC where NR imposed a blanked 50mph speed limit and DB ordered all trains to park at the next station.

 

[mooster]

I've got to go from Farnborough to Chertsey on my daily commute tomorrow... sounds like I shouldn't bother! Three different SWT services to catch - and the Weybridge train to Chertsey is always first to suffer in bad weather. We had nearly 9 inches here in Farnborough, snow was pretty constant from 6pm last night to 4-5pm today.

 

[robertclark125]

I was hoping to take the loco hauled train 2 edinburgh 2moro morning from Cardenden. Does anyone there think I should still go ahead, or wait until the end of the month

 

[jopsuk]

This is an interesting (if slightly histrionic) site if you're a London commuter. The "Rail Status" pages are especially interesting, providing a history of how well trains have run today- for instance, this shows the Cambridge-Liverpool Street (and return) delays

 

[anthony263]

major disruption to crosscountry services between Bristol TM & Gloucester due to major problems with the tunnel near yate and the 08:00 Cardiff - Paignton service was cancelled this morning with the other diagram being 15 minutes late into Bristol Parkway

 

[Skimble19]

Thanks for that jopsuk, certainly gave me a chuckle reading the descriptions for the chaos levels

 

[87015]

This is an interesting (if slightly histrionic) site if you're a London commuter. The "Rail Status" pages are especially interesting, providing a history of how well trains have run today- for instance, this shows the Cambridge-Liverpool Street (and return) delays

That doesn't even show half the chaos in Anglia. A combination of fleet and infrastructure issues caused a complete farce. At mid morning only 4% of trains had arrived right time.

Did have 2x20 on the blocks at Liverpool St having rescued a stranded 315, only worked as ECS unfortunately though!

 

[jopsuk]

The site author has been selective (i'm guessing, choosing routes his mates use) and so hasn't included any NXEA bar the direct Liverpool Street-Cambridge trains.

I know my train took around ten minutes or so (the extra it lost between arriving at Whittlesford and arriving at Audley End) trying to get the doors open and shut again at WLF. I checked when i got to work just see if it had moved at all!