Disruption to services - Storm Dudley & Storm Eunice

[DarloRich]

All lines now blocked on the ECML.

also WCML south.

 

[DelW]

A look at a few locations at random on RTT suggests that SWR trains were stopped at the next suitable station after about 10:45, most still showing "at platform".

The gusts seem to have eased off somewhat in west Surrey in the last half hour, though no certainty that it won't get worse again before it gets better.

 

[Wivenswold]

Signal map suggesting GEML north of Manningtree and West of Wrabness are blocked. 1N20 to Clacton has be sat at signal London-side of Alresford so there are problems on the Clacton branch. I think that leaves Southend Vic and Colchester to Liverpool Street that's still in operation on GE.

UPDATE: Spoke too soon, Billericay blocked by tree too.

 

[MikeWM]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The amount of people complaining of an over-reaction and "how do I get to work" would be in equal numbers.

I agree, and I often complain about over-caution in many things in modern life, but this one seemed much clearer than usual as to what was going to happen.

The red weather warning for the Southeast came incredibly late and as such the message had to be changed very late in the day.

I agree with that - I'm baffled it wasn't declared considerably sooner. I think the only reason is probably that the path of the storm wasn't totally clear until late in the day - indeed it still isn't (I'm still not sure if the max winds up here are going to be top out at about 60mph or 90mph or somewhere between - we'll find out in a couple of hours).

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Arrived Waterloo and all services suspended

 

[silexa]

Hmm. Greetings from Staffordshire, where the storm has been renamed Storm Teacup.

Literally, absolutely nothing so far.

Still nothing here in Staffs, even got blue skies!

 

[Horizon22]

The Big Jet TV YouTube channel

has some interesting live pictures of pilots trying the impossible at Heathrow. (Ignore the commentary... )

Heathrow reaching 70mph winds.

 

[RichJF]

Massive disruption all over Southern network.

Trees on the lines at Riddlesdown, signalling issues at Horley, tree at Reigate, no service Marshlink due to excess tides & power loss at Hastings.

 

[bramling]

I agree, and I often complain about over-caution in many things in modern life, but this one seemed much clearer than usual as to what was going to happen.



I agree with that - I'm baffled it wasn't declared considerably sooner. I think the only reason is probably that the path of the storm wasn't totally clear until late in the day - indeed it still isn't (I'm still not sure if the max winds up here are going to be top out at about 60mph or 90mph or somewhere between - we'll find out in a couple of hours).

Have to say, there was a lot of chatter on weather forums yesterday regarding the lack of a red warning. I suspect they will probably be proved right on it - quite simply many people will have woken up to this with little prior foresight. Indeed at my place as of 2000 yesterday, there was no specific plan at all for today.

So far in North Herts it’s pretty grim, but having said that so far I wouldn’t say it’s any more than some of the various storms there have been over the last decade or so.

The red warning I believe expires at 1700?

 

[GB]

Signal map suggesting GEML north of Manningtree and West of Wrabness are blocked. 1N20 to Clacton has be sat at signal London-side of Alresford so there are problems on the Clacton branch. I think that leaves Southend Vic and Colchester to Liverpool Street that's still in operation on GE.

UPDATE: Spoke too soon, Billericay blocked by tree too.

Except for the odd freight, nothing seems to be moving anywhere on the GE. Everything appears to be held in stations on all routes.

 

[75A]

I imagine that with windspeeds as they are, a lot of turbines are having brakes applied and aren't generating as it's too windy! That and possibly a combination of wind where there isn't turbines!

So last year they weren't working because of no wind, today it's because of too much wind, are they really worth the money?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Still nothing here in Staffs, even got blue skies!

South Cheshire has started to get quite gusty in the last 20 minutes. Mixture of sunny skies and heavy rain. Changeable.

 

[800001]

All lines now blocked on the ECML.

Shed in line Biggleswade, obstruction on track Stevenage, poss OHL damage Potters Bar.

 

[infobleep]

That's SWR who said they weren't planning on reducing their service *at all* late on Wednesday afternoon (post #71). As I said then 'good luck with that'.

They sat on Twitter they were as using people not to travel. This morning on National Rail Enquiries they were telling people to consider their journeys. That isn't the same as advising people not to travel in my opinion.

Maybe they were giving out different advice on Twitter.

 

[jfollows]

It's obviously very hard to get the forecast spot-on: down south there's discussion about lack of warnings, lack of notification, etc, whereas here in Wilmslow we were forecast to get 70mph gusts at 7am. I woke up expecting chaos. At 1pm there's still virtually no wind, but there's obviously chaos elsewhere. I would say "slight breeze" at the moment here.

 

[iphone76]

Plastic sheeting on the overhead lines on the up Electric line just before Stratford.

 

[Horizon22]

So last year they weren't working because of no wind, today it's because of too much wind, are they really worth the money?

They are still working but obviously you don’t want them broken. Almost most of the worst winds are from the SW, where there are fewer turbines.

 

[Wivenswold]

Clacton line appears blocked with 1N20 reversing back to Wivenhoe. I suspect The Station pub will be busy.
Looks like the old Great Eastern area is now closed down.

 

[HS2isgood]

It's clear that Avanti did the right thing with the service split: north of Rugby things are moving.

 

[TFN]

Heathrow Airport is stuffed in terms of rail as TfL Rail and Piccadilly are suspended in that area.

HEX are "running" half hourly but nothing moving on the GWML at the moment.

 

[infobleep]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The amount of people complaining of an over-reaction and "how do I get to work" would be in equal numbers. Public transport cannot win in severe weather. In fact nobody can. We have to accept that even as a modern and developed nation and society, sometimes we will have to deal with one-off significant disruption to our way of life. The red weather warning for the Southeast came incredibly late and as such the message had to be changed very late in the day. Weather is by its nature changeable and the rail companies can only adapt accordingly - not to mention trying to make additional service alterations in less than 24 hours is incredibly difficult and will be done ad-hoc by Control, not planners.

Perhaps they felt their service was already reduced compared to other TOCs who did attempt to reduce their services further, aka GTR.

 

[357317]

Just been confirmed as of thirty seconds ago.

Now all of the Southeastern network including the Metro Services are closing down.

https://twitter.com/Se_Railway/status/1494652082846117896

C2C are also shutting their network down too

https://twitter.com/c2c_Rail/status/1494642209794187266

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Banbury looks a right mess with P-Way having lost its roof.

 

[The Planner]

Western now closing apparently. Mike Gallop on Sky.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Still nothing here in Staffs, even got blue skies!

Has been quiet here on edge of Snowdonia, had far worse winds/gusts over the years, just been out down to the Dental Surgery and back up the hill, I will admit to holding on to my hat once!

 

[pompeyfan]

NR Wessex twitter stating nearly 30 trees down across the network, plus loss of signalling on some lines.

 

[infobleep]

According to National Rail Enquiries, all rail replacement buses from Guildford to Petersfield are cancelled.

The last ones were the 9:14 to Petersfield but this was terminated short at Godalming and the 9:13 fast to Petersfield, which ran fully. The 9:15 stopping service was cancelled though. So they were planning for later.

 

[GB]

GA have suspended all services on all routes. To act as a firebreak to help NR repair the infrastructure.

 

[43096]

A look at a few locations at random on RTT suggests that SWR trains were stopped at the next suitable station after about 10:45, most still showing "at platform".

The gusts seem to have eased off somewhat in west Surrey in the last half hour, though no certainty that it won't get worse again before it gets better.

And yet…

National Rail shows SWR as “Amended timetable and Storm Eunice affecting services” with a yellow warning symbol against it.

Once again the railway can’t communicate. How hard is it to change it to a red symbol with “All services suspended”. Utterly, utterly inept.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Bright sunny and blustery up here in Sheffield and this just popped up on my WhatsApp which kind of sums up the situation nicely