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ECML Broken Again! (5th March)

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Crossover

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Hi All

Just to let people know who may be travelling on the ECML today, that the Down line (Fast at least) has got a broken rail between Newark Northgate and Retford and trains are backed up as far back as Peterborough as the line is closed. Not sure if this affects the up lines as well at the moment

I am on 1D73 - the 1448 GC to BDI and we have been informed by the very helpful staff who have been advised by York control, as why we may shortly come to a stand. There is talk that they are trying to find staff with required route knowledge (or "staff who are conversent with the route" as the guard said) to divert via Lincoln on this diesel service. I would guess EC are going to be completely messed up though for the time being.

I'll try and post more info as we get told it by our TM.
 
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tsr

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Hi All

Just to let people know who may be travelling on the ECML today, that the Down line (Fast at least) has got a broken rail between Newark Northgate and Retford and trains are backed up as far back as Peterborough as the line is closed. Not sure if this affects the up lines as well at the moment

I am on 1D73 - the 1448 GC to BDI and we have been informed by the very helpful staff who have been advised by York control, as why we may shortly come to a stand. There is talk that they are trying to find staff with required route knowledge (or "staff who are conversent with the route" as the guard said) to divert via Lincoln on this diesel service. I would guess EC are going to be completely messed up though for the time being.

I'll try and post more info as we get told it by our TM.

The incident occurred near to Newark Northgate some time before 1514hrs, and there are delays of at least 30 minutes, apparently in both directions. This information comes straight from NRE.
 

Crossover

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Yeah, I think it was a fairly new problem when we were advised (it took me a while to type it up so we were probably told about 10 mins earlier.

Just sailed through Peterborough anyway and still travelling at a fair pace so maybe trains aren't backed up as far back as was first mentioned. Either way, the TM on our service is trying to be as helpful as possible and just walked through the train apologising that he has no more information at present (the PA seems to be a bit hit and miss on here!)

EDIT: (15:47)

NRE now suggesting single line working is in operation in the affected area with delays of up to 60 mins. My guess is they are going to be trying to find a route conductor for us as we probably won't be a priority of occupying the single line as a diesel service.

EDIT: (15:50)

TM has now advised us they can't find a driver who signs the route and traction so we are stopping at Grantham and may have to take an EC service via Lincoln instead
 
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tsr

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Yeah, I think it was a fairly new problem when we were advised (it took me a while to type it up so we were probably told about 10 mins earlier.

Just sailed through Peterborough anyway and still travelling at a fair pace so maybe trains aren't backed up as far back as was first mentioned. Either way, the TM on our service is trying to be as helpful as possible and just walked through the train apologising that he has no more information at present (the PA seems to be a bit hit and miss on here!)

NRE are now saying on Twitter that one line of two is closed, and that, since trains have to share the same line, there may be delays of up to 60 minutes.
 

YorkshireBear

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Yeah, I think it was a fairly new problem when we were advised (it took me a while to type it up so we were probably told about 10 mins earlier.

Just sailed through Peterborough anyway and still travelling at a fair pace so maybe trains aren't backed up as far back as was first mentioned. Either way, the TM on our service is trying to be as helpful as possible and just walked through the train apologising that he has no more information at present (the PA seems to be a bit hit and miss on here!)

East Coast NRE facebook has just stated that delays of 60 minutes likely as trains are sharing the same track.
 

Crossover

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Ah, the joys of listening to fellow passengers who have no idea where Grantham is, why we are stopped or why we may have to change trains to go via Lincoln, as opposed to coupling this train to another one or our driver continuing...

EDIT: (16:10)

1D73 now terminating at Grantham and we will be using an EC service to continue northbound. There goes my plan of doing Doncaster to Pontefract Monkhill!
 
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wintonian

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Only one cancellation at Kings Cross so far and minor delays.

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Crossover

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I suspect the delays will get worse at KGX to be honest.

Not sure they actually have this single line working in place yet to be honest...the TM talked as if Network Rail were trying to instigate it. Loads of SB trains have come through but NB is going nowhere fast, so before very long, all the trains will be south of the problem and it will be a complete bottleneck down there!
 

ushawk

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EDIT: (16:10)

1D73 now terminating at Grantham and we will be using an EC service to continue northbound. There goes my plan of doing Doncaster to Pontefract Monkhill!

Being shown on the Doncaster LDB as arriving 32 down and not cancelled, so it seems they dont know whats happening with it.

1330 KGX to NCL is 89 down at DON and the 1335 KGX to LDS (behind the Newcastle service) is 90 down there as well

EDIT - Bradford service now shown as Cancelled throughout
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Didn't the line have problems in this area this morning as well?

Only signalling problems at Hitchin shown for this morning - only other ECML problem today
 

wintonian

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There been lot of announcements for a while now saying EC, HT and GC are accepting each others tickets, but the guard has said GC tickets are not valid on this service. :confused:

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Crossover

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Very quick one as my fingers are freezing. Been at Grantham a while now and news is thin on the ground. Hopefully moving soon though
 

DarloRich

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On 1629 off york at Newark now - very slow from retford. North bounds piled up one on top of the other almost 1 signal post between them but they are moving!
 

Schnellzug

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Does anyone think the ECML is simply overworked beyond the ability of the infrastructure to cope? Might there be an argument for thinning the service slightly to reduce the pressure & giving some space to allow for delays? Are they trying to provide service levels that are just too much for it cope with?
 

DarloRich

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There is an empty ht 180 stabled just south of newark station - all northbouns moving but quite a number of services to get through
Ex Twitter says they have set up a diversion route
 

Kryten2340

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I'm getting quite worried about my trip to Glasgow on Saturday now. Fingers crossed there will be no trouble. At least if my EC is delayed I might be able to use XC.
 

Crossover

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DarloRich, I also passed that HT 180. You may soon see GC 180 107 depending where they have plonked it at Grantham

I think we are about to enter the single line section
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Problem could be in hand now

On 1N87 and after slow progress, we have continued on the down line which I believe was the one previously broken
 

wintonian

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17:00 ex Kings Cross, is crawling (ab lit very slowly) which is rather a novelty compared to most of the last 40min

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Marton

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From EC website:

Line problem between York and Northallerton.
Details:

Train services between York and Northallerton are being disrupted due to speed restrictions.Delays of up to 15 minutes can be expected. Only north-bound train services are affected by this problem.

No suggestion as to the reason
 

Crossover

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Well it has certainly been a talking point as we made our way further north.

As much as I could see that GC were taking a fair bit of flak for what happened, I can only really commend their staff for their efforts throughut the day. Admittedly, once we left the train at Grantham, information was very thin on the ground and EC couldn't arrange for any special stop orders to be put in place on services that weren't booked to call, and often had to crawl through Grantham. The staff (both EC and GC) seemed to be getting as annoyed as the passengers as they couldn't get any information and I do think it was genuine.

The staff (bar the driver, who had to remove said train from said platform at Grantham and relocate it) travelled passenger along with the rest of us as far as Doncaster when we had to change trains again, where I bumped into one of the train staff from 1D73 who had been joined by another member of GC stuff. Given how bad Doncaster was, with services replatformed left right and centre with no updates on the boards, they were a great help in trying to find out what was going on and we eventually "found" a train to take us back to Leeds. Huge credit to them :)

Certainly an interesting afternoon, not quite how I expected it to go but in some ways interesting nonetheless.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

From EC website:


No suggestion as to the reason

I think that is a different problem and more than likely unrelated. The main problem was a broken rail between Newark Northgate and Retford.

From what I heard, a southbound driver was asked to inspect the line, looking for a small problem and found a rather large one

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Oh yeah, the service we eventually got from Grantham was the ex EMT HST set, now with EC...every cloud and all that!
 
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wintonian

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Crossover

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Thanks, but there were many benefits to staying with EC.;)

I belive the issue was a defective rail according to the guard I had, resulting in a 5MPH restriction on the affected section, somewhere between Newark North Gate and Runcorn.

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Retford ;)

Runcorn is miles away!

And yeah, I heard 5mph TSR and it certainly felt about that sort of speed too before we suddenly powered away.
 

wintonian

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It was stop, start, stop, start for me.

And yes obviously I ment retford, couldn't think of It's name at the time.

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Crossover

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It was stop, start, stop, start for me.

And yes obviously I ment retford, couldn't think of It's name at the time.

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I think I have done the ECML a signal at a time today....scenic!

Certainly on the approach to Grantham we were crawling under caution a signal at a time and on the approach to the problem area, pretty much the same, as well as other locations too.
 

wilsontown

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I did wonder what was going on as I went home last night, at Leeds various EC services from Kings Cross were showing up to 120-odd minutes down. That would explain it...
 
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