and nor does anyone else as Southern have given up telling anyone about delays or what they are doing to recover services. This type of incident just shows them at their worst.
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Empty train derails at Brighton (15/4)
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and nor does anyone else as Southern have given up telling anyone about delays or what they are doing to recover services. This type of incident just shows them at their worst.
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ChiefPlanner
Established Member
That was a bad one - around Xmas I recall , which needed a crane - and the local vandals managed to comprehensively graffiti it.
I suspect todays will be a jack and packing job to rerail.
Going back to my early operational days - I had one at Felixstowe on Xmas eve - a derailed freightliner set all over the place. We got the Colchester accident vans in location on late afternoon Xmas Eve - and rerailed it on Boxing day. The gang got more than double time , I got zilch as "on call" managers were expected in BR days to do up to 30 hours a month unpaid "for the service" .....the only positive thing is that the BTP had to guard it over the period ...
DarloRich
Veteran Member
That was a bad one - around Xmas I recall , which needed a crane - and the local vandals managed to comprehensively graffiti it.
I suspect todays will be a jack and packing job to rerail.
Going back to my early operational days - I had one at Felixstowe on Xmas eve - a derailed freightliner set all over the place. We got the Colchester accident vans in location on late afternoon Xmas Eve - and rerailed it on Boxing day. The gang got more than double time , I got zilch as "on call" managers were expected in BR days to do up to 30 hours a month unpaid "for the service" .....the only positive thing is that the BTP had to guard it over the period ...
I bet they got double bubble
Oh and i dont think "on call" get a time bonus today
What period does FY2014 cover? That accident was in January which might have been the end of FY2013.
SpacePhoenix
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Looking on Google Earth at where todays happened looks like there might be a set of points there, if there is, is it possible that the points changed under the train?
Or the train went over them whilst not set properly. But that is speculation, so we'll have to wait and see what gets said by the RAIB.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
As there are at many , many locations - to protect running lines from potential fouling movements....in the signalling and layout standards.
Yabbadabba
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There's no point in speculation and no the trap points didn't move.
A 'fun' day. Compounding the issue at Brighton was a lineside fire at Arundel junction. My train from Horsham to Portsmouth was 15 late leaving Horsham and 45 late into Barnham. Terminated at Havant for an on time run back to Brighton.
Most punters were ok, tried to keep them informed. Punters who had issues were mainly ones on heading back to Brighton, who just did not listen, or read the CIS's, or note that my train had Brighton on the front and side and thus was not going to London. (that train was 3 mins behind).
Anyway, the jacking equipment to get the train back onto the track had to come down from Didcott. The DBS guys with the tools were arriving at Brighton station just as I was leaving (21.30).
I know the driver involved and the poss reason, but will not discuss it here.
Note: when told to listen for next departures, don't leave the platform, then moan when you come back that a train has gone. and if the person right in front of you has asked a question "does this train go to Gatwick?". On hearing the answer "Yes". This means it is and you do not have to ask the same question, x 100
Most punters were ok, tried to keep them informed. Punters who had issues were mainly ones on heading back to Brighton, who just did not listen, or read the CIS's, or note that my train had Brighton on the front and side and thus was not going to London. (that train was 3 mins behind).
Anyway, the jacking equipment to get the train back onto the track had to come down from Didcott. The DBS guys with the tools were arriving at Brighton station just as I was leaving (21.30).
I know the driver involved and the poss reason, but will not discuss it here.
Note: when told to listen for next departures, don't leave the platform, then moan when you come back that a train has gone. and if the person right in front of you has asked a question "does this train go to Gatwick?". On hearing the answer "Yes". This means it is and you do not have to ask the same question, x 100
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When I heard the phrase 'rail replacement buses from Haywards Heath' I thought it was going to be like the South Croydon landslide. I'm still in touch with a couple of people I met in the 2 hour queue that snaked it's way through the backstreets of Croydon that day 
As it turned out, we got chucked out at Gatwick, got chucked back in again, and arrived a magic 33 minutes late.
As it turned out, we got chucked out at Gatwick, got chucked back in again, and arrived a magic 33 minutes late.
theageofthetra
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Disruption is still ongoing according to TL twitter.
Thanks.
This morning the 7.44 from Haywards Heath is stopping additionally at Gatwick Airport. Last night I was told Gatwick Express services couldn't stop additionally at Clapham Junction due to some trains still running, abet delayed and in some cases full.
Wonder why this train needs to stop at Gatwick then? In fact our journey into Gatwick Airport was slow, which suggests some other trains must have stopped there. May be not from Haywards Heath direction. However that didn't seem to matter last night at Clapham Junction when some trains towards Haywards Heath were cancelled or delayed. Apparently there were trains at Victoria waiting for crew.
Last night I may have got on better had I not known there were train delays until I reached Clapham Junction. O2 data coverage in Surbiton is very hit and miss and so I nipped into Waitrose to use the WiFi. This caused me to just miss my train, as connecting to the WiFi was unusuallt slow. For once the 5.11 left on time.
Was a 455 and just four carriages. I therefore couldn't get to my hydrotherapy exercise class in time.If fast trains ran south of Clapham Junction I'd have just gone to Clapham Junction without stopping in advance to check in more detail. I just didn't fancy spending an hour Clapham Junction or sitting for 50 minutes on a slow train south if I then found the delays to Haywards Heath extremely bad..
I once did sit at Clapham Junction for 45 minutes due to problems on the Brighton line. I just missed a Guildford stopping service and I don't think any other slow services would have saved much if any time, compared to waiting 45 minutes for the fast train. At least they had a waiting room by this point. After that experience I'm more careful about heading to Clapham Junction during peak rush hour when there's disruption.
Last night I did ask a few times as I wanted to know different things. I would have asked less had I had mobile data coverage from O2. They have great customer service but do suffer from coverage issues.
One question I asked was if the next train arriving would also be full. I was told two trains were due to arrive shortly. That actually wasn't the case as one of them was still delayed. However fortunately the train that did arrive had space for most of us.
Up until that pint there had been two trains which had no room or ran out of room at Clapham Junction and one non stopping Gatwick Express service, which looked like it did have room.
Perhaps they didn't want to delay the train further. However I'm currently running today with an 11 minute delay and we stopped additionally at Gatwick Airport, although not according to National Rail Enquiries, which doesn't show our additional stop.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Sorry to hear about the one under. My thoughts go out to the driver and all concerned.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Lovely series of comments on the train at East Croydon last night, just after I get a seat.
I will astrix out the couple of swear words but if it's not acceptable still please remove. I don't want to offend anyone.
Passenger woman A heads to seat on packed train.
Passenger woman B,with suitcase, behind passenger woman A says in a harsh abrupt tone: "Excuse me that's my seat".
Passenger woman A nicely but firmly replies: "I was hear first".
Passenger woman B: "I've got a back problem so go **** yourself!"
I also think the word bringing with c may have been used at some point too, possibly from Passenger woman B. I think passenger woman A did respond at one point but I didn't catch it. Passenger woman A ended up standing until Gatwick Airport.
You couldn't make this up. I then spy an elderly man standing with a walking stick. He's just got on and walked down to beside where I'm sitting.
Me: "Excuse me, would you like a seat?"
Elderly man "Thank you".
He told me he was getting off at Gatwick Airport and he offered me back my seat then. I rarely come across elderly people needing a seat, so for it to happen straight after the previous exchange was interesting to say the least.
May be Passenger woman B did have a back problem but no need to be rude. I've got ankylosing spondylitis [arthritis] and I wouldn't be that rude.
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The report I heard said it was at Gipsy Hill, no word on the persons condition
Aictos
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I know the reason given via Tyrell, the only thing is in my belief the reason could have been caused by any number of factors and until the RAIB finish their investigation we won't know for sure what caused it.
Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. Using the word 'Croydon' in public.
Haha. I know.
Not sure why there were lots of buses at Haywards Heath this morning given that NRE say buses are running between Brighton and Preston Park and don't mention Haywards Heath having buses. There they there just in case? Surely there aren't spare buses for that.
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/95097.aspx
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None at Haywards Heath when I got there at 8am, apart from the seaford bus which is always there, is that now a standby bus?
Yabbadabba
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I'm too close to those involved to make any further comment. Has it been confirmed that RAIB are to conduct an investigation into this one? Notifying RAIB is Standard practice but they don't invesigate everything.
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Whilst I don't know what caused yesterday's issue, that's for others to find out, I do know we are all human and people do sometimes make mistakes.
Here's a mistake from Southern communications about the disruption. I didn't notice the mistake at first until it was pointed out in the comments section.
If I was putting out an important communication at work to the general public or other staff, my line manager would check to make sure it read OK. I'd hope that happens at Southern to.
https://twitter.com/SouthernRailUK/status/588671620333629440
Here's a mistake from Southern communications about the disruption. I didn't notice the mistake at first until it was pointed out in the comments section.
If I was putting out an important communication at work to the general public or other staff, my line manager would check to make sure it read OK. I'd hope that happens at Southern to.
https://twitter.com/SouthernRailUK/status/588671620333629440
They won't have decided yet. Unlikely though I would have thought.
tsr
Established Member
Southern's Twitter team appear to be quite freely telling people that the incident was due to "driver error". I will not be commenting on the circumstances, either, until I know more.
I would stress that this incident was quite significantly compounded by signalling failures on the East Coastway, the lineside fire at Arundel and the two people hit by trains on Southern Metro routes this morning. There is very often a moment during any disruption where it starts out as slightly chaotic, and then things start to clear up. But in this case, although Control put several contingency (and revised contingency) plans in place following an early assessment of the issues, the stack of other problems elsewhere really did compound the problems.
I must commend the majority of passengers I spoke to yesterday, who were very good-natured and understanding. We are lucky to have such a good proportion of decent people using our network at times like this. Yes, there will have been some very angry people around, but from what I saw on my reasonably wide-reaching travels yesterday, it was firmly the case that passengers and staff were mostly helping each other.
I would stress that this incident was quite significantly compounded by signalling failures on the East Coastway, the lineside fire at Arundel and the two people hit by trains on Southern Metro routes this morning. There is very often a moment during any disruption where it starts out as slightly chaotic, and then things start to clear up. But in this case, although Control put several contingency (and revised contingency) plans in place following an early assessment of the issues, the stack of other problems elsewhere really did compound the problems.
I must commend the majority of passengers I spoke to yesterday, who were very good-natured and understanding. We are lucky to have such a good proportion of decent people using our network at times like this. Yes, there will have been some very angry people around, but from what I saw on my reasonably wide-reaching travels yesterday, it was firmly the case that passengers and staff were mostly helping each other.
Deepgreen
Established Member
Getting the month wrong and writing "passenger", rather than "passengers".
Southern have always been sloppy in their communications in my experience, whether it is e-mail responses, web site news items or travel updates.
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rf_ioliver
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I got caught trying to get from Hove to Seaford last night. To be honest, around 19h00 they were actually coping quite well. At Hove I was instructed to take the Victoria train to Haywards Heath and then down via Lewes - primarily to avoid putting too much strain on the now functioning Coastway East and busses through Brighton.
At Haywards Heath everything was at least moving and we were kept as informed as possible, e.g.: announcements about ticket validity, even being able to route via Guildford and Havant in some cases as well as when the next trains were going to arrive in advance.
I had a quick chat with one of the guards who said that they might turn a blind eye to routing validity to keep people moving.
However, I was a bit surprised that how much disruption the derailment actually causes, but from a passenger point of view, at least Southern (and other train companies) worked as pragmatically as they could in such a situation. In the end I got from Hove to Seaford in probably a shorter amount of time and in more comfort than if I'd taken the bus...
t.
Ian
Ploughman
Established Member
Thats a long bus run.
Beighton near Sheffield I presume?
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