• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

NXEA Goes Boom

Status
Not open for further replies.

allticketspls

Member
Joined
10 Mar 2011
Messages
174
Location
Enfield, Middlesex
Overhead wire problems are causing disruption at London Liverpool Street. National Express East Anglia are advising passengers not to travel unless necessary.

The following alterations will apply until further notice:

A reduced train service is running between Shenfield / Stratford and London Liverpool Street
There are no trains between Hackney Downs and London Liverpool Street
Trains between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street will only run between Cambridge and Tottenham Hale
Stansted Express are reduced to an half hourly service and are diverted to start / terminate at Stratford
Hertford East services are diverted to start / terminate at Stratford
Trains that do run to and from London Liverpool Street are being delayed by up to 60 minutes
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

185

Established Member
Joined
29 Aug 2010
Messages
4,970
Not Xactly Electrically Attached?
 

Schnellzug

Established Member
Joined
22 Aug 2011
Messages
2,926
Location
Evercreech Junction
The new advertising slogan for NXEA (and it could also apply equally well to the East coast main Line):
 

Attachments

  • AP1210-is-your-journey-really-necessary-war-poster-bert-thomas-1940s.jpg
    AP1210-is-your-journey-really-necessary-war-poster-bert-thomas-1940s.jpg
    31.7 KB · Views: 70

jopsuk

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2008
Messages
12,771
on the bright side, anyone travelling off-peak from Cambridge to london can get an NXEA-only off peak day return (cheaper) and use Kings Cross, assuming the mess isn't going to be sorted by the end of the day.
 

MK Tom

Established Member
Joined
31 Aug 2011
Messages
2,421
Location
Milton Keynes
Forgive me my ignorance but why does this always happen on those lines? You hardly ever get electrification failures on the WCML or the MML, yet they seem to pop up on Look East all the time as having happened somewhere between Liverpool Street and Ipswich. It gives electrification a really unfairly bad reputation. I realise the Shenfield wires are extremely old but if they were at risk of failure wouldn't they have been renewed when the Kings Lynn/Norwich lines were wired in the '80s? It's also something NXEA haven't got any power over (if you'll forgive the pun) so it gives them an unfairly bad rep too.
 

GB

Established Member
Joined
16 Nov 2008
Messages
6,457
Location
Somewhere
Forgive me my ignorance but why does this always happen on those lines? You hardly ever get electrification failures on the WCML or the MML, yet they seem to pop up on Look East all the time as having happened somewhere between Liverpool Street and Ipswich. It gives electrification a really unfairly bad reputation. I realise the Shenfield wires are extremely old but if they were at risk of failure wouldn't they have been renewed when the Kings Lynn/Norwich lines were wired in the '80s? It's also something NXEA haven't got any power over (if you'll forgive the pun) so it gives them an unfairly bad rep too.

While it happens more than the WCML (and it does happen on the WCML) to say its all the time is a bit of a stretch. There are also other factors that can cause OLE failure other than fatigue and that can include obstructions, vandalism and dodgy pantographs.
 

iphone76

Member
Joined
6 Nov 2010
Messages
916
Location
South Essex
Forgive me my ignorance but why does this always happen on those lines? You hardly ever get electrification failures on the WCML or the MML, yet they seem to pop up on Look East all the time as having happened somewhere between Liverpool Street and Ipswich. It gives electrification a really unfairly bad reputation. I realise the Shenfield wires are extremely old but if they were at risk of failure wouldn't they have been renewed when the Kings Lynn/Norwich lines were wired in the '80s? It's also something NXEA haven't got any power over (if you'll forgive the pun) so it gives them an unfairly bad rep too.

I wondered the same thing today during my two hour journey in from Wickford. I also thought the OHLE between Liverpool Street to Stratford (at least) had been replaced or updated during the numerous weekend and Christmas engineering possesions that have taken place over the past 7 years. I remember we were told the new wires wouldn't sag in the heat anymore - yet on that hot day in June everything melted down. (Again!).

Fingers crossed for tonight, although with 139 service issues at the moment, I'm planning the journey home via c2c.
 

captainbigun

Member
Joined
3 May 2009
Messages
977
The stretch in question has recently been replaced. Renewals between Stratford and Chelmsford will continue for several years yet. It's a major upgrade.

Unfortunately the options are 1) fewer longer blockade to do the work en masse, but then folk moan about the lack of service or 2) a longer period of short weekend and overnight blockades. Unfortunately you can't please all of the people all of the time.
 
Last edited:

jon0844

Veteran Member
Joined
1 Feb 2009
Messages
28,013
Location
UK
The Thameslink blockade worked as they provided an alternative for people, so if you were to consider a mass shut down to get the work done quicker, you simply lay on alternatives.

Of course many people would moan, but they'd moan no matter what (as what they want is everything to be fixed but for it to take none of their time up) and a lot of people would actually not mind the inconvenience if it's a known inconvenience that can be planned and accounted for.

I'd sooner have a week of rail replacement coaches than ad hoc work in the evenings and weekends, which doesn't always get done properly. But that's me - and so there lies the problem!
 

iphone76

Member
Joined
6 Nov 2010
Messages
916
Location
South Essex
The stretch in question has recently been replaced. Renewals between Stratford and Chelmsford will continue for several years yet. It's a major upgrade.

Unfortunately the options are 1) fewer longer blockade to do the work en masse, but then folk moan about the lack of service or 2) a longer period of short weekend and overnight blockades. Unfortunately you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I guess it is a compromise, however, once replaced, I would expect it to be more reliable than the old equipment it replaced. It's also interesting to read a NR document from 2009 which anticipated the work out to Chelmsford being completed by July next year. Hasn't this now been pushed back to at least 2014?

"The programme of component replacement on the Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) continues, however most of the OLE problems are caused by
fixed termination equipment, much of which is of a very old design, and needs to be seasonally retensioned according to the weather. The programme for the design and implementation of the renewal of the OLE between Liverpool Street and Chelmsford is being developed with a view to completing the work before the Games in 2012. Work in the Liverpool Street area was completed in
December 2007."
 

Tomby1

New Member
Joined
18 Oct 2011
Messages
2
Unfortunately I live in Chelmsford so spent a lovely couple of hours sat (stood) on a train this morning. I've just moved from Broxbourne and have had a number of issues commuting in to London from there over the past couple of months too. Most of the issues are caused by vandals (otherwise known as 'idiots' among other words) stealing metal. I seem to recall a couple of weeks ago one bunch of them also managed to start a fire on the line.

Got to love commuting!

A random question for all you knowledgable people here..

"Passengers with tickets valid to travel today may use them tomorrow, Wednesday 19 October."

Does this mean that even if you travelled today and used your ticket, you can travel tomorrow for free? Or does it just mean if you decided not to travel today you can travel instead tomorrow?
 

Peter Mugridge

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Apr 2010
Messages
14,753
Location
Epsom
It means if you can't travel today because of the disruption you can use the ticket tomorrow; you can't use it for two trips any more than you can in normal circumstances!
 

Tomby1

New Member
Joined
18 Oct 2011
Messages
2
It means if you can't travel today because of the disruption you can use the ticket tomorrow; you can't use it for two trips any more than you can in normal circumstances!

Thanks - knew I should have worked from home today!
 

dk1

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Oct 2009
Messages
15,822
Location
East Anglia
Some suggestions that debris was found on the line this morning possibly caused by high winds in the capital last night. This may have damaged the OHL & was finished off when the 379s travelling cars from Ilford passed through. Also rumours that the train did not stop immediatley causing more damage. No doubt will all come out in the wash.
 

DarkestDreams

Member
Joined
30 Jun 2011
Messages
58
Location
London
Conductor on my train didn't seem to believe I was ok to travel today im place of returning to London yesterday evening - luckily I'd screen-printed the NR page about the disruption. Very embarrassing having to rummage around for my laptop in my case while she stood over me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top