Services that have terminated short or diverted to a different destination

[Galvanize]

So Pendolino for Pendolino at Tring. Not an everyday move.

That reminds me...back in the Summer of 2004, heading to Mid Wales to visit my Auntie and the cousins. 3 of us, me, Mum and my brother booked on the 10:45 I think it was from London Euston, worked by 390044 “Virgin Lionheart.”, think we were booked to take it to Wolverhampton then change there for an Arriva Trains Wales service towards the Cambrian Coast.

So we left Euston, quite a busy train I seem to recall, but we got our booked seats in Coach C around a table. Nothing untoward until we started slowing down just after Berkhamstead...and we stopped in the platform at Tring. Sat there for about 5 minutes, could hear the various Beeps and Buzzers going off, Driver and TM communicating with eachother. Eventually the TM announced there was a technical fault onboard the train, which the Driver was trying to attend to, and warned the lights May momentarily go out as he was gonna do a Reboot to cure the fault. Sure enough that happened. Eventually got moving again!

But a few minutes later...the brakes came on hard, as we approached Leighton Buzzard. And we stopped in a heap. Another 5 minutes passed, TM announced that the Fault had returned, and that the Driver was going to attempt another Reboot. Sure enough the lights went out again. Nope...no joy! So we sat there for what seemed like ages. TM announced that there was a possibility of summoning a “Thunderbird” to tow the train to somewhere like Bletchley or Milton Keynes Central where the train would terminate, but there’d be a bit of a wait, anyone who needed tickets endorsed or whatever, please come to the office in Coach C. Other trains began to overtake us on the slow lines, some of them being VT services that had become stuck behind us. Believe the driver tried rebooting a third time, but it wasn’t having it! TM announced that if anyone wanted any refreshments from the shop during the wait, people could have them free of charge. As I was sat nearby...I was near the front of the queue, so managed to get a few things!

A little while later, the TM announced that the plan had changed again, while a Thunderbird was on the way...it would still take a little while to get to the train, so another VT service heading towards Birmingham would be stopped additionally at Leighton Buzzard on the slow lines to pick us all up. This duly happened, a mk3 set hauled by an 87 (sorry, can’t remember which one!) soon arrived to pick us all up, and we alighted from the Demic Pendo at Leighton on the Down Fast, crossing to the mk3 set on the Down Slow, and it was a case of take any available seat. I believe we were now almost 2 hours late, so our connection in Birmingham/Wolverhampton was long gone, however the TM of the mk3 set announced that anyone going towards the Cambrian Coast, tickets would be valid on the following service, but reservations wouldn’t be guaranteed!

 

[voyagerdude220]

Loosely (mis)translated as... "Clear off from here; you can be someone else's problem at the next station!"

Yep!

I seem to remember being surprised by the amount of people who got off the train at Birmingham International (class 87+mk3s), so I'm assuming quite a few were also Cheltenham/South West bound like myself.

 

[Horizon22]

Loosely (mis)translated as... "Clear off from here; you can be someone else's problem at the next station!"

Kind of but New St is notoriously bad for replacement buses on an ad-hoc basis.

As for me one of the worst I remember recently was the SWML between Woking and Waterloo around 2 years ago being closed because of a fatality. We were diverted via Cherstey and Staines after sitting at West Byfleet for a while. We absolutely crawled along - distinctly remember looking over the M25 going ridiculously slowly - presumably following a stopper of some sort. When we arrived at Staines, we sat there for another 10 minutes before a conductor who was obviously rather apologetic said we would now been terminating due to "congestion caused by these diversions". I imagine there were crew issues by this point. It was moderately loaded so obviously frustrating for all involved but the service was locked up and departed to who knows where.

Eventually ended up on a stopper getting into London about 2.5 hours later than I should have.

 

[Galvanize]

Here’s one from Overseas, just to prove that things aren’t always plain sailing!
Last February in what I’d regard as the “normal” part of 2020, a large proportion of enthusiasts went over to the Czech Republic to do a 3 day Railtour with a Class 749 “Grumpy” Diesel over a weekend. I was with various mates and we all had various plans before/after the main event.

So on the Monday, a group of 4 of us left Prague on the 10:26 from Praha HL (the main station!), EC174 towards Berlin, and sat in the Restaurant Car, hauled by Class 193 Vectron Electric loco number 298. We had a lovely breakfast as the train headed northwards and weaved it’s way through the scenic Labe valley. The further north we got, the more miserable the weather looked, back in the UK that weekend Storm Ciara had caused a fair share of problems, now it was the turn of the European relation! The rain was extremely heavy as we got to Dečin, the last stop the train made before crossing the border into Germany, but the first crew change happened with no bother, the CD (Czech Railways) crew handed over to the DB (German Railways) crew, and we crossed into Germany.

It was at Dresden Hauptbahnhof we hit a standstill, seemed another crew change was due to happen here for the next leg of the journey to Berlin. Sat there for a good 5 minutes. No movement. Nearly 10 minutes...then the Conductor made an announcement (only in German) explaining we were waiting for a Replacement Driver (“Lokfuhrer”) and apologising for the delay. We continued waiting, I don’t know how long for exactly. The Conductor eventually made another announcement (again Only in German) telling us the train would now be terminating on the spot
(“Dieser Zug Endet Hier!” I heard repeatedly!)...so we quickly settled up our bill from the Restaurant Car, gathered up all our belongings and alighted from the train. It was very cold and windy, felt like a bit of a wind tunnel underneath the train shed. Now to find an alternative train to Berlin...must be one somewhere we can catch? Errr...nope! Storm Sabine had disrupted all the trains, so they were all delayed and cancelled.

For two of the people in our group of 4, this was concerning as they both had a flight back to the UK leaving that evening from Berlin Tegel Airport (RIP)...and weren’t sure if they were going to make it in time. Didn’t matter for me and the other mate as we were staying the night in Berlin.
One friend looked into the possibility of getting a taxi to Berlin Tegel, but when quoted the price over the phone, quickly changed his mind. We stood with the others in the queue for the Information Desk, but the Station Manager sorted out a taxi for the two to get to Berlin Tegel (paid for by DB!)...so off they went. Taxi Driver no doubt laughing his way to the bank.

Meanwhile...the missing driver for EC174 never appeared, so the locomotive ran round the stock and the set returned to Prague as a different EC working. The next working to Berlin was the following EC from Prague, and we did have a Driver available. Although the train was full, the DB conductor was very proactive in ensuring most Standing passengers had seats!
We made it to Berlin about 2 hours later, not the end of the world!

 

[infobleep]

I've had times when I've got to Woking only to find asome trains I wish to catch to Guildford are being diverted via Eastleigh due to some technical problem at some point between Guildford and Havant.

In such cases I guess I could have traveled via Aldershot but A I didn't think of it and B South West Trains didn't offer it as an option in their disruption info.

I was once at Surbtion hoping to catch a fast train to Woking. However someone was ill on a train on platform 3, if I remember correctly and that meant the platform was blocked.

This also meant the fast train to Basingstoke had to continue to Woking, because it can't move from the fast line to platform 4 at Surbtion. So whilst I only had to wait for another service south, all the passengers for Surbtion had to double back via Woking. That was a fair number of passengers. Hopefully they managed to get a semi-fast back and hoping the person ill recovered.