Storm Pia disruption - Thursday 21st December 2023

[800001]

Walked into the eye of the “storm” today as was booked on the 1302 Euston to Chester. Using the power of RTT we could see it was leaving from platform 12 and sure enough a 10 car voyager was there.

At around 1245 an announcement was made saying that there was a block on all departures bar overground due to the issue with the wires.

I get issues happen, and that information is fluid during disruption, but given the amount of times this happens there really should be some sort of contingency plan. Anything really.

The station was locked to new arrivals pretty quickly and tempers were fraying as no announcements were apparently being made to the rising numbers of people waiting outside. Security guards were treating people who simply had the misfortune to need to be somewhere with the usual disdain.

The people making announcements at Euston were mumbling and inaudible.

I did catch that the announcement customers for Chester should go via Great Western from St Pancras (!). This advice was repeated several times.

Checking the X feed there were some random acceptances allowed (chiltern to Birmingham, GW Paddington to reading, XC Reading to Birmingham), but users were quick to point out that anywhere other than Birmingham (and the random Chester announcement that wasn’t on their feed) were stranded. Advice was to stay put and wait, both over the announcements and from X. Where were the other acceptances? Several asking why XC couldn’t be extended to Manchester.

Gave up around 1330 - in my experience these things take hours to fix - and got a taxi to Marylebone. Couldn’t get the 4 car 1402 to Birmingham as it was crush loaded when we arrived. Using the power of RTT we waited on platform 3 for the 1436 - watched a 6 car DVT get hauled away to the sidings to be replaced by another 4 car 168 which was instantly crush loaded and unable to pick up customers at High Wycombe and Bicester North.

It’s not Chiltern’s fault obviously, but given that they were suddenly inundated maybe the 68 & DVT or an additional 168 to attach could have been found? Customers between London and Birmingham on Chiltern were avantied out of travel this afternoon.

We are on an advance purchase ticket and on arrival at New Street was told we would be fine to use to use the 1721 TfW, which we are currently on, but to sum the day up has been set swapped from a pair of 158s to a freezing 150 at Shrewsbury.

We will get home around 4 hours and 20 late.

Things happen all the time, but can’t help wondering if maintenance budgets are being cut to cause so many infrastructure problems? The weather hasn’t been windy anywhere we’ve been today.

More importantly surely to goodness someone could work out a contingency plan for the many days where this stuff happens? Some form of premeditated plan B. Yes it won’t always work perfectly, but it’s a start.

Someone needs to remember that the customer doesn’t give a shiny about TOCs and operations- they want a service, and to be somewhere. Blanket “do not travel” recommendations are a dereliction of duty.

Network rail stated it was a train fault on the wcml and not an infrastructure fault.

 

[MikeWM]

Things happen all the time, but can’t help wondering if maintenance budgets are being cut to cause so many infrastructure problems? The weather hasn’t been windy anywhere we’ve been today.

It certainly does feel like these issues are happening more and more often, particularly when we get slightly unusual - but far from extreme - weather. That's just a subjective opinion - I've no objective data - but it does feel like things have got a lot more likely to fall apart over the last few years, for whatever reason.

 

[43066]

Things happen all the time, but can’t help wondering if maintenance budgets are being cut to cause so many infrastructure problems?

That is also certainly happening.

 

[MotCO]

That picture was posted as a response to a question asking if Class 80xs possessed the spotlight.

Is the spotlight for a camera?

 

[Couru]

Things happen all the time, but can’t help wondering if maintenance budgets are being cut to cause so many infrastructure problems? The weather hasn’t been windy anywhere we’ve been today.

Yes, they are. RMT have warned about this a lot and I think it's wormed its way through to the main media a couple of times. Example at https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/major-railway-incidents-more-likely-due-to-network-rail-cuts/ - "96% of Network Rail workers say the cuts in the next five years will worsen railway safety, with 77% of members saying it will ‘substantially worsen rail safety.’"

 

[Jimini]

So to be mildly obtuse about this (sorry), was the southern WCML basically closed for the best part of five hours based on a misapprehension?

 

[Samzino]

On Thameslink trains, there is a small spotlight illuminating the pantograph, presumably for a camera to view the state of the pantograph. Is there anythng similar on the 800s?

Nvm a friend who drives one of these has corrected me, at least in the GWR case there is CCTV and a monitoring light as seen in this video:

 

[TPO]

Oops!



There’s an emphasis on extreme caution around crew make inspections during a suspected dewirement. A driver was critically injured by being electrocuted by downed wires on the WCML a few years back. AC can jump, and damaged wires won’t immediately discharge even when the power is switched off.

Indeed, there was even a RED film made about it. One of the important learning points being that in some weather conditions- especially the sort of grey, flat overcast type weather like today- it can be VERY difficult to see a piece of downed live OLE as it just doesn't stand out against the background, so if a Driver goes out inspecting their train they may not see it (no matter how careful they are) because it's effectively invisible.......

Driver absolutely did the right thing, and so did NR in terms of how they went and checked it out safely- quite quickly too.

It certainly does feel like these issues are happening more and more often, particularly when we get slightly unusual - but far from extreme - weather. That's just a subjective opinion - I've no objective data - but it does feel like things have got a lot more likely to fall apart over the last few years, for whatever reason.

I tend to agree. I recall it happening before when Network Rail maintenance spend was cut. We had Phase 2B/C and we though it couldn't get worse....... but we were wrong. The maintenance capacity has been cut year on year since then. And now most maintenance staff on night shift which reduces the maximum possible human reliability limit (= building in more errors in maintenance, I can take you for a trot through the concept of quantitative human factors analysis and the measurable impact of "conditions" on human performance if you want ).

You can save a few quid by flogging the assets for a while but eventually they start to fall over- usually in many places at once. I'd say where we are now feels like the consequences of doing just that for too long.

It's the dilemma of maintenance: if you do it well, you result is... nothing. No failures. That's a really difficult concept to explain to a bean-counter. They see something they are paying for but get "nothing" in return, in their eyes if it doesn't break, why do we need so many maintainers......? So the maintenance budget is cut, and for a while, it's OK. Then things reach a level of degradation and the failures start, by which time it's too late and it's a heck of a job to get back to reliability. It's a bit of a sine wave in resource when you have maintenance driven by bean-counters.

And when they go on a course on "lean"- oh, no, that's far worse. They just cannot get the concept that "lean" requires control of all inputs, which you NEVER have on the railway (weather and passengers being critical uncontrollable inputs). The importance of resilience is also underestimated and not valued because it costs and when it works you get..... nothing: no failures, no loss of service.

TBH, the motorways are in a similar boat, there's roadworks all over and the carriageway is getting really lumpy in some places.

I guess we'll find out the hard way whether the electricity grid is in similar shape over the next few years.

TPO

 

[trainophile]

Bit of a nuisance today but I appreciate nothing like some people are coping with - the 14:50 New Street to Hereford was showing terminating at Worcs Shrub Hill on all the departure displays at BHM and all the usual websites including NRE. As I didn't want to be stuck at Shrub Hill with no knowledge of whether there would be any further services to Hereford, either from there or Foregate Street, I decided to wait at BHM for the 15:50 which was at that stage showing as running. This was fine, until I happened to check on RTT while travelling on it, to find the 14:50 had actually continued to Hereford, so I had waited around for nothing just due to incorrect information.

WMR's tweet desk said they had been dealing with five fallen trees and consequently some service updates had not been made in a timely manner, and I quite understand that, but it was rather annoying getting back an hour late, thus missing the 16:30 bus to home from outside the station, and having to hot foot it into town for another later bus.

Can't blame anyone, and I'm very lucky to have got home at all, but just one of those frustrating things. Wish I hadn't checked now, except I would have put in a delay repay claim and had it rejected!

 

[liam456]

I'm wondering if there is a way to get Special Stop Order information given to passengers more quickly and transparently. I'm on 1M16, travelling from Glasgow Central to London Euston and thankfully have had a relatively peaceful journey down so far, but was atttempting to help passengers around me get to their own destinations who were caught up in the chaos. Our train made an additional stop at Stafford but this wasn't communicated on Avanti journeycheck and presumably just on DARWIN.

If further special stop orders were put in for Avanti (and other) services enabling people to make journeys not otherwise possible, would these show up on trainline, etc as they won't show up on RTT.

 

[SteveM70]

Just come from Manchester to Hebden Bridge. Screens at Victoria saying “services between Rochdale and Hebden Bridge are currently meeting with delays of up to 20 minutes due to a speed restriction because of high track temperatures earlier today”

Presumably someone pressed the wrong button on the reason generator

As it was, we crawled to Rochdale and lost 10 minutes, then proceeded as normal to Hebden

 

[gazzaa2]

There are only so many trains and assuming they're all full and standing, it makes no practical difference that there are multiple companies involved.

Ultimately if you travel by train in extreme weather you run the risk, regardless of TOCs.

 

[Birkonian]

Ultimately if you travel by train in extreme weather you run the risk, regardless of TOCs.

I don't think today's weather was extreme. Also, people needing to travel 200 miles home don't have alternative.

 

[Mag_seven]

I don't think today's weather was extreme. Also, people needing to travel 200 miles home don't have alternative.

Incidentally it was the Danish met office who named this storm as it was forecast to have the biggest impact over there. Over here it was just a yellow wind warning albeit over a wide area.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Surely. for health and safety reasons, there should be a ban on trees being made of flammable materials, such as wood.

Reminds me of the old ‘leaves on the line’ explanation where ‘the problem wasn’t the leaves per se, but the fact they were still attached to the tree’

 

[irish_rail]

Can't help but feel the forecasts where wrong. Certainly here in Plymouth the winds felt much stronger than the usual so called storms we get, yet all the forecasters where going on about was the North being windy. It feels a lot like the south got hit harder than expected, not that there is necessarily much that could have been done where the forecasts more accurate?

 

[Russel]

Euston is complete chaos the lack of information is totally unacceptable, pretty much been left to guess what to for the best.

Meant to be on the 1846 Crewe service but this was cancelled about half an hour after it was meant to depart so now on a Chiltern up to Birminghan praying XC don't start playing games with the Nottingham services...

 

[pitdiver]

I live in Nottinghamshire near Mansfield, it's certainly been windy here today. Trees down and a couple of garden structures blown over. And has been mentioned no trains on our local " Robin Hood" line.

 

[ChrisC]

I don't think today's weather was extreme. Also, people needing to travel 200 miles home don't have alternative.

I also don‘t think today’s weather was extreme, but it was bad. Strong winds, of around 60mph over a wide area of the country, will cause disruption. If a large tree comes down on the railway it cannot be cleared out of the way and things made safe in 5 minutes. There had been a yellow weather warning for today which had been forecast a good few days in advance. I was woken up at about 6 this morning to hear the roar of the wind and bits of twigs having broken off trees hitting my window. For the whole of this morning it was worse than I had expected.

 

[dk1]

Storm surge on the Broads means no trains Norwich to Lowestoft from 22:00 tonight until at least 12:00 tomorrow which is fair enough and understandable after recent local events.

 

[Rich1974]

Tree down on the Reading to Gatwick line and one near Ascot so the wind was rather strong in the South as well.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

The GEML a few years ago would have collapsed too but NR seems to have made it quite resilient now

 

[Birkonian]

I also don‘t think today’s weather was extreme, but it was bad. Strong winds, of around 60mph over a wide area of the country, will cause disruption. If a large tree comes down on the railway it cannot be cleared out of the way and things made safe in 5 minutes. There had been a yellow weather warning for today which had been forecast a good few days in advance. I was woken up at about 6 this morning to hear the roar of the wind and bits of twigs having broken off trees hitting my window. For the whole of this morning it was worse than I had expected.

Reading the comments it seems that that Wirral, where I live, escaped the bad weather as it usuall does. Just a windy day, but nothing special. Accordingly, a lot of travellers arriving at Lime Street for long distance travel would not have expected the level of disruption.

 

[43094]

Not a good day on the ECML today.

As it stands there’s a small handful of cancellations / part cancellations tomorrow due to set displacement. There are also crewing implications still to factor in, for those who have bust their hours from today.

 

[Silenos]

I don't think today's weather was extreme. Also, people needing to travel 200 miles home don't have alternative.

If the meteorologists are right (and basic physics suggests they are), this kind of weather will increasingly be the norm as more heat energy enters weather systems. So either the railways need to adapt, or become the transport method of last resort as those with any alternative (including coaches) choose it in preference. Although perhaps some will see that as a good way to manage demand.

 

[JD2168]

I used Sheffield today at around lunchtime. I caught a late running 12:02 Leeds via Barnsley stopper which left at 12:15pm. The Cross Country services at the time were all showing cancelled with a number of other Northern services running delayed.

 

[robbeech]

Well I made it to Edinburgh.
After initially going for 1N81 1047 from Retford to Doncaster and then 1S10 to Edinburgh I finally drove back to Doncaster and caught the 1710 Glasgow Service (1530 off King’s Cross) which was full and standing in 1st and looked worse in standard. There were a few seats after Newcastle in 1st though.
Seems to be one of the tiny number of services that actually made it to Edinburgh.
Seemed to be line speed most of the way up and it’s not hugely windy up here now.

 

[Killingworth]

Well I made it to Edinburgh.
After initially going for 1N81 1047 from Retford to Doncaster and then 1S10 to Edinburgh I finally drove back to Doncaster and caught the 1710 Glasgow Service (1530 off King’s Cross) which was full and standing in 1st and looked worse in standard. There were a few seats after Newcastle in 1st though.
Seems to be one of the tiny number of services that actually made it to Edinburgh.
Seemed to be line speed most of the way up and it’s not hugely windy up here now.

We reached Edinburgh only 1 minute late on 06.08 LSL charter from Leicester. Only 1 minute late back into Sheffield this evening hauled by venerable 40013.

 

[Russel]

Euston is complete chaos the lack of information is totally unacceptable, pretty much been left to guess what to for the best.

Meant to be on the 1846 Crewe service but this was cancelled about half an hour after it was meant to depart so now on a Chiltern up to Birminghan praying XC don't start playing games with the Nottingham services...

To update, as predicted, XC cancelled the 22:03 to Nottingham meaning I had to get the last bus home from Birmingham.

I really do think that I've never known Euston handle disruption so poorly, no announcements, no staff to be seen anywhere, none of the display screens were showing anything, truly shambolic.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Network rail stated it was a train fault on the wcml and not an infrastructure fault.

So presumably the stricken unit shorted the OHLE out, presumably with a reasonably loud bang, and the driver thought the wires had come down? I know (as mentioned above) the driver of my unit called someone and said he had a line voltage issue (as I heard it, I was sat next to the cab) shortly before the power went out.

If that's the case, while I recognise the issues with the driver himself looking, it seems odd they couldn't have sent us south on sight to have a look from the safety of the cab once power was restored. I can understand why things were disrupted and why the driver of the stuck unit couldn't safely get out, but I don't understand how it all led to that level of delay if the wires weren't actually down.

I did in the end get a free return journey (not claimed it yet but I can't see how they could argue! ) but 2 and a bit hours would have done!