SWML Flooding

[RedPostJunc]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the flooding that affected the SWML on the evening of 1st August.
Late afternoon there was a thunderstorm around Winchester, resulting in flooding that closed the line for some time. A friend who was in Winchester at the time told me it was the most torrential downpour she had ever seen, which closed several roads in the area. Some trains from Bournemouth were terminated at Southampton, there was also diversion of 5M70 via Romsey and Andover (no train manager available, so ran as ECS) and 1W30 1803 Weymouth - London Waterloo was diverted via Havant. Services eventually restarted, but RTT advises that 1B64 1702 Bournemouth to Basingstoke arrived at its destination over2.5 hours late.
Station announcements said that there was also flooding between Basingstoke and Hook.

 

[Omnishambles]

I was caught up on the way home and we ran at reduced speed between Woking and Basingstoke in horrendous conditions. I’ve worked in control offices for over 20yrs and imposed blanket speed restrictions for excessive heat and winds but never I can recall excessive rain !

 

[CherryCoffin]

On this, the 0800 from Southampton Central to Waterloo was cancelled due to the points failure at Basingstoke. The staff at the station advised to go to Havant and up to Waterloo from there.

I’ve checked Trainline and it appears the 0830 from Southampton left on time/a couple of minutes late.

Could anyone explain the thought process or procedures behind this? As going via Havant is significantly slower than going direct

 

[30907]

On this, the 0800 from Southampton Central to Waterloo was cancelled due to the points failure at Basingstoke. The staff at the station advised to go to Havant and up to Waterloo from there.

I’ve checked Trainline and it appears the 0830 from Southampton left on time/a couple of minutes late.

Could anyone explain the thought process or procedures behind this? As going via Havant is significantly slower than going direct

A reasonable surmise: if an incident has just occurred (which seems to be the case) and trains are being terminated it is potentially going to take an hour or two to resolve, in which case using an alternative route makes sense. As luck would have it seems to have taken much less time than that.

 

[swt_passenger]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the flooding that affected the SWML on the evening of 1st August.
Late afternoon there was a thunderstorm around Winchester, resulting in flooding that closed the line for some time. A friend who was in Winchester at the time told me it was the most torrential downpour she had ever seen, which closed several roads in the area. Some trains from Bournemouth were terminated at Southampton, there was also diversion of 5M70 via Romsey and Andover (no train manager available, so ran as ECS) and 1W30 1803 Weymouth - London Waterloo was diverted via Havant. Services eventually restarted, but RTT advises that 1B64 1702 Bournemouth to Basingstoke arrived at its destination over2.5 hours late.
Station announcements said that there was also flooding between Basingstoke and Hook.

Well it was sort of posted, but in the general discussion forum, and the title is basically a criticism of how Twitter operators at SWR handled it rather than the details of what happened. So it would have been easily missed if skimming through new threads:

Are twitter teams causing more disruption than good?

Tonight there is severe disruption on the SWML due to flooding and heavy weather. It happens fine. I don't know enough to comment whether SWR could have done more or not. However, people have gone to twitter/X to ask questions and scrolling through the answers it's very clear that the SWHelp...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[setdown]

My train ended up delayed over an hour, caught up in this. Apparently the driver could not proceed at points because the rails were submerged, and we had to wait for water to drain away.

Is this because it's a third-rail system? I remember being on a Pendolino near Carlisle a few years ago, and that proceeded quite quickly through some submerged areas. Admittedly not line speed, but definitely continuing the journey at a decent speed.

 

[fgwrich]

On this, was there any issues in the Frimley area last night? I was working over Aldershot way in the early hours of this morning and happen to come across this.

I notice RTT has been changed this morning to show it cancelled at Frimley too.

Realtime Trains | 2N71 2253 Ascot to Frimley | 01/08/2024

Real-time train running information for 2N71 2253 departure from Ascot to Frimley on 01/08/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[TEW]

There was a tree down in the area.

My train ended up delayed over an hour, caught up in this. Apparently the driver could not proceed at points because the rails were submerged, and we had to wait for water to drain away.

Is this because it's a third-rail system? I remember being on a Pendolino near Carlisle a few years ago, and that proceeded quite quickly through some submerged areas. Admittedly not line speed, but definitely continuing the journey at a decent speed.

It depends on the water level and what the water is doing. Following the Carmont derailment there is generally a more cautious approach taken now.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

My train ended up delayed over an hour, caught up in this. Apparently the driver could not proceed at points because the rails were submerged, and we had to wait for water to drain away.

Is this because it's a third-rail system? I remember being on a Pendolino near Carlisle a few years ago, and that proceeded quite quickly through some submerged areas. Admittedly not line speed, but definitely continuing the journey at a decent speed.

With points being the issue, it was probably that the driver was unable to see that they were set correctly.
Third rail does bring its own set of issues with flooding though.

 

[Omnishambles]

My train ended up delayed over an hour, caught up in this. Apparently the driver could not proceed at points because the rails were submerged, and we had to wait for water to drain away.

Is this because it's a third-rail system? I remember being on a Pendolino near Carlisle a few years ago, and that proceeded quite quickly through some submerged areas. Admittedly not line speed, but definitely continuing the journey at a decent speed.

Movement in areas of water are overall mandated by the rule book, essentially how much up to rail head, above and whether running water. Added to this since new fleets were delivered over the years have been individual fleet restrictions, ie/ running with a HST set over slightly submerged Railhead would attract a 20mph restriction but voyagers would be forbidden to run (I forget actual mph restrictions so 20 as an example)