Just for everyone's information - unfortunately both lines through Loughborough Junction station, as well as the adjacent Up/Down Atlantic Lines, are closed until further notice due to a major power cable fire in a structure just south of the station.
Network Rail and UK Power Networks have had some confusion over whose cable it actually is, and it also seems to have taken quite a while to switch it off. In the mean time the fire has spread and now a lot of cable and structural assets need to be checked and made safe. The situation has been going on for some time, on-and-off (pardon the pun) since mid-morning.
TL trains are being amended/diverted on routes which would normally run via Herne Hill. Some are being diverted to locations such as East Croydon etc.
(I still don't get quite how NR take so long to respond to electrical incidents in the busy South London area, which relies on complex electrified railways to move a good number of people around. Their response times are for that sort of thing are regularly twice or three times as long as other NR response teams such as MOMs (which are, contrary to common belief, quite thinly spread, albeit not really in the area in question) or the "Off Track" staff who deal with boundary fencing, trees and other lineside issues.)
I still find the see it, say it, sort it graphic rather sinister. With typical type casting of a young lady being in the presence of an uncouth gentleman. Worst of all when the half hourly announcement obliterates the more useful calling pattern PA.
The thing is truly dystopian and removes all credibility. There's a significant amount of eye-rolling when that message and accompanying crackly audio turns up at 25/55 past the hour on every Class 700 in the peak hours. It really can't be doing much for what is, ultimately, a worthwhile cause.
