Weather disruption Friday 26 November onwards - Storm Arwen

[Bald Rick]

Following on from your post @Bald Rick and #289, again what might seem a daft question. How do fallen trees get removed? Does a gang arrive on a slowly driven train then pull it off with ropes (with or without the train’s power), or is it all cut up into bits with chainsaws and cast to the side?

Big stuff gets taken away, but most is either chipped on site or left in a managed way. The latter is actually very good for biodiversity.

 

[Falcon1200]

The biggest problem with a large storm, is the sheer number of incidents. Not just trees, but everything else that the wind and weather does. Every report of an obstruction has to be followed up if there is any change of it causing danger to trains. Plus all the other problems, such as debris causing point failures, problems with level crossing equipment (barriers) due to the weather etc.

The number of incidents can quickly exceed the capacity of the number of staff available to deal with these incidents. The on duty staff will be working hard going from one problem to the next. Often experiencing problems on the road network. And having to work in extreme weather conditions.

Very well put @Annetts key. And the points you make also explain why it is not always possible to achieve the following;

it is reasonable to expect the TOCs to attempt the following:

• activate contingency plans thought up in advance to prioritise getting the most vulnerable passengers home, instead of turning them out on the street
• fork out for replacement bus services to the extent it's possible to bring these into service (which I fully accept might be limited)
• failing that, fork out for taxis (again to the extent possible, again I accept they can't be conjured out of thin air)
• failing that, put people who have no means of going anywhere until morning in hotels
• ensure passengers are not left out of pocket
• proactively inform passengers of their rights to refunds, compensation etc, instead of leaving all this totally opaque

There are only a certain number of staff in Control Offices, and when faced with multiple incidents, and huge numbers of passengers affected, there is a practical limit on what can be done.

 

[Annetts key]

Around twenty five years ago, a storm came over the South West part of the country. In terms of wind, it was not too bad (but it still caused some problems). But it rained heavy across a wide area. We think the storm had picked up salt or other contaminants as well. It resulted in so many track circuit failures that control were grouping ten to twenty track circuit failures in each fault report.

At one stage one on duty three person S&T team had in excess of 100 faults outstanding. They normally attend three or four per eight hour shift on a busy normal turn…

 

[Mag_seven]

Very much so.

I had to do a long journey by road yesterday and I noticed there were quite a few trees down...... but they only protruded into the hard shoulder at most.

Equally it's noticeable that for the past 2 or 3 years, Highways England (and similarly the motorway authority in Wales) has been on a concerted campaign to cut back the vegetation alongside motorways and trunk roads, on motorways it's typically cut back a lane width. When they go in, they raze everything and chip it.

Contrast that with the railways where as soon as Network Rail attempted to do the same, the Guardianista/metropolitan tree huggers brigade got it stopped...... it's really about time we stopped listening to these people.

It's about time we should let Network Rail do what the Highways authority is permitted- not only in vegetation management but also in taking total blocks from 8pm until 6am (instead of 01:00 to 04:30) and see how much more reliable they could make the infrastructure..........

TPO

For discussion of tree felling on the railway please use this thread:

The major issue of trees falling onto the railway during storms. What can be done about it?

It's a bit of an old chestnut but why are all trees not routinely cutback / chopped down within say 6 ft of the cess?

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[londonbridge]

Apology if already posted but a tree took out overhead wires north of Royston. Lots of Great Northern and Thameslink services cancelled, creative scheduling and turning at Cambridge to run something like the normal service north of there and London passengers directed to Liverpool Street. A few people who missed the last trains to places like Ipswich and March as a result were put into grouped taxis. Very well handled, but probably a lot of delay repay claims to come!

I was at Cambridge for football yesterday, saw that many trains were cancelled, after the game, luckily I’d bumped into a mate who was driving so he gave me a lift part of the way to a station from where I was able to get a train home.

 

[mmh]

Such weather in Hong Kong will not cause any disruption except for outlying islands ferries, and there is no weather related line closure today in London too. So it must be the incompetency of Network Rail to cause such disruption, and well done TfL in keeping London running.

Luckily, unlike in Hong Kong, we've not built on and concreted over everything here.