West Coast Mainline:Severe Problems

[PhilipW]

Interesting that The Telegraph article reports that some of the overhead cables were installed just after the war. A remarkable piece of forward planning as the line was not electrified until the mid 1960s.

.... now who says that the British can not plan ahead !!!

 

[movilla]

This morning at Bushey (south of Watford) the fast trains for London were running 15 minutes late. While waiting for the train I saw a Virgin Pendolino trundling London-bound at around 30 mph. So still issues somewhere.

 

[kvbham]

Trains between Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction may be delayed by up to 40 minutes because of a signalling problem between Leighton Buzzard and Cheddington, journeys will be delayed by up to 40 minutes.

 

[Metroland]

Passengers on a London to Scotland railway line endured further delays and cancellations today.

The latest incident on the West Coast Main Line involved a signalling problem in the morning rush-hour between Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire and Cheddington in Buckinghamshire.

This affected services run by London Midland and Virgin Trains who have been hit by continuous service disruptions in recent days on a line on which Network Rail (NR) has just completed a £9 billion upgrade.

A Virgin spokesman said today: "We have had to cancel three trains out of Euston station (in London) and two trains - one from Birmingham and one from Manchester - could go no further than Milton Keynes (in Buckinghamshire).

"We would like the West Coast to settle down so that we can provide our customers with the good service to which they are entitled. We share their frustration."

An NR spokesman said: "There was a minor problem with points this morning near Leighton Buzzard. As part of the project to upgrade the West Coast Line, additional flexibility has been built into the system which is allowing NR Rail to continue to run trains.

"Typically, in this situation a small number of services will be cancelled to allow the bulk of the timetable to run as normal and keep delays to a minimum.

"As part of the standard rapid response service, engineers were at the site and fixing the problem in less than 30 minutes. Services are returning back to normal. We apologise for any delay caused to passengers."

Meanwhile, NR engineers continued to investigate the series of problems that have plagued the line.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/more-problems-for-rail-passengers-1244586.html

 

[sven945]

The rail minister, Andrew Adonis, is known to have been watching the west coast upgrade closely. He is understood to have sought and received guarantees from Network Rail that there would be no problems on the revamped route.

Surely both to seek and give guarantees about something like that is just utterly ridiculous. Nobody can guarantee anything like that at all.

 

[87015]

Was wondering when Ledburn would jack, it must have been feeling left out

Been sent a picture of the Routemaster working in Hemel, RM909, London Midland desperate kick out!!

 

[Chilled Phill]

Interesting that The Telegraph article reports that some of the overhead cables were installed just after the war. A remarkable piece of forward planning as the line was not electrified until the mid 1960s.

.... now who says that the British can not plan ahead !!!

The whole line itself or just a part of it?

I know the Crewe-Manchester part was the first in the country to be electrified 50 years ago this year, but that would suggest it took a further 5-7 years to electrify the rest of the line.. wink:

 

[PhilipW]

Perhaps the phrase "mid 1960s" might not have the perfect precision about it.

The Crewe-to-Manchester section was operational on 12 September 1960, the Crewe-to-Liverpool section followed on 1 January 1962 with the full Euston to Liverpool/Manchester service operational in April 1966 and the Birmingham loop following in 1967.


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ms.draper/FNRM_SoE/Products/TurnerTexts/D.html

Either way, the comment about theTelegraph article is still spot on.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Taken from the NRES website, with no signs of any diversions over the S&C, although I know that at least one sleeper service and two Super Voyagers were sent that way southbound, overnight.

-----
Because of flooding between Oxenholme Lake District and Penrith North Lakes, there is currently no trains between Oxenholme Lake District and Carlisle.

First Transpennine Express

Service alterations are:

Trains from Glasgow Central / Edinburgh will end at Carlisle
Trains from Manchester Airport / Manchester Piccadilly will end at Oxenholme Lake District
Buses will replace trains between Oxenholme Lake District and Carlisle
Virgin Trains

Service alterations are:

Trains from Glasgow Central / Edinburgh will end at Carlisle
Trains from London Euston / Birmingham New Street / Crewe will end at either Preston or Lancaster
Buses will replace trains between Preston and Carlisle
Journey times may be extended by up to 60 minutes.

Ticket Acceptance

Customers travelling between London and Scotland may use National Express East Coast services, which will be accepting Virgin Trains customers.
Customers travelling between Birmingham New Street and Scotland may use CrossCountry services, which will be accepting Virgin Trains customers.
First TransPennine Express and Northern Rail are also accepting Virgin Trains customers on reasonable routes.
To find out how this might affect your journey, please use the real time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50.

 

[driver9000]

Trains now running over Shap again with delays of around 40mins.

Taken from BBCi travel news.

 

[furryfeet]

why do the TOCs continue to replace trains with buses between Preston and Carlisle, every time something goes wrong with that section of the WCML ?

Why no attempt to re-route the trains via the S&C, especially now that is has headways of circa 15 mins ?

 

[voyagerdude220]

I'd really like to know that myself, and also why VT have been left without sufficient 57's, in order to be able to run the 57+390 drags over the S&C anymore, whilst still mainting sufficent cover elsewhere on the VT network- e.g. the daily thunderbird standby positions.

 

[D306]

why do the TOCs continue to replace trains with buses between Preston and Carlisle, every time something goes wrong with that section of the WCML ?

Why no attempt to re-route the trains via the S&C, especially now that is has headways of circa 15 mins ?

The S&C is a diesel route and Virign operate AC electric units. They could do a pendo drag but do they have the right RA?

 

[voyagerdude220]

Yes!

We've had Thunderbirds pulling Pendolinos over the S&C for the last few years!

 

[87015]

I'd really like to know that myself, and also why VT have been left without sufficient 57's, in order to be able to run the 57+390 drags over the S&C anymore, whilst still mainting sufficent cover elsewhere on the VT network- e.g. the daily thunderbird standby positions.

Save money by leasing less locos.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Fair point, but i'd still like to know why VT only have 2 services running each way over the S&C..

 

[Pumbaa]

Time? it only takes an hour and a bit to get to Carlisle from Preston, half that if the trains turn back at Oxenholme. S&C line lower speeds? Just a thought.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Yeah, but in the past, we've had a very frequent service (i.e. at least one each way every hour), which got reduced to a still very reasonable rate of mostly one every two hours each way.

That frequency has got reduced to 5-6 each way per day over the last 2-3 years, and the expected frequency this year, is one of the worse i've seen.

What makes it worse, is the fact that nothing at all is diverted on Sundays, even on dates when the S&C isn't closed for engineering work itself.

 

[Metroland]

S&C is only around 60mph with long signal section and no freight loops. Unlike steam days, with frequent loops and trains 80-100mph. It was built as a main line, and in theory could be restored to a high speed rough for trains from the Midlands and West Yorkshire to Carlisle and Glasgow.

 

[45378]

In terms of customer service this was a bit shambolic.
Crewe destination boards just showed Preston instead of destinations further north for affected trains - eg my train 0732 Crewe - Glasgow C was shown as Preston. NO platform staff were to be seen on platforms 6/11 for 15 mins prior to arrival of train. Announcements just said it was going to Preston and then replacement bus. Train manager much more helpful - explained via PA what happened (flood/landslide), what to do at Preston, etc, and clearly was rather embarassed by whole affair. Bus connection was ponderous - running in and out of Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith and Carlisle takes forever. Trains were running as far as Lancaster - so why couldn't we have gone there and terminated/reversed? Equally chaotic situation at Carlisle with cancellations all over the board and no real attempt to explain.
I think it's a missed opportunity not to use the S&C, but with all the difficulties of attaching class 57s (of which several were laid up at Carlisle) finding paths and generally showing initiative, it's easier to push the punters onto a bus and have shot of them.

 

[me123]

I'm surprised they didn't run a bus straight to Carlisle non-stop. I'm sure they've done that before for planned works.

 

[sven945]

Problems again this evening. Broken train around Rugby. Lady Penelope went out to rescue it, but everything supposedly had to be diverted via Northampton. Then the 1910 Holyhead train broke down, then had to be hauled by the 2010 which eventually leftnat getting on 2100.

 

[voyagerdude220]

It was the Pendolino working the 14:55 Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston IIRC, as it was displayed as being well over 2 hours late into London Euston last night, due to "a train fault" .

 

[kvbham]

What type of train faults do you get with pendolinos?

 

[45378]

Ref 123 comments

There was vague talk of a direct Carlisle bus but it was very iffy and at least 45 mins before the most optimistic estimate of its departure from Preston.

Rgds

45378

 

[devon_metro]

Fatality tonight, Leighton Buzzard (?). Looks like chaos out on the WCML!

 

[Chilled Phill]

NR reports it's between Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley.

When it says "delays until end of service", what exactly do they mean?

 

[furryfeet]

ok the S&C is slower. But that is no excuse for failing to re-route the services in times of disruption to the WCML. Surely there must be a contingency plan for this - in BR days if say, the wires came doen at Hest Bank then everything went via the S&C - no messing.

Passengers prefer a longer slower rail journey to being shunted on and off a bus.
Next time they will choose an alternative mode of transport.

 

[The_Rail_WAy]

What type of train faults do you get with pendolinos?

Pantogaph problems,
overshooting platforms,
derailments (Grayrigg)
doors failing to open (ive experienced it)
electric malfunctions/failure of in-cab controls
and.....smelly toilets!

 

[me123]

derailments (Grayrigg)

You can't hold that against Pendolinos. It was a problem on the track that would have happened to any train. In fact, the body shell Pendolino probably saved lives (because it has such tiny windows!).