Weather related disruption - Christmas 2013 and New Year 2014

[fgwrich]

Yep - sorry, I didn't make it quite clear that some trains were stranded for a while. That must have been quite a bad experience for the passengers, and indeed I was onboard one of the trains which went on to terminate at Sanderstead, due to the line being blocked ahead. All lines are now showing as open in the area, also including the Caterham branch.

I happened to be on the train that was directly affected by the fallen tree at Hurst Green, and the train actually ran over the tree, and since I only left the train an hour ago, I can inform you that the work to remove the tree from the underside of the train has probably only just finished.

Looks like the three of us were down in the same area at around the same time then. We left East Grinsted on the 16:37 with the intention of stopping off in Oxted for a pint in one of the towns pubs and first got caught in the storm there - few drops of rain on the windows at Hurst Green turned into a very very windy and heavy rainfall ride over the viaduct into Oxted where the pub walk turned into a run into the next door spoons. Obviously a unfortunate bad move as this got us stranded in Oxted for the next two hours with little communication from Southern to their ground staff (unfortunately typical of Go Via) before we dived onto the next 410 bus over to Redhill. Next train up to Clapham before getting caught in the SWT disruption. Overall, what was a 2 journey getting down to East Grinsted turned out to be a 6 hour trek back!

Unfortunately for anyone on the Oxted line, I gather there were the trees down at Sanderstead, Upper Warlingham and Hurst Green trapping us in, with further pressure on the road network by a lot of flooded roads and fallen trees in the area too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Nothing to do with railways but it shows you the sort of 'freak' weather the south experienced this afternoon - look at the way the posts are flexing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeqcRWkRKz8&feature=youtu.be
(It's the Harlequins vs. Leicester Tigers match at Twickenham Stoop which had to be called off after 70 minutes due to the weather which blew down part of the advertising and scaffolding onto the pitch)

[youtube]FeqcRWkRKz8&feature[/youtube]

 

[dk1]

GE main line seriously disrupted too. Tree down at Ingatestone at around 17:00, nothing moving for best part of three hours, first down train to depart for some time was 20:00 Liverpool Street - Norwich.

That train passed me near Chelmsford. I dont think ive ever seen so many people crammed into an intercity set. Most Norwich passengers where sent via Kings Cross. There was an additional 21.00 Lst-Nrw but what with the GE cancellations the 21.30 now with a SSO for Witham was also very busy tonight & was on time into Ipswich.

 

[southern442]

Here are a couple of pictures of the incident at Hurst green that I took with my phone:

 

[3141]

I was travelling on SWT yesterday, and thought their staff in various positions responded well to problems that were cropping up in various places and making it very difficult to maintain a service.

 

[455driver]

I was travelling on SWT yesterday, and thought their staff in various positions responded well to problems that were cropping up in various places and making it very difficult to maintain a service.

Sshh, dont say that on here, all the 'exsperts' knows that most staff hide away and those that are in sight are rude and dont know whats happening.

 

[Alfie1014]

I have to say I was less impressed with the standard of information being given out at Liverpool Street. I know the situation was very difficult for all involved but information was severely lacking, 30 minutes between announcements (other than those for security and slippery surfaces), is not acceptable in this day and age). My first experience of a serious t*ts-up on the GE since moving this way and I didn't come away with a great sense of proffessional crisis management.

And yep the 20:00 was cosy to say the least. I beleive it was the 16:18 down Clacton that had come to grief.

 

[embers25]

I was travelling on SWT yesterday, and thought their staff in various positions responded well to problems that were cropping up in various places and making it very difficult to maintain a service.

Staff at Guildford last night were doing the best they could despite many grouchy passenger. The issue SWT had was that it was such a short storm causing so much simultaneous damage that all diversion routes got closed too and most passengers couldn't understand the issues as all they saw was a quick shower. I explained to those on the platform at Guildford at 1915 the tree issues but was met with numerous "its just a shower" comments. Quite cleverly, once the staff realised the 1648 from Petersfield had gotten stuck again they rerouted everyone for Woking via Aldershot. On arrival at Aldershot we were told the connection was 2004 by the guard but I'd spotted the 1704 from Alton was just arriving and despite the boards unhelpfully saying stand away it stopped and took everyone to Woking. Most people would have got back eventually although we had 2 for New Milton in my coach so I'm guessing they had a very late arrival!!

By contrast to the excellent Guildford team, on our arrival Woking was silent with no announcements and few staff to help. Woking used to be really good but recently they've become useless in a crisis and given its such an important interchange point on SWT they need to fix this.

Anyway Woking aside I think SWT did the best they could with what they had and should be commended. The displays only showing running trains helped too as it worked properly in Guildford and every time the 1648 hit a new and exciting tree it would disappear and then reappear as and when it was on the move again!

 

[TEW]

I agree completely with the contrast between Woking and Guildford. The CIS at Woking was not in disruption mode, so the boards were full up with numerous trains just showing delayed which all likelihood were not running. As there was a 50mph blanket speed restriction trains from London were getting gradually and gradually later, but nobody had explained this so everybody was getting rather frustrated as the CIS kept adding a couple of minutes to the delay. One person got so frustrated in the end they went and got a taxi.

 

[hassaanhc]

Some various interesting comments on here about the different amount of information received at various occasions. Like I said earlier, I was stuck at Guildford between 17:08 and 18:18. There we had various members of staff keeping everyone informed about the delays, including the station manager and the guards of both my train (17:04 to Portsmouth Harbour) and the 16:50 to Haslemere (which terminated there to become the 18:02 to London Waterloo, which was essentially the same train anyway). Turns out the report of the landslip near Petersfield didn't appear to the severe, that was received around 18:00 and it was recommended we should get the FGW to Gatwick Airport if we wanted to travel to Havant or further. Then the FGW was terminated at Redhill and luckily they somehow got a Gatwick Express to stop there before our train arrived and we all used to Gatwick . Those needing Portsmouth used the 19:40 from there which terminated at Fratton, arriving at 21:18, some 20 minutes after our original train went past, some 3 hours late! I was picked up at Fratton.

Luckily the passengers at Guildford were fairly understanding, some thought it was a bit of a joke (especially the landslip reports) but most accepted the explanations (especially that about the lack of replacement buses). Our service was a 2x450 and the only working toilets were in the front unit, which later became the accessible toilet only in the front unit. When I needed to go I found it to be occupied for a while so quickly used the one on the train in the adjacent platform which was actually clean

 

[Chrisgr31]

Obviously a unfortunate bad move as this got us stranded in Oxted for the next two hours with little communication from Southern to their ground staff (unfortunately typical of Go Via)

Southern really do appear to go in melt-down when an event causes significant disruption on their network. I saw a tweet from someone stuck at Edenbridge yesterday asking if SOuthern could book them a taxi to Crowborough as they had been stuck there for 2 hours.

On many occasions the onboard staff usually try as hard as possible to the best for their passengers, but they never seem to have anyone around to make a sensible decision.

 

[fgwrich]

Southern really do appear to go in melt-down when an event causes significant disruption on their network. I saw a tweet from someone stuck at Edenbridge yesterday asking if SOuthern could book them a taxi to Crowborough as they had been stuck there for 2 hours.

On many occasions the onboard staff usually try as hard as possible to the best for their passengers, but they never seem to have anyone around to make a sensible decision.

Doesn't surprise me at all, unfortunately Southern and SouthEastern both seem to suffer the same fates in disruption - The staff on the ground are great and the staff at Oxted had to put up with a lot of moaning and ear bashing from the other passengers including when being told that they are doing their best to source replacement road transport, many coach companies either didn't want to risk getting stuck or were stuck with the many road closures surrounding the place, but they received very little from Southern HQ. And their info and CIS screens remained as useless as they could be, firstly by just announcing everything but the 23:00 + departures as Delayed, then after about an hour or so switched to telling people to refer to the staff - which at a staffed station I can understand, but an unstaffed station like a fair few down the line? Or the rather unfunny but somewhat ironic ''your journey may be affected due to improvement works''

Im glad I wasn't going any further than Basingstoke though - when I finally arrived back at 22:14 the station was largely full of rather frustrated passengers either heading up to London or down to Southampton - the line from presumably either Eastleigh or Airport Parkway closed for Engineering works. Fortunately someone on the RR side had the sense to send a coach up to Basingstoke - probably because there would have been very few trains down that way and Micheldever later became affected too.

 

[Muzer]

What happened yesterday (Sunday) in the Chandler's Ford area? I heard a power line blew down - trains were cancelled with reason code XK (" External Power Supply Failure Network Rail Infrastructure" according to Network Rail). Was this a power line for signalling equipment, or was it an unrelated power line that got too close to the tracks, or what?

 

[TEW]

It was standard power lines which had blown over on to the track.

 

[GodAtum]

Anyone know how late the 1822 Clapham Junction - Guildford was on Saturday please? What was the next train to Guildford?

 

[ushawk]

Anyone know how late the 1822 Clapham Junction - Guildford was on Saturday please? What was the next train to Guildford?

I assume you mean the service which continues to Haslemere ? This service is shown as being cancelled throughout. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W31266/2014/01/25/advanced

Next direct service from Clapham Jct to Guildford was this service - http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W30772/2014/01/25/advanced

 

[merlodlliw]

Looks like the three of us were down in the same area at around the same time then. We left East Grinsted on the 16:37 with the intention of stopping off in Oxted for a pint in one of the towns pubs and first got caught in the storm there - few drops of rain on the windows at Hurst Green turned into a very very windy and heavy rainfall ride over the viaduct into Oxted where the pub walk turned into a run into the next door spoons. Obviously a unfortunate bad move as this got us stranded in Oxted for the next two hours with little communication from Southern to their ground staff (unfortunately typical of Go Via) before we dived onto the next 410 bus over to Redhill. Next train up to Clapham before getting caught in the SWT disruption. Overall, what was a 2 journey getting down to East Grinsted turned out to be a 6 hour trek back!

Unfortunately for anyone on the Oxted line, I gather there were the trees down at Sanderstead, Upper Warlingham and Hurst Green trapping us in, with further pressure on the road network by a lot of flooded roads and fallen trees in the area too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Nothing to do with railways but it shows you the sort of 'freak' weather the south experienced this afternoon - look at the way the posts are flexing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeqcRWkRKz8&feature=youtu.be
(It's the Harlequins vs. Leicester Tigers match at Twickenham Stoop which had to be called off after 70 minutes due to the weather which blew down part of the advertising and scaffolding onto the pitch)

[youtube]FeqcRWkRKz8&feature[/youtube]

similar freak weather hit North Wales on Saturday afternoon,Wrexham match called off due to Lightening/Rain/Snow/hail stones an hour before KO,flooding the racecourse,storm also knocked out Llandudno Junction to Holyhead services for hours.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The storm literally lasted no more than 2 minutes where I was but it was some of the strongest winds and heaviest rain I've ever experienced. Freak barely covers it.

There was a funnel cloud reported from at least Chobham to Ewell; a bloke at work who lives in Ewell said a tree in his garden was bent double but stood up to it and several trees were down between Ewell and Epsom.

I'm about a mile south of Ewell and it was certainly very sudden, violent and dark here - and equally brief.

 

[DXMachina]

There was a funnel cloud reported from at least Chobham to Ewell; a bloke at work who lives in Ewell said a tree in his garden was bent double but stood up to it and several trees were down between Ewell and Epsom.

I'm about a mile south of Ewell and it was certainly very sudden, violent and dark here - and equally brief.

I was staying with friends near Reigate staying in a 18th century house. We had a brief burst of weather there (3 to 5 minutes) which actually loosened the glass in the windows and forced large amounts of water into the house sideways

 

[hassaanhc]

In SWT land there is flooding being reported in the tunnel at Fulwell and services are suspended Fulwell-Shepperton. There was non-stop drizzle for most of the day yesterday (with periods of heavier rain) so I guess it had to happen eventually with the ground being saturated from before.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Hastings line has come to a halt yet again with another landslip, this time at Battle. Southeastern are also saying some 40mph speed restrictions will be in place over Friday night because of more bad weather on the way.

 

[Saint66]

Yep, looks like a large swathe of heavy rain and strong(ish) winds will be hitting tomorrow... More disruption I suspect.

 

[D1009]

Also high spring tides and westerly gales over the weekend, looks as though the Cambrian and Cumbrian coasts are going to get it again.

 

[ushawk]

Large hole 10ft in size reported on the line between Bexhill and Bo Peep Jct.

Southern are running as far as Bexhill, then are shunting around to head back to Eastbourne.

 

[user15681]

Been lots of rain in the south east this past week, and month, so personally I'm expecting disruption tomorrow evening, particularly landslips. There's already been two today, as already mentioned at Bexhill and Battle, not to forget the ongoing one at Ockley and I believe Wadhurst still. There was also a boulder on the line this morning at Bearsted which caused a few hours of delays, I can imagine the shock upon sighting that.

 

[jnjkerbin]

And another landslip at Crowhurst with Southeastern announcing the the line won't reopen until at least tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Bald Rick]

There was also a boulder on the line this morning at Bearsted which caused a few hours of delays, I can imagine the shock upon sighting that.

Well the driver didn't see it, and it wasn't a boulder - it was a lump of concrete from a neighbouring property.

 

[user15681]

Well the driver didn't see it, and it wasn't a boulder - it was a lump of concrete from a neighbouring property.

I'd simply seen it described as a boulder elsewhere, didn't realise it was concrete, thanks for the correction. Gosh, hope they were alright after!

 

[Rich McLean]

All that repair work on the Cambrian could well be money down the drain

 

[al78]

Does anyone know how repair work to the Ockley line is progressing, and whether early February is still a reasonable re-opening time?

 

[Llanigraham]

All that repair work on the Cambrian could well be money down the drain

Why is that?