Overnight Storms 18-19 Sept 14

[dysonsphere]

Reports of train stranded in flood water.

Storms have caused disruption to trains in the south-east and the Westcountry - with one train left submerged in flood water between Bath and Swindon.

Commuters using First Great Western and Southeastern railways are being warned of cancelled services due to the rain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29273833

 

[EM2]

The report I saw mentioned inflatable boats being sourced by the Fire Brigade to rescue passengers on board an HST at Chippenham that was in danger of being submerged!

 

[talltim]

22:45 ex Paddington last night. Last passengers were detrained at 05:30 this morning after the rear 2 coaches were uncouple and moved to Cemetery Lane access point for 20 taxis
Try doing that with an IEP...

 

[Strathclyder]

From this BBC article:

Passengers had to be rescued from a train after it became trapped in flood water during a night of storms in southern England.

Ninety people on the train, which got stuck near Corsham, Wiltshire, were trapped for four hours.

Commuters using First Great Western and Southeastern railways are being warned of cancellations due to heavy rain.

 

[user15681]

Lightning blew apart the signalling near Otford.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Lightning blew apart the near Otford.

Blew what apart?

 

[user15681]

Blew what apart?

Oops! Sorry, don't know how I managed to post that

Signalling. Took a pretty much direct hit from what I heard.

 

[hassaanhc]

Blew what apart?

Lightning damaged the signalling.

Now flooding at Manor Park, causing more problems for Greater Anglia.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Oops! Sorry, don't know how I managed to post that

Signalling. Took a pretty much direct hit from what I heard.

No probs. I just wondered what it had done!

We all make mistakes.

 

[EM2]

Now flooding at Manor Park, causing more problems for Greater Anglia.

Not surprised, roads around Stratford and Forest Gate are currently chaos, so didn't expect the railway to get off lightly.

 

[Flamingo]

Well done to the Driver, TM's and Customer Host for dealing with this.

Funnily enough, none of the rugged outdoors types that normally say they will set off yomping cross-country if trapped on a train for more than 10 minutes as it's false imprisonment are posting on this thread yet...

 

[Bald Rick]

Well done to the Driver, TM's and Customer Host for dealing with this.

Funnily enough, none of the rugged outdoors types that normally say they will set off yomping cross-country if trapped on a train for more than 10 minutes as it's false imprisonment are posting on this thread yet...

*like*

 

[EssexGonzo]

Not surprised, roads around Stratford and Forest Gate are currently chaos, so didn't expect the railway to get off lightly.

Yep, carnage at Liverpool Street. Our chatty driver has just explained what he saw coming into London at Manor Park and that he's not seen anything as bad for about 10 yrs.

The NR app has announced the platform but the concourse display hasn't although the platform chap and driver have reassured me I'm on the right train. Which is great cos I got a seat without a fight.

 

[EM2]

AGA are now saying everything suspended in and out of London on the GEML until 21:00. Inbounds are terminating at Shenfield.

 

[hassaanhc]

Situation at Manor Park:

Enormous amount of abuse at AGA over this :roll:

 

[MP33]

I went through Manor Park very slowly with a couple of stops around 5pm this evening. I noticed that the water was bubbling up through all the drain covers on the down main platform, which was already flooded. After Manor Park where the line passes Manor Park cemetery, there was a spring spurting out from the brick cutting.

Although it had stopped raining, it would appear that the water was finding it's way onto the railway line.

 

[PHILIPE]

Back to the 22 45 Paddington to Swansea. The train was finally evacuated at approx. 05 30 this morning by splitting the train and the rear two coaches were hauled back to a suitable location a little way back and the passengers (approx. 90) transferred to taxis. The train was subsequently joined up again and approx. mid-day returned to Swindon. 57604 (one of the Sleeper locos) ran light from Old Oak Common to Swindon, apparently in case it's services were required. They did not seem to be because according to RTT it returned to OOC and the HST went to St.Phillips Marsh Depot via Hullavington.
Ironically the train shouldn't have been where it was but was diverted due Engineering work.

 

[ushawk]

AGA taking a LOT of abuse regarding the Manor Park incident, unfair of course as water was over the railhead, therefore the job must be stopped. Roads in the Manor Park area were also under a foot of water too.

Must be the type of passengers that AGA carry, as whenever there is an incident they always get abuse, even when people are struck by trains - the passengers on that line seem to care less than anywhere else in the country and only care about going home.

 

[Richard1960]

AGA taking a LOT of abuse regarding the Manor Park incident, unfair of course as water was over the railhead, therefore the job must be stopped. Roads in the Manor Park area were also under a foot of water too.

Must be the type of passengers that AGA carry, as whenever there is an incident they always get abuse, even when people are struck by trains - the passengers on that line seem to care less than anywhere else in the country and only care about going home.

Thats not necessarily true i was stuck at Audley End station last week (Essex) for around two and a half hours as a deer had been struck outside shelford (near Cambridge)

The Lady at the ticket office at the station kept us fully up to date,in fact everybody was very polite about it (Thanks to her).

And that was a AGA service must be a London thing.

Mind you the first train after the incident failed to stop at Harlow Town.

But thats another matter.

 

[tsr]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: in my experience - albeit not the very most plentiful, but nonetheless reasonably broad in scope - AGA do relatively well in announcing and managing disruption, but perhaps do not do a great job of explaining the specifics of the problems - a photo of a flood is a good start, but if people complain, they do not seem to often (for example) state that the ballast which stabilises the track could be washed away.

Customers who get annoyed very quickly (even to the point of swearing, etc.) are also often the sorts of people where anger burns out fairly quickly if it's dealt with well, but people who go on an endless whinge or rant can sometimes be helped with a more detailed explanation. It may seem counter-intuitive and just making it easy for them to continue, but give a good enough explanation and sometimes people have no choice but to accept it. There's also a middle ground between the two types of people.

In other words, I've really always felt that AGA Control do by no means the worst job in the world, but they are perhaps let down by a lack of quick and plausible explanations from the frontline customer service staff (who are generally, at least to me, otherwise polite and tactful). No particular emphasis on blame can be laid on them, as it is not easy, but it could still be done.

 

[Richard1960]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: in my experience - albeit not the very most plentiful, but nonetheless reasonably broad in scope - AGA do relatively well in announcing and managing disruption, but perhaps do not do a great job of explaining the specifics of the problems - a photo of a flood is a good start, but if people complain, they do not seem to often (for example) state that the ballast which stabilises the track could be washed away.

Customers who get annoyed very quickly (even to the point of swearing, etc.) are also often the sorts of people where anger burns out fairly quickly if it's dealt with well, but people who go on an endless whinge or rant can sometimes be helped with a more detailed explanation. It may seem counter-intuitive and just making it easy for them to continue, but give a good enough explanation and sometimes people have no choice but to accept it. There's also a middle ground between the two types of people.

In other words, I've really always felt that AGA Control do by no means the worst job in the world, but they are perhaps let down by a lack of quick and plausible explanations from the frontline customer service staff (who are generally, at least to me, otherwise polite and tactful). No particular emphasis on blame can be laid on them, as it is not easy, but it could still be done.

Yes indeed the lady in the ticket office at Audley End last week when the deer hit the train at Great Shelford was fantastic in fact i had a real good laugh with her.

However we were dumped at Bishops Stortford on the first train through and the guy there was rude and uninformative {despite me being told he was in charge ) and after complaining to ABA was told station managers do not wear the uniform he was wearing.

Aslo pretty unhappy with the first train after the incident not stopping at Harlow Town the guy at B/S told me it was not a major station.HA hA.

 

[306024]

Must be the type of passengers that AGA carry, as whenever there is an incident they always get abuse, even when people are struck by trains - the passengers on that line seem to care less than anywhere else in the country and only care about going home.

A very sweeping observation from genteel Eastbourne

As someone who has dealt face to face with passengers on the GEML during disruption it isn't like that at all. Of course you get the odd one or two for whom nothing is acceptable, but they exist anywhere. As for those that abuse anonymously on twitter however, no comment.

 

[EssexGonzo]

On AGA's ability to manage disruption, I would have to say as a passenger that that have improved dramatically since Abellio took over.

Their use of Twitter and the tannoy to clearly signpost delays and their causes is streets ahead of their predecessors.

Last night (normally a 25 min journey to Shenfield, ended up being a 3 hour marathon to Upminster) the announcer, platform staff and driver couldn't have done more explain what was going on . They had zero control over the situation.

There are always passengers who are selfish knobs, and always will be. I have pretty much found over many years on this route that the vast majority of my fellow passengers are reasonable and calm when delayed.

What I would say is that the AGA mainline, certainly the Shenfield to Liv St part, is normally very reliable so I wonder whether we're not as used to delays over here some other commuter lines?

 

[PHILIPE]

As mentioned before, it seems that any incident involving FGW gets very little coverage on this Forum unless, perhaps, in the West Country or South Wales and when items are posted they seem to stimulate little debate. The route, as well as the Trans Wilts via Melksham have re-opened this morning and trains running normally apart from being later affected by "The Plague" - i.e. signalling problems.

 

[stu227]

Bit late to this party, but I think at the moment the biggest problem for AGA is the cumulative effect. Almost daily, a part of your journey will be disrupted. Friday was the above, tonight was a failed unit at LST, there's always something new.

As people encounter more problems, so their tolerance threshold diminishes. I used to be quite sympathetic towards them, but in the past 6-8 months that's gradually disappeared.

Ultimately, if you've had a hard day at work, and you've rushed home to make dinner for the family, having paid £3,000 - £4,000 for the privilege, the last thing you want to find is that once again it's going to take hours to get home.

My wife's colleague, whose journey is normally 90 minutes, took 6 hours on Friday.