Cannon Street closed this morning

[SF-02]

Due to 'safety checks'. 65 cancellations so far on the southeastern website. http://www.journeycheck.com/southeastern

It's going to be horrible getting into work. A few trains terminating or departing from various other stations - Elephant & castle, Blackfriars and London Bridge.

Trains to Charing Cross should be ok but there's already a backlog with the next to train at London Bridge to Charing Cross 11 mins late having lost all that time since Orpington.
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Already some people moaning at southeastern on twitter. Do they really think they chose right now, or that it is their fault?

Having said that they should be more specific. There's going to be a lot of frustrated people at stations soon and 'safety checks' doesn't mean much. Saying, for example, that overrunning works on Sunday by Network rail caused x issue' would be good.

 

[theageofthetra]

Safety checks between London Bridge & Cannon St. Going to be a fun morning- crowd control has been put in at Victoria already. Does anyone know if any units are stabled overnight in Cannon St- if they are the are presumably trapped there.

 

[Daz28]

No trains until 14.00 according to Southeastern Twitter.

 

[DelayRepay]

Due to 'safety checks'. 65 cancellations so far on the southeastern website. http://www.journeycheck.com/southeastern

It's going to be horrible getting into work. A few trains terminating or departing from various other stations - Elephant & castle, Blackfriars and London Bridge.

They are now showing 79 cancellations. It doesn't look good for anyone trying to get into London from Kent.

Passengers can use LUL, DLR and Southern services. No mention of London Overground, or local buses though. And High Speed are not accepting tickets.

 

[SF-02]

Not just Kent but much of SE London. When your nearest tube is North Greenwich it is not much use at all to most, nor is the Overground / Southern. Not accepting tickets on buses is very poor, and probably shows many in charge have no idea how reliant much of SE London and Kent is on trains.

 

[user15681]

I hear this may be structural checks on the bridge.

 

[SF-02]

Better to find out now than in 1 months time I guess, as by then no trains could run on some lines.

I wonder if SE can put on any shuttles from Dartford/Gillingham to Woolwich/Greenwich for DLR or buses? Where's crossovers located? I think there's one at Plumstead which is of little use.

 

[Daz28]

Looks like Southeastern are just cancelling all Cannon Street services at source. No attempts to reverse services at London Bridge platforms 1-3.

 

[Bald Rick]

I hear this may be structural checks on the bridge.

Confirmed.

 

[DelayRepay]

Looks like Southeastern are just cancelling all Cannon Street services at source. No attempts to reverse services at London Bridge platforms 1-3.

It looks like there are a few trains terminating at London Bridge, as well as diversions to Blackfriars and Elephant.

 

[SF-02]

Southeastern should state it's the bridge - might make their staff's life easier as no doubt getting a ton of grief and little info doesn't help.

 

[paul1609]

It's a hole in the Thames Bridge according to the guards of my train

 

[user15681]

It's a hole in the Thames Bridge according to the guards of my train

Indeed, this is what I was told earlier.

Edit: Having heard more, I'm not personally hopeful of a quick resolution of this disruption.

 

[island]

Looks like Southeastern are just cancelling all Cannon Street services at source. No attempts to reverse services at London Bridge platforms 1-3.

A small number of up Cannon Street services are running on the Sidcup line and terminating at London Bridge. I'm at Lee where the 0808 came in around two minutes down and completely wedged. It has been the only up train since 0736, unless you count the one that passed through ECS five minutes ago. Running ECS trains when the network is this disrupted is utterly unacceptable and shows contempt for customers.

 

[CarltonA]

Can someone confirm the correct name for the railway bridges in London? Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bridges_in_London

 

[island]

What I assume is 1D52, the 0712 Gillingham Kent to Charing Cross passed through a moment ago (not scheduled to stop) around 8 down.

Station announcer has said that passengers are advised to take buses to Lewisham and join DLR services to Central London.
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Of course a couple of minutes after that announcement 2D18 pulls in with a good deal of space as it only picked up any substantial number of passengers at Mottingham. Hither Green is the only stop before London Bridge luckily.

 

[user15681]

A test train in the last hour or so has cleared platforms 4-7 to be used for now so a limited service is resuming.

 

[hwl]

From the BBC London page (can't find the NR comment on their own site)

Network Rail says a loose contact plate was found on the bridge over the Thames on the approach to Cannon Street station which is why all trains in and out have been cancelled this morning.

The contact plate supports ballast and stops stones falling out and it is not a major structural issue,"

The problem appears to be on the eastern side of the bridge near the second buttress from the south side of the river. (Based on location of those doing the inspection and the safety boat below)

 

[Bald Rick]

Situation not helped by a fatality at Penge East

 

[cossie4i]

Again poor information at source.

Why do SE and other TOCs still do this ?

All people want is correct information.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Now, try air travel. The railways are near-perfect at passenger information compared with the airlines, though easyJet have improved this by having their control room post updates directly onto specific flights on their website.

Neil

 

[zoneking]

Out of interest, were Southeastern relaxing "Not HS1" restrictions today?

 

[Bald Rick]

Fixed. Service being reinstated where it can be.

 

[Daz28]

Fixed. Service being reinstated where it can be.

Fixed? That would suggest there was a fault that needed fixing.

All that SouthEastern have said ALL DAY is that there were safety checks taking place.

On this forum since about 7.30 this morning we have known that the bridge needed repairing. Why was that so hard to share with thousands of disrupted commuters?

 

[cossie4i]

Fixed? That would suggest there was a fault that needed fixing.

All that SouthEastern have said ALL DAY is that there were safety checks taking place.

On this forum since about 7.30 this morning we have known that the bridge needed repairing. Why was that so hard to share with thousands of disrupted commuters?

See post 20.

It's no wonder passengers get upset.

 

[SF-02]

It's the staff at the front end I feel sorry for. A lot of frustration can be alleviated by explaining to people on loudspeaker, twitter etc, and not thinking they're idiots who wont understand.

 

[user15681]

Two photos for now, sorry for the poor quality (hope I can post these and this works)...


Cannon Street hole 15/12/2014 by Temple375, on Flickr


Cannon Street hole 15/12/2014 by Temple375, on Flickr

The first clearly shows the hole and the surface area of the ballast lost, whilst you can make out the depth from the second photo.

Edit: I'll put some more in this album later.

 

[DelayRepay]

It's the staff at the front end I feel sorry for. A lot of frustration can be alleviated by explaining to people on loudspeaker, twitter etc, and not thinking they're idiots who wont understand.

I get frustrated at the lack of information, but... Maybe Southeastern thought telling people there was a hole in the bridge would cause more concern, with people shocked because they'd traveled over that bridge yesterday/last week etc.

In this case I don't think people would be happy whatever they were told.

"Attention please: All services are cancelled due to a hole in the bridge. Network Rail assure us they are looking into it". (Sorry)