Severe overhead wire damage near Peterborough 23/09

[InOban]

I think we can understand why NR don't use headspans any more....

 

[theageofthetra]

Well done to NR for getting that sorted. I see the Virgin PR team are spouting the usual 'Lessons to be learned' line. Yet again we have pax stuck for 5+ hours because no one will stick their head above the parapet to make a decision. This did not happen on a railway in a remote park or the Canadian Rockies or in the Scottish highlands did it?

 

[Stampy]

Probably what a Facebook friend of mine saw, when he posted last night that he was in the "Whistle Stop" pub at Tallington when there was a bright white flash outside and all the lights in the pub dimmed...

 

[Pshambro]

Living on the GWML I'm rarely delayed by incidents of this nature (apart from when the DMU hit the stanchion at Paddington and the case of the electrocuted pigeon, to name a couple) but I have to say it does give me some comfort that we will be getting some BiMode IETs to run on our "over engineered" series 1 OLE.

I'm sure we will still get incidents of this nature but having sturdy OLE and some self propelling trains should make things a little less painful when they do.

 

[Andyh82]

Well done to NR for getting that sorted. I see the Virgin PR team are spouting the usual 'Lessons to be learned' line. Yet again we have pax stuck for 5+ hours because no one will stick their head above the parapet to make a decision. This did not happen on a railway in a remote park or the Canadian Rockies or in the Scottish highlands did it?

This is an example of why I think Delay Repay should keep ramping up when delays get to stupid levels.

You should I be looking at maybe 200% the price of your ticket back, or 100% plus a complementary return journey anywhere on the network for delays of this nature.

Their Twitter was saying that onward travel would be arranged when passengers finally reached their destination, but I do wonder what happened when 200 people turned up at Leeds at 3am expecting free taxis to be lined up waiting.

 

[gavin]

Well done to NR for getting that sorted. I see the Virgin PR team are spouting the usual 'Lessons to be learned' line. Yet again we have pax stuck for 5+ hours because no one will stick their head above the parapet to make a decision. This did not happen on a railway in a remote park or the Canadian Rockies or in the Scottish highlands did it?

The next Lessons Learned meeting will certainly have a lot of questions to answer

One member of staff on the social feeds clearly wasn't enough last night to cope with the number of tweets they were getting

 

[TEW]

This is an example of why I think Delay Repay should keep ramping up when delays get to stupid levels.

You should I be looking at maybe 200% the price of your ticket back, or 100% plus a complementary return journey anywhere on the network for delays of this nature.

Their Twitter was saying that onward travel would be arranged when passengers finally reached their destination, but I do wonder what happened when 200 people turned up at Leeds at 3am expecting free taxis to be lined up waiting.

I arrived in to Kings Cross about 03:30 along with about 4 trainloads of people. Predictably it was chaos getting taxis, I finally got in one about 04:30 and home about 05:45, about 6 hours after I should have been in.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Im lost for words on VTECs handling of some of this.

Creddit well and truly due however to NR for reacting to this amazingly and if the worst we experiencing today is 5 or 10 mins delay and the odd cansilation then it shows that in this sort of situation we have a top team in place.

 

[Cletus]

Unlike my team Dover Athletic, who I'd been to see, who are still stuck!
https://twitter.com/RVjourno/with_replies

The team arrived back in London after 2.00am (on the 7.15pm from Leeds I think). Our goalkeeper lives in the Brighton area, his taxi fare was £250.00 alone.

Wonder how much all those taxis will cost?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Left York at 20:30, got to my flat in Bethnal Green at 04:35. Took night tube to Oxford Circus then Central to BG

But you posted that at 04:33... could've just used the TARDIS for the whole journey!

 

[gavin]

Wonder if this was caught up in the delays last night? http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y60472/2017/09/24/advanced - was late out due to the train getting cleaned specially

 

[gavin]

The team arrived back in London after 2.00am (on the 7.15pm from Leeds I think). Our goalkeeper lives in the Brighton area, his taxi fare was £250.00 alone.

Wonder how much all those taxis will cost?

A very costly night that's for sure the taxi fares alone will be several thousand

 

[HowardGWR]

I think we can understand why NR don't use headspans any more....

Indeed. I wonder if a factor in the cancellation of the MML wiring and other wiring is to leave resources available for re-doing the ECML in 2019 -2024 with GWML standard portals?

 

[Ploughman]

Wonder how many Engineering possessions got cancelled or delayed during that time?
And how long before they can get replanned?
Anything crucial affected?

 

[najaB]

Indeed. I wonder if a factor in the cancellation of the MML wiring and other wiring is to leave resources available for re-doing the ECML in 2019 -2024 with GWML standard portals?

As I understand it, the ECML won't get Series 1 OHLE but there will be targeted improvement work done with lightweight portals being installed to replace headspans in key locations.

 

[ainsworth74]

As I understand it, the ECML won't get Series 1 OHLE but there will be targeted improvement work done with lightweight portals being installed to replace headspans in key locations.

This is my understanding also. I believe the proposed equipment was trailed in the Hitchin area maybe 18 - 24 months ago?

 

[southernyoshi]

Why does this keep happening on the ECML? If it's the quality of the OHLE, would complete re-electrification be worth looking at?

 

[joncombe]

I was on the 1945 Leeds to Kings Cross. Things did not get off to a good start because it was soon announced as we left Leeds that there was neither a trolley in standard and the buffet counter was closed "due to staff shortage", but the train manager put some crisps and bottles of water in boxes on the floor in the buffet for passengers (standard included) to help themselves, but this in hindsight might have been a mistake because all the water on the train seemed to have gone then.

We ground to a halt north of Peterborough and stayed there. For 2 hours. Though some other trains did pass (at least one HST and an EMT 158). The guard made a couple of announcements that it was a broken down train in front of us. After about 2 hours the guard told us that the plan would be to reverse back to Grantham where either taxis would be arranged, or a diesel train would be waiting.

It took a while to get going again and once we did he advised that the plan had changed and that now there would a diesel train in another platform at Grantham. This would head north to Newark and then divert on another route to London (not sure which), avoiding the broken down train (which was of course OHLE damage). He advised passengers to gather all the belongings up so we could make a quick transfer. I was getting really thirsty now but the free water had gone and the buffet closed. By this time the toilets were in a foul state too (the one I ended up having to use had a lot of blood in it, which was a little worrying).

Once we arrived at Grantham there was initially no staff, but at least the waiting room was open (though only room for those that got off first) and no "resuce" train. An announcement was then made that the resuce train was "15 to 20 minutes away" and when it arrived it would be waiting another 2 trains to arrive before it would depart and that it would only go as far as Peterborough, where we'd have to change (again) to an electric service. Suffice to say, this did not go down well with anyone and there was a fair bit of shouting. I guess they'd realised there was no chance of finding enough taxis in somewhere like Grantham at that time of night (and perhaps a realisation of the cost, too).

I did observe some of the passengers helping themselves to the bottles of wine and plastic glasses left unattended in the galley area of 1st class when our train arrived!

Needless to say when the rescue train arrived there was more confusion as to what train was going where, not helped because the cardboard in the window showed where the train had intended to go, rather than where it was actually going. As the first train to arrive at Grantham for the "rescue" train I did at least get a seat, but many were forced to stand. Needless to say it was too noisy on the train to try and sleep and the lights were on full glare too which did not help.

Then once it did finally get going, around 1am, it stood somewhere between Grantham and Peterbourgh for around 45 minutes. (The guard announced 3 times we were "just arriving at Peterborough"). Though he did at least apologise a number of times and explained "I'm in the same boat" which seemed to help the mood a bit.

At Peterborough there was a second train which the guard advised anyone standing to get off and get as both would soon depart for London (both calling Stevenage). In the end both trains run through to London.

We finally rolled into Kings Cross at 3:30am. Staff had at least left more boxes full of bottles of water at the end of the platform which was much needed by me. Then to cap it all they had closed all the exits from the station except for one, at the far side, on the road between St Pancras and Kings Cross so there was then a scrum to get through the door. I gather there were very long queues for taxis.

Fortunately for me due to engineering work on SWR I had opted to drive to Morden tube station instead and with the night tube running I at least didn't have to join the taxi queue in order to get back home or I'd probably not have made it until it was light again. Though I did have to top up the parking which thankfully you can do by phone (perhaps not necessary as I doubt anyone checks overnight, but it would have really been the icing on the cake to have got a parking ticket, too).

So yes I'd only echo other comments here that VTEC really need to handle this better. It seemed that no one had much of a clue what was going on and each announcement seemed to contradict the other. Leaving people stuck on trains for 3 hours with no refreshment available is not on and it was clear Grantham could not handle the number of waiting passengers at that time of night as it was by then quite cool and only a small waiting room.

 

[gavin]

Why does this keep happening on the ECML? If it's the quality of the OHLE, would complete re-electrification be worth looking at?

Old equipment which dates back to around the 80's?

A complete re-electrification could be done but it would be very expensive and cause a lot of issues for passengers over many years

Something will have to be done otherwise these new Azuma's are going to make no difference if the OHL continues to fail so frequently

 

[najaB]

Old equipment which dates back to around the 80's?

It's not the age. There's older OHLE which is more reliable - e.g. much of the WCML was electrified in the 1960s. Rather, it's the use of headspans as a necessary cost-reduction measure that allowed the line to be electrified when BR was cash strapped. They have the undesirable characteristic that an event on one track can take out both/all four lines in one go - unlike portals and dual track cantilevers.

Something will have to be done otherwise these new Azuma's are going to make no difference if the OHL continues to fail so frequently

Well, 800s will be able to operate normally with loss of electrification and 801s will be able to self-rescue, rather than needing to wait for a Thunderbird so the new stock can't come soon enough AFAIAC.

 

[AlexNL]

Something will have to be done otherwise these new Azuma's are going to make no difference if the OHL continues to fail so frequently

I stand to remember that the 801's will get one coach equipped with a diesel motor so that it can limp along for a bit... that should be enough to get a train past a spot juiceless spot, no?

 

[158756]

I stand to remember that the 801's will get one coach equipped with a diesel motor so that it can limp along for a bit... that should be enough to get a train past a spot juiceless spot, no?

That would certainly help other trains stuck in the section without power, but would the train involved in the incident actually be allowed to move off quickly or does work have to be done to clear up the mess, disentangle it from the OHLE etc?

 

[Crossover]

That would certainly help other trains stuck in the section without power, but would the train involved in the incident actually be allowed to move off quickly or does work have to be done to clear up the mess, disentangle it from the OHLE etc?

It may need untangling, but you at least may not need to wait for an indeterminate amount of time to get a thunderbird from somewhere and get it into position before you can do anything else

 

[ChathillMan]

I make about 4 VTEC journeys a month. I currently have three delay repay requests pending. My outward journeys are always time sensitive, my returns ones less so.

However it's getting to a stage where i feel like I have to factor in possible OHLE issues, something i wouldn't have even thought about 18 months ago as i always found the ECML relatively reliable. I shouldn't have to think like that and that is the bottom line.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[gavin]

It looks like services are still avoiding the down fast presumably further repairs will be carried out overnight

 

[maire23]

Still disruption going off. I was booked on the 1420 NCL-KGX today which was cancelled- the station staff didn’t have a clue but VTEC’s Twitter feed helpfully offered that it was due to have been operated by the service that went bang.
Missed my connection at PBO (despite the VTEC staff insisting that 4 minutes was plenty of time to get from one side of PBO station to another- I’m on crutches and I can’t move that quickly) and that ‘I shouldn’t worry about missing my connection as I’ll catch it easily’ Needless to say I did not. VTEC staff at PBO absolutely incredulous that I was told that.
Was an hour late into LEI and told I can’t claim delay repay as I was only 20 minutes late into PBO!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Put in a claim anyway as the connecting service they offered you didnt even meet the minimum connection time, crutches or otherwise!
Shocking service by VTEC.

 

[Stampy]

VTEC were announcing late trains heading in BOTH directions from PBO tonight as "having had 'operational difficulties' en route"..

No explanation as to WHAT the "operational difficulty" was....

Might have calmed a few people down IF they'd explained what they were and passengers may have been more sympathetic...

 

[najaB]

Was an hour late into LEI and told I can’t claim delay repay as I was only 20 minutes late into PBO!

Delay Repay is based on the overall delay to your journey, not a segment of it. Put a claim in.

 

[southernyoshi]

Would it be worth electrifying Peterborough-Donny via Lincoln to serve as ECML 2? Seems like most problems happen in that area for some reason?