What's the longest record of a late running train in recent years?

[GeordieO]

Today's 09:00 departure from King's Cross, arrived at Edinburgh Waverley at 18:25.
This was 5 hours and 5 minutes late.
I was wondering if there was a known record for a late running in service train for whatever reason?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

This was 5 hours and 5 minutes late.
I was wondering if there was a known record for a late running in service train for whatever reason?

There was a similar question asked on here few years back. Some forumistas reported delays of well over 10 hours.

 

[62484GlenLyon]

On the night of 28-29/6/2019 1B01 19.50 Ft.William to Euston failed near Tulloch. The train eventually arrived at Dalmuir 1 minute short of 11 hours late, whereupon it was terminated.

 

[etr221]

There was a report in the American magazine Trains of a railfan in Erie, Pa. who had gone to the station to see the daily Amtrak train go through. And a couple of hours after the timetable said it would, it did. As he was wandering of the station guy - who knew him, and why he was there - called out that there would be another in an hour or so. And there was. That was yesterday's train. The first one he had seen was the day before yesterday's train - something like 50 hours late. (Today's train was cancelled - trainset still on its previous working in the other direction).

While that might be considered exceptional, I doubt its actually the record on a global scale...

And even in this country, I suspect the record is of the order of 24 hours... (I'm sure I've seen picture of an arrival board with > 1000 minutes delay indicated)

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

There were some enormous delays to long distance services immediately after Hatfield in 2000. My family and I turned up at Euston having travelled from Rome via Paris by rail, expecting to catch the last Euston-Liverpool service at around 2100, but we ended up catching the 1705 which started approx 4.5 hours late and then took over 4hrs to complete the normally 1h45m leg to Stafford. I can’t imagine how late subsequent services ran, presumably overnight!

Edit - I remember finding it hilarious that Euston-Stafford took more than an hour longer than Paris-London. It was pretty much 20mph the entire way IIRC due to all the speed restrictions that Railtrack had imposed in their huge panic.

 

[miklcct]

I have a question here:

Why don't train companies just cancel the train when it is delayed into the slot of the next departure, and run it as the identity of the next departure?

For example, yesterday evening, there was a serious disruption on the SW main line. The 19:20 to London Waterloo departed eventually at 20:08, with the 20:07 departure started short at Bournemouth. Why didn't the train company just declare the 19:20 train as cancelled and run the 20:07 on time, with a crew change at Bournemouth?

 

[MotCO]

I have a question here:

Why don't train companies just cancel the train when it is delayed into the slot of the next departure, and run it as the identity of the next departure?

For example, yesterday evening, there was a serious disruption on the SW main line. The 19:20 to London Waterloo departed eventually at 20:08, with the 20:07 departure started short at Bournemouth. Why didn't the train company just declare the 19:20 train as cancelled and run the 20:07 on time, with a crew change at Bournemouth?

Presumably so that the trains end up at the right depot/overnight for stabling, and also for the staff to end up at the right place.

 

[miklcct]

Presumably so that the trains end up at the right depot/overnight for stabling, and also for the staff to end up at the right place.

The departures involved are on the same line with the same origin and destination.

 

[CBlue]

The departures involved are on the same line with the same origin and destination.

Diagrams often mean there's another train coming to form that later service. What do you do with the second train and crew bearing in mind they also have to end up at the right places overnight? You run the risk of causing further disruption the following morning with units not being where they're needed.

 

[chessie]

I have a question here:

Why don't train companies just cancel the train when it is delayed into the slot of the next departure, and run it as the identity of the next departure?

For example, yesterday evening, there was a serious disruption on the SW main line. The 19:20 to London Waterloo departed eventually at 20:08, with the 20:07 departure started short at Bournemouth. Why didn't the train company just declare the 19:20 train as cancelled and run the 20:07 on time, with a crew change at Bournemouth?

I recall travelling on a Norwich - Chesterfield train that got stuck behind a failed freight train prior to reaching Peterborough which delayed us by just shy of 60 mins by the time we reached Nottingham. We were showing as a delayed service as far as Grantham but at Nottingham the train went out on time as the service that should have been an hour behind us and the one I started out on was officially cancelled from Nottingham, although I never left my seat.

It should be noted that Train Staff often change in Nottingham on this service though.

 

[87015]

The departures involved are on the same line with the same origin and destination.

Many traincrew will go “not on my diagram” to the later service and walk away to demand a taxi home instead.

 

[ld0595]

Surely one of the services around Aberdeen during Storm Arwen counts. There was one stuck near Huntly for 17 hours if that counts. I'm sure there was another near Montrose/Stonehaven.

 

[Deepgreen]

I was doing a trans-Canadian rail trip many years ago and our train from Winnipeg westwards (to Jasper) was 18 hours late, as it had to be diverted for 600 miles or so around a derailed freight. We had to stay another night in our hotel in Winnipeg - the least attractive of all our city stays!

 

[Deafdoggie]

I have a question here:

Why don't train companies just cancel the train when it is delayed into the slot of the next departure, and run it as the identity of the next departure?

For example, yesterday evening, there was a serious disruption on the SW main line. The 19:20 to London Waterloo departed eventually at 20:08, with the 20:07 departure started short at Bournemouth. Why didn't the train company just declare the 19:20 train as cancelled and run the 20:07 on time, with a crew change at Bournemouth?

Virgin used to do that a lot at Preston in times of disruption. Makes sense really. Why run a train an hour late? I guess having standard calling patterns and clock face departures helps.

 

[bramling]

Virgin used to do that a lot at Preston in times of disruption. Makes sense really. Why run a train an hour late? I guess having standard calling patterns and clock face departures helps.

It can only realistically be done where there’s a crew change, which will be the case in the Preston example.

If you start running services under different timings from what the crew are booked to be on then things can fall apart very quickly, as it’s a sure way for control to lose track of what is going on.

 

[Watershed]

I have a question here:

Why don't train companies just cancel the train when it is delayed into the slot of the next departure, and run it as the identity of the next departure?

For example, yesterday evening, there was a serious disruption on the SW main line. The 19:20 to London Waterloo departed eventually at 20:08, with the 20:07 departure started short at Bournemouth. Why didn't the train company just declare the 19:20 train as cancelled and run the 20:07 on time, with a crew change at Bournemouth?

The following train may have a differing calling pattern. The crew would also need to be given information on the timings (so that they don't depart anywhere earlier than booked), and the routeing where there are multiple routes via which they could be sent (so that they check they sign the route, and challenge any incorrectly signalled route).

 

[Devonish]

The 444 that got stuck in the new forest overnight during snow a couple of years back must be close to the record on the south western.

 

[Deafdoggie]

It can only realistically be done where there’s a crew change, which will be the case in the Preston example.

If you start running services under different timings from what the crew are booked to be on then things can fall apart very quickly, as it’s a sure way for control to lose track of what is going on.

Essentially what Virgin did was run the same times/diagrams/etc, just change which train was on it.
Sometimes you could arrive into Preston 45 minutes late, wait there onboard for 15 minutes, then leave "on time"!

 

[APT618S]

The 444 that got stuck in the new forest overnight during snow a couple of years back must be close to the record on the south western.

1286L according to RTT