Power surge knocks out train services in South Wales

[Railjet]

BBC report - anyone caught up in this?

 

[trainophile]

Will be interesting to see who picks up the tab for this!

 

[seagull]

Peter Leppard, creamery operator of ATW, said: "About ten past seven there was a major power surge from Western Milk Distribution into Cardiff Dairies which knocked out all the milk float chargers.

"It's taken until about 10 o'clock to sort that out. It will be three or four hours before we're back to normal.

"I think the evening deliveries will be okay but it's been a bad morning for our customers, who have been unable to have breakfast owing to lack of their milk round."

---------------------

Or am I seeing things again...

 

[anthony263]

Yes i got on the 11:10 Swansea - Cardiff central train which was worked by a 2 carriage class 175. I also noted at least 4 other class 175's one of which was 175009 and 2 hst's at Swansea with another 2 at Llandore depot.

The 10:55 deparure to Manchester departed 5 minutes late, also the 11:00 to Milford Haven was showing as cancelled but actually departed swansea at 11:05

Staff were doing their best to help passengers during this situation which wasn't helped by the boards at swansea station not working properly. I did notice that staff had put up large information boards outside swansea station stating the problem.

Finally i noticed that ATW were alloowing passengers with tickets to London & some other destinations to travel on the 11:10 train to Cardiff and get the London or other service's from there

 

[Kingston Flyer]

Got to say that information was very slim.

All the departure board thing on Pontyclun was saying at 8:12 this morning when I got there was that trains were (the normal) 2 or 3 minutes late, and occasionally (for remarkably small amounts of the time):

'No trains are running through Cardiff Central due to a'

I am so thankful I took that as a don't risk it situation and got a lift with me mam now.

 

[jon0844]

'No trains are running through Cardiff Central due to a'

That's the exact point where the power failed.

 

[Nevasleep]

Rather bad, thought it was just a power cut in Cardiff Central.

Some people certainly need some initiative or common sense though, like the student going to Pontypridd, or the woman waiting 1h20 for a replacement bus to Newport.
There are buses going to Newport and Pontypridd every ten minutes outside the station!!

 

[merlodlliw]

Its not been mentioned in the Media, did it effect North Welsh Services,Up/Down


Bob

 

[Kingston Flyer]

Its not been mentioned in the Media, did it effect North Welsh Services,Up/Down


Bob

Presumably,

The train I get in the mornings at 8:15 (6:18 off Carmathan I believe) terminates at Central, but the unit usually runs to the relief, then forms the 9:20 Holyhead

 

[CliveJones]

If it's not one things it's another for commuters, first all the snow in December and now a power failure halts rail services.

LOL First snow in Dec and then a power failure just THREE months later? What is the railway coming to!


These guys are spoiled!

 

[lm321412]

If it's not one things it's another for commuters, first all the snow in December and now a power failure halts rail services.

I generally think Wales has a decent and reliable rail service. Where I live on Cross City, the last three weeks I think we've had about 4 or 5 service disruptions. I wonder what they would be saying if they had to put up with that.

Plus, I'm sure ATWs fault that we had the worst snowfall in ages, If they would of ran and put passengers lives on the line then i'm sure there would be even more moaning!

Secondly, The power controls the signalling. OK, proceed without the signals but what if there is a train in-front? Driver cannot see it until its too late...

Fact is, both of these incidents were neither the fault of ATW or FGW.

 

[krus_aragon]

I got caught up in this trying to go from Cardiff to Barry on the 07:50 ex CDQ: found notices taped to the ticket machines at Queen St and ticket staff hailing people down at the gates. A dash off to Central and a search along the bus stands got me to Barry in the end, but 50 minutes later than I intended.

On the plus side, I can sympathise better with the troubles commuters on the WCML (for example) have with total outages. Oh, and I've visited every single lamppost in Canton, Ely, and Wenvoe as well!

P.S. My dad tells me that Cardiff Central Library (for one) were extremely short-staffed this morning when he called.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I was on the 0630 Manchester Pic to Milford Haven. I got on at Craven Arms @ 0805 no mention on newly installed PIS screens and no mention from conductor until all Hereford commuters got off c 0840. He then walked through and the advice was if you were going to Cardiff for day out then not to bother and get refund as situation re bus replacements was unclear. He did explain that London and Bristol trains would be turning short at Newport and that passengers would get connections eastward but probably not on time- this confused a lot of people.

He repeated this a couple of times on way down and explained to all passengers who boarded at Abergavenny and Cwmbran before they got on. A few got out Abergavenny to await the next northbound. We lost a few minutes and got held at Maindee Jnc - presumably awaiting a free platform at Newport. So a bit late arriving thankfully I had a meeting in Newport itself, by this stage there was a constant stream of buses arriving form Cardiff and picking passengers up from Newport.

I got 1305 to Manchester Pic back and everything on Marches seemed to be on time by then.

 

[Greenback]

Yes i got on the 11:10 Swansea - Cardiff central train which was worked by a 2 carriage class 175. I also noted at least 4 other class 175's one of which was 175009 and 2 hst's at Swansea with another 2 at Llandore depot.

The 10:55 deparure to Manchester departed 5 minutes late, also the 11:00 to Milford Haven was showing as cancelled but actually departed swansea at 11:05

Staff were doing their best to help passengers during this situation which wasn't helped by the boards at swansea station not working properly. I did notice that staff had put up large information boards outside swansea station stating the problem.

Finally i noticed that ATW were alloowing passengers with tickets to London & some other destinations to travel on the 11:10 train to Cardiff and get the London or other service's from there

Anthony, I was on the train from Pembroke Dock thatw as waiting outside Swansea at 1000! All the platforms at Swansea were occupied, and trains were leaving for Bridgend as and when they could. We were informed that all travel restrictions were relaxed on FGW, and that passengers could catch any train. This is hardly surprising really, since the timetable had been thrown out of the window by then!

When we finally got in to Swansea about 20-25 minutes late, there were plenty of staff visible and helping customers, I'm pleased to say.

 

[Oliver]

There was an Arriva manager on BBC "PM" program, who said that they knew what had caused the power failure and would take steps to avoid a repeat. Does anyone know exactly what the cause was?

 

[merlodlliw]

I generally think Wales has a decent and reliable rail service. Where I live on Cross City, the last three weeks I think we've had about 4 or 5 service disruptions. I wonder what they would be saying if they had to put up with that.

Plus, I'm sure ATWs fault that we had the worst snowfall in ages, If they would of ran and put passengers lives on the line then i'm sure there would be even more moaning!

Secondly, The power controls the signalling. OK, proceed without the signals but what if there is a train in-front? Driver cannot see it until its too late...

Fact is, both of these incidents were neither the fault of ATW or FGW.

No doubt the Leppard at the ATW Zoo will welcome your comments. The ATW MDs apology & reason http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Templates/News.aspx?pageid=2295

Bob

 

[Greenback]

I thought it was quite a good message. Despite signalling being the responsibility of Network Rail, the MD doesn't try and blame them for the problems. Instead he suggests that thethe industry is working together, and provides an apology from himself and the company.

 

[Old Timer]

I thought it was quite a good message. Despite signalling being the responsibility of Network Rail, the MD doesn't try and blame them for the problems. Instead he suggests that thethe industry is working together, and provides an apology from himself and the company.

Yes, I agree, it is just a shame that Network Rail does not respond in that way, choosing instead to go down the scapegoat route as the first kneejerk reaction. For an example refer to Grayrigg, which although now an old example is still indicative of the culture that exists.

 

[anthony263]

There was an Arriva manager on BBC "PM" program, who said that they knew what had caused the power failure and would take steps to avoid a repeat. Does anyone know exactly what the cause was?

Electrical fault i was told, which caused a surge that overloaded the electrics and blowing all of the fuses including those on the backup system.

Network rail then had to wait for engineers from Western power to come with new fuses and then monitor the system as it was re-booted