Landslip at Whitchurch (Hants) (05/08)

[Holly's 159]

I am currently in a taxi with my wife and my little one heading back to Ludgershall.
Journey from Eastleigh to Andover cut short at Basingstoke due to a Landslip at Whitchurch.
Couldn't really make heads or tails of the confusion on Real Time Trains, we were due on the 1638 to Yeovil, I think the Exeter before that one got as far as Overton and then that was it, a 6 car 159 came in at platform 4, couldn't work out if this was the down Exeter before us coming back or if they are letting stuff through. Would be interesting to find out! Horrendous rain on the way up via Winchester!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2023 ==

Looks like 1l54 made it through on the up line 20 odd mins

 

[zwk500]

I am currently in a taxi with my wife and my little one heading back to Ludgershall.
Journey from Eastleigh to Andover cut short at Basingstoke due to a Landslip at Whitchurch.
Couldn't really make heads or tails of the confusion on Real Time Trains, we were due on the 1638 to Yeovil, I think the Exeter before that one got as far as Overton and then that was it, a 6 car 159 came in at platform 4, couldn't work out if this was the down Exeter before us coming back or if they are letting stuff through. Would be interesting to find out! Horrendous rain on the way up via Winchester!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2023 ==

Looks like 1l54 made it through on the up line 20 odd mins

Nothing showing between Overton and Andover on Open Train Times: https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/westofengland

 

[Holly's 159]

I wonder if 1l54 was the last service through then, the up services this morning were rammed so if most of the folks are trying to make their way back they are in for a night of it.

 

[Chingy]

Nothing showing between Overton and Andover on Open Train Times: https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/westofengland

1L45 did get as far as just before Overton before returning to Basingstoke it seems. Currently sat in platform 2 now.

 

[zwk500]

I wonder if 1l54 was the last service through then, the up services this morning were rammed so if most of the folks are trying to make their way back they are in for a night of it.

Guess so, 1L54 presumably through at caution and must have reported enough problems for the line to stay shut. There are a couple of 5Lxx services about suggesting trains are being worked around the block via Southampton out of service, with Up Exeter trains terminated at Salisbury.

 

[Chingy]

The West Coast charter stock (5Z24) heading down the B&H, off route, to Salisbury via Westbury now.

1L45 has departed Salisbury and heading down to Winchester/Southampton now.

Will be interesting to hear about the severity of the land slip. SWT land has had quite the trouble with land slips in recent times!

 

[zwk500]

The West Coast charter stock (5Z24) heading down the B&H, off route, to Salisbury via Westbury now.

That'll flip the formation, wonder if they might ask to turn on the triangle (or might turn at Westbury to save time).

Will be interesting to hear about the severity of the land slip. SWT land has had quite the trouble with land slips in recent times!

Yes not been an good year.

 

[jackot]

SWR are saying it should be sorted by the end of the day, so presumably it can’t be too serious compared some of other land slips so far this year, although I’m yet to see any photos of it.

 

[Holly's 159]

The West Coast charter stock (5Z24) heading down the B&H, off route, to Salisbury via Westbury now.

1L45 has departed Salisbury and heading down to Winchester/Southampton now.

Will be interesting to hear about the severity of the land slip. SWT land has had quite the trouble with land slips in recent times!

Got some commuting to attempt from Andover to Reading next week, if this goes on my guess is Buses from Andover to Basingstoke. To be fair to SWR although the platform staff were none the wiser, the website updated fairly quickly giving taxis the option. £68 from Basingstoke to Home thou, ouch

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2023 ==

SWR are saying it should be sorted by the end of the day, so presumably it can’t be too serious compared some of other land slips so far this year, although I’m yet to see any photos of it.

Certainly hope so, rotten bit of luck this line has had recently

 

[islandmonkey]

Looks like 1O20 got caught up in the delays and has been running 15L since Bramley. 1L45 constantly tailing 1O20 until 1L45 turns off onto the WML any second now.

 

[Kite159]

To be fair to SWR although the platform staff were none the wiser, the website updated fairly quickly giving taxis the option. £68 from Basingstoke to Home thou, ouch

SWR are all to quick to go down the "pay up an unknown amount for a taxi, assuming you can find one" and claim it back route.

Whatever happened to the taxis being booked by the TOC and shared between multiple passengers which surely will be cheaper for the taxpayer?

(Doesn't help that Stagecoach sent out an Optare Solo on the 20;40 route 76 to Andover from Basingstoke, it has been rather cosy)

 

[RedPostJunc]

Got some commuting to attempt from Andover to Reading next week, if this goes on my guess is Buses from Andover to Basingstoke. To be fair to SWR although the platform staff were none the wiser, the website updated fairly quickly giving taxis the option. £68 from Basingstoke to Home thou, ouch

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2023 ==


Certainly hope so, rotten bit of luck this line has had recently

I opted for the 76 bus Basingstoke - Andover £2. A rather bumpy ride, taking nearly an hour, would have been 20 minutes by train.

 

[FuzzyDuck]

It must have been cleared before the end of the day, I was on 1L73 (22:30 from Waterloo) and it apparently made it to Salisbury without a diversion.

 

[Route115?]

I was caught up in this as well. Real time trains was not clear - I checked my intended train less than an hour before aiming to catch it at Grately (1838) and it did not show as cancelled. My sister then drove me to Andover which was not staffed. The next train was shown as running so I waited fot it but then it was cancelled. In the end I got a bus to Andover bus station (£2 for a 5 min journey) and then on to Basingstoke (£2 for a 50 min journey). My comments are:

The railway is not clear at disseminating information when this happens. RTT was showing no report for some trains at some stations presumably this will happen if the train is formally notified as cancelled. I saw that nothwithstanding the overtime ban some trains were diverted via Southampton. This I presume that this results in RTT showing no report for stations a train is diverted away from. (I should have also checked the National Rail website as well as RTT but given the confusion with the departure boards I'm not sure that it would have been any better - any experirnce out there?)

It is rare for passengers to be told to take a taxi and claim it back as I saw on the National Rail website. Since I was travelling on a staff pass I don't think that it would have applied to me in any case, but I didn't hear any p.a. announcements or any messages on the departure boards to this effect or indeed what do. I know that the theory these days is that everyone goes around with their head permanently in a smart phone but this is not always the case. Do we need better info at unstaffed stations (and Andover, not exactly a wayside halt, is unstaffed on a Saturday evening) - better screens, help points, etc? Should managers be on call to help out answering help points outside office hours?

One last point about SWT wifi. I don't have a smart phone but (rarely) was travelling with my laptop and wanted to check out what was happening so tried to log in on when I finally got on a train from Basingstoke. I find that wifi works well on Class 159 but have not been able to connect on Class 444s on several occasions. Does this fleet have wifi? (Conversely 159s don't seem to have sockets and 444s do.)

 

[swt_passenger]

[…]
One last point about SWT wifi. I don't have a smart phone but (rarely) was travelling with my laptop and wanted to check out what was happening so tried to log in on when I finally got on a train from Basingstoke. I find that wifi works well on Class 159 but have not been able to connect on Class 444s on several occasions. Does this fleet have wifi? (Conversely 159s don't seem to have sockets and 444s do.)

Yes. The 444/450 had Wi-Fi long before the 159s. The 159s were supposed to get sockets as one of the 2017 franchise interior mods to the 158/159 fleet, subsequently everything has been abandoned.

 

[Holly's 159]

SWR are all to quick to go down the "pay up an unknown amount for a taxi, assuming you can find one" and claim it back route.

Whatever happened to the taxis being booked by the TOC and shared between multiple passengers which surely will be cheaper for the taxpayer?

(Doesn't help that Stagecoach sent out an Optare Solo on the 20;40 route 76 to Andover from Basingstoke, it has been rather cosy)

Well I certainly wasn't going to complain, but you're right it will hurt the taxpayer ultimately but it was probably easier to leave to the passenger to organize rather than platform staff so I think it's a more expedient and efficient approach

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Aug 2023 ==

I was caught up in this as well. Real time trains was not clear - I checked my intended train less than an hour before aiming to catch it at Grately (1838) and it did not show as cancelled. My sister then drove me to Andover which was not staffed. The next train was shown as running so I waited fot it but then it was cancelled. In the end I got a bus to Andover bus station (£2 for a 5 min journey) and then on to Basingstoke (£2 for a 50 min journey). My comments are:

The railway is not clear at disseminating information when this happens. RTT was showing no report for some trains at some stations presumably this will happen if the train is formally notified as cancelled. I saw that nothwithstanding the overtime ban some trains were diverted via Southampton. This I presume that this results in RTT showing no report for stations a train is diverted away from. (I should have also checked the National Rail website as well as RTT but given the confusion with the departure boards I'm not sure that it would have been any better - any experirnce out there?)

It is rare for passengers to be told to take a taxi and claim it back as I saw on the National Rail website. Since I was travelling on a staff pass I don't think that it would have applied to me in any case, but I didn't hear any p.a. announcements or any messages on the departure boards to this effect or indeed what do. I know that the theory these days is that everyone goes around with their head permanently in a smart phone but this is not always the case. Do we need better info at unstaffed stations (and Andover, not exactly a wayside halt, is unstaffed on a Saturday evening) - better screens, help points, etc? Should managers be on call to help out answering help points outside office hours?

One last point about SWT wifi. I don't have a smart phone but (rarely) was travelling with my laptop and wanted to check out what was happening so tried to log in on when I finally got on a train from Basingstoke. I find that wifi works well on Class 159 but have not been able to connect on Class 444s on several occasions. Does this fleet have wifi? (Conversely 159s don't seem to have sockets and 444s do.)

I agree about the information point, I think they could of been quicker off the mark at Basingstoke. A fair amount of confusion with announcements. Being an enthusiast, I become aware of possible trouble ahead when I didn't see the 1638 on RTT,
The information for the layman was scant. My wife didn't fancy a lengthy trip via Southampton/Salisbury, and to be fair some of the Romsey stoppers were canned as well, so taxi it was

 

[josh-j]

I was caught up in this as well. Real time trains was not clear - I checked my intended train less than an hour before aiming to catch it at Grately (1838) and it did not show as cancelled. My sister then drove me to Andover which was not staffed. The next train was shown as running so I waited fot it but then it was cancelled. In the end I got a bus to Andover bus station (£2 for a 5 min journey) and then on to Basingstoke (£2 for a 50 min journey). My comments are:

The railway is not clear at disseminating information when this happens. RTT was showing no report for some trains at some stations presumably this will happen if the train is formally notified as cancelled. I saw that nothwithstanding the overtime ban some trains were diverted via Southampton. This I presume that this results in RTT showing no report for stations a train is diverted away from. (I should have also checked the National Rail website as well as RTT but given the confusion with the departure boards I'm not sure that it would have been any better - any experirnce out there?)

It is rare for passengers to be told to take a taxi and claim it back as I saw on the National Rail website. Since I was travelling on a staff pass I don't think that it would have applied to me in any case, but I didn't hear any p.a. announcements or any messages on the departure boards to this effect or indeed what do. I know that the theory these days is that everyone goes around with their head permanently in a smart phone but this is not always the case. Do we need better info at unstaffed stations (and Andover, not exactly a wayside halt, is unstaffed on a Saturday evening) - better screens, help points, etc? Should managers be on call to help out answering help points outside office hours?

One last point about SWT wifi. I don't have a smart phone but (rarely) was travelling with my laptop and wanted to check out what was happening so tried to log in on when I finally got on a train from Basingstoke. I find that wifi works well on Class 159 but have not been able to connect on Class 444s on several occasions. Does this fleet have wifi? (Conversely 159s don't seem to have sockets and 444s do.)

In my experience, not near Basingstoke but nevertheless, the National Rail site and app are better during disruption if you want to see what is expected to run. RTT doesn't get all cancellations (or gets them later) due to the data sources used.

I have seen trains showing as normal on RTT but showing cancelled or delayed on NRE a number of times. And for example trains due to depart showing on time in RTT but actually flagged as delayed on NRE, where RTT would then only show the delay when the train does eventually leave. It's just a limitation of RTT's data.

I think the reason RTT can't use that same data is that it isn't licensed to be used alongside the other sources which seems a bit strange. It goes without saying that RTT is extremely useful in other ways though!

 

[Surreytraveller]

It is rare for passengers to be told to take a taxi and claim it back as I saw on the National Rail website. Since I was travelling on a staff pass I don't think that it would have applied to me in any case, but I didn't hear any p.a. announcements or any messages on the departure boards to this effect or indeed what do. I know that the theory these days is that everyone goes around with their head permanently in a smart phone but this is not always the case. Do we need better info at unstaffed stations (and Andover, not exactly a wayside halt, is unstaffed on a Saturday evening) - better screens, help points, etc? Should managers be on call to help out answering help points outside office hours?

Why would it not have applied in your case?

 

[pompeyfan]

What kind of information would you like quicker? Although there will be a contingency plan, it will always need adaptions due to crew route knowledge or specifics involved in the incident. Unfortunately there is only 1 person looking at each train involved, they’ll need to decide what each individual train / crew can and can’t do in regards to their hours and route knowledge and any knock on effects from passing crew, stock step ups etc etc. as soon as a decision is made regarding a train, that information is then put into NRES.