Storm Bert Saturday 23rd November

[gabrielhj07]

Euston is Exit only, & no Tube services.

 

[LTJ87]

Currently at Nottingham station. Looks like EMR are not sending anything southbound beyond Leicester until tomorrow morning.

 

[londonmidland]

EMR hade suspended all services to and from London St. Pancras this evening due to flooding.

 

[DDB]

EMR hade suspended all services to and from London St. Pancras this evening due to flooding.

Not clear to me why they can't run something north of and including Leicester to get some people (including me!) home.

 

[MrJeeves]

Any ideas what the 0Z99 is heading up towards Rugby?

 

[43055]

Not clear to me why they can't run something north of and including Leicester to get some people (including me!) home.

The 1845 ex Nottingham has departed. Presumably will turn at Leicester.

 

[Intercity_225]

Not sure whether this has already been said, but GWR are advising do not travel on their routes this evening.

Route(s) affected​

Great Western Railway and CrossCountry routes in the south west

Description​

Yellow weather warnings for wind and rain remain in place today, Sunday 24 November, which may affect Great Western Railway services today.

The predicted heavy rain and rapid thaw of the snow could mean there is a chance of flooding.

Great Western Railway customer advice:​

You are strongly advised to delay your journey if possible and tickets for today will be accepted on Monday 25 November and Tuesday 26 November.

Current disruptions:​

London Paddington - Penzance

Flooding, caused by heavy rain, has meant Network Rail have had to close the line in several places between Reading and Plymouth. Flood monitoring suggests that further sites along the railway are likely to flood.

Trains will not run between London Paddington and Penzance for the rest of today.

Great Western Railway are unable to offer alternative transport and cannot guarantee to be able to get you to your destination.

Exeter St Davids - Plymouth

Heavy rain has flooded the railway between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth. Trains are unable to run between Newton Abbot and Plymouth for the rest of today.

Great Western Railway are trying to source road transport to run between Plymouth and Exeter St Davids, but availability of coaches in the area is limited.

You may use your train ticket, at no extra cost, on the Stagecoach GOLD route between Paignton (Bus Station), Totnes (Station), Ivybridge, Plymouth (Royal Parade). Please show your train ticket to the driver.

Plymouth - Gunnislake

A tree blocking the railway between Plymouth and Gunnislake means that the line is blocked. Trains are unable to run between these stations and will be cancelled until the end of the day.

Westbury / Castle Cary - Weymouth

Due to a fallen tree which blocked the line at Yeovil Pen Mill earlier today, the line is currently closed between Westbury / Castle Cary and Weymouth. Passengers are advised to NOT TRAVEL.

Road Replacement Transport will NOT run due to road flooding. Ticket easement is in place for Monday 25th November 2024. Disruption is expected until the end of the day

Newbury - Bedywn

Due to heavy rain flooding the railway between Newbury and Bedwyn some lines are blocked. Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Owing the flooding of roads in the area, road replacement transport will not run.

Swindon - Bristol Parkway

Heavy rain has flooded the railway between Swindon and Bristol Parkway. The line has been closed for safety reasons and as a result trains between London Paddington and South Wales will divert via an alternative route. This will extend journey times by around 30 minutes. In addition, some services may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Taunton - Bristol Temple Meads

Heavy rain has flooded the railway between Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-super-Mare. Great Western Railway are unable to operate train services over the section of line between Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads. As the road infrastructure is also affected Great Western Railway are unable to offer any road transport.

Incident: Plymouth | National Rail

Storm Bert is affecting Great Western Railway services: do not travel this evening. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[Banham7]

EMR has reported a bank slip between Leicester and Kettering, meaning lines are currently closed and St Pancras departures have been suspended. The diversionary route via Corby is not available either due to severe flooding.

There is heavy rain flooding the railwaybetween Kettering and Leicester disrupting our trains on the London St Pancras/ Nottingham/ Sheffield and Corby/London routes.
The heavy rain has also caused a bank-slip in the area. This means it is now unsafe for us to run our services on the Intercity route between Kettering and Leicester. Unfortunately the diversionary route we would usually have is not available either, also because of flooding.
You can find out how flooding affects the railway here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/delays-explained/

https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/

 

[55002]

Surely serious questions need to be asked about the resilience of the railway in any kind of out of the norm weather? We seem to be bumbling from one catastrophe to the next. This isn't a problem that's going to go away. With climate change it's only going to get worse.

Have you seen the videos out of North and South Wales with the flooding? Shall we ask the same questions about the road network? What are roads, trains etc supposed to do when theres so much water coming down?

 

[Rail Ranger]

The railway at Pennington Beck, which is west of Ulverston station. The image shows a cutting partially full of running water and earth. It is courtesy of James Atkinson who posted this on the Don Coffee YouTube Rail Discussion Group. I wonder how long it will take to reopen the line?

 

[Bungle73]

So let's just throw out hands in the air and give up shall we? Just accept as the years go by the railway is going to become more and more unusable.

 

[londonmidland]

Multiple weather fronts have been pretty much stationary across the same areas for most of the day today, dumping huge amounts of rainfall. That, combined with rapid snowmelt from yesterday, thanks to much milder air full of moisture coming over from the Atlantic, is a recipe for disaster.

I think the Met Office and other weather agencies have also underestimated this event.

 

[liamf656]

So let's just throw out hands in the air and give up shall we? Just accept as the years go by the railway is going to become more and more unusable.

What do you suggest should be done during bank slips and flooding?

 

[bramling]

Multiple weather fronts have been pretty much stationary across the same areas for most of the day today, dumping huge amounts of rainfall. That, combined with rapid snowmelt from yesterday, thanks to much milder air full of moisture coming over from the Atlantic, is a recipe for disaster.

I think the Met Office and other weather agencies have also underestimated this event.

Agree on the latter point. The south-east has been forecasting 40-50 mph gusts for today since the beginning of the week, yet a yellow warning for wind only seems to have appeared this morning, rather belatedly.

Essentially 36 hours continuous of 40+ mph wind gusts is somewhat unusual. Fortunately my area seems to have escaped the worst of the rain, though it looks like there will be quite a bit this evening.

 

[Elorith]

Just accept as the years go by the railway is going to become more and more unusable.

Extreme weather will continue to become an increasing challenge with the chaning global climate. But it's about how you handle it.

NR and the TOCs do need to think about where they spending their money and how they might be able to improve readiness to this increasing problem.

 

[CHAPS2034]

The railway at Pennington Beck,

I think Pennington Beck is now following the course of the railway!

 

[Pinus contorta]

I think Pennington Beck is now following the course of the railway!

Wonder if the old mine workings in the area nearby has had some effect on the local water courses. In particular Pennington Beck. I don't remember It being that bad before.

 

[Ian1971]

Have you seen the videos out of North and South Wales with the flooding? Shall we ask the same questions about the road network? What are roads, trains etc supposed to do when theres so much water coming down?

I don’t think the poster was questioning the seriousness of the flooding more asking what can the railways do to try and deal with the increased likelihood of extreme weather

 

[WelshBluebird]

So let's just throw out hands in the air and give up shall we? Just accept as the years go by the railway is going to become more and more unusable.

There's some nuance here though. We can accept the reality that our railways currently have no chance of handling the 1 in 100 year events that are becoming much more common than that but we also must accept this is going to continue and so as a society we have adapt and invest in our infrastructure to better protect it against such events.

I don't think the issues the railways are seeing over yesterday and today is a failure of the railways - they were never designed to handle this kind of weather.

 

[Intercity_225]

And now there's disruption on the WAML..

Route(s) affected​

between Broxbourne and Stansted Airport / Audley End

Description​

Damage to the electrical overhead wires between Broxbourne and Stansted Airport / Audley End means trains running between these stations may be delayed by up to 60 minutes, cancelled or revised.

Major disruption is expected until approximately 14:00 on Monday 25 November.

Customer advice:

DO NOT TRAVEL between Broxbourne and Audley End / Stansted Airport

Owing to multiple fallen trees damaging electrical overhead wire between Broxbourne and Audley End, train services between Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport also between Stratford and Audley End are subject to severe delays, alterations and cancellations

Network Rail are working hard to remove the fallen trees and repair the damaged overhead wires, however due to the number of incidents, Greater Anglia do not expect to be able to run trains between Broxbourne and Cambridge, including Stansted Airport, until 14:00 on Monday 25th November 2024.

Incident: Audley End | National Rail

Lines reopened: major disruption between Harlow Town and Stansted Airport / Audley End . Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[jammmmmsssssss]

And now there's disruption on the WAML..

Incident: Audley End | National Rail

Lines reopened: major disruption between Harlow Town and Stansted Airport / Audley End . Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

There's been disruption all afternoon

 

[dk1]

And now there's disruption on the WAML..

Where have you been the last half a day?

 

[AndrewE]

There's some nuance here though. We can accept the reality that our railways currently have no chance of handling the 1 in 100 year events that are becoming much more common than that but we also must accept this is going to continue and so as a society we have adapt and invest in our infrastructure to better protect it against such events.

I don't think the issues the railways are seeing over yesterday and today is a failure of the railways - they were never designed to handle this kind of weather.

which is roughly what I said 3 hours ago!
We need a better-engineered network (which will take a while to come good - if it can ever catch up,) which will need more feet on the ground with local knowledge, and a more sensibly organised operating set-up. (So get rid of the pretend companies and make sure that everyone on the industry has the same deliverable.)

 

[MikeWM]

And now there's disruption on the WAML..

Incident: Audley End | National Rail

Lines reopened: major disruption between Harlow Town and Stansted Airport / Audley End . Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Looks like a carbon copy of what happened in February 2022 - considerable disruption, going on for quite some time, apparently due to multiple fallen trees north of Broxbourne and south of Audley End. Is there something unusual about this bit of line that this keeps on happening when we get an unusually prolonged storm?

Kings Lynn to Ely has been out for most of the day, but that one happens fairly reliably anytime there is any vaguely unusual weather. That must be one of the most regularly disrupted lines in the country due to infrastructure failures of one sort or other.

On the whole, I'm glad I made my northwest to Anglia journey yesterday rather than today. Avanti giving up north of Preston (as usual) was deeply unhelpful for many, but it resulted in a very quiet train heading south for me!

 

[M60lad]

Regarding the closure of the line at Ulverston have Northern got any trains stuck the wrong side of the closure at Barrow? If so could it cause problems for other Northern services due to shortage of available trains?

 

[Banham7]

Barrow - Lancaster will remain closed until 29th November at least.

Due to heavy rain flooding the railway between Lancaster and Barrow-In-Furness all lines are closed.
How does it affect your service:
Train services running through these stations have been cancelled or terminated at and started back from Lancaster. All stations between Lancaster and Barrow-In-Furness will not be served. Disruption is expected until 04:30 29/11.
Our advice to our customers:
Services between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness are currently being disrupted due to heavy rain flooding the railway.
Network Rail staff are on site and are working to clear the flood water and make the necessary repairs to the track to allow train running to recommence.
Train running is currently suspended in both directions between Lancaster - Barrow-in-Furness and the line is expected to reopen on 29th November 2024 at 04:30am

https://www.journeycheck.com/northern/

 

[sh24]

A record - for me - of 13 red disruption alerts on GWR.com.

Despite the carnage elsewhere my Eurostar was 5mins early into St Pancras.

 

[Magdalen Road]

Looks like a carbon copy of what happened in February 2022 - considerable disruption, going on for quite some time, apparently due to multiple fallen trees north of Broxbourne and south of Audley End. Is there something unusual about this bit of line that this keeps on happening when we get an unusually prolonged storm?

Kings Lynn to Ely has been out for most of the day, but that one happens fairly reliably anytime there is any vaguely unusual weather. That must be one of the most regularly disrupted lines in the country due to infrastructure failures of one sort or other.

On the whole, I'm glad I made my northwest to Anglia journey yesterday rather than today. Avanti giving up north of Preston (as usual) was deeply unhelpful for many, but it resulted in a very quiet train heading south for me!

Multiple cancellations King's Lynn to Ely this morning, with Liverpool St line out until later today. The commutes are going to be interesting.

 

[jon0844]

There are buses from King's Lynn to Downham Market where the first trains started from. A test train was sent from KLN to check/prove the line and start from Downham Market and it appears it made it (given it started later from DOW) so hopefully services will be back to normal very soon.

 

[LTJ87]

EMR currently advising a regular service to / from London St Pancras is expected today.