ECML Signal Failure (22/05) - Special Working?

[MalaiseForever]

Blown fuse at Tollerton has now been located and will be replaced shortly.

 

[MichaelTrains]

I did think something was odd about 1S26’s position at the platform when I saw it at York but couldn’t work out what.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 May 2025 ==


That can’t be right as Darlington uses station staff for dispatch so there must be someone there surely. But very poor that they’ve gone and hidden away in an office instead of being out helping customers.

What would they dispatch? I’ve been here over an hour and only seen a 156 off to Saltburn.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 May 2025 ==

Blown fuse at Tollerton has now been located and will be replaced shortly.

That’s good. I should have been in Leeds right now on my final train home.

 

[DanNCL]

My train (1S53) is waiting south of Tollerton. Nothing in front of us and the previous train on the fast has now cleared Thirsk. Hopefully that means we’ll be moving soon.

1S26 overtook both 1S30 and 1S53 at Tollerton and is now north of Northallerton.

What would they dispatch? I’ve been here over an hour and only seen a 156 off to Saltburn.

They dispatch LNER, and I think XC too.

 

[MichaelTrains]

My train (1S53) is waiting south of Tollerton. Nothing in front of us and the previous train on the fast has now cleared Thirsk. Hopefully that means we’ll be moving soon.

1S26 overtook both 1S30 and 1S53 at Tollerton and is now north of Northallerton.


They dispatch LNER, and I think XC too.

Nine car Azuma just pulled in going to Edinburgh. Two members of staff appeared from the first class lounge.

Presume they’ve had a stressful evening and need to get away from it all.

 

[D1537]

I’m stranded at Darlington. Nothing is moving. No staff, they’ve all gone home. Very poor.

This is extremely poor from LNER. No staff present and everyone just praying for a miracle that the trains turn up.

Well, there are plenty of northbound trains and will be for a while yet. Where are you trying to travel to?

Not sure what's happening with southbound, though. 1E29 has been sat at Newcastle for over an hour now, I'm guessing it's waiting for crew off a late-running northbound (my guess would be 1S27, which is just passing Low Fell).

 

[ainsworth74]

Presume they’ve had a stressful evening and need to get away from it all.

In fairness that's where the station reception is and where they have a little office to oversee various station activities. The lounge just shares an entrance with it.

 

[The Middle]

I think the fact the TPE gave up several hours ago and there’s been nothing to Chester-le-Street in that time probably helps my case getting quibble free replacement transport as I’ll not be the first one.

Just to jump to TPEs defence here. It is written into the contingency plans which operator gets the paths in these situations (generally the highest capacity services as a rule of thumb) therefore it is a case of Network Rail informing certain operators they cannot run rather than of TPE 'giving up'

 

[MichaelTrains]

Well, there are plenty of northbound trains and will be for a while yet. Where are you trying to travel to?

Not sure what's happening with southbound, though. 1E29 has been sat at Newcastle for over an hour now, I'm guessing it's waiting for crew off a late-running northbound (my guess would be 1S27, which is just passing Low Fell).

There’s six of us in my party.

Myself to Bradford, one to Leeds and four to Liverpool.

We were all booked on a cancelled TPE service and then were told to get the 21.33 to Liverpool.

I don’t think any of us are getting home anytime soon. There’s around 120 southbound passengers at Darlington waiting to get on the next train.

I hope there is room.

I’m shocked there have been no rail replacement buses.

 

[D1537]

There’s six of us in my party.

Myself to Bradford, one to Leeds and four to Liverpool.

We were all booked on a cancelled TPE service and then were told to get the 21.33 to Liverpool.

I don’t think any of us are getting home anytime soon. There’s around 120 southbound passengers at Darlington waiting to get on the next train.

I hope there is room.

I’m shocked there have been no rail replacement buses.

Yeah, that's not good. I think the furthest any of you are going to get by train tonight is Leeds (via 1E30 Aberdeen-Leeds, and that could get caught up in the problems yet), and after that it's going to be taxis (there is an 0132 York-Manchester Airport as far as Manchester). Good luck.

Edit: 1E29 is moving now, expected Darlington 2324. 1E30 is around 20 minutes behind it (if it doesn't have the same crewing issue at Newcastle that 1E29 did).

 

[DanNCL]

Just to jump to TPEs defence here. It is written into the contingency plans which operator gets the paths in these situations (generally the highest capacity services as a rule of thumb) therefore it is a case of Network Rail informing certain operators they cannot run rather than of TPE 'giving up'

I’m aware of that but they could have at least tried to run a shuttle between Darlington and Newcastle instead of abandoning Chester-le-Street passengers and leaving it to LNER station staff to sort out alternative travel. As for anybody that might have been waiting to get on at Chester-le-Street, they’d have been completely stuffed.

 

[The Middle]

leaving it to LNER station staff to sort out alternative travel.

They are both DFTO so the colour of their jackets should be fairly irrelevant.

 

[ainsworth74]

There’s six of us in my party.

Myself to Bradford, one to Leeds and four to Liverpool.

We were all booked on a cancelled TPE service and then were told to get the 21.33 to Liverpool.

I don’t think any of us are getting home anytime soon. There’s around 120 southbound passengers at Darlington waiting to get on the next train.

I hope there is room.

I’m shocked there have been no rail replacement buses.

The 2148 has left Newcastle 100 late so should be at Darlington around 2325 or so. That'll at least get you all to York but of course it still has to get through the problem area so will no doubt lose even more time. Make sure you all keep receipts for any taxis or even hotels at this point if you cannot find station staff to assist at York or Leeds!

 

[DanNCL]

They are both DFTO so the colour of their jackets should be fairly irrelevant.

Unfortunately that’s not been my experience with those two TOCs in the recent past so I have low confidence.

 

[MichaelTrains]

The 2148 has left Newcastle 100 late so should be at Darlington around 2325 or so. That'll at least get you all to York but of course it still has to get through the problem area so will no doubt lose even more time. Make sure you all keep receipts for any taxis or even hotels at this point if you cannot find station staff to assist at York or Leeds!

This has happened before so I’m well known at both York and Leeds for claiming a taxi home when there is travel disruption.

Although I’ve had a good run over the past three months.

We’ve just been told they’ll be a train to London calling at York in 25 minutes and it’ll take roughly 60/75 minutes to make it to York.

That puts us well past midnight.

I guess at least we will get the full delay repay and the taxi home for the torture.

 

[DanNCL]

This has happened before so I’m well known at both York and Leeds for claiming a taxi home when there is travel disruption.

Although I’ve had a good run over the past three months.

We’ve just been told they’ll be a train to London calling at York in 25 minutes and it’ll take roughly 60/75 minutes to make it to York.

That puts us well past midnight.

I guess at least we will get the full delay repay and the taxi home for the torture.

It took my train about 120 minutes to do York - Darlington. 1S53 (my train) is currently 184 minutes late.

 

[D1537]

It took my train about 120 minutes to do York - Darlington. 1S53 (my train) is currently 184 minutes late.

Southbounds are losing less time (because there are fewer trains to queue) - 1E88 has just gone through the affected section dropping 38 minutes. I would hope that Michaeltrains should at least make 1P04 0132 York-Manchester Airport off the delayed 1E29 LNER. 1E30 Aberdeen-Leeds is suffering the same fate as 1E29 at Newcastle, clearly waiting for crew, and it was 25 late already, but it's there as a backup to Leeds if necessary.

 

[MichaelTrains]

Hopefully something appears soon.

 

[800001]

I’m stranded at Darlington. Nothing is moving. No staff, they’ve all gone home. Very poor.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 May 2025 ==

This is extremely poor from LNER. No staff present and everyone just praying for a miracle that the trains turn up.

There is staff there, and there has to be to despatch the LNER trains. If you had gone to the office indicated by the ‘I’ above the door in your picture you might of found staff there. (And I know for a fact there are staff there as the night shift staff came in early to help there colleagues).
They could also of been helping people with taxis.

 

[DanNCL]

I had to get my own taxi back to Chester-le-Street from Durham as TPE had not made any arrangements and LNER station staff were unable (or unwilling?) to source a taxi. I’ve kept the receipt so will claim it back.

I eventually got back to Chester-le-Street about 3 hours after I was scheduled to (I did note the exact time so that I can put it down for the delay repay claim).

 

[MichaelTrains]

I’ve just this minute got in a docket taxi from York, should be home for 2.45am.

There was a bit of querying as to who was paying for it because LNER tried to pass it onto TPE, who then said it was Northern, who said it was LNER who needed to pay.

Must be an expensive night for them. With people needing taxis from York to Wakefield Westgate, Bradford, Malton, Seamer, Scarbrough, even one for Hull.

 

[800Travel]

I’ve just this minute got in a docket taxi from York, should be home for 2.45am.

There was a bit of querying as to who was paying for it because LNER tried to pass it onto TPE, who then said it was Northern, who said it was LNER who needed to pay.

Must be an expensive night for them. With people needing taxis from York to Wakefield Westgate, Bradford, Malton, Seamer, Scarbrough, even one for Hull.

Glad to hear you’re on your way.

I imagine they are just trying to shield their respective owners from the taxi bills tbh

*caller on line 1*

Roll on GBR

 

[MichaelTrains]

Glad to hear you’re on your way.

I imagine they are just trying to shield their respective owners from the taxi bills tbh

*caller on line 1*

Roll on GBR

They were telling us to wait for the TPE airport train but that still would have resulted in a taxi home from Leeds and more waiting around.

What settled it was a passenger wanting Garforth and me and my friend wanting Bradford and Bramley.

My friends wanting Liverpool had to get the TPE Airport train which I believe has lengthy layovers.

They should have got into Lime Street at 00.05 but won't be home until 5am/6am by the time they've got staff at Piccadilly to authorise them a taxi home.

 

[ainsworth74]

Glad to hear you’re on your way.

I imagine they are just trying to shield their respective owners from the taxi bills tbh

*caller on line 1*

Roll on GBR

Of course LNER, TPE and Northern are all DfT Operators already so have the same owner! Crackers that in that situation there's an argument over who pays.

 

[800001]

I had to get my own taxi back to Chester-le-Street from Durham as TPE had not made any arrangements and LNER station staff were unable (or unwilling?) to source a taxi. I’ve kept the receipt so will claim it back.

I eventually got back to Chester-le-Street about 3 hours after I was scheduled to (I did note the exact time so that I can put it down for the delay repay claim).

That’s poor form from LNER. Deal with customer first, and anything else can be dealt with after.

 

[Tomnick]

Must be an expensive night for them. With people needing taxis from York to Wakefield Westgate, Bradford, Malton, Seamer, Scarbrough, even one for Hull.

We ended up in a taxi back from Doncaster to Loughborough. A colleague had one from Peterborough to Birmingham. Others heading to the West Midlands on an XC train that terminated at York were sent on a local train to Leeds where the last southbound XC had been restarted (nearly an hour late) and left about a minute before they arrived – they ended up, frustratingly, being told to wait for the next stopper to Sheffield and then got taxis to the West Mids from there.

 

[Falcon1200]

It is written into the contingency plans which operator gets the paths in these situations (generally the highest capacity services as a rule of thumb) therefore it is a case of Network Rail informing certain operators they cannot run rather than of TPE 'giving up'

Contingency Plans are agreed between Network Rail and Train Operators, therefore all parties would know what can run and what cannot. However if that results in any station losing all service there should of course be provision for that.

 

[mpellatt]

Of course LNER, TPE and Northern are all DfT Operators already so have the same owner! Crackers that in that situation there's an argument over who pays.

But they will have separate P&L accounts, so expenditure has to be properly allocated.

But, yes, this is a "just pay and argue the toss later" scenario, passenger comes first, etc. Which "should" have been the case even under privatisation, if it had been done "properly"

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 May 2025 ==

Must be an expensive night for them. With people needing taxis from York to Wakefield Westgate, Bradford, Malton, Seamer, Scarbrough, even one for Hull.

Oh how I remember the taxi drivers at Preston (20+ years ago now) telling us of the times they took passengers to Aberdeen. Which weren't that rare....

 

[MichaelTrains]

Do Northern sign Newcastle to York?

It occurred to me whilst stranded in Darlington for the best part of three hours that the local Northern Newcastle to Darlington 158s could have been extended to York.

Everything South of York was fine apparently.

Yes, I know they would have crawled there but it would have been a better plan than e everyone squeezing onto a full and standing LNER service three hours later.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Do Northern sign Newcastle to York?

It occurred to me whilst stranded in Darlington for the best part of three hours that the local Northern Newcastle to Darlington 158s could have been extended to York.

Everything South of York was fine apparently.

Yes, I know they would have crawled there but it would have been a better plan than e everyone squeezing onto a full and standing LNER service three hours later.

At least some Northern drivers do, as there are regular ECS moves up to Heaton and back

 

[DanNCL]

Contingency Plans are agreed between Network Rail and Train Operators, therefore all parties would know what can run and what cannot. However if that results in any station losing all service there should of course be provision for that.

Chester-le-Street and Yarm usually lose all service the second there’s the slightest bit of disruption on the North TPE route. Whilst Thirsk loses all bar GC.
It’s completely unacceptable when these stations lose all service despite not being in the disruption area - granted Thirsk was last night but the other two weren’t and Chester-le-Street especially should have been easy enough to serve with a shuttle, which would also have kept Newcastle - Durham/Darlington passengers moving too.

Do Northern sign Newcastle to York?

It occurred to me whilst stranded in Darlington for the best part of three hours that the local Northern Newcastle to Darlington 158s could have been extended to York.

Everything South of York was fine apparently.

Yes, I know they would have crawled there but it would have been a better plan than e everyone squeezing onto a full and standing LNER service three hours later.

Only Northern drivers sign Darlington - York, Guards don’t.

There’s only one local Northern service on the ECML in the evening and it’s southbound only. The Northbound ones are all in the morning.