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Stafford - 21st November 2025
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andyjhatton
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In some industries, phrases such as "not fit for purpose" might be banded about.
Maybe certain staff would be kindly asked if they would like to walk; before the push.
Maybe certain staff would be kindly asked if they would like to walk; before the push.
voyagerdude220
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What makes you say that?
D6130
Established Member
Unfortunately it won't be possible to replace them overnight, so nothing would run for weeks....if not months.
Which staff are you looking to push?
There was a complete loss of signalling. Due to a loss of power at a substation relay. This may have caused secondary problems or more (See Iberian Peninsula power outage).
The failsafe in such an instance is signals revert to danger. This is what happened. There were bodies on the ground trying to rescue the situation very quickly. I had NR guys with me at Stafford station within 20 minutes of it happening (I was on the platform being dispatched when the loss of signalling happened).
I'm sure NR will go through the details on why it took so long to get back online as they won't have wanted it to take 3 hours to resolve
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Having asked drivers who've been at my depot on the WCML if they can remember the last time a signal outage or this magnitude happened, they all said never this bad.
A major system doesn't fall over like this often. Taking past a signal or 2, sure. But the entire section was lost. No point sending trains from the South to turn at Rugby. Stafford is a major strategic station for the WCML.
I would obviously like to have seen Crewe running shuttles where possible to Liverpool and Scotland, but the South end could only conceivable run to Rugby or Nuneaton.
I was at Euston yesterday just as this all kicked off, freshly off the Eurostar and trying to get back to Liverpool. Communication and management of the situation was as useless as ever, with hoards of passengers going in every direction and nobody able to take charge of the problem. I felt the station was becoming unsafe and so bailed out and went to Victoria to catch a National Express coach instead.
Every time I travel to Europe by train, no matter how complex the itinery, it's always the bit on the WCML that's the most difficult.
Every time I travel to Europe by train, no matter how complex the itinery, it's always the bit on the WCML that's the most difficult.
A lot of PSB's are closing to be replaced by ROC's and in cases like Stoke it controls too big an area.
If Stafford was controlled by a different box then most of the WCML would not be affected by an outage at Stoke.
The same if a box Stafford went down then WCML services would divert via Stoke and Colwich
The designers of the SSC would have thought that separate supplies to the Nuneaton, Stafford & Stoke areas meant some trains would still run if the power went down to an area
Comment removed as my understanding of which ROC controlled what is wrong
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LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
I was under the impression that the WCML from north of Watford to south of Crewe (135 route miles, plus some branches) was controlled from Rugby ROC.
Stoke SCC used to control the Norton Bridge and Colwich areas, but fairly recently was reduced essentially to the old North Staffs lines off the main WCML.
Is this not how the WCML works?
Stoke SCC used to control the Norton Bridge and Colwich areas, but fairly recently was reduced essentially to the old North Staffs lines off the main WCML.
Is this not how the WCML works?
Yes this is correct. It is Rugby who control this section.
The issue wasn't with Stoke, it was Rugby ROC. And it wasn't a power supply to the ROC issue.
The area of signalling that was down was Stone to Stafford, North of Stafford to Rugeley and Stafford to Penkridge. Line power was unaffected.
Trains couldn't run via Hixon as signalling was out at Colwich anywa.
Third day in a row now - broken rail somewhere near Penrith, doesn't look like many Euston-Glasgow services are making it through.
So why was the Signalling Down in the Norton Bridge to Rugeley/Penkridge area?
Baxenden Bank
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I'm confused then. I thought Stoke was out as well. Certainly no trains ran south of Macclesfield. EMR turned round at Blythe Bridge (Caverswall Road crossover preumably) rather than Stoke-on-Trent.
There was an earlier outage of some kind affecting Stoke-on-Trent, around the 0830 to 0930 mark. Trains reversed from Macclesfield to run via Crewe.
Yep, I was waiting for the 2031 Euston - Preston last night which terminated at Crewe because of this, or so we were told, which is odd because Preston is south of Penrith by some distance. Luckily I was only traveling as far as Tamworth.
But again, another day, another WCML shambles.
voyagerdude220
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The termination at Crewe was indeed directly related to the track fault south of Penrith.
The disruption caused too many Pendolinos to be stabled at Preston overnight last night, hence why it was terminated at Crewe and presumably went empty to a depot.
This is a typical case of passengers not understanding how a problem miles away could have a weird domino affect and consequently cause problems in a completely different area of the network.
Passengers don't need to know, or even care about how and why, they just want to be able to get to where they've paid good money to get to without being messed around, 3 days out of the last 7, that simply hasn't happened.
Minnietheminx
Member
Must be a day with a "y" in it
I'm sure there are plenty of reasons/excuses for it and I know each of the recent incidents have been down to different causes, but the reality is, as a passenger just wanting to get home from work at a decent time on a train I've paid good money to use, I simply don't care why the service keeps falling apart, it just isn't good enough.
I commute Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Trent Valley, last Tuesday the service fell apart and again today, that's a 50% success rate.
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