Major Disruption through Purley 14/06/2026. Structural problem with rail bridge

[MrJeeves]

We are aware of several county court cases where train companies have sought to argue that "do not travel" messages meant passengers were not entitled to taxis, only to refunds of their tickets.

Again, this is TOC incompetence and washing their hands of their legal obligations. It is possible to both have a Do Not Travel warning, and to complete legal obligations. They are not mutually exclusive.

 

[pepperpot80]

Feel for anyone caught up in this.

Thanks Hadders, hopefully some folk here got some use from a bit of live reporting. Many unpleasant tales stories arose from those joining our train at Guildford (having taken the bus across from Gatwick), so I can only sympathise with those caught in the immediate chaos of the line closure at the airport.
Fortunately the Welwyn sinkholes were behaving better than the Purley ones so LNER got me safely into Leeds this evening.

 

[DelW]

It is doubly unfortunate that today's incident happened when the GWR service through Redhill to Gatwick was suspended, as transfer from Dorking to Dorking Deepdene onto (presumably crammed) GWR trains would be possible.

GWR on the North Downs is (at best) a 3-car 165 every half hour. While that would have helped a bit, it's a drop in the ocean compared with the Brighton Main Line normal capacity. Plus of course those trains already have their own passengers on board.

 

[Belperpete]

I Flew into Gatwick at 1.15pm this afternoon to find the entire upper concourse rammed with no trains to London. I cut my losses quickly and decided to book a Hotel at Haywards Heath for the night- catching the Ore service which was pretty much the only service running - luckily I’m off work tomorrow but I’m not paying £200 to get home when a Premier Inn is £52 !

I flew in about an hour later, and the scene was similar.

I was travelling back to Wales, but as travelling back direct would have been a bit tight, I had already decided to break journey in Birmingham in case the plane was late in and I missed the last connection. The only issue was how to get there.

I was advised to catch the RRB to Guildford, and then via Reading. The queue for the RRB inside the concourse didn't look too bad, but I had no clue what was outside. Fortunately, immediately outside, we were separated into two separate queues, a short queue for people for Guildford, and a humongous queue for Croydon. I was on the second RRB to Guildford, after waiting about half an hour. In that time, there wasn't a single RRB to Croydon, and that queue just kept growing.

The trouble is, you just don't know what to do for the best in such situations. They were advising people to catch local buses to East Grinstead and Dorking, but I could see the hordes of people waiting at those stops. With a very limited (hourly or two-hourly) service, if I couldn't get on the bus, it would be a long wait for the next.

A woman in our queue tried booking a Uber to Dorking, but in the minute or two that she found some people to share it with, the cost had risen from £85 to something like £150. And no clue how long before it arrived.

The people I feel really sorry for are for those foreigners arriving at Gatwick, with no clue what to do for the best.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Full service restored this morning so looks like it was relatively straightforward to rectify the issue unlike the claims I suspect.

 

[Belperpete]

Thanks Hadders, hopefully some folk here got some use from a bit of live reporting. Many unpleasant tales stories arose from those joining our train at Guildford (having taken the bus across from Gatwick), so I can only sympathise with those caught in the immediate chaos of the line closure at the airport.

It was made very clear to those in the queue for the Guildford RRB that ticket acceptance was NOT in place, and that we had to have a "SWR ticket". Although a lot were ignoring that advice, and a lot just didn't understand it. One guy who had a ticket to Swindon had been advised to travel on the RRB to Guildford and then via Reading was trying to buy a fresh ticket to Guildford but without success.

I can understand them not putting ticket acceptance in place, as otherwise the RRBs would have been even more overwhelmed. When we got to Dorking, they were asking for volunteers to get off and catch a train to London, to free up some space on the bus for the crowd wanting to get on.

 

[devon_belle]

It was made very clear to those in the queue for the Guildford RRB that ticket acceptance was NOT in place, and that we had to have a "SWR ticket". Although a lot were ignoring that advice, and a lot just didn't understand it. One guy who had a ticket to Swindon had been advised to travel on the RRB to Guildford and then via Reading was trying to buy a fresh ticket to Guildford but without success.

I can understand them not putting ticket acceptance in place, as otherwise the RRBs would have been even more overwhelmed. When we got to Dorking, they were asking for volunteers to get off and catch a train to London, to free up some space on the bus for the crowd wanting to get on.

No doubt confusion was added to by the official message saying tickets could be used on GWR services "Dorking Deepdene to Gatwick Airport and Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo". I'm not even sure what they meant by that and I'm a fairly confident user. Assuming it is a typo but the message was updated to correct spelling of Deepdene so it was reviewed at least once.

 

[Swedenorer]

As usual, GTR' response, from a customer service perspective, has been woeful.

Advising passengers "not to travel" is unacceptable, particularly when those passengers will be arriving at, or departing from, an airport. GTR are legally required to convey any passengers who has already purchased a ticket to the destination printed on their ticket. This includes, if necessary, via taxi. There has been no evidence of that today. Instead, passengers are being left to fend for themselves.

What would you do?
Call in more staff? Good luck mate. But say you have managed to find a few who made the mistake of actually answering the phone?

Near here is a yard of a bus company that might - I say might - if rung have manged to provide maybe eight vehicles. It's going to take the manager an hour to ring round to find eight drivers who will work, another hour to get them there and on the road and maybe a total of three to get a vehicle to say Three Bridges. The they'd have to be given a route.

Or the taxi driver rung up to take a pax from say Horsham to Gatwick who knows it may take months to get paid by the railway and anyway who has a booking from a customer who pays him £25 cash every Sunday 52 weeks a year.

You can use all the bold you want but in the real world at 13.09 on a Sunday the range of possibilities of people hanging about ready to help you out is shall we say limited and telling people not to add to the problem is the only policy worth thinking about.

 

[winks]

It was made very clear to those in the queue for the Guildford RRB that ticket acceptance was NOT in place, and that we had to have a "SWR ticket". Although a lot were ignoring that advice, and a lot just didn't understand it. One guy who had a ticket to Swindon had been advised to travel on the RRB to Guildford and then via Reading was trying to buy a fresh ticket to Guildford but without success.

I can understand them not putting ticket acceptance in place, as otherwise the RRBs would have been even more overwhelmed. When we got to Dorking, they were asking for volunteers to get off and catch a train to London, to free up some space on the bus for the crowd wanting to get on.

I don’t think anyone really cared yesterday about ticket acceptance. Too many frustrated, angry and foreign travellers who quite rightly just want to get to their destination. No way the railway would enforce that on a Sunday with all the disruption. Just get on any train and do what you have to do Im afraid.

 

[greatkingrat]

Is the line fully open as normal, or are there still speed restrictions in place over the affected area?

 

[Horizon22]

Again, we politely disagree. We are aware of several county court cases where train companies have sought to argue that "do not travel" messages meant passengers were not entitled to taxis, only to refunds of their tickets.

“Do Not Travel” does not mean that, although people are often encouraged to do that. It is effectively a demand reduction system. Evidently on some occasions, some TOCs and some individuals may not have interpreted this correctly in a practical basis.

 

[Bikeman78]

The trouble is, you just don't know what to do for the best in such situations. They were advising people to catch local buses to East Grinstead and Dorking, but I could see the hordes of people waiting at those stops. With a very limited (hourly or two-hourly) service, if I couldn't get on the bus, it would be a long wait for the next.

The trouble with that is that it renders the bus service completely useless for all other journeys. No one would be able to board at any intermediate stops. One of the few times I got stuck in Belgium, the train terminated at some random shack and all the passengers bailed off and filled the local bus outside the station. They seem pretty relaxed over there; the driver did not attempt to ask anyone for fares. It was full to bursting, and that was from an off peak two car EMU. Fortunately the station PA announced that the train would proceed just before the bus departed, at which point everyone ran back to the train.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jun 2026 ==

It was made very clear to those in the queue for the Guildford RRB that ticket acceptance was NOT in place, and that we had to have a "SWR ticket". Although a lot were ignoring that advice, and a lot just didn't understand it. One guy who had a ticket to Swindon had been advised to travel on the RRB to Guildford and then via Reading was trying to buy a fresh ticket to Guildford but without success.

I can understand them not putting ticket acceptance in place, as otherwise the RRBs would have been even more overwhelmed. When we got to Dorking, they were asking for volunteers to get off and catch a train to London, to free up some space on the bus for the crowd wanting to get on.

Were ticket checks happening? If not then ticket acceptance or not is a moot point. Why would anyone with a ticket to Swindon be buying a new ticket? Via Guildford is a perfectly reasonable route with or without disruption. Turning people away from rail replacement buses simply moves the problem to the local service buses.

 

[Jan Mayen]

The trouble with that is that it renders the bus service completely useless for all other journeys. No one would be able to board at any intermediate stops. One of the few times I got stuck in Belgium, the train terminated at some random shack and all the passengers bailed off and filled the local bus outside the station. They seem pretty relaxed over there; the drive did not attempt to ask anyone for fares. It was full to bursting, and that was an off peak two car EMU. Fortunately the station PA announced that the train would proceed just before the bus departed, at which point everyone ran back to the train.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jun 2026 ==


Were ticket checks happening? If not then ticket acceptance or not is a moot point. Why would anyone with a ticket to Swindon be buying a new ticket? Via Guildford is a perfectly reasonable route with or without disruption. Turning people away from rail replacement buses simply moves the problem to the local service buses.

A ticket check did take place on my Havant to Clapham Junction service yesterday. As mine was valid, I can't say what they did with anyone holding a Brighton to London (or whatever) ticket.

 

[Bikeman78]

A ticket check did take place on my Havant to Clapham Junction service yesterday. As mine was valid, I can't say what they did with anyone holding a Brighton to London (or whatever) ticket.

Thanks. It would take a particularly heartless guard to ask someone to pay for a new ticket when their journey had been extended by two hours or more.

Does anyone know if the service buses were making people buy new tickets or just letting people on? I can imagine the dwells at the Gatwick stop were very long if everyone had to buy a ticket.

 

[dastocks]

Is the line fully open as normal, or are there still speed restrictions in place over the affected area?

Judge for yourself:

Realtime Trains | Departures from East Croydon all day on 15/06/2026

Train information at East Croydon all day on 15/06/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | Departures from Gatwick Airport all day on 15/06/2026

Train information at Gatwick Airport all day on 15/06/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Royston Vasey]

A ticket check did take place on my Havant to Clapham Junction service yesterday. As mine was valid, I can't say what they did with anyone holding a Brighton to London (or whatever) ticket.

I had a Super Off Peak Day Return from Cambridgeshire to Hove and I would be shocked if there was any resistance to any south coast to London ticket being accepted anywhere in the Southern region by yesterday evening.

That said, I was not checked at all between Hove-Portsmouth Harbour, which was full but nowhere near as crowded as the Southampton service just before it. A very large number of people alighted at Havant to join the hordes, presumably most of whom were on Brighton to London tickets. I stayed on until Portsmouth (allowed by the acceptance wording) and am glad I did!

I was not checked either between Portsmouth Harbour and Waterloo, which was full in my Coach 2 and I suspect very crowded further back. Coach 5 of 8 was locked out and the subject of multiple exasperated announcements by the guard instructing people not to force the doors or sit in there. I never saw the guard, but perhaps he was marooned in coaches 6-8!

I had to be waved through at the Waterloo gateline, but I had had to be waved through the Hove gateline as well, and Victoria earlier so that doesn't necessarily mean much! I think my ticket would be valid at Waterloo via Clapham Junction anyway, and although I said "disruption" to the guy, he had opened it before I had even said the word.

 

[Belperpete]

The trouble with that is that it renders the bus service completely useless for all other journeys. No one would be able to board at any intermediate stops.

That was effectively what happened with the Guildford RRBs. People were unable to get on at the intermediate stops because the buses were being filled at Gatwick with Peter ple headed to Guildford.

Were ticket checks happening? If not then ticket acceptance or not is a moot point.

They certainly weren't happening on the RRBs at Gatwick. However, I think that the announcements were putting some people off using the RRBs, which was I suspect the intention.

I took up the offer of a train from Dorking, to free up space on the bus, so I have no idea what was happening as regards tickets when the RRBs arrived at Guildford, and people tried to access the station there. My ticket obviously didn't operate the barrier at Dorking, but I was waved through.

Why would anyone with a ticket to Swindon be buying a new ticket? Via Guildford is a perfectly reasonable route with or without disruption. Turning people away from rail replacement buses simply moves the problem to the local service buses.

Because we were being told that you had to have a SWR ticket, and the guy didn't think he had a "SWR ticket". Most people don't have a clue about permitted routes.

 

[AndrewE]

I took up the offer of a train from Dorking, to free up space on the bus, so I have no idea what was happening as regards tickets when the RRBs arrived at Guildford, and people tried to access the station there. My ticket obviously didn't operate the barrier at Dorking, but I was waved through.


Because we were being told that you had to have a SWR ticket, and the guy didn't think he had a "SWR ticket". Most people don't have a clue about permitted routes.

Is it fair to help other people by saying "When there is this much disruption those rules are void, just get on a train and hope to get to your destination?" Or would you be setting them up for aggro further into their journeys?

(We were at Lime St with some friends hoping to travel to Penkridge when we learnt of a fatality at Winsford or somewhere similar. They were astonished when we shot straight down to the Wirral lines with them and jumped on the first train to Chester, they had no idea that they had an alternative route available, or that with all WCML trains stopped they could probably have used that route even if their tickets had not been valid that way anyway...)

 

[MotCO]

Near here is a yard of a bus company that might - I say might - if rung have manged to provide maybe eight vehicles. It's going to take the manager an hour to ring round to find eight drivers who will work, another hour to get them there and on the road and maybe a total of three to get a vehicle to say Three Bridges. The they'd have to be given a route.

The other problem could be that any such drivers may then not be able to drive their scheduled bus duty on Monday due to driver's hours regulations, so it may be easier for the bus company to say 'no can do'.

 

[apinnard]

Again, we politely disagree. We are aware of several county court cases….

We are?

 

[Bikeman78]

Because we were being told that you had to have a SWR ticket, and the guy didn't think he had a "SWR ticket". Most people don't have a clue about permitted routes.

Shouldn't that be GWR rather than SWR? Anyone travelling from Gatwick to Swindon is unlikely to use SWR. Clearly they have to use GWR whatever route they take. The bottom line is that, during a severe event like this, anyone should be allowed to use any possible route, on any possible TOC, without extra charge.

The situation with local service buses is rather more difficult. However, given the low fares, more people will simply pay up and crowd out the bus, even if no ticket acceptance is in place.

 

[MotCO]

The bottom line is that, during a severe event like this, anyone should be allowed to use any possible route, on any possible TOC, without extra charge.

The situation with local service buses is rather more difficult. However, given the low fares, more people will simply pay up and crowd out the bus, even if no ticket acceptance is in place.

I agree that the railway companies should all help out when there is disruption, and tickets should be valid on any appropriate routing.

However, with regard to local buses, why should a bus company accept non-paying passengers who could crowd out potential fare paying customers, without the bus company having some sort of assurance that they will be recompensed for their assistance? It is slightly different when the local company is a Go-Ahead subsidiary, i.e the same as (or was) the rail company, but for a non-related bus company, where and what is the incentive to accept non-fare paying passengers?

 

[Deepgreen]

I don’t think anyone really cared yesterday about ticket acceptance. Too many frustrated, angry and foreign travellers who quite rightly just want to get to their destination. No way the railway would enforce that on a Sunday with all the disruption. Just get on any train and do what you have to do Im afraid.

As should be the case with a proper national network, without the artificial constraints of TOCs! Will we ever see that, though...

 

[trainmania100]

The shape of the hole in the pictures from my perspective looks like all of the material is failing / starting to fail, looks like some sort metal sheet sitting on top of the beams to hold the track up, I'm guessing that'll need replacing ?

 

[JamesT]

As should be the case with a proper national network, without the artificial constraints of TOCs! Will we ever see that, though...

There can still be differentiation between trains with a "proper national network". e.g. in France it's all run by SNCF, but you're not swapping between InOui and OuiGo if there's disruption.

 

[Bikeman78]

I agree that the railway companies should all help out when there is disruption, and tickets should be valid on any appropriate routing.

However, with regard to local buses, why should a bus company accept non-paying passengers who could crowd out potential fare paying customers, without the bus company having some sort of assurance that they will be recompensed for their assistance? It is slightly different when the local company is a Go-Ahead subsidiary, i.e the same as (or was) the rail company, but for a non-related bus company, where and what is the incentive to accept non-fare paying passengers?

I didn't mean to imply that service buses should let people on without payment from the railway. I've no idea how such a payment would be implemented though, in terms of sorting displaced rail passengers from local bus passengers. Given that the queue at Gatwick was in the hundreds, local bus passengers at other stops were stuffed whatever happened. Bus fares are usually quite cheap so no doubt people just paid up.

 

[Surreytraveller]

I didn't mean to imply that service buses should let people on without payment from the railway. I've no idea how such a payment would be implemented though, in terms of sorting displaced rail passengers from local bus passengers. Given that the queue at Gatwick was in the hundreds, local bus passengers at other stops were stuffed whatever happened. Bus fares are usually quite cheap so no doubt people just paid up.

Bus companies are generally paid a lump sum per hour to accept tickets

 

[Bikeman78]

Bus companies are generally paid a lump sum per hour to accept tickets

Thanks. As it happens, I resorted to a bus from Crawley to Littlehaven yesterday. No stopping trains for almost two hours. Cost me three quid. I'm surprised more people didn't do it. They just waited at Crawley station.