Severe disruption Victoria Central side 27/09/26

[Nicholas Lewis]

A fire in the vicinity of Queenstown Road substation has severely disrupted services out of Victoria Cemtral side since around 1400. A very limited service of one train per hour has now commenced but disruption expected till 1000 tomorrow.



Im surmising from the video posted up on Twitter that cables from the substation that feed the central lines have been damaged.

This follows on from the recent fire at Kensal Green feeder station.

 

[Fig]

I believe the fire has taken out the signaling. That smouldering mess used to be a couple of lineside cabinets.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

I believe the fire has taken out the signaling. That smouldering mess used to be a couple of lineside cabinets.

Arghh could be the signalling power pillar then rather than traction cables which would explain better why its wiped out the service as they should be able to run under reduced power even if the substation cables have been severed.

 

[Fig]

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[Nicholas Lewis]

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Looking at the video I'd say its a few metres away maybe here (///pirate.quick.oppose) as these look like transformers and they wouldn't be completely destroyed. Anyhow looking at signalmaps suggests they are ticket working Pourparts Jcn to Battersea Park station as train disappears then reappears a few signal sections later.

 

[cduncan]

Not sure why the Mildmay line is also affected??

 

[InvernessTMD]

Happened twice in the last month or so and I've never heard anything about it before. Is something afoot?

 

[whoosh]

There's been a suspicious number of substation fires on the railway, across the country.

 

[DazCM]

There was another last Tuesday near Oxted which wiped out the Redhill to Tonbridge line too.

 

[devon_belle]

Has anyone attempted to travel this morning? Apparently lots of conflicting information and confusion.

My station has everything cancelled until at least 4pm, so I opted to work from home.

 

[_toommm_]

Has anyone attempted to travel this morning? Apparently lots of conflicting information and confusion.

My station has everything cancelled until at least 4pm, so I opted to work from home.

Nothing from Streatham Hill this morning apart from one early train to Victoria and Bridge respectively. Thameslink was quite busy as a result.

 

[Kilopylae]

There's been a suspicious number of substation fires on the railway, across the country.

There's been five continuous months of summer temperatures and a drought. The lineside environment is now full of dry leaves often sitting in direct sunlight and 25 degrees ambient air temperature.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Has anyone attempted to travel this morning? Apparently lots of conflicting information and confusion.

My station has everything cancelled until at least 4pm, so I opted to work from home.

Fast Lines out of use at Battersea Park ticket working on slow lines Pourparts Jcn to Battersea Park severely restricts what they can do but unusually for Southern it seems a bit of a mash up on the communication front.

They've pulled the East Grinstead to Victoria service entirely and have a bus replacement which is very poor. Yesterday they had them on diversion to London Bdge but surely they could have at least run an hourly shuttle to East Croydon and back or even South Croydon.

Fortunately with Thameslink to London Bridge and it being a Monday there is reasonably comfortable alternative into London and they have ticket acceptance with the underground.

 

[talldave]

Nothing from Streatham Hill this morning apart from one early train to Victoria and Bridge respectively. Thameslink was quite busy as a result.

It seems I was on the only Victoria train this morning - another foray into GTR's super slow delay repay system beckons.

They've given up on service for today so getting home is going to be a bit of a detour!

 

[londonbridge]

I was caught up in this yesterday. Had been to Vicarage Road for football. Overground from Watford High Street to Willesden Junction. First sign of trouble was a Richmond train that had been cancelled, next train was terminating at Shepherds Bush. Behind that was another Richmond and then a Clapham Junction service. Display said “minor delays between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction due to a lineside fire”.

Got to Clapham and found everything cancelled or delayed, staff member said no Southern trains were moving through Clapham so nothing to East/West Croydon, Carshalton/Wallington…..ended up on a South Western to Wimbledon then a 93 and 157 to get home.

 

[devon_belle]

Lined have now reopened. About 11 hours without any trains down the Mole Valley. Strange that the usual Epsom-Horsham shuttle was not introduced in this case, as the units would be at the right end of the line.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There's been five continuous months of summer temperatures and a drought. The lineside environment is now full of dry leaves often sitting in direct sunlight and 25 degrees ambient air temperature.

For sure the dry spell has left a lot of dry vegetation lineside but Network Rails vegetation policy leaves far too much in the vicinity of cable routes so should it catch fire there is a large readymade fuel source that has the potential to impact critical assets as we've seen here.

Anyhow the engineers have replaced whatever got damaged so all lines reopened but Southern arent rushing to reinstate all service groups.

 

[JonathanH]

They've pulled the East Grinstead to Victoria service entirely and have a bus replacement which is very poor. Yesterday they had them on diversion to London Bdge but surely they could have at least run an hourly shuttle to East Croydon and back or even South Croydon.

East Grinstead did resume mid afternoon. No Southern trains ran down the Redhill corridor at all (apart from one journey in the morning peak). I appreciate there is Thameslink and GWR but it does leave gaps later in the day.

 

[SECR 65]

My train between Lewes and Haywards Heath (and subsequently on to Victoria) yesterday was canned with the fire being given reason - surely they could have run it between Eastbourne and Haywards Heath??? Stock displacement I guess?

 

[devon_belle]

surely they could have run it between Eastbourne and Haywards Heath???

Without wishing to sound like a moany commuter, Southern control seem more keen to throw in the towel when there is disruption than other TOCs.

 

[JonathanH]

There doesn't appear to be any sensible contingency plan to set up short workings when disruption closes the full route. Whether it is too difficult, or simply deemed unnecessary, isn't clear.

 

[Mojo]

Not sure why the Mildmay line is also affected??

Platform 1 at Clapham Junction was blocked meaning all trains had to use Platform 17.

 

[talldave]

Without wishing to sound like a moany commuter, Southern control seem more keen to throw in the towel when there is disruption than other TOCs.

They're also atrocious at providing any information during disruption, staff just vanish along with the trains.

Although I didn't hang around long enough yesterday to hear any announcements, they typically let the platform display & PA rabbit on about cancellations. What passengers need is details about RUNNING trains - how long until a train appears and where will it be going? That's all we ask!!

 

[Bikeman78]

They're also atrocious at providing any information during disruption, staff just vanish along with the trains.

Although I didn't hang around long enough yesterday to hear any announcements, they typically let the platform display & PA rabbit on about cancellations. What passengers need is details about RUNNING trains - how long until a train appears and where will it be going? That's all we ask!!

I got stuck at Crawley a few weeks ago owing to a trespasser the Horsham side of the station. My Horsham bound terminated there and remained on the down platform for its booked departure back north. Shortly after the line reopened. That didn't stop the platform staff sending all London bound passengers over the bridge, even though the up platform had a green signal at the London end. In the end three up trains departed from the up platform before the one on the down. As you say, the PA was going off non stop; I'm sure it even mentioned that one up train would no longer be calling at Littlehaven or Ifield, even though those stops are before Crawley. With the terminated Thameslink going nowhere, nothing else could go to Horsham so I aborted and caught a service bus. A relatively simple incident and no one seemed able to provide any useful information to the passengers.

 

[londonbridge]

Platform 1 at Clapham Junction was blocked meaning all trains had to use Platform 17.

Yes, when my train from Willesden was approaching they announced that we were arriving on 17 and to mind the large gap between train and platform, there was an elderly lady who was struggling and a couple of other passengers had to help her off.

 

[cduncan]

Was just odd to see one of the trains just terminated one stop short at Imperial Wharf then restarting itself there by going to Clapham platform 1 and reversing there ECS.