Experiences of service recovery (or lack of) on GTR Great Northern

TSGN Spotter said:

OHLE issues between Downham Market and Kings Lynn. Signaller at Watlington reported significant continuous arch from rear pan on 1T55

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And again tonight, some train fault causing most services to be cancelled (on one of the single track stretches between Littleport and Kings Lynn by the looks of it?)

As a heads up to everyone, sadly a person was hit by a train in between Potter's Bar and Welwyn Garden City. Currently severe disruption on all lines going through the area, expected to last until 5pm/beginning of rush hour.

I'm guessing even after everything is fully cleared we will get a partial/disrupted Great Northern/GTR service for the rest of the day.

An_Engineer said:

As a heads up to everyone, sadly a person was hit by a train in between Potter's Bar and Welwyn Garden City. Currently severe disruption on all lines going through the area, expected to last until 5pm/beginning of rush hour.

I'm guessing even after everything is fully cleared we will get a partial/disrupted Great Northern/GTR service for the rest of the day.

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So tragic that in less than a week there have been three passengers hit by trains between New Southgate and Hatfield.

BBC News website has this today:

A railway passenger group is calling for urgent improvements to train services connecting Norfolk and Cambridgeshire after recording a steep rise in the number of cancellations.

Great Northern, which runs services between King's Lynn and Cambridge, says the hot, dry summer has been a major factor, with failing air conditioning systems on trains and damaged tracks.

The Fen Line Users Association (FLUA), which monitors disruption on the cross-county line, found that in July 380 services were cancelled - up from 177 in June.

A spokesperson for Great Northern admitted the service had fallen well below the standard customers "rightly expect".

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A spokesperson for Great Northern admitted the service had fallen well below the standard customers "rightly expect".

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Has it ever been what the customers 'rightly expect'?

The 0815 Letchworth to London Kings Cross skipped stops and did not gain back any time

Link to mentioned service

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Intercity_225 said:

Has it ever been what the customers 'rightly expect'?

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No, though it has moved from 'extremely poor' before the December 2025 timetable change to 'totally unacceptable', and then, incredibly, worse still to 'complete disaster' over the last few months.

Of course they are now using 'hot weather' as an excuse, as if the service was perfectly fine before June

Look at this week for example - the 0946 Ely-KGX was cancelled *again* today, third time this week (and it is only Thursday!).

MikeWM said:

No, though it has moved from 'extremely poor' before the December 2025 timetable change to 'totally unacceptable', and then, incredibly, worse still to 'complete disaster' over the last few months.

Of course they are now using 'hot weather' as an excuse, as if the service was perfectly fine before June

Look at this week for example - the 0946 Ely-KGX was cancelled *again* today, third time this week (and it is only Thursday!).

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It has very little to do with hot weather and everything to do with 379 issues, timetable fallibility and general infrastructure issues.

Intercity_225 said:

Has it ever been what the customers 'rightly expect'?

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When it was the Fenman in the 60s and cost £1 from Lynn to London, then I would say so!

As noted here previously, I track my season ticket travel (and also additional journeys, discounted travel, delay repay compensation etc.).
Here's 2025 (full) and 2026 (to date for comparison). 2026 delays have now exceeded the whole of 2025 and there's still 4 months to go.
It is the journey home that has a significant increase in delays, these being primarily cancelled trains, so 30+ mins delayed.
50% of my commutes in 2025 were delayed, 55% so far in 2026.

Ely to Kings Lynn fell over *yet again* tonight, apparently due to damage to the overhead wires - they don't seem to be offering much information about where or how, though they are saying for tomorrow morning's 'service' that 'Some trains also require repairs and a reduced number of train units will be available to run in the morning.', so the implication is that something (presumably a 379) has done something bad again. From RTT, trains seemed to get to/from Kings Lynn fine until about 1800 and then just stopped, nothing appeared to be stranded so not entirely sure what has happened.

This line must be a very good candidate for the 'things that go wrong most often' award.

As usual GN have decided to declare they have given up serving Cambridge to Ely as well, despite the fact there are no issues on this section. Though actually their warning that 'No Great Northern services will run between Cambridge and Kings Lynn until the end of the day' isn't entirely true, as 1T52 (the 1824 KGX-KLN) did run as far as Ely, which I was rather pleased about as I was on it trying to get home. It then sat at Ely for 1.5 hours before taking the path of 1T65 from there, though for some reason it only then got as far as Cambridge. 1T60 (the 2024 KGX-ELY) appears to have got to Ely as well, forming 1T67 back to KGX.

Even before the regularly-scheduled meltdown, the service wasn't exactly stellar, with 4 trains in a row from Ely towards London all cancelled (the 1151, 1251 and 1317 all didn't run, and the 1217 left 22 minutes late and only got as far as Cambridge). I was actually going for the 1151 so this cancellation was fairly irritating. I ended up on the WAML instead, with GA running a good service as usual.

MikeWM said:

they don't seem to be offering much information about where or how, though they are saying for tomorrow morning's 'service' that 'Some trains also require repairs and a reduced number of train units will be available to run in the morning.', so the implication is that something (presumably a 379) has done something bad again.

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Pretty much what the "internal" (available to GA staff, including those who operate Cambridge/Ely) info says. There' is no information or indication of where or how the damage occurred.

saismee said:

Pretty much what the "internal" (available to GA staff, including those who operate Cambridge/Ely) info says. There' is no information or indication of where or how the damage occurred.

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But what about the passengers divine right to know every intricate detail, they must be told!!


If the information says no trains Cambridge to Kings Lynn, why does it matter to them where in that section the damage is?

While it is true that they dont know how or where the damage is occuring, 5Z00 is plying the line as we speak checking the state of things. Which one would argue is better than running a full service and pitentially damaging more trains.

Its unfortunate it has happened on a Bank Holiday though as it made sourcing replacement busses impossible.

RailwayRookie said:

But what about the passengers divine right to know every intricate detail, they must be told!!

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I mean, given we’re paying the salaries of railway staff through compulsory fares and tax, I think an explanation from said staff as to why our contracted journey is not being fulfilled despite on a line where there are no issues is justified really.

All trains from Ely to Kings Cross cancelled this morning, the first scheduled to run is 0747 (first should have been 0521).
No taxis or buses available.
Having got the 0553 to Cambridge (London Liverpool Street), in on P1 and went for the 0621 Brighton to St Pancras P7. It's departure time came and went, the train did not.
30 seconds before the 0625 Kings Cross semi-fast departed, finally an announcement"we're waiting for a relief driver". Cue swift exit by many passengers and thankfully, across to P8 for the KGX.
Looking at RTT the 0621 Brighton eventually departed 12 mins late.

At the point passengers were transferring from P1 to P7 why did no one say, by the way, the Brighton driver isn't here so you might want to get the Kings Cross instead?

Edit: there is also a level crossing failure south of Royston, so more delays as trains are having to go through very slowly.

I don’t understand why they are not running to Ely. Unless it is typical GTR style of not telling passengers the whole truth. (Ok it isn’t GTR any more it is nationalised. However it has as yet not changed the “you are on your own” philosophy when disruption happens.