Avoid travelling until further notice 13 Aug 2026 - Seen at Three Bridges

[Jan Mayen]

Saw this at Three Bridges Station yesterday, Thursday 13 August at 2259.
I'm not sure if it's related to the Lewrs derailment, so I've posted it here.
(Photo is of a departure board at Three Bridges saying DUE TO MAJOR DUSRUPTION AVOID TRAVELLING ON TRAIN SERVICES UNTIL FURTHE NOTICE)
It seemed a bit extreme. As a minor point of interest, I got home earlier than I would have expected, as I managed to get a late running train. (The 2159 London Victoria to Gatwick Airport, as you ask. I got on board around 2201, changed at Gatwick).

 

[bramling]

Saw this at Three Bridges Station yesterday, Thursday 13 August at 2259.
I'm not sure if it's related to the Lewrs derailment, so I've posted it here.
(Photo is of a departure board at Three Bridges saying DUE TO MAJOR DUSRUPTION AVOID TRAVELLING ON TRAIN SERVICES UNTIL FURTHE NOTICE)
It seemed a bit extreme. As a minor point of interest, I got home earlier than I would have expected, as I managed to get a late running train. (The 2159 London Victoria to Gatwick Airport, as you ask. I got on board around 2201, changed at Gatwick).

This is essentially the TSGN/GTR attitude to disruption. Pull the shutters down, tell the passengers to get lost (quite literally in some cases), and write off the rest of the day.

Last night, for example, there was virtually no TL service on the GN side at all, which was variously being blamed on OHLE damage, and the Lewes incident - neither of which were even on the line of route, let alone on the GN side. What it suggests, once again, is their control overwhelmed.

 

[allbarbarry]

Horsham to Peterborough still being cancelled this morning.

 

[mq90]

Same at St Albans City. I just was met with down shutters now. Lucky I can work from home but my partner needs to get to London somehow.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Why are stations ‘pulling the shutters down’? Presumably staff unable to get to work as their trains aren’t running. I.e. booking office still closed from last night.

 

[phil1960]

Why are stations ‘pulling the shutters down’? Presumably staff unable to get to work as their trains aren’t running. I.e. booking office still closed from last night.

It's not stations pulling the shutters down. The CIS notice for Three Bridges and most others on GTRs routes are put out by their control team. Having done CIS and all other disruption information etc. for 8 years at another TOC in the South East, we took pride in the information we put out. I certainly would have worded that notice for that station and other ones on the line of route much better.

Station staff are often frustrated when the CIS/National Rail Enquires etc. isn't promptly updated and messages like this appear.

 

[mq90]

For what it’s worth I managed to get a train two hours later than planned. I couldn’t bear working from home in this heat and my employer was understanding. Seems like Thameslink is gradually increasing service and should be back to almost normal around noon? Certainly between Bedford and London.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

This is essentially the TSGN/GTR attitude to disruption. Pull the shutters down, tell the passengers to get lost (quite literally in some cases), and write off the rest of the day.

Last night, for example, there was virtually no TL service on the GN side at all, which was variously being blamed on OHLE damage, and the Lewes incident - neither of which were even on the line of route, let alone on the GN side. What it suggests, once again, is their control overwhelmed.

As discussed across this forum on many threads Thameslink is by design a very difficult railway to run segregated not that shouldn't be addressed. To be fair though on the South side last night they did instigate a East Croydon-Brighton Thameslink special service every 30mins in the end although never found out why all the 9Jxx had been cancelled as they dont interwork with Brighton line Thameslinks generally.

 

[rmHawk765]

Last night, for example, there was virtually no TL service on the GN side at all, which was variously being blamed on OHLE damage, and the Lewes incident - neither of which were even on the line of route, let alone on the GN side. What it suggests, once again, is their control overwhelmed.

Their control is too ashamed to just say 'your Peterborough train is cancelled because its driver is stuck somewhere halfway down the southeast' or the reverse, 'your Brighton train is cancelled because of an issue somewhere between central London and Bedford'. So I agree that it probably gets overwhelmed but additionally there is little way to explain the reasons for many Thameslink cancellations that would make sense to passengers.

Honestly though blaming Thameslink issues on the Lewes incident may be the stupidest they have used in a while. There cannot possibly be any genuine link in terms of crewing arrangements (even with Thameslink's absolute mockery of crewing arrangements and good as non-existent control). There *apparently* was slight disruption on the actual East Coast Main Line last evening due to a safety inspection (somewhere between Alexandra Palace and Hertford North which is as vague as it gets) and a signalling failure in the Moorgate tunnels. But it is unclear why there were still many cancellations to Moorgate and Thameslink trains in the morning peak today (which is always a recipe for major overcrowding).

 

[Merle Haggard]

I wonder if the person who drafted that instruction has thought it through.
'Until further notice' (that we no longer need to 'avoid train travel') . How will that 'further notice' be publicised?

 

[phil1960]

Their control is too ashamed to just say 'your Peterborough train is cancelled because its driver is stuck somewhere halfway down the southeast' or the reverse, 'your Brighton train is cancelled because of an issue somewhere between central London and Bedford'.

Honestly though blaming Thameslink issues on the Lewes incident may be the stupidest excuse TSGN has used in a while.

I was caught up with the TL cancellations at St Neots tryong to get back to London. Cancellation reasons were all showing OHL fault as the Thameslink core got severely disrupted.

No doubt the answer is crewing, but in a case like this it would be good for a back up plan for TL to run some sort of service between Kings Cross and Peterborough to at least serve stations north of Hitchin. The route via Royston will keep going thanks to GN running an all day service to all stations.

 

[RJ]

As discussed across this forum on many threads Thameslink is by design a very difficult railway to run segregated not that shouldn't be addressed. To be fair though on the South side last night they did instigate a East Croydon-Brighton Thameslink special service every 30mins in the end although never found out why all the 9Jxx had been cancelled as they dont interwork with Brighton line Thameslinks generally.

Yes, I was on 9Z21, 0028 from East Croydon which is eventually left around 75 minutes down. There was no prior warning this service was running, I just made an educated guess after seeing that an inbound 9Z20 was terminating at East Croydon at 0110 and watching Tracksy to see the headcode change to another class 9.

I was lucky to be able to get to East Croydon from Central London, ended up on the 0035 from London Bridge. I guess many others had to fend for themselves.

The do not travel warnings were headlined for St Pancras to Bedford and Lewes to Brighton so people travelling from St Pancras down to the BML weren’t necessarily aware the overnight service would be deleted.

 

[rmHawk765]

No doubt the answer is crewing, but in a case like this it would be good for a back up plan for TL to run some sort of service between Kings Cross and Peterborough to at least serve stations north of Hitchin.

This was the promise back when ECML TL became a thing, but King's Cross is now at capacity and there is no reliable way to send unplanned trains into it at peak. This doesn't mean the trains have to be cancelled though, another option is reversing using Highbury Vale Junction just past Finsbury (therefore terminating at Finsbury) which at least some TSGN drivers sign. Not ideal but at least you have the Tube and can still get to where you need to be. The Dec 2025 timetable has only locked TL into having to always work even more.

 

[Deepgreen]

It's just all-too-typical of the information regime on today's railway - slack, unhelpful and often plain wrong. We squander the information-dissemination technology and systems we have by providing grim stuff like this.