Deepgreen
Established Member
Chaos on the North Downs line today owing to a failure of the level crossing at Betchworth. However, NRE makes no mention of it, despite numerous severe delays and cancellations.
My train from Gatwick got to Reigate and sat there for about 15 minutes, despite a train making it through in the other direction while we waited. Then, to clear the platform for the Southern terminating train, we were de-trained for the unit to go into the siding. Once that had happened and the Southern train departed again (inexplicably waiting in the platform for three minutes after the signal cleared to green and with the driver in his cab and no-one boarding!), the GWR train re-emerged from the siding into service. It then sat, again, in the platform for a long time, with passengers re-boarding and the internal and platform information displays showing the normal stopping pattern.
Having my suspicions about the late running, I checked with the guard and she told me it would stop at Guildford and Reading only! I pointed out that no-one on board knew that and she suddenly thought to make an announcement! My personal journey aside, I don't know why Dorking could not have been included in the reduced stopping pattern (at the cost of only about two or three minutes), as there were a lot of passengers who were trying to reach there.
A pretty lax handling of the problem throughout - the railway has lost any sense of urgency in situations like this - late-running trains given clear signals but just sitting there for several minutes before moving, and some staff not knowing the basics of passenger information - the usual casualty. The train's PA was so soft that no-one could hear properly anyway and the driver had to bellow into his handset while leaning out of his cab door to make himself heard (I was by this time standing by his cab as he was doing it). The platform indicators were, of course, wrong throughout, meaning that newly-arriving passengers (mostly students) kept boarding the train and then having to alight again - a process that repeated umpteen times.
I felt sorry for the driver, who knew what he was about, but who was hindered by so much around him. Why our train could not have simply left Reigate towards Dorking before being forced to de-train by the following Southern train's arrival I don't know, but a train managed to come the other way at the same time across the failed level crossing.
My train from Gatwick got to Reigate and sat there for about 15 minutes, despite a train making it through in the other direction while we waited. Then, to clear the platform for the Southern terminating train, we were de-trained for the unit to go into the siding. Once that had happened and the Southern train departed again (inexplicably waiting in the platform for three minutes after the signal cleared to green and with the driver in his cab and no-one boarding!), the GWR train re-emerged from the siding into service. It then sat, again, in the platform for a long time, with passengers re-boarding and the internal and platform information displays showing the normal stopping pattern.
Having my suspicions about the late running, I checked with the guard and she told me it would stop at Guildford and Reading only! I pointed out that no-one on board knew that and she suddenly thought to make an announcement! My personal journey aside, I don't know why Dorking could not have been included in the reduced stopping pattern (at the cost of only about two or three minutes), as there were a lot of passengers who were trying to reach there.
A pretty lax handling of the problem throughout - the railway has lost any sense of urgency in situations like this - late-running trains given clear signals but just sitting there for several minutes before moving, and some staff not knowing the basics of passenger information - the usual casualty. The train's PA was so soft that no-one could hear properly anyway and the driver had to bellow into his handset while leaning out of his cab door to make himself heard (I was by this time standing by his cab as he was doing it). The platform indicators were, of course, wrong throughout, meaning that newly-arriving passengers (mostly students) kept boarding the train and then having to alight again - a process that repeated umpteen times.
I felt sorry for the driver, who knew what he was about, but who was hindered by so much around him. Why our train could not have simply left Reigate towards Dorking before being forced to de-train by the following Southern train's arrival I don't know, but a train managed to come the other way at the same time across the failed level crossing.
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