Birmingham Cross City/Rugeley Line disruption (10/08)

[londonmidland]

There’s currently a build up of services around the Birmingham New Street area due to yet more signalling and points failures in the Aston area. The Cross City line is pretty much up the spout at this point.

Cross Country are also being affected, as their long distance services are being diverted via Four Oaks and Lichfield, due to planned engineering works.

1S55 to York has left Birmingham New Street 56 minutes late.

 

[Mugby]

Cross Country are also being affected, as their long distance services are being diverted via Four Oaks and Lichfield, due to planned engineering works.

1S55 to York has left Birmingham New Street 56 minutes late.

Good job it had 15 minutes standing time at Burton-on-Trent and 30 minutes standing time at Derby!

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

There’s currently a build up of services around the Birmingham New Street area due to yet more signalling and points failures in the Aston area. The Cross City line is pretty much up the spout at this point.

Cross Country are also being affected, as their long distance services are being diverted via Four Oaks and Lichfield, due to planned engineering works.

1S55 to York has left Birmingham New Street 56 minutes late.

How did this incident lead to there being no trains from Rugby to Northampton between 21.31 (the delayed 21.16) and 00.08 (the delayed 23.32)? The 22.16 ran but went through Rugby without stopping, 40 minutes late (I believe it did stop at Northampton).

I just missed the first one and it was a horrendous wait, which I have complained to LNWR about (although at least Rugby has staff, unlocked toilets and a drinks/snack machine so it could have been worse).

 

[Intercity_225]

Good job it had 15 minutes standing time at Burton-on-Trent and 30 minutes standing time at Derby!

Out of interest, why did it have so much standing time?

 

[The Planner]

Out of interest, why did it have so much standing time?

When HS2 works at Washwood Heath are taking place, XC divert via Lichfield. As they lose time doing this, instead of retiming the services all the way they drop back a path at Derby.

 

[Bungle]

Wife was caught up in this - was a bit of a nightmare at Birmingham by all accounts, with nobody seeming to know what was going on.

At around 2230ish, with nothing having gone north for ages, there was an already-full train to Lichfield in P7, which she made it to but was then cancelled without explanation and everyone turfed off. Then another came in, itself heavily delayed, and after a long wait with no announcements or advice, it was announced that the train was going to run fast to Sutton and the Lichfield - cue a lot of grumbling from folk for intermediate stops who could have been on their way home in taxis or buses much earlier.

Once it eventually departed at 2327 (original 2208 departure), the guard - after apologising for the “bloody mess” everyone had been subjected to that evening - announced that they had now been told they were terminating at Four Oaks and not Lichfield after Sutton. Cue uproar. Nothing else ran to Lichfield that night, so unless the RRBs were still shuttling from earlier in the day, there will have been a lot of stranded people.

The major problem was not the disruption - it happens - but the complete lack of information, advice and comms from WMR. Wife said the XC guard was excellent on the inbound to Birmingham from Cardiff, where as WMR were the opposite. There will have been a lot of very angry passengers, by the sound of it with good reason.

 

[SJN]

Wife was caught up in this - was a bit of a nightmare at Birmingham by all accounts, with nobody seeming to know what was going on.

At around 2230ish, with nothing having gone north for ages, there was an already-full train to Lichfield in P7, which she made it to but was then cancelled without explanation and everyone turfed off. Then another came in, itself heavily delayed, and after a long wait with no announcements or advice, it was announced that the train was going to run fast to Sutton and the Lichfield - cue a lot of grumbling from folk for intermediate stops who could have been on their way home in taxis or buses much earlier.

Once it eventually departed at 2327 (original 2208 departure), the guard - after apologising for the “bloody mess” everyone had been subjected to that evening - announced that they had now been told they were terminating at Four Oaks and not Lichfield after Sutton. Cue uproar. Nothing else ran to Lichfield that night, so unless the RRBs were still shuttling from earlier in the day, there will have been a lot of stranded people.

The major problem was not the disruption - it happens - but the complete lack of information, advice and comms from WMR. Wife said the XC guard was excellent on the inbound to Birmingham from Cardiff, where as WMR were the opposite. There will have been a lot of very angry passengers, by the sound of it with good reason.

The guard probably wasn’t aware that the train would be terminated until they made the announcement. Unfortunately the train crew often don’t get told anything in advance.

 

[Bungle]

The guard probably wasn’t aware that the train would be terminated until they made the announcement. Unfortunately the train crew often don’t get told anything in advance.

Oh I know, I don’t blame the guard. By all accounts the staff on both trains were quite visibly and audibly as irritated as the passengers.

Trust me, the airline world is much the same as the railways in that regard!!

 

[class 9]

Oh I know, I don’t blame the guard. By all accounts the staff on both trains were quite visibly and audibly as irritated as the passengers.

Trust me, the airline world is much the same as the railways in that regard!!

At least the railway has delay repay irrespective of cause, airlines have the 3hr delay threshold & exceptional circumstances cover vast majority of reasons, so usually don't pay out!

 

[snowball]

I assume this is what this press release is about?

Cross City north and Walsall services restart after lineside fire repairs

The lines between Birmingham New Street, Lichfield Trent Valley and Walsall via Aston have reopened after overnight repairs to fire-damaged power and signalling cables.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

The lines between Birmingham New Street, Lichfield Trent Valley and Walsall via Aston have reopened after overnight repairs to fire-damaged power and signalling cables.

Services were affected throughout Friday (9 August) until the line reopened this morning (Saturday 10 August) after the embankment fire near Aston station on Friday morning.

The damage needed extensive repairs which took place overnight and into the early hours of this morning. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

Neil Gaskin, programme director for Network Rail’s Central route, said: “The affected lines have now reopened. Thank you to passengers for their patience while we repaired this extensive damage so trains could once again run safely along these routes.”

Jonny Wiseman, customer experience director for West Midlands Railway, said: “I would like to thank our customers for their patience while these essential repairs were carried out. With the lines now reopened, train services are able to resume.

“Any passenger whose journey was delayed by 15 minutes or more as a result of this disruption can claim compensation against the cost of their ticket via the Delay Repay scheme.”

Passengers can get the latest travel information at www.nationalrail.co.uk and www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk.

 

[mangyiscute]

I got stuck in this too trying to get from Birmingham to Reading, for some reason there were really big delays on all trains coming through Soho junction into New Street on saturday evening too - perhaps cause that was the diversion route?
the 2003 service to Bournemouth came into a very packed platform since all the reading fans were heading back from the football and it was already delayed meaning the platform got super busy, it then stopped short cause people were beyond the yellow line but then everyone just crammed up next to the train so it was impossbile for it to move forward anymore. Thankfully the front unit (it was a 4+5 voyager) was all platformed so they just opened that one after about 10 mins and everyone crammed on, not sure what happened after that since I was on the train but i don't think the back unit could've ever been fully opened (unless XC can manually open just one door?). It was all a huge mess.

 

[Bungle]

I assume this is what this press release is about?

That was about a separate issue on Friday. The line was open again Saturday morning and running normally.

Falling over again on Saturday evening in a very similar location was a separate incident. Unclear if directly related. Maybe, maybe not.