Brighton Main Line closed again

[Minstral25]

Flooding this time.

Seems to have been a nightmare in the BML for months. There has been continuous minor delays and twice weekly major faults. Some has been planned work, but is lack of investment or maintenance that generally has caused faults and problems. If so how do you sort it out.

 

[Evvy73]

Yep - another "Work From Home" day for me. Stood at Wivelsfield for 20 minutes around 7am whilst not a lot happened and then decided it would be easier to come home and work remotely (again!).

As I was leaving the station, announcements were being made for replacement buses to take people from Haywards Heath to Three Bridges, however, the A23 is currently blocked at Handcross and there is flooding at the top end of the Balcombe Road so it may not be an easy journey even if you can get on a bus!

No idea what the solution to all these problems is - don't want to reopen a can of worms, but this is where "BML2" would have helped.

 

[infobleep]

Do Southern Rail Twitter staff do other work besides manning the feed? They say they may not be able to answer all tweets today but they haven't had so many and of those they have had, most haven't been answered.

Compare that to London Midland where they are constantly replying to customers even on days when no flooding on a major mainline. Perhaps London Midland have more queries to deal with and so employ the staff differently.

It appears the 6.34 to Ore left Three Bridges towards Haywards Heath but must have turned round. Before that all trains were running with slight delays.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W81453/2014/01/17/advanced

The following ECS movement looks interesting. It seems to have done its planned journey in reverse!
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W82630/2014/01/17/advanced

 

[Bishopstone]

Another home working day for me, too. Getting bored of it, frankly, as I genuinely prefer to be in the office. I imagine there must be thousands at Haywards Heath, waiting for a handful of buses?

They need to do a blockade, maybe over the summer, and sort out Balcombe Tunnel properly.

I see Thameslink is also suspended at Hendon, too, with OHL problems. Nightmare!

Still, only a few more weeks and we'll have 'rails melting in the sun' trotted out again.

 

[GodAtum]

Unfortunately I cannot work from home

 

[Chrisgr31]

I see that Southern have now teweeted that East Grinstead to Oxted is also now blocked by flooding. Hopefully Crowborough won't be next as I am now in London and would like to get home again!

 

[infobleep]

The initial response to a question about problems on the East Grinstead line was driver displacement. Whether that was the case at that point or the flooding had just occurred I don't know.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Initial response on Twitter that is

 

[Evvy73]

They have also added to their website that passengers should NOT travel to Haywards Heath as the buses can't get through!

So if you are on the coast you are better off going via Hastings or Barnham depending on your location!

This picture has just appeared on twitter of people queuing in the rain at Haywards Heath. It rally is hammering it down around here still as well, so I think this disruption could run for a while yet.

 

[Chrisgr31]

Bearing in mind the propensity for landslips on the Hastings line at the moment (did I see there was another one yesterday?), Hastings may not be the best option if the rain is chucking down in the Kent/Sussex area
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Looking at the photo of people queueing for the replacement bus whjat are the rules about standing on those services? Seems they are buses and one can usually stand on buses so can one on a replacement bus service? Presumably if it was a replacement bus service operated by coach one couldn't?

 

[tsr]

Neither is the Arun Valley. I should imagine everything is still waterlogged round there.

As for the line to East Grinstead, it has most certainly been flooded. This has also caused track circuit failures.

 

[Chrisgr31]

Oh and don't foget the Tonbridge/Redhill line is also closed due to flooding, which on reflection presumably explains why more people walked past my seat at Edenbridge Town today than yesterday, whereas at Eridge the numbers were significantly down.

 

[tsr]

Oh and don't foget the Tonbridge/Redhill line is also closed due to flooding, which on reflection presumably explains why more people walked past my seat at Edenbridge Town today than yesterday, whereas at Eridge the numbers were significantly down.

Probably. Buses were not in use until fairly late in the morning peak. This was mainly due to problems trying to find any. Then of course you have to remember that the buses will really have to use local roads, which are also flooded in places.

 

[user15681]

Chatham main line out of Victoria blocked at Longfield in the down direction too. Add that to the Brighton problems, Thameslink problems, Victoria line delays and you get a very messed up Victoria station. Was a nightmare.

 

[tsr]

The Up Quarry Line is blocked again - safety checks are being made due to a possible landslide.

EDIT: As soon as I type that, it reopens... luckily. Balcombe Tunnel is now open both ways, too.

 

[GodAtum]

It is getting a bit ridiculous. Fine happening for 1 or 2 days but disruption the whole month now! I wonder how much the economy looses due to people not getting to work.

 

[Bungle73]

It is getting a bit ridiculous. Fine happening for 1 or 2 days but disruption the whole month now! I wonder how much the economy looses due to people not getting to work.

Southern aren't in charge for the weather.

 

[infobleep]

This morning it went from 15 min delays to up to 60 min delays. Then Southern Twitter reported 45 min delays. Later on National Rail Enquries put sever disruption on the live departure summery for Haywards Heath and the server disruption page said 120 minutes.

They clearly were not sure how bad the situation was and it must not have been planned. There was a met office warning at 7.44 to start at 7.50. Not sure if there was any warning last night. If not this rain just happened to slip through the prediction net.

 

[tsr]

The relatively-narrow band of rain which caused this did just so happen to hit the Southern network very badly (along with a few SWT lines, really). Amateur forecasters were warning of heavy showers overnight, but there was no indication that anything would cause disruption on this scale. It shows just how vulnerable we currently are, as a result of saturated land.

The line through Aldershot South Jn, between Reading & Guildford, has now reopened after a brief blockage due to flooding.

 

[Chrisgr31]

It is getting a bit ridiculous. Fine happening for 1 or 2 days but disruption the whole month now! I wonder how much the economy looses due to people not getting to work.

It's an interesting question and of course people do try and calculate out the cost of this sort of thing to the economy.

However I think the calculations have to be taken with a large amount of salt. I have the same amount of work to do, and the same target irrspective of the number of days I am in the office. So if I miss a day it makes no difference to my employer, just means I have to work harder the next day!

 

[ushawk]

It is getting a bit ridiculous. Fine happening for 1 or 2 days but disruption the whole month now! I wonder how much the economy looses due to people not getting to work.

Yes, how ridiculous that heavy rain causes flooding :roll:

Balcombe Tunnel needs a rebuild, thats been known for a long time. But how long would it take to sort it all out. The Tunnel upgrade between Burnley and Hebden Bridge has taken months - having that on the Mainline would massively disrupt people and will no doubt lead to lots and lots of moaning. Network Rail would be damned if they do and damned if they dont.

With buses this morning, lots were already in use on School contracts and the roads have been awful down here. They wouldnt have been any use between Haywards Heath and Three Bridges either, because the main road between them (the A23) was totally shut due to flooding as well.

 

[Class377/5]

Flooding this time.

Seems to have been a nightmare in the BML for months. There has been continuous minor delays and twice weekly major faults. Some has been planned work, but is lack of investment or maintenance that generally has caused faults and problems. If so how do you sort it out.

Mot of the current problems are just water logged ground which has caused a lot of the issues. Its so wet now the ground can't soak up any rainfall which just pools around.

The problem with the quarry tunnels is not an maintenance one (as they've replaced netting) but fact that the earth is more liquid now and pours through the netting.

Unless you magically dry out the earth so more water can soak in, there's not much you can do. Look at the fact the flooding hit a wide area just shows the extant of the problem.

 

[Tetchytyke]

if I miss a day it makes no difference to my employer, just means I have to work harder the next day!

They save a day's wage, but get the same work from you, so they're probably doing a rain dance

 

[infobleep]

I thought the following conversation was interesting example of how either the Twitter character limit isn't good enough; staff need more training or passengers need educating as to who are staff and and who are not staff:

Steve Tremlett ‏@stevetremlett 47m
@SouthernRailUK As service BTN - VIC is 'limited' have advance ticket restrictions been lifted?
Reply Retweet Favorite More Expand
SouthernRailUK ‏@SouthernRailUK 45m
@stevetremlett Advance ticket holders should seek advice of staff if their booked service is heavily disrupted/cancelled.
Hide conversation Reply Retweet Favorite More
2:42 AM - 17 Jan 2014 · Details
Tweet text
Reply to @SouthernRailUK @stevetremlett
Dismiss Image will appear as a link
thykingdomcome ‏@thykingdomcome5 22m
@SouthernRailUK @stevetremlett Are you not 'staff' then? What's Southern's policy? @PassengerFocus @railregulation
Reply Retweet Favorite More Expand[

 

[30909]

Southern aren't in charge for the weather.

Quite true, on the Hampshire Sussex borders north of the South Downs I have recorded 284 mm of rain in December and 228 mm of rain already in January, that is more than 20 inches of rain against an annual average of 38 inches, flooding is hardly surprising therefore

 

[Chrisgr31]

They save a day's wage, but get the same work from you, so they're probably doing a rain dance

Luckily they pay me if I can't get in!

 

[JB_B]

This morning it went from 15 min delays to up to 60 min delays. Then Southern Twitter reported 45 min delays. Later on National Rail Enquries put sever disruption on the live departure summery for Haywards Heath and the server disruption page said 120 minutes.

They clearly were not sure how bad the situation was and it must not have been planned. There was a met office warning at 7.44 to start at 7.50. Not sure if there was any warning last night. If not this rain just happened to slip through the prediction net.

I don't remember seeing any warning for the SE last night - I wonder if the 7.44am warning was meto catching up. I was surprised by the scale of disruption this morning.

Generally forecasts have been pretty good so far this year - this seems to be one of the (inevitable) exceptions.

 

[Cletus]

Currently at Woolwich Arsenal & a Charing Cross to Dover Priory train has just trundled through!

 

[Bishopstone]

The Daily Express forecast this in November.

 

[Chrisgr31]

Now would it have been better if a severe weather warning had been issued last night and Southern announced all services would be suspended this morning on the BML until the track had been checked?

 

[Taunton]

If this had just been an exceptional torrential rain disruption, then so be it. However, it seems the majority of disruptions to the route have not been due to heavy rain but to all sorts of other issues. What makes it worse is that the level of information during disruptions has notably faded away compared to previous times. It's as if the entire budget for customer running information has been spent on setting up a Twitter account, and if management think "Hey, we're on Twitter now, aren't we cool, that will sort out the need to provide any more information".

Thameslink services are out of action today also because of a train bringing the overhead wires down north of London. That can't be due to rain.

The last time I was inconvenienced on this route it was because an engineering train had broken down overnight. That wasn't due to heavy rain either.

Where did this thing come from about not even starting to check routes whenever bad weather of 101 different sorts occurs until daylight? That sort of thing used to be patrolled for all night. The teams were even provided with that wonderful invention, electric lights, to do so.