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Devon loss of signalling (08/02/15)

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221129

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From FGW

Owing to signalling problems centred around Exeter St Davids we are currently unable to operate any train services in the area bounded by Taunton / Barnstaple / Exmouth / Paignton / Totnes. Network Rail engineers are working to try and resolve the situation. Road transport is being sourced but will take some time to establish over such a wide area.
 
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tsr

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I understand there has been a significant loss of power to signalling systems. SWT are also affected West of Axminster, as you'd expect.
 

221129

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Complete loss of Power to Exeter Panel Box. All lines controlled by Exeter Box are affected.
 

CC 72100

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I see the train that I was on but thought 'stuff it, I'm going to watch the football onstead', the 15:26 to Pad is yet to leave. Last update around 4 was that they were waiting for technicians to arrive to restore power, but when I left said technicians had apparently not yet arrived.
 

221129

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During this disruption if you wish to use local buses as an alternative means of transport and the local bus is not accepting First Great Western tickets please keep the bus ticket and send it, together with your rail ticket, to us for a refund.
Stagecoach South West, First in Wessex Dorset & South Somerset and First in Devon Cornwall & Mid Somerset are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.


Looks like it could be a longish one...
 

CC 72100

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I was Gonna say, that doesnt suggest that it will soon be resolved. Presumably there are trains that have been stuck between stations for the last 90 minutes since all powe was lost? Wonder how they will assist those passengers.
 

tsr

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Current suggestions I am hearing are that this could well be the responsibility of Network Rail and not the local power companies, but I haven't had that explicitly confirmed. Apparently it is a loss of power to signalling panel equipment.
 

221129

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I was Gonna say, that doesnt suggest that it will soon be resolved. Presumably there are trains that have been stuck between stations for the last 90 minutes since all powe was lost? Wonder how they will assist those passengers.

Replacement buses are being sourced however will take some time due to the large area.
 

CC 72100

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I meant more immediately - could trains between stations be guided to the next station to be detained - stuck at the station is one thing, stuck between stations on a train in the (relative) middle of nowhere is even worse

Update - we have movement. XC voyager had just gone into 5, and a pacer is being shunted on Exeter TMD.
 

initiation

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Currently on the 1651 from truro heading to bristol (after a change), guard hasn't mentioned it yet but the boards at truro were displaying 'cancellations likely', hoping not delayed for too long, also got a bus near weston to look forward to.
 

richw

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Replacement buses are being sourced however will take some time due to the large area.

There are a large number of First Kernow coaches at Taunton depot this weekend. On a sunday there will be plenty of coaches sitting about the region, but having someone to drive them will be a completely different matter.
 

CC 72100

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HST that I was on has just left, so approx. 100 minutes late. Seems like things are on the move now, although of course the 'post-disruption' disruption is to be predicted.
 

tsr

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Yes - some power restored now. The Axminster-Exeter SD route should now be running with delays, as per the train mentioned above, etc.
 

221129

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PLEASE NOTE - Customers holding tickets dated for travel today may use their ticket for travel tomorrow should they prefer to do so.
 

CC 72100

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PLEASE NOTE - Customers holding tickets dated for travel today may use their ticket for travel tomorrow should they prefer to do so.

I take it that doesn't apply to rovers? :lol:;)

(rhetorical question - plus I was only interested in doing the diversions today - they're not diverting tomorrow ;) )
 

iantherev

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There are a large number of First Kernow coaches at Taunton depot this weekend. On a sunday there will be plenty of coaches sitting about the region, but having someone to drive them will be a completely different matter.

Umm aren't they out pretending to be trains between Bristol and Taunton?
 

richw

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Journey updates is showing at least one extra plymouth to London service this evening
 

headshot119

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Just in the same way that if we kept all the boxes open prior to Exeter opening in 1985 this would never have been a problem...things move on.

But there's a difference between the Exeter area losing power, and the entirety of Wales (assuming of course everything actually ends up in the SWSCC).

ROC shouldn't be the way forward, not on the geographical scale of them.
 

initiation

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Seems all services north of exeter stopped, Xc service terminated, onto a bus to Taunton then who knows. Very jolly FGW man at exeter (didn't get his name but had a mustache) got us quickly onto the bus and on our way tho.
 

carriageline

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Just wait till progress sees this happen to a ROC...


Yawn.... Except it should never happen to them. Plenty of power cuts have 'happened' to Three Bridges ROC, yet it didn't go offline.

What do you propose? Keep all the mechanical boxes, all the PSB/ASCs? They are not as reliable as people like to make out, maintaining them is getting harder and thus more expensive. Then there is the white elephant that one day all these boxes will be life expired (infact some already are, and are one wrong move whilst changing a bulb to a complete melt down of the box :lol: ;))

I don't agree with progress for progress sake, and some boxes have life left in them. But a bit of realism, and less rose tinted spectacles with a dash of sentimentalism is needed.

If there was never progress, we would still have mechanical boxes running steam trains with oil lit lighting.
 

Tomnick

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It certainly doesn't seem that common for a whole PSB to fall over, and hopefully it'll be even less likely (with the higher resilience built in) that a whole ROC will fall over. Funnily enough, though, there was major disruption around here recently when (as I understand it) a power failure knocked out a large area of signalling - under the control of the local ROC. Ok, I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the existing relay interlocking and its rather older power supply arrangements have simply, for now, been recontrolled into the ROC - but the point still remains that a relatively localised signalling failure still caused utter chaos quickly knocking onto the full length of the MML. Losing a single key part of the network isn't going to be much less disruptive than losing a wider part of that network under the ROC - but so much the better if the latter is far less likely to happen.
 
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