Disruption at Milton Keynes

[Vicpaul]

Person hit by a freight train north end of platform 3 at Milton Keynes. Severe service disruption both north and south

 

[MCW]

Virgin has more disruption than anyone else mind... I was on the 12:49 of Wolverhampton when the TM said to get the LM service at :59 to Birmingham. Several trains cancelled or delayed. Was going to go rugby but I might change plans....

Thoughts with the driver. Poor bloke/lass

 

[Vicpaul]

I've managed to go south to euston on the delayed 52 from bletchley everything going north is at a stand still.

 

[xydancer]

Fast lines now open again, but the chaos is going to take hours to clear.

I was stuck at Northampton but gave up trying to get to London around 1400. Just as well, I see first train south is showing as being at 1550.

Staff at Northampton really excellent, though. Plenty of announcements, plenty of advice.

 

[MCW]

Going back LEI as we speak as the XC atanstead and locals are disrupted as well.

 

[IrishDave]

Going back LEI as we speak as the XC atanstead and locals are disrupted as well.

There was another person hit by a train at Melton Mowbray, that's probably what's causing that.

 

[MK Tom]

There was a PUT north of MK somewhere yesterday too, it was causing havoc when I went in to buy today's ticket, to the point that I just gave up and did it this morning instead.

Today's disruption actually made me early, insofar as I had to change at Watford due to Southern terminating and the late-running Birmingham service got me home quicker than Southern would have.

Any news on either incident in terms of fatality or not? Hope not... thoughts to all those involved, especially train staff as always.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

There was one at Whitmore, between Norton Bridge and Crewe yesterday. I think.

 

[Class 92]

Yep, trains were being diverted via Stoke-on-Trent.

 

[dk1]

All coming back together again. Im always impressed with the way Virgin recover the service. Puts many less complicated TOCs to shame.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

All coming back together again. Im always impressed with the way Virgin recover the service. Puts many less complicated TOCs to shame.

At the time you posted that, LM hadn't got there yet.
Three Euston - Tring stoppers simply didn't run, and it required sending drivers by taxi to get them running again. Sadly for passengers at unstaffed stations in Hertfordshire, there was no announcement or displays advising of the cancellations (not until after the event).

BTW The circumstances surrounding the incident in MK today were thought to be exceptionally suspicious.

 

[tsr]

Any news on either incident in terms of fatality or not? Hope not... thoughts to all those involved, especially train staff as always.

Unfortunately, I believe it was a fatal incident. I second your thoughts.

BTW The circumstances surrounding the incident in MK today were thought to be exceptionally suspicious.

Indeed so. The BTP were on site for quite a while.

 

[MK Tom]

I came through MKC at 18:30 and aside from the ticket barriers being open, nothing was out of the ordinary. I didn't know the incident was here until I came on and read this. I just knew what the PIDs had told me. Disruption due to a person struck by a train. So I'm guessing it had largely been sorted out by then? I don't know when it actually happened; the first I heard was when my train (the 16:38 off Clapham) was curtailed at Watford.

Curiously none of the local media have picked up on it yet. MK Web have it as a new story but if you click on it it goes to one from January.

 

[MCW]

Well the LM service I got on at wolves was packed. The guard came on the tannoy and said due to it being very cramped he would allow any standing passengers to take up the remaining first class seats!! (and first class was rather empty) he also.made it clear and he sounded ***sed off at the time that virgin had not told him or LM that they had sent their passengers to join the LM services.

I got to Wolverhampton at about 12:30 when it had not long happened. I was on a west.mids day ranger getting pics and bashing as I do. From what I could tell, everything that ran to new street was pretty much ok from the north side, however when I got to new street I saw two pendolinos in platforms 1 and 2 just sat there, the display board showed one as bound for rugby calling at Coventry, it showed delayed and I can't remember if they cancelled it or not. Again, from what I can tell, this would put pressure on London midland.

Cross country didn't seem to bad on the outset, apart from the odd minor delay on their routes with pathing and platform alterations. What made it worse for XC on many of their services was that there was the fatality at Frisby (yes indeed near Melton Mowbray) on the brum stanstead route. From what I could tell this messed up the brum to Leicester locals as well, as I was told XC nicked a locals unit to put in an extra on the atanstead due to the amount of pax... (although that could be BS for all I know)....

I will admit, considering what was going on, I think we just about coped.... I guess what makes it worse for the MK incident is that it was on the WCML, which is the busiest mainline going AFAIK in the UK...

 

[Cherry_Picker]

One advantage they do have when the southern section of the WCML goes down is that passengers in the West Mids can be easily diverted onto the Chiltern Mainline. The New Street - Moor Street transfer has proved invaluable on countless occasions (and vice versa to be fair) which takes a hell of a lot of pressure off of the system for passengers who don't have an easy transfer onto an alternative route.

 

[455driver]

All coming back together again. Im always impressed with the way Virgin recover the service. Puts many less complicated TOCs to shame.

Quite easy when you dump all your passengers on another operator without even clearing it with them first.

Well the LM service I got on at wolves was packed. The guard made it clear and he sounded ***sed off at the time that virgin had not told him or LM that they had sent their passengers to join the LM services.

good old Virmin f###ing everyone else over so they can say "look how quick we got back to normal" simply because they have transferred "their" problem passengers onto someone else who is less able to handle the passenger numbers they then have to deal with.

 

[Gwenllian2001]

One advantage they do have when the southern section of the WCML goes down is that passengers in the West Mids can be easily diverted onto the Chiltern Mainline. The New Street - Moor Street transfer has proved invaluable on countless occasions (and vice versa to be fair) which takes a hell of a lot of pressure off of the system for passengers who don't have an easy transfer onto an alternative route.

Remember the plan for turning the line into an expressway for coaches etc.?

 

[MCW]

One advantage they do have when the southern section of the WCML goes down is that passengers in the West Mids can be easily diverted onto the Chiltern Mainline. The New Street - Moor Street transfer has proved invaluable on countless occasions (and vice versa to be fair) which takes a hell of a lot of pressure off of the system for passengers who don't have an easy transfer onto an alternative route.

This is a good point and despite me thinking with an enthusiast's head a lot of the time, I have to admit that it was a good job plenty of people heard about the disruption etc and went via the chiltern to london, only criticism i really have of that is that chiltern could have done with another unit or two to cope with demand.

Quite easy when you dump all your passengers on another operator without even clearing it with them first.

good old Virmin f###ing everyone else over so they can say "look how quick we got back to normal" simply because they have transferred "their" problem passengers onto someone else who is less able to handle the passenger numbers they then have to deal with.

that's the point I was trying to make but I took the long winded route, nevermind

but yeah the fact that the LM service I got on had (potentially) lots of people with Virgin only tickets on it probably confused the poor TM to hell, London Midland Knew what was going on at MK but it seems the TM on my train was like 'Well we are terminating at brum anyway, what gives???'

 

[sd0733]

Virgin cancelled a couple of Liverpools aswell leaving us to take their passengers to Crewe to connect there, again not telling LM control or any staff, not helped by the fact that we had approx 1000 Liverpool fans waiting for my 4 car 350 and the driver hearing a thud as we came in, thinking he had hit a passenger, a possesion was taken out on platforms 8 and 9 for 45 mins while that was was examined! Not the greatest few days after the chaos caused by the one near Norton Bridge the day before.

 

[gordonthemoron]

I eventually arrived into Euston at about 15:00, there were a lot of spare LM units in the platforms

 

[ChiefPlanner]

My wife was on a VWC train set back from Rugby to Coventry - pax advised to go via XC and Oxford - course the XC was so rammed even a cat could not have got on board - eventually onto a rammed LM service which was stood at Northampton for ages - and waited a driver at Bletchley for an hour - so therefore took best part of 5 hours to get from Birmingham to Euston. Whilst at BY , a string of up VWC services went through. I dont think she would subscribe to the "well handled" argument - albeit losing all 4 tracks on a very busy and hot Saturday afternoon is not exactly a walk in the park.

 

[ssray]

was on the delayed 1150 from new st, left at 1210 we arrived at rugby to be told of an incident, after a while we went back to cov with advice to go crosscountry to leamingto or reading and then onto london, around 1425 the staff at cov advised that a london midland would be running through, the ldn midland guard also advised the same, pulling into northampton the guard advised we were to terminate and the next service to london was 1705(it being around1500)
A midland train arrived (time??to peed off at this point to look at the time)
arrived at eus 1715, a new record for myself
Ray
p.s. RIP

 

[MCW]

was on the delayed 1150 from new st, left at 1210 we arrived at rugby to be told of an incident, after a while we went back to cov with advice to go crosscountry to leamingto or reading and then onto london, around 1425 the staff at cov advised that a london midland would be running through, the ldn midland guard also advised the same, pulling into northampton the guard advised we were to terminate and the next service to london was 1705(it being around1500)
A midland train arrived (time??to peed off at this point to look at the time)
arrived at eus 1715, a new record for myself
Ray
p.s. RIP

that is one hell of a journey time.... about 4 and a half hours and with it being very hot I bet some passengers didn't cope well with it.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

that is one hell of a journey time.... about 4 and a half hours and with it being very hot I bet some passengers didn't cope well with it.

Sounds like the train my wife was on - most passengers very dignified and stoical bar a stereotypical drunk on the 350 which was not entertaining ....

Over and done with now ...

 

[A0]

Looks like the MK area's suffering again today - due to a problem in the Rugby area, LM are being delayed by up to 30 mins, Virgin delayed by approx 10 mins and Southern not running Watford - MKC.

Anyone know what's happening?

 

[Vicpaul]

Southern website was listing signal problems

 

[tsr]

There has been a problem with lineside safety equipment, or so I am told. Exactly what that has involved in this situation, I don't know yet! Reason/attribution is listed as code "IF", which is "Train Describer/Panel/ARS/SSI/TDM failure". That's all I have for now.

 

[Boodiggy]

There has been a problem with lineside safety equipment, or so I am told. Exactly what that has involved in this situation, I don't know yet! Reason/attribution is listed as code "IF", which is "Train Describer/Panel/ARS/SSI/TDM failure". That's all I have for now.

CSR failure at Rugby SCC

 

[The Planner]

LM trains told to run at 40mph between Kings Langley and Rugby because of the CSR failure.

 

[tsr]

CSR failure at Rugby SCC

LM trains told to run at 40mph between Kings Langley and Rugby because of the CSR failure.

Oh dear, so I see now! Thanks for the clarification to my post. It's literally just come up in the last 10mins or so on the system where I am (the location shall remain nameless). So much for timeliness.