Disruption due to poor weather

[O L Leigh]

I for one am not expecting to be able to get in, as I live high up on the North Downs!

Oh no, that's not allowed. You do realise that we are paid to provide an essential public service and that this service must be provided no matter what. There is no excuse for not getting into work. You must sell your house immediately and move into the messroom so that you are always available to work.

Yeah right. Anyone taking this line with me can f*** right off. I know that the majority of my friends and family will be giving serious consideration to not going to work tomorrow because it is unsafe and they may end up stranded. Never mind that I might find myself in precisely the same position too.

O L Leigh

 

[royaloak]

diesel trains can run through anything

Except frozen brakes, snow in the electrics, frozen points, signal problems, track circuit failures, electric train in front, staff stuck somewhere else plus 100 other things.
Apart from that you are right

 

[rosscbrown]

I heard there were problems at Carlisle today too with three trains failing leaving only one platform in use. That's what the ScotRail lady announced to everyone at Lockerbie anyway. She did a real good job at keeping us informed and dealing with refunds etc.

I was on the 8.15ish TPE to Edinburgh - we were 57 minutes late into Edinburgh this morning. Something really odd happened. The train pulled into Carstairs Station and the driver swapped ends and we pulled out of Carstairs - now travelling with first class at the front of the train as opposed to the rear as it was at Lockerbie. Any ideas what might have been going on?

 

[SWT Driver]

I'm currently waiting for daylight, snowing reasonably hard at the moment and been to the car and it's half way up the wheels!

 

[Trains06]

And as the dawn breaks disruptions continue on trains across the country...

 

[anthony263]

Just a quick question. I purchased a off peak return ticket from Bridgend - Paignton but i am unable to get to Bridgend today due to being snowed in and the buses are not running. will i be able to use my ticket tommorow (7th January) or will i have to get a refund and purchase a new ticket?

 

[ungreat]

Just a quick question. I purchased a off peak return ticket from Bridgend - Paignton but i am unable to get to Bridgend today due to being snowed in and the buses are not running. will i be able to use my ticket tommorow (7th January) or will i have to get a refund and purchase a new ticket?

Ask the TOC!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Oh no, that's not allowed. You do realise that we are paid to provide an essential public service and that this service must be provided no matter what. There is no excuse for not getting into work. You must sell your house immediately and move into the messroom so that you are always available to work.

Yeah right. Anyone taking this line with me can f*** right off.

O L Leigh

Absolutely spot ****in' on mate

 

[jopsuk]

National Rail Enquiries website is still failing miserably

 

[merlodlliw]

National Rail Enquiries website is still failing miserably

been down for hours.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

It's worked fine for me...

 

[adc82140]

Oh no, that's not allowed. You do realise that we are paid to provide an essential public service and that this service must be provided no matter what. There is no excuse for not getting into work. You must sell your house immediately and move into the messroom so that you are always available to work.

Just count yourself lucky you don't work in the NHS O.L.- I know of certain people who have been threatened with disciplinary action if they don't show. Sometimes I wonder what planet these "managers" are living on. Luckily my hospital manager is sympathetic, and I've been tasked with formulating the ongoing rota for the next 6 months, and emailing it in at the end of the day

 

[Mojo]

The snow isn't even that bad in Bristol (as expected; it never snows here but this is the second year running). I think the main concern with only closing one railway line is the points getting stuck for the branchline and then having to cancel all trains on the mainline. As it stands the services that are running are doing so to time.

 

[Oswyntail]

Mrs O got the 06:09 train from Ilkley, then 07:20 Leeds-London this morning, and has arrived without any delay (much to the amazement of her London colleagues). Very impressed, and wishes to thanks the legions of railway staff who work like hell behind the scenes to make sure things run smoothly.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Just a quick question. I purchased a off peak return ticket from Bridgend - Paignton but i am unable to get to Bridgend today due to being snowed in and the buses are not running. will i be able to use my ticket tommorow (7th January) or will i have to get a refund and purchase a new ticket?

Officially, if trains are running today, you will be expected to buy a new ticket for travel on the 7th (an 'Anytime Return' is valid for use within five days of the date on the ticket), however if you contact the FGW they may have made some concessions given the weather conditions.

EDIT: If you started your journey, you could have started out again the next day from the point you got to, however you must then start the journey again before midday and then you would not be allowed to break your journey at any point (except as described in the NCoC).

 

[142094]

Major problems on the East Coast this morning, some trains delayed well over an hour and there is now no bus service between Inverness and Perth (as is still advertised on East Coast's website). Still local Northern services seem to be running to timetable.

 

[googolplex]

Will passengers wanting to go to Inverness be allowed to travel via Aberdeen instead then?

 

[Drsatan]

The NR website's down again, which was surprising since I last accessed it at 10:00 this morning and I didn't have any problems accessing it then.

Unfortunately, the bad weather's put paid to my plan to go to Lymington again to ride on one of the 3CIGs. Although SWT's running a revised service due to the snow, I don't want to be stuck in Lymington or Brockenhurst if something goes wrong with the 3rd rail...

 

[142094]

Will passengers wanting to go to Inverness be allowed to travel via Aberdeen instead then?

No, Inverness - Aberdeen line is shut as well apparently, although this was from dispatch staff at Newcastle, can't find any information on eastcoast.co.uk and can't get onto National Rail. Even the ticket office staff didn't know as one sold me catering vouchers and asked me if I knew that there was (supposedly) the replacement bus service. The dispatch person then went around the ticket office and told the staff about the disruption.

 

[Drsatan]

The national rail website's still down...

 

[ukrob]

The national rail website's still down...

It works on and off, keep trying.

For days like today they need a single HTML page listing all disruption with a link at the bottom to the regular homepage. Problem sorted.

 

[Mojo]

Cars stuck on driveways or at the side of the road, local airport closed and bus services suspended; but from my local station there are 4 trains per hour running to the city centre, all with minimal delays. What's the real 21st century mode of transport?

 

[Stats]

No, Inverness - Aberdeen line is shut as well apparently, although this was from dispatch staff at Newcastle, can't find any information on eastcoast.co.uk and can't get onto National Rail.

Journeycheck says that there are delays due to earlier signalling problems.

 

[142094]

That's news to me, although I don't really believe anything I hear there days as it seems to be out of date as soon as I hear it or contradicted by other things.

 

[jon0844]

We could become like mainland Europe and equip ourselves to cope, but we don't because we argue that it's not worth it for day or two of snow each year.

That's probably right; for a day or two, we can cope. Some go to work, most stay home. The kids play and we all have food and supplies.

But if the bad weather continues for weeks - the novelty will wear off and people will start to demand that something is done.

This morning, buses were running through our street but since the council has not gritted (and from what I've heard, they didn't complete the paperwork on time to get an order in to restock grit - so they may have none left), the buses have now gone back to the depot and are refusing to work.

As the snow gets worse, then starts to get icy, that could mean no buses for the next two days!

Ironically, as it stands at the moment, the trains are running pretty much okay here - and the snow timetable is probably better than the normal timetable. There is obviously less capacity, but with so many people probably staying home, I bet it's actually going to be quite relaxing!

 

[the sniper]

Cars stuck on driveways or at the side of the road, local airport closed and bus services suspended; but from my local station there are 4 trains per hour running to the city centre, all with minimal delays. What's the real 21st century mode of transport?

I see your in Birmingham, I'm starting to wonder whether the Midlands is handling the snow much better then anywhere else in the country as, from what I've seen, many services are running reliably! London Midland and their staff should be up for some kind of award as, looking at the Live departure listings for New Street , virtually all their trains are running on time.

I wonder whether the press, both TV and toilet paper, just find it much easier to say 'there's wide spread disruption on the rail network' then actually address the facts.

 

[TDK]

Oh no, that's not allowed. You do realise that we are paid to provide an essential public service and that this service must be provided no matter what. There is no excuse for not getting into work. You must sell your house immediately and move into the messroom so that you are always available to work.

Yeah right. Anyone taking this line with me can f*** right off. I know that the majority of my friends and family will be giving serious consideration to not going to work tomorrow because it is unsafe and they may end up stranded. Never mind that I might find myself in precisely the same position too.

O L Leigh

I managed to get in today booked on at 03.30 (35 minutes early) to prep 2 sets and shunt them out. When I worked at Crewe I had a 30 mile drive to work, 4 drivers did not turn in and I passed all their houses on the way in, as you know some, not the majority will sit at home when they could easily get to work. On that day I was called a to$$er by the union rep who said I was making it look bad for the others??? Just doing my job!!!!

 

[Mojo]

I see your in Birmingham, I'm starting to wonder whether the Midlands is handling the snow much better then anywhere else in the country as, from what I've seen, many services are running reliably! London Midland and their staff should be up for some kind of award as, looking at the Live departure listings for New St

I'm not in Birmingham at the moment, I'm down in Bristol where services are all running okay-ish, with the exception of the Severn Beach line being suspended. It is very rare for it to snow in Bristol though, when I woke up this morning I measured snow in my garden at 5cm. But when it did snow in Feb 2009 there were very few delays on local services in Birmingham.

 

[90019]

Cars stuck on driveways or at the side of the road, local airport closed and bus services suspended; but from my local station there are 4 trains per hour running to the city centre, all with minimal delays. What's the real 21st century mode of transport?

Well, here we have delays and cancellations on the railways, but the airport is open and running (although some incoming planes are delayed), most buses in Edinburgh are still running (there are a couple of diversions), and I've been out driving (in a FWD hatchback).

Which is it now?

 

[Mojo]

Haha, just found this website: http://www.transportchaos.org/.

Excellent work by Merseyrail, from "the Eye".

Merseyrail trains are running normally (as they did yesterday) to the normal (not revised!) timetable with PPM for today at 94% at the moment.

And remember, our trains are 3rd rail and there is lots of snow on the ground; not usually a good combo...

There have been no buses at all on Merseyside since 1700 last night and a lot of roads are closed or impassable so we are virtually the only way of travelling into and out of the city.

All of our staff got to work first thing this morning, a lot of them on foot, and all stations are open.

 

[Pumbaa]

LM starting to do what it does best - avoid running the service! Took me an hour to do Euston > Watford!