Disruption on the Maidstone East line this evening

[brad465]

This evening there appeared to be 2 down trains that had separate incidents delaying them mid-journey: the first was the 19:55 Victoria-Ashford, which was held at West Malling for nearly half an hour, leading to the train behind appearing to go non-stop between Otford and Ashford (via Tonbridge), while the second was the 20:55 VIC-AFK, which was held at Maidstone East on P2 for just over half an hour, leading to a rare move where the 21:25 VIC-Ramsgate passing through MDE non-stop on the through line, as no other platform at the station permits through running in the down direction. The latter appeared to be due to a passenger being taken ill, as I happened to be at the station at the time trying to collect tickets for travel tomorrow, where emergency services turned up. Does anyone know what caused the earlier (19:55) service to be held at West Malling if it can be disclosed?

Realtime Trains | 2N70 1955 London Victoria to Ashford International | 31/10/2022

Real-time train running information for 2N70 1955 departure from London Victoria to Ashford International on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | 2N74 2055 London Victoria to Ashford International | 31/10/2022

Real-time train running information for 2N74 2055 departure from London Victoria to Ashford International on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Edsmith]

This evening there appeared to be 2 down trains that had separate incidents delaying them mid-journey: the first was the 19:55 Victoria-Ashford, which was held at West Malling for nearly half an hour, leading to the train behind appearing to go non-stop between Otford and Ashford (via Tonbridge), while the second was the 20:55 VIC-AFK, which was held at Maidstone East on P2 for just over half an hour, leading to a rare move where the 21:25 VIC-Ramsgate passing through MDE non-stop on the through line, as no other platform at the station permits through running in the down direction. The latter appeared to be due to a passenger being taken ill, as I happened to be at the station at the time trying to collect tickets for travel tomorrow, where emergency services turned up. Does anyone know what caused the earlier (19:55) service to be held at West Malling if it can be disclosed?

Realtime Trains | 2N70 1955 London Victoria to Ashford International | 31/10/2022

Real-time train running information for 2N70 1955 departure from London Victoria to Ashford International on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | 2N74 2055 London Victoria to Ashford International | 31/10/2022

Real-time train running information for 2N74 2055 departure from London Victoria to Ashford International on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I don't know anything about these particular incidents but I did see a train with passengers on board pass through Maidstone East on the centre track a year or so back for the same reason, train on platform 2 with a passenger taken ill. I suppose passengers for MDE would have gone to Bearsted and got a train back rather than got off at Barming?

 

[brad465]

I don't know anything about these particular incidents but I did see a train with passengers on board pass through Maidstone East on the centre track a year or so back for the same reason, train on platform 2 with a passenger taken ill. I suppose passengers for MDE would have gone to Bearsted and got a train back rather than got off at Barming?

Would make sense, although the train passing through non-stop yesterday didn't have many passengers on it, and usually lots get off even late on, so maybe many got off at Barming and arranged pickups or something.