LNER - DO NOT TRAVEL message | Entire ECML - 5th January

[londonmidland]

Does anyone know what is/has happened on the ECML today, which has caused such significant disruption?

I understand there is a broken rail on the southbound line(s) between Peterborough and Stevenage, however are there other issues affecting other parts of the line as well?

LNER have sent out a message on X, to not travel on the ECML until the end of the day.

Due to multiple disruptions today, we are advising customers DO NOT TRAVEL on the East Coast Mainline until the end of the day.

Picture below shows a DO NOT TRAVEL issue for multiple LNER routes, highlighted in black.

 

[Driver068]

Track Defect in Yaxley area, South of Peterborough.

Points failure south of Darlington I believe

Broken down train between PBO and KGX I believe - unsure 100% on location but was informed by a TM recently

 

[D1537]

As well as this issue, this morning the 1S91 0545 King's Cross-Edinburgh Lumo failed somewhere around Stoke and sat there blocking the down fast for (eventually) around six hours. Some three hours after it failed, 1A12 0840 Leeds-King's Cross was terminated at Grantham and moved alongside for evacuation, thus blocking the up fast as well. The resulting issues meant that a number of trains were already late (and some cancelled) by the time the broken rail kicked in. 1Y07 Berwick-King's Cross was terminated at Alnmouth this morning due to a train fault, which caused some issues as well.

The broken rail meant trains stacked back as far as York due to no platforms - at one point 1E11, 1E12, 1E13 and 1E14 were nose to tail just north of York.

It's lucky it isn't my commuting day today - every train from Newcastle to Northallerton is cancelled from the 16:27 until the end of the day. If I was at work today I'd be on the 1700 to Sunderland for the Grand Central to Northallerton (and I have no idea if that's a permitted route, but I've done it before...)

 

[nlogax]

Certainly there's a heavy snowfall warning between Edinburgh and Aberdeen which explains some of this.

 

[D1537]

Certainly there's a heavy snowfall warning between Edinburgh and Aberdeen which explains some of this.

That wasn't the issue, trains were cancelled north of Edinburgh and southbounds simply started there. They were mostly on time (at that point!) as well.

 

[nlogax]

That wasn't the issue, trains were cancelled north of Edinburgh and southbounds simply started there. They were mostly on time (at that point!) as well.

Oops, mislead by an incorrectly dated news article..

 

[blimmo]

The national rail page includes the following:

If you wish to defer your travel, your ticket for today (Monday 5 January) will be accepted tomorrow (Tuesday 6 January) at no extra cost. You do not need to amend your ticket in order to utilise this tomorrow.

If your ticket includes travel with other train operators too, please contact them directly to confirm use of your ticket for that portion of the journey.

I've not seen the second paragraph before and I don't really understand what it means. What do they expect you to do if the "other train operator" says no?

 

[JonathanH]

Peterborough to Horsham on Thameslink has collapsed for most of the rest of the day by the looks of things.

 

[mrlegohead]

I and my companions were booked on the 11:25 Lumo from Edinburgh to King's Cross. That was supposed to be formed from 1S91 which of course failed so our train was cancelled. Forked out for advances on the 11:00 LNER 1E12. Bailed at York and am now on TPE towards Manchester then Avanti to MKC (near enough our original destination). I expect to arrive about 3h late so 100% delay repay on those LNER advances as well as a refund for the Lumo tickets.

 

[800001]

Does anyone know what is/has happened on the ECML today, which has caused such significant disruption?

I understand there is a broken rail on the southbound line(s) between Peterborough and Stevenage, however are there other issues affecting other parts of the line as well?

LNER have sent out a message on X, to not travel on the ECML until the end of the day.

Straight away a broken rail
Is going to cause significant disruption.
Services passing there will be crewed by Leeds, Doncaster, Newcastle and Kings Cross Crews.
So any delay is going to affect any service which they are due to work.
Add in delays to services going north will also affect Edinburgh Crews.

Then you have sets late to form there next service.

Delays can snowball.

Then you have the other issue tha other people have commented on up thread.

 

[Segedunum]

1Y07 (0605 Berwick-Kings Cross) had an iced-up horn IIRC. Detrained at Alnmouth but then subject to a 20mph speed restriction going forwards.

 

[nlogax]

Nope, guess I wasn't misled at all. From the horse's mouth

https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/travel-updates/

Last updated: 17.25, Monday 5 January

Due to heavy snowfall, we are advising customers DO NOT TRAVEL between Edinburgh and Aberdeen as there are no LNER trains running. This advice has now been extended until 1400 tomorrow (06.01). There will be no rail replacement transport in operation.

Network Rail have been working hard this morning to clear the line between Edinburgh and Inverness. This route has now reopened, but the East Coast Mainline are currently facing major disruption on the network due to a speed restriction over defective track between Peterborough and Stevenage.

 

[Intercity_225]

As well as this issue, this morning the 1S91 0545 King's Cross-Edinburgh Lumo failed somewhere around Stoke and sat there blocking the down fast for (eventually) around six hours.

That's the 2nd Lumo that has failed around that area in the past 2 (?) weeks. Odd to have two of these issues so close to eachother as these trains are generally very reliable.

 

[Steve Harris]

Track Defect in Yaxley area, South of Peterborough.

Points failure south of Darlington I believe

Broken down train between PBO and KGX I believe - unsure 100% on location but was informed by a TM recently

Due you know if that's northbound or southbound ?

As I've been watching signal maps and it appears trains are being held at Holme Lode level crossing (signal 397) until any preceeding northbound train has reached Peterborough Station. Southbound it appears your held at Fletton junction (signals 430 (Fast), 428 (Slow)) until the preceeding train has reached signal 404 (just north of Stilton Fen emergency crossovers). Southbound trains appear to be loosing 20 mins, so I'd say southbound has got the broken rail, but I'm curious as to why the northbound services are also being held if that is the case.

 

[transportphoto]

That's the 2nd Lumo that has failed around that area in the past 2 (?) weeks. Odd to have two of these issues so close to eachother as these trains are generally very reliable.

Indeed, I believe 1S91 also failed south of Stoke Junction on Christmas Eve. That required a train to train evacuation. Spookily similar.

 

[D1537]

It's lucky it isn't my commuting day today - every train from Newcastle to Northallerton is cancelled from the 16:27 until the end of the day.

And every train from Northallerton to Newcastle until at least 1N15 (i.e. 2300 tonight). So, it didn't take long to work out that LNERs plan in times of disruption is to bin the Newcastle services and prioritise the Edinburgh services. Bad luck if you're at one of the stations that they serve...

 

[Porty]

Certainly there's a heavy snowfall warning between Edinburgh and Aberdeen which explains some of this.

I was at Waverley around 3.30pm and various coaches were lined up with LNER direct to Aberdeen signs, with a small army of red coated LNER staff marshalling queueing customers on Market Street under North Bridge. ScotRail was running a train to Dundee at that time.

 

[milooo]

LNER have released this image on X (image shows broken rail)

The cause of the major disruption between #Peterborough and #Stevenage is a broken Insulated Block Joint on the Southbound main line, which you can see from this image from the site today.

 

[hexagon789]

And every train from Northallerton to Newcastle until at least 1N15 (i.e. 2300 tonight). So, it didn't take long to work out that LNERs plan in times of disruption is to bin the Newcastle services and prioritise the Edinburgh services. Bad luck if you're at one of the stations that they serve...

A number of Edinburgh services had/have additional stop orders at various locations, including Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Northallerton and Durham from what I can see.

Trouble is those added calls won't show directly on RTT except for a loss of time after the relevant station.

 

[Peterthegreat]

A number of Edinburgh services had/have additional stop orders at various locations, including Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Northallerton and Durham from what I can see.

That is correct.

 

[hexagon789]

LNER have released this image on X (image shows broken rail)

Literally a clean break.

Don't suppose clamping it and putting on a hefty ESR would at least keep things flowing until it can be repaired?

 

[Falcon1200]

A disastrous day for Anglo-Scottish services in particular!

Thanks to no Glasgow C/Euston WCML trains, I had reserved a seat on 1E08 0900 Edinburgh-Kings X, which was cancelled due I believe to an incident yesterday. I was instead able to make, and reserve a seat on, 1E07 0830 Edinburgh-Kings X. This also suffered a frozen horn so was turned at Newcastle via the High Level Bridge, departing there 30 minutes late and now behind 1Y12 1027 Newcastle-Kings X. We then stood at Peterborough from 1301 to 1422 due to the broken rail and arrived at Kings X 156 minutes late. Needless to say 1Y12 got through before the broken rail.....

 

[D1537]

A number of Edinburgh services had/have additional stop orders at various locations, including Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Northallerton and Durham from what I can see.

Trouble is those added calls won't show directly on RTT except for a loss of time after the relevant station.

Fair enough. The odd thing is though that multiple Newcastle-KX services have been cancelled even when the stock was at Newcastle to form it (and this was before the broken rail would have kicked in that far north).

i.e. 1N05, 1N07, 1N08 all arrived at Newcastle in time to form their back working, but all of those (1Y16, 1Y18, 1Y19) were cancelled. Not sure why that would be.

 

[Railperf]

What is the issue at Chathill? Northern trains service seems to be blocking the line to Edinburgh with several services stuck behind it.
There are crossovers there and at Beal, which could allow wrong line running up to Beal. But nothing seemingly moving.

 

[merry]

NRE reports point failure between Alnmouth & Berwick. Presumably related to the reversing Northern ECS. If the crossovers won't detect N or R then nothing moving either way. Is it perhaps snowing there? Can block points...

 

[Tetchytyke]

Avanti have been having loads of issues today with their IETs too. Guessing the Hitachis don’t like the cold?

 

[Segedunum]

NRE reports point failure between Alnmouth & Berwick. Presumably related to the reversing Northern ECS. If the crossovers won't detect N or R then nothing moving either way. Is it perhaps snowing there? Can block points...

Points failure indeed means the Northern ECS can't cross over and reverse.

Also compounded by a level crossing failure in the area.

 

[D1537]

NRE reports point failure between Alnmouth & Berwick. Presumably related to the reversing Northern ECS. If the crossovers won't detect N or R then nothing moving either way. Is it perhaps snowing there? Can block points...

Can confirm it's been snowing, but nothing excessive.

 

[londonmidland]

I hope no ECML passengers have chosen to opt to travel from St. Pancras this evening as the Midland Mainline now has CSL2 Black status. Complete loss of singalling in the Harpenden area.

 

[Vexed]

I hope no ECML passengers have chosen to opt to travel from St. Pancras this evening as the Midland Mainline now has CSL2 Black status. Complete loss of singalling in the Harpenden area.

At least the simultaneous MML and ECML incidents aren't happening last week with the south WCML closed for engineering work on top. With the engineering up north though, the WCML isn't really a great alternative for London-Scotland today.

Signalling around Harpenden has just been restored ~110 minutes later but I'm sure service recovery will take some time.