Major Disruption at Loughborough- 25/10

[tram21]

There are absolutely no EMR trains from London to Nottingham until at least 1500, due to a signalling system Faliure on a relatively short stretch from Loughborough to Trent East Junction.

Anyone know why this is causing so much disruption, is it because it happened overnight so all trains are stuck at Derby?

How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally? If they can, couldn't Nottingham Intercity trains run from Nottingham to Derby(/Long Eaton) and reverse to head down to London. It'd be better than a complete suspension of service?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/loughborough-20241025/

A fault with the signalling system near Loughborough means all lines are closed. Trains running through this station will be cancelled or revised.

Major disruption is expected until 15:00.

What has happened?

There is a fault with the signalling system between Loughborough Station and Trent South Junction. This will disrupt our services on the London St Pancras International / Nottingham / Sheffield and the Leicester / Nottingham / Lincoln / Grimsby routes. It may also start to affect Connect services as train crew are displaced.

Network Rail are currently investigating and are attempting to fix the problem. They estimate that the line may re-open around 10:30, however trains are not expected to start running again until approximately 13:00 due to train crew and train units being out of place. The normal timetable is expected to run from around 15:00.

 

[43066]

There are absolutely no EMR trains from London to Nottingham until at least 1500, due to a signalling system Faliure on a relatively short stretch from Loughborough to Trent East Junction.

Anyone know why this is causing so much disruption, is it because it happened overnight so all trains are stuck at Derby?

How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally? If they can, couldn't Nottingham Intercity trains run from Nottingham to Derby(/Long Eaton) and reverse to head down to London. It'd be better than a complete suspension of service?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/loughborough-20241025/

There was emergency special working implemented there a couple of years ago due to blank signalling. Looks like almost the exact same location this time.

 

[Hadlow Road]

There are absolutely no EMR trains from London to Nottingham until at least 1500, due to a signalling system Faliure on a relatively short stretch from Loughborough to Trent East Junction.

Anyone know why this is causing so much disruption, is it because it happened overnight so all trains are stuck at Derby?

How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally? If they can, couldn't Nottingham Intercity trains run from Nottingham to Derby(/Long Eaton) and reverse to head down to London. It'd be better than a complete suspension of service?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/loughborough-20241025/

Hmm, a fully informative page from national rail, but it is a shame that the links go to a 404 failure page. Not sure how best to contact them. Others here will be very much more experienced.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Thought it was a little quiet past my house that overlooks the railway near Syston. At least there's replacement buses in operation (according to National Rail Enquiries) on the local line. Had planned to pop to Nottingham early this morning, glad I didn't!

 

[43066]

How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally? If they can, couldn't Nottingham Intercity trains run from Nottingham to Derby(/Long Eaton) and reverse to head down to London. It'd be better than a complete suspension of service?

This will be because capacity through the affected area is massively reduced. There will also be significant crew displacement and many of the Nottingham services are worked by London and Kettering crews who cannot get north.

The Sheffield trains that do run will be significantly delayed and will call additionally at Mkt. Harborough and Kettering, so Nottingham passengers can either take local services to get to Derby and join them, or (the almost certainly quicker option) head for Grantham and travel via LNER who are accepting tickets. There is also ticket acceptance on the WCML, and buses covering various parts of the route.

 

[duffield]

There are absolutely no EMR trains from London to Nottingham until at least 1500, due to a signalling system Faliure on a relatively short stretch from Loughborough to Trent East Junction.

Anyone know why this is causing so much disruption, is it because it happened overnight so all trains are stuck at Derby?

How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally? If they can, couldn't Nottingham Intercity trains run from Nottingham to Derby(/Long Eaton) and reverse to head down to London. It'd be better than a complete suspension of service?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/loughborough-20241025/

"How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally?"

They're not. For example the 0702 from St. Pancras to Sheffield was already running 57 late and has been stopped at Loughborough since 0915.

Realtime Trains | 1F10 0702 St Pancras International to Derby | 25/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 1F10 0702 departure from St Pancras International to Derby on 25/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Andy Pacer]

Something has just passed by me near Syston, only heard it rather than saw it but sounded like some kind of engineering train.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Oct 2024 ==

"How come Sheffield to London trains appear to be running normally?"

They're not. For example the 0702 from St. Pancras to Sheffield was already running 57 late and has been stopped at Loughborough since 0915.

Realtime Trains | 1F10 0702 St Pancras International to Derby | 25/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 1F10 0702 departure from St Pancras International to Derby on 25/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Surprised that one left Leicester. Presumably there's potential to run as far north as Loughborough but with crewing difficulties.

 

[43055]

Something has just passed by me near Syston, only heard it rather than saw it but sounded like some kind of engineering train.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Oct 2024 ==


Surprised that one left Leicester. Presumably there's potential to run as far north as Loughborough but with crewing difficulties.

They appear to be running through but it is taking up to an hour to get from Loughborough to Long Eaton.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Thanks, 1F12 has just passed by here and shows as terminating at Derby.

 

[Tomnick]

There was emergency special working implemented there a couple of years ago due to blank signalling. Looks like almost the exact same location this time.

The ESW section this time incorporated Trent South Jn (whether it needed to or not is another question) which is why the only route available was to/from Derby, that of course being the centre of the known universe. I cycled 16 miles to work this morning as the quickest option by far.

 

[Nottingham59]

According to realtime trains, most services through East Midlands Parkway seem to be running now with delays of around 30 minutes, with one cancelled.

 

[Bald Rick]

it was fixed 5 hours ago.

 

[68001]

signalling down yet again between loughborough and trent east junction this afternoon following on from fridays
problems disruption expected up to 17.00 pm

 

[43066]

signalling down yet again between loughborough and trent east junction this afternoon following on from fridays
problems disruption expected to last untill 17pm this evenng

7pm or 1700?

 

[baz962]

7pm or 1700?

You aren't working as usual so it's ok.

 

[43066]

You aren't working as usual so it's ok.

This is very true .

 

[68001]

should have said 17.00 this evening

 

[duffield]

I was caught up in this, trying to get to Nottingham from London, arrived at Leicester 1240 finally got back 3 hours later (emergency working through the affected area, that got me to Long Eaton where I changed to the Matlock->Nottingham service). Good thing I didn't listen to the train crew who told me to go and wait for a possible future bus - the Derby service actually ended up leaving 10 minutes after I got that advice! (Not criticising, the situation was confused and kept changing).

So, does anyone know any more technical details about what's wrong and why it wasn't fixed after the first occurrence?

 

[High Dyke]

So, does anyone know any more technical details about what's wrong and why it wasn't fixed after the first occurrence?

I understand from colleagues, more competent in these matters than I, that no identifiable cause was found first time and all cabling tested ok. However, it seems that some cable faults in the signalling supply has been since identified during the second failure.

 

[duffield]

I understand from colleagues, more competent in these matters than I, that no identifiable cause was found first time and all cabling tested ok. However, it seems that some cable faults in the signalling supply has been since identified during the second failure.

That's good then, so hopefully no third occurrence!

 

[High Dyke]

That's good then, so hopefully no third occurrence!

I wouldn't personally be that bold.

 

[Iskra]

My train back from Derby to Sheffield after being on the Bahamas railtour today is 66L arriving at Derby. Not what you need after a long day

 

[duffield]

My train back from Derby to Sheffield after being on the Bahamas railtour today is 66L arriving at Derby. Not what you need after a long day

Only 66L? Consider yourself very lucky! A combination of various cancellations, delays, mistakes and misfortunes led to me being *20 hours* late back from the GWSR gala on Saturday, including a forced no-sleep stay in Norwich overnight (sitting outside the station for 8 hours since all the hotels were booked) after the last Nottingham train was cancelled. Don't ask how I ended up in Norwich...
My journey back from Norwich started with a rail replacement bus at 0637 this morning and ended 10 hours later after the EMR signalling issue.

Oh well, I guess I'm going to sleep soundly tonight!

 

[Iskra]

Only 66L? Consider yourself very lucky! A combination of various cancellations, delays, mistakes and misfortunes led to me being *20 hours* late back from the GWSR gala on Saturday, including a forced no-sleep stay in Norwich overnight (sitting outside the station for 8 hours since all the hotels were booked) after the last Nottingham train was cancelled. Don't ask how I ended up in Norwich...
My journey back from Norwich started with a rail replacement bus at 0637 this morning and ended 10 hours later after the EMR signalling issue.

Oh well, I guess I'm going to sleep soundly tonight!

I’m not home yet, and still have another train to catch

That story does sound worthy of its own thread though…