Power Outage at Purley caused chaos.

[felixthebadger]

Chaos on the Southern yesterday evening.

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/news/croydon-news/southern-trains-east-croydon-been-742776

Train services to and from Caterham and Tattenham Corner via East Croydon station are being cancelled, delayed or suspended this evening (Tuesday) after a power failure.

After the power outage, which happened at Purley station at about 5.30pm, several commuters have reported on Twitter that their train has stopped on the tracks mid-journey.

Several people tweeted to say their train had stopped on the tracks just outside of Purley station, with others reporting large crowds building at East Croydon station as a result of the suspensions...

 

[londonbridge]

Something else must have been happening earlier though, your link says the outage occurred at 5.30pm. I arrived at East Croydon just before 5pm, there was a Victoria train due on platform 1 which was being advertised as fifteen late and not stopping at Clapham Junction, got the 17:07 from platform 4 which was absolutely rammed.

Returned to Victoria just after 11pm, the first East Croydon train I could see was a 23:23 service to East Grinstead from platform 12 which was shown as being on time, indeed the departure board then changed to 'stand clear this train is ready to leave' despite the fact it still hadn't arrived! It then reappeared as being expected at 23:28 which was when it actually arrived at Vic.

 

[takno]

Something else must have been happening earlier though, your link says the outage occurred at 5.30pm. I arrived at East Croydon just before 5pm, there was a Victoria train due on platform 1 which was being advertised as fifteen late and not stopping at Clapham Junction, got the 17:07 from platform 4 which was absolutely rammed.

Returned to Victoria just after 11pm, the first East Croydon train I could see was a 23:23 service to East Grinstead from platform 12 which was shown as being on time, indeed the departure board then changed to 'stand clear this train is ready to leave' despite the fact it still hadn't arrived! It then reappeared as being expected at 23:28 which was when it actually arrived at Vic.

All of that sounds completely normal for East Croydon to Victoria. Mind you, I can't really make sense of the original article - it sounds like the outage didn't even extend as far as the platform at Purley, but the implication is that the entire BML service was shot to pieces.

 

[tsr]

The service was decimated as the Down Slow was closed from Purley Oaks to Purley, which you rather need during the peaks. Tattenham Corner and Caterham trains were also only able to run as shuttles as far as Purley, too, which meant a lot of stock further north was put into depots, and those trains were unavailable for passengers (and many crew movements) in the London area.

The problem was a cable fire which occurred about 1611, the damage then becoming more severe than first thought, knocking out power on the DS line and stranding two trains from 1708ish. Those two trains were eventually moved back wrong-direction via Purley Oaks, but until repairs were made, lines could not fully reopen; that happened at 1937.

Services were also affected by a train fault and uncontrolled evacuation at Peckham Rye, a passenger injury at Uckfield, a rail defect at Factory Jn near Stewarts Lane, and the unfortunate fatality at Bletchley.

 

[takno]

The service was decimated as the Down Slow was closed from Purley Oaks to Purley, which you rather need during the peaks. Tattenham Corner and Caterham trains were also only able to run as shuttles as far as Purley, too, which meant a lot of stock further north was put into depots, and those trains were unavailable for passengers (and many crew movements) in the London area.

That makes more sense in terms of decimating the service. It's frustrating when you see something in the mainstream press and it doesn't contain even basic information

 

[sarahj]

I did laugh at the email that came out 'can anyone with PTS and evac training contact us to help us out to detrain people'. mmmmm, there used to be quite a few, but for some reason you took that away from them. Wonder why?

 

[Sunset route]

When I left, Purley yard was still out of action. But the track circuits were being checked over.

 

[tsr]

I did laugh at the email that came out 'can anyone with PTS and evac training contact us to help us out to detrain people'. mmmmm, there used to be quite a few, but for some reason you took that away from them. Wonder why?

As it happens, the two services which got stranded away from platforms for the longest time were on routes which have been DOO for a long time anyway - but I take your point!

I was on the other side of town at the time and over 90mins away - had I been much closer, I’d probably have been obliged to go and loiter around Purley Oaks seeing if I could assist, given I am trained accordingly. As it then started tipping it down, I am rather glad I wasn’t in a position to!

When I left, Purley yard was still out of action. But the track circuits were being checked over.

Yep, sorry, I was rather looking at it from a passenger services point of view!