Storm Amy Travel Disruption (03/10 onwards)

[trainophile]

Telling people bluntly on the eve of a Friday that is still just about in the holiday season "Do not travel" is going to put a lot of people who have to vacate their accommodation the next morning in a right old panic. You can't always extend a booking, as it will have been re-booked for the next guests. It's one thing not to set out on a journey, but when you need to get home from one, or potentially be sleeping under the pier, it's not helpful.

They should at least accompany the instruction with advice on what their options are, be they "we have reserved 100 hotel rooms in Preston/Glasgow/Carlisle/wherever, so please advise us a.s.a.p. if you require one".

Worst case scenario, if everything is at a stand, perhaps they should let displaced travellers spend the night on a train parked up in the station. Wouldn't be very comfortable but better than under a subway, especially during a storm.

 

[londonmidland]

A tree has fallen between Bangor and Holyhead, affecting both lines. All lines currently blocked.

A tree has also fallen between Gobowen and Shrewsbury.

 

[Starmill]

It is indeed a quote; misquoting it would just sound silly. Clearly it applies to women too.



Keep upping the figure until enough bite.



Taking the cheaper option when this provides particularly poor customer service is seldom the right choice. I will take this as further confirmation regarding the point made above that the customer is not the priority on the railway. Its unique position of being protected by subsidy allows this situation to persist. OK, to be fair, the customer's experience isn't the priority on Ryanair either, but at least it is cheap, an accusation that cannot be levelled at Avanti.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Oct 2025 ==



Who mentioned cheap Travelodges? That's again the adversarial culture - if you are wanting to scratch backs, as it were, you offer a decent quality hotel and a meal in a quality restaurant, the costs of which are a pittance compared to changing a light bulb on a station in "railway inflation" terms.

(Notwithstanding that while I don't like Travelodges generally I do really like the Carlisle one, it's in a former telephone exchange with big rooms with high ceilings and massive windows - very much not the norm!)

This all just typifies the "can't do" attitude that pervades the railway, though, and it's not going to get any better under GBR as I'm sure the "cheminot" attitude will grow once it effectively reverts to being part of the Government. I'll leave it there as we are clearly not going to agree (and later on there will probably be actual disruption to post about in this thread rather than theorising about it), but in closing I really do think Avanti need to do much, much better.

I'm not persuaded that basing a small handful of crew in Carlisle hotels is value for money at the prevailing of prices for overtime hours plus an overtime incentive, added to the cost of accommodation and meals. Airlines and Eurostar may do this, but that's because for them a taxi is seldom possible. Also, Airlines and Eurostar use hotels day in day out, and therefore have bargaining power to get the best preferential rates. The train operators will just be paying whatever rate their travel providers offer, similar to public rates.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Oct 2025 ==

That is exactly what I mean. In other industries, the customer comes first.

Perhaps I'd venture that the way to put the customer first would be to build a business case to base a few crew at Carlisle permanently. It'd be awkward because they'd be risking some very inefficient turns on their mainstay of diagrams, however, when it comes to providing a service protection diagram, and their use during STP, and more relevant to this during on the day disruption, they'd be paying that back. It's swings and roundabouts but I imagine it could be made to work with a very small number of crew, say 8-12 drivers and 8-10 train managers. Finally you'd have to consider the workload of the existing Glasgow and Polmadie train crew management. If they can't take this on, you would be in the position of recruiting two further full time managers. A further opportunity would be for them to be worked by the Northern crew. Now... proposing that would be one sure fire way to get the rest of the Avanti train crew out on strike eh.

 

[route101]

I took the 1030 Avanti from London to Glasgow and we ended up 42 minutes late, so delay repay at 50% I think. Two loads of train passengers waiting at Glasgow Central when I left Glasgow Central.

 

[InOban]

I se that the WCML is now flooded at Lockerbie, as usual

 

[hexagon789]

Everything to/from Glasgow Central now suspended:

"Due to ongoing incidents from Storm Amy all trains to/from Glasgow Central have been suspended, trains out on routes will terminate at a location to allow passengers to alight safely and make their own alternative arrangements to destinations."

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Oct 2025 ==

List of current line issues:

•Tree on the line near Wishaw
•Tree on the line at Uddinston
•Tree on the line between Stirling and Alloa
• Tree on the line at Drumchapel
• Overhead line issues at Dalreoch, Wemyss Bay, Barassie, Kilwinning, Patterton, Paisley and Gartcosh.
• Flooding at Bowling

I think that puts some of the comments above into perspective hopefully?

 

[anothertyke]

Flooding at Darwen and on the Windermere branch. RRBs in operation.

 

[londonmidland]

'Multiple locations' of OLE damage being reported, between Shieldmuir and Motherwell, as well as at Cambuslang. No services expected to run between Carlisle and Glasgow Central for the rest of the night.

ScotRail reporting that ALL services from Glasgow Central have been suspended.

 

[KevL]

Fwiw. In case its of help to anyone. Locally Scarbro big lumps of tree are breaking off. Its getting wild, annd the trees were dehyrdrated so are snapping in some cases. So although east not as bad as west, its still bad.

 

[Banham7]

Blanket Speed Restriction now in force between Berwick and Edinburgh, I can see multiple services are now 20+ minutes late because of this.

 

[londonmidland]

Avanti X:

"Due to damage to overhead wires between Carlisle and Glasgow Central, all lines are blocked. As a result, Lockerbie, Motherwell and Glasgow Central will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day."

 

[sot]

I genuinely think this lark of removing acceptance is very poor form. Imagine I had booked an earlier advance to get into London to take account of these issues and prospective cancellations or delays.

That would then be useless!

I wasn't best pleased to be honest when I noted their changes this morning

 

[Northern158170]

Blanket Speed Restriction now in force between Berwick and Edinburgh, I can see multiple services are now 20+ minutes late because of this.

On a train up to Edinburgh now. We seem to be trundling along at 50mph, I believe it will add just over 30 minutes to the journey. You can hear the wind against the train and feel it buffeting

 

[Class 466]

Bet Avanti wish they’d stuck to their do not travel advice at this point.

 

[desiro350]

Looks like there's a similar blanket speed restriction on the west coast too north of Gretna Junction. What little is still trying to head north has been losing 40+ minutes between there and Carstairs

 

[CJSwan]

ScotRail Journeycheck is showing 1,001 cancellations for the rest of today and tomorrow!

 

[hexagon789]

ScotRail Journeycheck is showing 1,001 cancellations for the rest of today and tomorrow!

I've seen higher

 

[Krokodil]

Every man has his price

How much is this all going to cost?

Sorry, last post on this subject but I should clarify. I mean the way the approach to human resources is a constant battle between Unions and employers rather than a collaborative "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" which is much better. This comes from both sides; it's not specifically an anti Union post.

I would suggest that things are usually less adversarial than you imply. It may be perfectly possible to have crews lodging at Carlisle (for a price), but this is only likely to be worth doing for a longer period of time than just one storm. I've known drivers to be seconded from one depot to another for a few months (paid subsistence and mileage) to cover for a shortage until more drivers made it through training. Not remotely practical at short notice, who covers their existing work?

A tree has also fallen between Gobowen and Shrewsbury.

Made a mess of a windscreen in the process. Lamp post down at Deganwy, ladders on the line at Gaerwen - it's all go!

 

[Lewisham2221]

A tree has fallen between Bangor and Holyhead, affecting both lines. All lines currently blocked.

A tree has also fallen between Gobowen and Shrewsbury.

Clearly somebody forgot to tell the trees that there is 'only' a yellow weather warning in force

 

[MontyP]

Bet Avanti wish they’d stuck to their do not travel advice at this point.

It looks like some Avanti services are at a standstill between Glasgow and Carlisle:
Northbound
1S69 at Carluke
1S72 at Carstairs
9S77 at Lockerbie
Southbound
1M18 at Carstairs

 

[D1511]

9M62 appears to have been terminated at Haymarket after standing for 20 mins in Princes St gardens. Rather odd.....

 

[Mcr Warrior]

9M62 appears to have been terminated at Haymarket after standing for 20 mins in Princes St gardens. Rather odd.....

That's the 1852 Avanti departure from Edinburgh Waverley via the WCML. Nornally for London Euston but tonight would have been terminating at Preston. Avanti journey check mentioning a tree down. Not sure where. Also, has anything else been able to use platform 4 at Haymarket in the past hour, or is 9M62 still there?

Avanti West Coast JourneyCheck for journeys from Edinburgh to Preston - Train times and live real time delay/cancellation/disruption information.

Avanti West Coast JourneyCheck provides real time, up-to-date train times and train disruption information keeping you informed about any delays or cancellations on the network and helping you know what to do when your journey is affected. Train Cancellations, Delays, Alterations and...

www.journeycheck.com

Extract...

18:52 Edinburgh to London Euston due 01:17 will be terminated at Preston.
It will no longer call at Wigan North Western, Warrington Bank Quay, Crewe, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Sandwell & Dudley, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, Coventry, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central, Watford Junction and London Euston.
It is being delayed at Haymarket.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

 

[SC318250]

With the line being blocked at Bowling an unusual visitor tonight at Helensburgh Central.
318250 has run ecs from Dumbarton Central to Helensburgh Central.

 

[Krokodil]

Clearly somebody forgot to tell the trees that there is 'only' a yellow weather warning in force

Trees down outside of the zone too

 

[D1511]

That's the 1852 Avanti departure from Edinburgh Waverley via the WCML. Nornally for London Euston but tonight would have been terminating at Preston. Avanti journey check mentioning a tree down. Not sure where. Also, has anything else been able to use platform 4 at Haymarket in the past hour, or is 9M62 still there?

Avanti West Coast JourneyCheck for journeys from Edinburgh to Preston - Train times and live real time delay/cancellation/disruption information.

Avanti West Coast JourneyCheck provides real time, up-to-date train times and train disruption information keeping you informed about any delays or cancellations on the network and helping you know what to do when your journey is affected. Train Cancellations, Delays, Alterations and...

www.journeycheck.com

Indeed it is.....I've caught it to MK often. Just seems odd that it departed Waverley at all given what was already known at that time. Not sure if it's still sitting there blocking P4 or not.......presumably they could run it forward to Slateford to get it out of the way if they can't get to Polmadie tonight.

 

[desiro350]

Looks like there's some movement southbound now. 9S77 appears to be heading back south from Lockerbie and 1M18 is on the move from Carstairs 166 late. Southbound intermodals are moving as well; 4M11 has had a clear run all the way through Scotland and is only 14 late approaching Carlisle, 4M48 is 72 late in front of 1M18 and 4M86 is 37 late at Carstairs

 

[D1511]

It looks like the tree problem could be between Slateford and Carstairs, because 1Y95 seems to be stuck there, with 6M92 queued behind.

 

[M!T]

Following on from my questions earlier...

We've recheduled tomorrow's Leeds-London outing to the 18th. We'd paid the extra fee to be able to cancel or change the train tickets and the theatre in London kindly agreed to let us reschedule, depsite us being past the point at which this is usually allowed. I know it's supposed to be OK between Leeds and London but it's currently pretty lively in Bingley so I wouldn't bet against there being some kind of disruption tomorrow.

 

[londonmidland]

A squall line is developing to the west and is heading in a broadly easterly direction. This may bring a short spell of very strong winds and torrential rain as it progresses east, which may cause some disruption further south and east.

A screenshot of a squall line in development, heading in an easterly direction.

 

[Class 466]

Plenty of delays on the Settle & Carlisle line due to an earlier Tree Down