Storm Amy Travel Disruption (03/10 onwards)

[Horizon22]

TfW are throwing in the towel between Newport & Shrewsbury it seems due to a tree between Hereford and Leominster.

How is it “throwing in the towel” in the way you suggest? Until the tree is removed trains cannot run, and it is not within TfW’s gift to decide when that is. Unless you are suggesting there is a suitable shuttle that could run?

 

[6Gman]

Or perhaps they could given Virgin Cross Country had a significant number of overnight lodging turns for train crew in the early days of their Franchise.

Overnight lodging turns within a planned linking arrangement is very different to ad hoc contingency arrangements that need to be implemented at 24/48 hours notice.

 

[The Planner]

And during all this chaos all around, as predicted, 4S88 made its way inexorably from Felixstowe to Coatbridge, arriving 4 mins late.
Freightliner should fit out some containers for passenger use

How light was that running, it wasn't 1600t if it was picking up time like that.

 

[6Gman]

And therein lies the problem with the adversarial working culture of the railways. With expenses paid in a decent hotel plus overtime pay I'd consider it a nice free holiday and a change of scenery.

You might, others wouldn't.

 

[Kite159]

How is it “throwing in the towel” in the way you suggest? Until the tree is removed trains cannot run, and it is not within TfW’s gift to decide when that is. Unless you are suggesting there is a suitable shuttle that could run?

Presumably running things to Hereford from the south is impossible then?

 

[6Gman]

What a rare treat , the opportunity to potentially get stranded from your family and operate on a day that you are hihgly likely going to end up doing some sort of degraded working or get stranded on a train in the middle of nowhere.

I'd also add the real possibility of a phone call from said traincrew's spouse/partner to say that the back fence has blown down, there's two slates (already) off the roof and what should they do?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Oct 2025 ==

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

Well, from my recent experience that certainly doesn't apply to banks or telephone service providers ...

 

[Lewisham2221]

Presumably running things to Hereford from the south is impossible then?

Depends on train crew availability. Guard wise, most Marches services are crewed from the north, and those same guards will still be required to work between Shrewsbury and Chester/Manchester.

 

[Horizon22]

Presumably running things to Hereford from the south is impossible then?

I see. Might be possible but depends where your crew and fleet are located when the block happened. For now it might be best to say suspended, and work on a shuttle train plan but this needs additional resources and if other routes are also heavily disrupted, workload will be a massive issue.

 

[800001]

TfW are throwing in the towel between Newport & Shrewsbury it seems due to a tree between Hereford and Leominster.

Hardly throwing in the towel or no route available!

 

[trundlewagon]

Tree down knackering the southern half of the Cross City, as is traditional any time the wind picks up...

 

[Elecman]

Blackpool Transport Trams suspended due to incident with the overhead wires. No services on the entirety of the line.

I watched a tram running up Talbot Road to North Station at 12.55, was drawing massive continuous arcs ar the Pan all the way up the road, saw no trams at all when I went back past at 13.25

 

[QueensCurve]

I watched a tram running up Talbot Road to North Station at 12.55, was drawing massive continuous arcs ar the Pan all the way up the road, saw no trams at all when I went back past at 13.25

Was it losing contact due to the wind?

 

[Elecman]

Was it losing contact due to the wind?

No the pan was firmly in contact looked more like damaged carbons

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

With wire damage between Crewe and Warrington, I can't see (on RTT) any Avanti WCML diversions via Manchester, which would be a normal option.
Warrington is seeing Chester-Manchester (-Leeds) Northern services and Warrington-Rhyl (TfW).

 

[Class 466]

With wire damage between Crewe and Warrington, I can't see (on RTT) any Avanti WCML diversions via Manchester, which would be a normal option.
Warrington is seeing Chester-Manchester (-Leeds) Northern services and Warrington-Rhyl (TfW).

With everything running via Styal already, I doubt there's even the capacity to accomodate any diverted Avanti's

 

[sprinterguy]

With wire damage between Crewe and Warrington, I can't see (on RTT) any Avanti WCML diversions via Manchester, which would be a normal option.
Warrington is seeing Chester-Manchester (-Leeds) Northern services and Warrington-Rhyl (TfW).

I suspect there are already enough planned diverted services being pushed through Wilmslow and the Styal line today, with Stockport being closed for further Greek Street bridge work this weekend.

 

[totally]

No the pan was firmly in contact looked more like damaged carbons

No the pan was firmly in contact looked more like damaged carbons

The Blackpool Tramway appears to have been closed again, with no replacement bus service this time. All put down to worsening weather. That surprises me as the wind seemed to have dropped.
Link to Blackpool Transport Website here https://www.blackpooltransport.com/service-updates

 

[800001]

The Blackpool Tramway appears to have been closed again, with no replacement bus service this time. All put down to worsening weather. That surprises me as the wind seemed to have dropped.
Link to Blackpool Transport Website here https://www.blackpooltransport.com/service-updates

BBC weather still forecasting 40-50mph winds in Blackpool up to midday Sunday.

 

[skyetraveller]

Storm Amy has been pretty fierce up here in the Highlands and having seen the number of trees down on the Kyle line at first hand today, I fully understand why all services tomorrow have been cancelled. So why does the ScotRail website describe that as "Minor changes"? Surely "No service"like Inverness-Aberdeen would be more appropriate? Not the first time it's happened...

 

[dgl]

We've also had 67MPH gusts observed down here on Portland so ors not just "oop north" that has seen some wind.

 

[Bald Rick]

Whilst not as serious as ’up north’, I saw a large tree down across the eastbound A414 near Colney today, and a car in a fairly bad way evidently having had a collission with same. Thankfully the car’s occupants appeared to be ok.

 

[wilbers]

The Blackpool Tramway appears to have been closed again, with no replacement bus service this time. All put down to worsening weather. That surprises me as the wind seemed to have dropped.
Link to Blackpool Transport Website here https://www.blackpooltransport.com/service-updates

It was still very windy outside the Norbreck just after 6pm when PlayExpo finished - not quite as windy as the morning though - had a moment then when it was too windy to be able to walk forward - years since that has happened to me. Decided not to chance it so picked car rather than train, though looking at Realtime trains enough of them ran [curtailed to/from Preston] so I would have got there and back, just would have got drenched on the walk to Penrith station.

 

[GusB]

Storm Amy has been pretty fierce up here in the Highlands and having seen the number of trees down on the Kyle line at first hand today, I fully understand why all services tomorrow have been cancelled. So why does the ScotRail website describe that as "Minor changes"? Surely "No service"like Inverness-Aberdeen would be more appropriate? Not the first time it's happened...

It's not as bad here as it was on Friday night, but it's still fairly blustery.

I briefly went out to lie my bins flat and was caught by a gust of wind that took my breath away. There doesn't seem to be any signs of damage in the immediate vicinity, but I expect to see a few more fallen trees when I head into town on Monday.

 

[totally]

It was still very windy outside the Norbreck just after 6pm when PlayExpo finished - not quite as windy as the morning though - had a moment then when it was too windy to be able to walk forward - years since that has happened to me. Decided not to chance it so picked car rather than train, though looking at Realtime trains enough of them ran [curtailed to/from Preston] so I would have got there and back, just would have got drenched on the walk to Penrith station.

The Blackpool Tramway remains closed today due to the weather and subsequent damage to infrastructure. Only one Tram replacement seems to be possible at present. Link to Blackpool Transport Website https://www.blackpooltransport.com/service-updates

 

[Flange Squeal]

The south of England didn’t totally escape, with one tree falling on Saturday at such a location (Bagshot, Surrey) that it was discovered by not just one train but two passing trains! Network Rail put some photos of the tree and two trains on their Twitter page.

https://x.com/NetworkRailWssx/status/1974516282922782988

These images show damage to trains caused by a fallen tree at Bagshot:

There were several others in the Wessex area too, as mentioned in another Tweet…

We’re sorry that customers have suffered disrupted journeys this afternoon as a result of #StormAmy. As these pictures of incidents at Fleet, Datchet and Bagshot show, a number of fallen trees meant trains were unable to run in several places, but our teams have been out responding as quickly as possible to keep customers moving safely. Please check with @SW_Help and
@GWRHelp and online journey planners for the latest train running information.

 

[Freightmaster]

The south of England didn’t totally escape, with one tree falling on Saturday at such a location (Bagshot, Surrey) that it was discovered by not just one train but two passing trains! Network Rail put some photos of the tree and two trains on their Twitter page

Those photos give a new meaning to "leaves on the line"



MARK