Storm Darragh - 6/7th Dec

[dk1]

Not a bad start to the day overall here in East Anglia. Only issues we have are overrunning engineering works affecting the WAML and the very first trains on most regional routes cancelled as they will run as route proving trips instead. Apart from that it’s just a normal booked service everywhere from approximately 09:30.

 

[modernrail]

While I appreciate that you're trying to provide some decent advice here, having a credit card to fall back on isn't going to be an option for people many people who are on low incomes.

I have one now, mainly because I needed to build up my credit rating. While it's handy for unexpected surprises, my initial credit limit was very low to start with (£200) and the interest rate isn't exactly favourable. An unexpected rail-replacement taxi journey could quite easily eat up that limit. It's all well and good advising people to claim back the expenses, but there's no guarantee that this will happen quickly and the train company is unlikely to fork out for any interest over and above the cost of the taxi journey. This is where the "pay now, claim back later" thing falls down; many people will simply end up stranded because they simply don't have the means to pay up-front.

The railway is generally an anomaly in the UK as it supposes that the population all have hundreds of pounds available on a whim to place a bet on travelling on a relatively unreliable form of transport.

Long distance travel is becoming a more elite sport by the day. The LNER ticketing nonsense and the claim later thing being examples.

It is a publicly funded service that is meant to be realistically available to all and it shouldn’t put people in that position.

The claim later thing also encourages ‘sorry I can’t do anything you will have to sort yourself out’ syndrome. The emphasis should always be on the railway finding a solution to look after its passengers properly. Yes, that might not be easy sometimes but the emphasis should always be on rising to the occasion and showing some of that plucky spirit we are meant to be famous for.

 

[55002]

Not a bad start to the day overall here in East Anglia. Only issues we have are overrunning engineering works affecting the WAML and the very first trains on most regional routes cancelled as they will run as route proving trips instead. Apart from that it’s just a normal booked service everywhere from approximately 09:30.

that’s good as it’s still quite windy down Herts at the Moment

 

[Caaardiff]

TfW have completely given up on tomorrow, which I feel is extremely poor form. Nothing Newport - Shrewsbury till Monday morning. Really frustrating personally. Anyone know why they throw in the towel at the first opportunity? Or anything else in this specific case? Cheers

TFW will be looking to route check most lines this morning.
Line checks can only be done with NR staff on board to clear obstructions so is dependant on staff availability.
Most of Wales took a battering yesterday so it's likely there will be a lot of trees and debris to clear, which will take time.

It's better to advertise no service to discourage people from travelling rather than offer some hope where people will turn up to stations to only find there's late cancellations. If and when routes are cleared then services will be reinstated.

Also there's more forecasted winds today which could close routes again after they've been cleared.

 

[crosscity]

Birmingham Crosscity line (South and North) still closed, with three EMUs and one DMU still stranded between Kings Norton and Longbridge.

 

[pompeyfan]

Yet another tree down on the Portsmouth line, but it’s the only route available for Southampton - Reading and Southampton- Waterloo.

 

[trundlewagon]

Birmingham Crosscity line (South and North) still closed, with three EMUs and one DMU still stranded between Kings Norton and Longbridge.

Several trees down on the OLE apparently. The option to divert [Hereford and Cross Country services] via Kidderminster has been scuppered by a tree down at Hartlebury

 

[dk1]

A tree is blocking the railway between Shippea Hill & Lakenheath. No EMR services to Norwich or GA shuttles to/from Ely until further notice.

 

[Bald Rick]

Here in London, probably not the worst, but a combination of breathless panic-stricken advance notices and various disruptions, as ever on the Elizabeth Line, has meant few venturing onto trains. Meanwhile, while out and about all morning, it was quite apparent on the roads that traffic was very substantial, more than normal, and nobody planning to go Christmas shopping by car had been deterred, or found any difficulty.

And yet 20 miles away, in the people’s republic of St Albans, the roads were much quieter than normal yesterday and again today. It seems many people decided it was a day for staying in.

A tree is blocking the railway between Shippea Hill & Lakenheath. No EMR services to Norwich or GA shuttles to/from Ely until further notice.

That’s unlucky, theres barely any trees there!

 

[BAFRA77]

Looking at services on the GWR line between Paddington and the West there seems to be issues at and around Reading - with just about every service passing through there hitting delays of ca.20 minutes

 

[43066]

While I appreciate that you're trying to provide some decent advice here, having a credit card to fall back on isn't going to be an option for people many people who are on low incomes.

I have one now, mainly because I needed to build up my credit rating. While it's handy for unexpected surprises, my initial credit limit was very low to start with (£200) and the interest rate isn't exactly favourable. An unexpected rail-replacement taxi journey could quite easily eat up that limit. It's all well and good advising people to claim back the expenses, but there's no guarantee that this will happen quickly and the train company is unlikely to fork out for any interest over and above the cost of the taxi journey. This is where the "pay now, claim back later" thing falls down; many people will simply end up stranded because they simply don't have the means to pay up-front.

But that doesn’t change the relevance of the advice for most people! I’d suggest the Venn overlap of people who undertake long distance rail travel, have a completely empty bank account, with no access to any form of short term credit, and who get stranded due to weather, is going to be pretty tiny.

If those who are able to make their own arrangements and claim back do so, that is not only going to be quicker and better for them, it’s also going to free up staff to make arrangements for those who cannot, so in that respect it’s also a win win.

Surely that’s all just common sense - I have no idea why the idea of people being advised to do that is seen as such an issue whenever these threads come up!

I agree but why don't more TOCs do it? Or if they do, advertise it?

I’m not sure.

 

[Taunton]

And yet 20 miles away, in the people’s republic of St Albans, the roads were much quieter than normal yesterday and again today. It seems many people decided it was a day for staying in.

They probably all came to Stratford then .

Though not by DLR, as the DLR decided that the December weekends, normally some of their busiest weekends of the year there, was just the right time to shut half the system down on consecutive weekends for the engineers to play with their couple (only, even now) of much-delayed new trains.

 

[dk1]

And yet 20 miles away, in the people’s republic of St Albans, the roads were much quieter than normal yesterday and again today. It seems many people decided it was a day for staying in.



That’s unlucky, theres barely any trees there!

I know!!! lol. That did make me chuckle. Network Rail expected on site any time now.

Ironically there is an area close to the RSPB site that used to supply wood for Bryant & May. There was even until a few years ago a set of UWGs called Bryant's.

 

[Taplowgreen]

Looking at services on the GWR line between Paddington and the West there seems to be issues at and around Reading - with just about every service passing through there hitting delays of ca.20 minutes

A lot of fallen trees etc further West and most Westcountry (Devon/Cornwall) branches closed along with many out of Westbury/Chippenham due to storm damage but hey - Sundays on GWR are generally a shambolic lottery anyway due to crew shortage so people set their expectations accordingly!

 

[Horizon22]

A lot of fallen trees etc further West and most Westcountry (Devon/Cornwall) branches closed along with many out of Westbury/Chippenham due to storm damage but hey - Sundays on GWR are generally a shambolic lottery anyway due to crew shortage so people set their expectations accordingly!

Yes I wouldn’t hold much hope for a resemblance of a coherent GWR service today with both the aftermath of the storm and it being a Sunday anyway.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

My Liv-bhm train is terminating at cre due to problems at Penkridge Is anything running through from cre to wvh & bhm?

 

[Andyjs247]

Birmingham Crosscity line (South and North) still closed, with three EMUs and one DMU still stranded between Kings Norton and Longbridge.

And one EMU stranded between Gravelly Hill and Erdington.

More generally it was announced that dated CrossCountry tickets for Saturday would accepted until Wednesday 11 December.

 

[AndrewE]

My Liv-bhm train is terminating at cre due to problems at Penkridge Is anything running through from cre to wvh & bhm?

There were power supply problems somewhere near Wolves yesterday, the Liv - Brums seemed to be just shuttles N of Crewe and the Anglo Scots via the W Midlands ran down the Trent Valley and sat at Stafford for quite a while...

 

[Unixman]

Worcester Shrub Hill is currently closed due to damage to the station building,

 

[ChiefPlanner]

And yet 20 miles away, in the people’s republic of St Albans, the roads were much quieter than normal yesterday and again today. It seems many people decided it was a day for staying in.





That’s unlucky, theres barely any trees there!

Horrible out there still - it ought to be in the Welsh idiom - " A day for the 'ouse " , but there may be some intrepid visitors to the signal box open this afternoon , if not i will give the brasswork and lever frame a good clean and polish !

 

[AdamWW]

Anyone who has used Tyrell will understand how this comes about - not checking the plethora of text in the additional fields on the second page. When control offices are under a lot of pressure, this is what happens.

I'd come to the conclusion that the interface doesn't make it easy to provide accurate and consistent information, and I can quite believe that the individuals providing the information aren't to blame.

However - I find it hard to imagine that the system couldn't be improved so that it's a lot easier for staff under pressure to actually give useful and non contradictory information.

They'll have selected 'between' rather than 'through', if I remember the options correctly. Really they should have been done separately.

"Between Radyr and Coryton" makes little sense geographically.

It made sense operationally when the stations were the termini of a through service, but that's no longer the case.

There are 47 line updates on JourneyCheck now - three times more than for GWR. It's really difficult to work out what the status is, especially with the copy/paste errors in some of the messages and the delayed flag being set rather than cancelled. I was always taught to keep an eye on what the public saw by checking JourneyCheck.

Interesting. It's doesn't look to me as if TfW do that.

In bad disruption I'm sure I'm not alone in checking multiple information sources to try to put a picture together from all the incomplete and contradictory information. It's a shame the railways can't employ someone to do that and then fix the information.

 

[david1212]

My Liv-bhm train is terminating at cre due to problems at Penkridge Is anything running through from cre to wvh & bhm?

I can only suggest
- if running any train direct from Crewe to Stafford then then bus Stafford > Wolverhampton
- if running and times work train else bus Crewe > Stoke, Hanley or Newcastle > Stafford then bus > Wolverhampton
Once at Wolverhampton you theoretically have train, tram and bus to Birmingham.

 

[D1537]

My Liv-bhm train is terminating at cre due to problems at Penkridge Is anything running through from cre to wvh & bhm?

XC are running a Stoke to Brum replacement bus service which calls at Stafford (but not Wolverhampton apparently)

Edit: however, Avanti's 9G51 has just left Stafford heading south after sitting there for 45 minutes, so possibly the line is now clear.

 

[AndrewE]

I can only suggest
- if running any train direct from Crewe to Stafford then then bus Stafford > Wolverhampton
- if running and times work train else bus Crewe > Stoke, Hanley or Newcastle > Stafford then bus > Wolverhampton
Once at Wolverhampton you theoretically have train, tram and bus to Birmingham.

or maybe
Train to Bham if running (RTT says they are, e.g. the 1017 Preston to Brum has left Stafford...)

 

[Magdalia]

Ironically there is an area close to the RSPB site that used to supply wood for Bryant & May. There was even until a few years ago a set of UWGs called Bryant's.

I'm old enough to remember the Lakenheath matchstick forest!

 

[roadie]

I don't know if it's related but signaling issues on the south side of Dartmoor losing 1/2 hour on the 11:15 Plymouth to London train between Ivybridge and Totnes other services to be suffering similar issues in both directions.

 

[Falcon1200]

Birmingham Crosscity line (South and North) still closed, with three EMUs and one DMU still stranded between Kings Norton and Longbridge.

That illustrates why, when extreme weather is forecast, selective withdrawal of service is the right thing to do, even though the railway will then be accused of 'giving up', throwing in the towel', etc. The presence of stranded, and quite possibly damaged, electric trains will make restoring the railway and train service more complex and will take longer. Been there, done that, too many times.

 

[roadie]

Yesterday the station staff in Cornwall were fantastic, considering they are reliant on staffed stations further up and down the line as control/company seems to think they don't exist.

 

[AndrewE]

My Liv-bhm train is terminating at cre due to problems at Penkridge Is anything running through from cre to wvh & bhm?

What have you done? It seems that they aren't running into Wolves from the north, have you considered overtravelling to Rugby and getting a train back to Wolves from there?

 

[dannypye9999]

Checking online weather forums there's talk of another storm brewing out in the far Atlantic waiting ready to unleash itself in time for next weekend. Thats another Christmas Saturday of "stay at home" disruption. The weather gods just couldn't pick a better time for it.