Thameslink Through Stevenage Evening of Thursday 13 August

[phil1960]

Tried to get back from St Neots to London last night leaving around 21:00 but everything from 18:18 until 23:18 inclusive was cancelled (Source = Real Time Trains). Given reason (on National Rail/CIS screens) was the damage to overhead wires which was on the Midland Main Line. Did the Thameslink "core" get completely blocked enough to effectively disrupt the Horsham to Peterborough/Brighton to Cambridge routes for the rest of the day? I really can't see that the derailment at Lewes would have much impact. Whilst there were some delays and a few cancellations, trains were running from Victoria to Brighton and through Horsham yesterday evening.

I managed to get back to London thanks to one northbound Thameslink service (at 21:13 which started at Kings Cross) in amongst several cancellations by going to Peterborough and LNER back south.

Phil

 

[Vexed]

I really can't see that the derailment at Lewes would have much impact.

I think most of the impact would be from the MML being closed. The OLE on the ECML was fine so I'd guess the Peterborough to Horshams were cancelled due to congestion and crew being displaced.

GTR control must have been completely overwhelmed combining the Lewes derailment with the MML closing, and the Moorgate branch closed too due to signalling issues.

With the driver diagrams being quite complex (see a recent FOI on What Do They Know) everything would on Thameslink is vulnerable to cancellations during disruption, especially if control is very busy.

 

[Mattplans]

Did the Thameslink "core" get completely blocked enough to effectively disrupt the Horsham to Peterborough/Brighton to Cambridge routes for the rest of the day?

Pretty much. I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on it specifically, but it was clear that trains couldn't leave St Pancras towards Kentish Town for some time after the initial incident which left trains blocking the northbound core line from St Pancras down to Loughborough Junction. Some 9V/9O were put into the bays (and I'm assuming Smithfield?) but that wasn't enough as it still left stranded units at City Thameslink and Farringdon for a couple hours.

The first Brighton - Cambridge I saw came from London Bridge and went up on the Southbound line towards St Pancras. Not too sure what happened after that.

so, It stands to reason that core blockage, and the usual crewing issues assosciated with GTR disruption, rendered service complete after the MML incident.

I note the following from @bramling in another thread.

Arlesey doesn’t appear to have seen an up service after 1811 this evening, and virtually nothing down in that time either.

The final service to call at West Sutton was at 17:10, a whopping 6h 30m before the actual scheduled final service. So if you think the GN side was bad....

 

[Supercoss]

Whilst the main issue was between Hendon and Mill Hill Broadway on MML the overhead electric supply to Thameslink Core was affected due to the way it is fed supply wise and initial issue spanning an overhead line neutral section.

 

[phil1960]

Whilst the main issue was between Hendon and Mill Hill Broadway on MML the overhead electric supply to Thameslink Core was affected due to the way it is fed supply wise and initial issue spanning an overhead line neutral section.

Thanks. Makes sense although the information put out by the train operators which is fed through to National Rail didn't make at all clear. I don't recall seeing any specific disruption information saying that Thameslink's routes via the ECML were affected. Agree, it was a difficult afternoon and evening with the Lewes derailment plus Moorgate. The CIS/NRE journey planners were very late at being updated as trains were just showing "delayed" when the previous working was cancelled and there was no chance they would operate.

 

[jon0844]

To add to the misery last night, there were two track defects found on the Hertford Loop (Hertford North and Cuffley areas) which saw some trains diverted via the mainline and then having to terminate at Stevenage which then took out one of the platforms (no way to get to platform 5). In addition there was an issue on the NCL so services backed up and that caused further issues to trains out of King's Cross - some that were crush loaded. A 379 fault meant some trains ran as 4 car.

With the weather situation and the track issues (perhaps the wiring issue on the MML will be heat related too?) I am surprised we haven't seen blanket speed restrictions and a cutting of services to try and prevent any more incidents.

As I write this I believe the Hertford Loop is closed entirely once more.