UK Storms

[ModernRailways]

Did that hit that train or is it just clear of the line? Obviously you can't run anyway with it hanging by splinters.

It's struck the train.

 

[43074]

EMT Liverpool to Norwich running now, with delays and cancellations in the East.

EMT London services running as far South as Bedford only, due to trees on the OHLE at three locations and the wires down near Radlett. Line expected to remain closed for the rest of the day. TIcket acceptance to London is in place even though the WCML and ECML are both blocked anyway.

XC services between Birmingham and East Anglia currently running well given the circumstances - delays of up to 10 minutes to be expected and nothing to/from Stansted until 11:00.

 

[jon0844]

It's struck the train.

Is this the first time there's been advertising on the side of a 395?

 

[Dolive22]

It's struck the train.

Did that happen last night? Did they not shut down in time?

 

[mrmatt]

I struggle to believe anyone really believes the TOCs would rather not run anything than get as much going as safely possible. And those saying some stuff can run yes it can, and they are starting to - but it takes time to check all lines to see which ones are safe to open not to mention then having to get trains and crews to the correct places and agree the plan with NR.

Perhaps they would like to be on board a train hurtling towards a tree at 100mph?

 

[sarahj]

Errr, with wind and trees blowing down during a short space of time, the problems are almost everywhere at once.

And, other countries do get affected, but do you think some trees on lines in Bravaria are going to make the BBC news. The high speed line between Hannover and Berlin is still partly shut from the floods a few months back, not seen much of that in the Sun.

Dammed if we do, dammed if we dont.

Send out trains in dark, trains get stuck or worse, passengers moan, but you knew it was coming.

Wait until its light and the wind has died. Complete over reaction.

If not being nanny state is to send out trains full of people, in high winds, in the dark, during bad rain, perhaps to their deaths and stuff the consequences. Hello Nanny.

 

[GodAtum]

I feel sorry for those working nights and unable to get back home

 

[High Dyke]

What about when it comes out in the next few days just how many RMT members weren't injured or killed by being made to work in such conditions?

As I said before about anyone else trying to get to work, any employer has a duty of care and would be ill advised to force staff to come in at any cost (literally any cost) so even if you had shed loads of spare staff just sitting around, you still couldn't do much more to get everything clear.

In any case, the winds are continuing through rush hour. It's not a case of the high winds being last night and the railway taking too long to clear up. Even now there must be many places where staff are working in an element of danger to clear the debris.

If I was Bob, I'd have capitalised on thanking the efforts of members (and rail staff in general) and even complimenting Network Rail and the train operators taking things seriously. Doesn't he realise the power of PR, by making him not always look like a total imbecile?

Funnily enough the Mem said something similar last night. It's alright for the general publc being advised to alter travel plans or delay their journey where necessary, but rail staff are still expected to turn up. Obviously employers don't think the staff will be affected by adverse weather.

P.S. Manual crossing gates were fun to operate for a while this morning.

 

[starrymarkb]

Errr, with wind and trees blowing down during a short space of time, the problems are almost everywhere at once.

And, other countries do get affected, but do you think some trees on lines in Bravaria are going to make the BBC news. The high speed line between Hannover and Berlin is still partly shut from the floods a few months back, not seen much of that in the Sun.

Dammed if we do, dammed if we dont.

Send out trains in dark, trains get stuck or worse, passengers moan, but you knew it was coming.

Wait until its light and the wind has died. Complete over reaction.

If not being nanny state is to send out trains full of people, in high winds, in the dark, during bad rain, perhaps to their deaths and stuff the consequences. Hello Nanny.

Last time there was a storm this big - DB Suspended all services were they were. Thousands spent the night stuck on trains or stations..

 

[sarahj]

Seems Battersea Park station has been damaged. Closed and damage to the building.

 

[jon0844]

I feel sorry for those working nights and unable to get back home

I'm sure they knew about it and planned in advance.

We knew of this weather (even if many of us were wondering how bad it really would be - I'll admit I thought the media was bigging it up a bit too much, trying desperately to say it would be the next 'October 1987') nearly a week ago - and warnings about problems to travel were known about a few days ago, and very clearly yesterday.

 

[sarahj]

Seems we get trees cleared up and bam. More trees at London Rd (btn), Polegate and Folklington now on the line.

10.19 from Brighton already 6 mins down

 

[Mojo]

I was on nights last night and didn't notice anything aside from the rain!

Fortunately on the Underground most of the network is still open, with just a few part suspensions and severe delays on many routes. Both LU and TfL were yesterday advertising their intention to run a full service except on the Overground, but that other transport providers will be affected.

Part of what the RMT has said could be seen to be true; LU managed to get its service up and running quickly because of the Emergency Response Unit and also the number of mobile operational managers who can get to site quickly, assess the issue (and possibly fix it themselves, such as removing lighter branches from the line), and then work to get the service recovered quickly.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Just by way of contrast, I can say that there has been no significant wind in Newcastle. Looking at the trees at 10:30am they remain quite still apart from the occasional brief burst of swaying. Even the met office predicts the highest winds here at 'lunchtime' of a mere 17mph.

Such a small island, and so many variations.

 

[ushawk]

Seems we get trees cleared up and bam. More trees at London Rd (btn), Polegate and Folklington now on the line.

10.19 from Brighton already 6 mins down

Good timing to announce the London Road tree - Brighton & HA have just announced that the game at Falmer tonight is 100% on !!

 

[sarahj]

As for Redhill, looks like the first train to call will be the 11.04 from horsham to London Bridge. Seems its from Haywards Heath, not Horsham. Come on southern control, use correct station codes.

Update.

first train from Eastbourne towards london (poss just three bridges. 10.58
Ashfords to run Ebn to Ashford only
Just sent a first stopper from Ebn to Ore. 10.40.

 

[soil]

Below some photos from Guildford station. Interestingly NRE list two trains as delayed, the 8.38 and 8.48, both FGW services. Someone at SWT has simply removed them so it's great to see that they are not just leaving the system on autopilot. They had in the past only put up those running as opposed to those running and those cancelled but it doesn't matter, as long as all those shown as running but are not running are not displayed. I think that policy needs to be extended to NRE.

Looks like the first train departed at 10:19.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/A84042/2013/10/28

 

[ainsworth74]

Such a small island, and so many variations.

Yes I was going to make that comment. A bit further down the coast in the Teesside area I can report only a gentle breeze. There was rain overnight but that's cleared up now as well. Most of the transport impact is on the railway due to issues in the southern part of the country and a few flights have been cancelled due to planes being trapped down south and not being in position to form return journeys. The roads are no worse than usual.

 

[infobleep]

Within the next 30 minutes only 103 trains cancelled according to SWT's journey check. Just shows how many trains are usually run within any 30 minute period during the day.

They are attempting to run a 10am service from Guildford to London. It departed 19 minutes late and just 16 minutes late from Woking. Very surprised it made up any time at Woking, given the conditions out there.

There was a bus listed to Gatwick at 10.10. It was listed on NRE has arriving into Gatwick at 10.10. So I guess it will be using a transmat beam to arrive or a TARDIS so that they can go back an hour or more in time just after the journy starts. Ha-ha

As for Bob Crow's comments. I'm aware the media might portray in a worse light than he has. However he hasn't done himself any favours today.

Just had another gust of wind here so perhaps the wind is picking up again in Guildford. Could more trees come down in a second wave once train services start again?

 

[jon0844]

Part of what the RMT has said could be seen to be true; LU managed to get its service up and running quickly because of the Emergency Response Unit and also the number of mobile operational managers who can get to site quickly, assess the issue (and possibly fix it themselves, such as removing lighter branches from the line), and then work to get the service recovered quickly.

Traffic permitting, it's a bit easier to mobilise units to stations and track around London by road than some of the rail network.

I also wonder if even LUL has enough staff to cope with what the railway network is? There are no overhead wires to bring down either. And of course there's then the fact that a lot of the network is underground and should be fairly safe, flooding excepted.

Surely Network Rail have emergency response teams too - but they're probably spread quite thin and might have to drive a lot further from incident to incident?

However, having people on trains that go along the line to clear off trees sounds like a great idea - but the problem is there are still trees coming down even now.

 

[CheekyBandit]

The Brighton Main Line is open again with trains having the following calling pattern: Brighton, Haywards Heath, Gatwick Airport, East Croydon,Clapham Junction and Victoria only

Not much good for the 30 or so passengers stuck at Horley. Departures are displaying a 1056 departure but it did that for one for 1026 but that soon disappeared

 

[43074]

In East Anglia, there is a tree on the line between Ely and Norwich.

EMT Liverpool to Norwich services will be terminating at Ely.

 

[ushawk]

Trees could keep falling for the rest of the day. Wont take much for unstable trees to fall in a bit of wind - thats why additional trees will fall.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Trees could keep falling for the rest of the day. Wont take much for unstable trees to fall in a bit of wind - thats why additional trees will fall.

I hope blanket speed restrictions are maintained until tomorrow.

 

[soil]

Within the next 30 minutes only 103 trains cancelled according to SWT's journey check. Just shows how many trains are usually run within any 30 minute period during the day.

They are attempting to run a 10am service from Guildford to London. It departed 19 minutes late and just 16 minutes late from Woking. Very surprised it made up any time at Woking, given the conditions out there.

According to RTT, they cut the 1 minute stop at Worplesdon to zero and the 3 minutes at Woking to 2 minutes.

Not sure how crowded the services are.

 

[ushawk]

Not much good for the 30 or so passengers stuck at Horley

Well they cant say they werent warned.....

 

[Dolive22]

Traffic permitting, it's a bit easier to mobilise units to stations and track around London by road than some of the rail network.

I also wonder if even LUL has enough staff to cope with what the railway network is? There are no overhead wires to bring down either. And of course there's then the fact that a lot of the network is underground and should be fairly safe, flooding excepted.

Surely Network Rail have emergency response teams too - but they're probably spread quite thin and might have to drive a lot further from incident to incident?

However, having people on trains that go along the line to clear off trees sounds like a great idea - but the problem is there are still trees coming down even now.

To be honest I think the number of emergency response units for NR is 1 or 2. Kept at Doncaster I think. But it's been that number for years, it's not recent cuts.

 

[jon0844]

Trees could keep falling for the rest of the day. Wont take much for unstable trees to fall in a bit of wind - thats why additional trees will fall.

Still having leaves on can't help matters. They really get thrown about a lot more than when they've fallen off.

Many trees around here have really shifted a lot of their leaves, but by no means all.

 

[ushawk]

Still having leaves on can't help matters. They really get thrown about a lot more than when they've fallen off.

Many trees around here have really shifted a lot of their leaves, but by no means all.

BBC News summed it up nicely - its like the sails on boats, which catch the wind and therefore knock them down.

Eastbourne - Hastings line is the latest to reopen, with services attempting to now reach East Grinstead and Coulsdon Town.

Norwood Jct - New Cross Gate is blocked so trains are diverting via Peckham Rye.

 

[Chrisgr31]

Whilst I sit at home waiting for the Uckfield Line to reopen can I blame Southern for the internet being on a go slow, and my remote connection to the office being as flaky as a Cadburys Flake?

Just go to show this theory of loads of people being above to work from home is merely a theory!