Weather related disruption 31/10

[Ianno87]

GWR was also affected by flooding near Woodborough affecting all services to the West of England. What didn’t help was unrelated to the weather several incidences of a complete lack of signalling in the Swindon area.

Mother-in-law caught up in that on way back from Cormwall - held at Westbury for a while, but eventually diverted via Melksham. "Only" about 75 minutes late (which seems pretty good compared to the rest of the network today)

Hundreds, no, but some? Any at all?

Good luck dealing with far more passengers than a few buses could actually carry. I mean hundreds and hundreds of passengers outside station that could not fit on a couple of buses

 

[stuartl]

Hundreds, no, but some? Any at all?

Here in Sheffield we've got a reduced timetable from tomorrow due to shortage of bus drivers, so there wouldn't be much hope of getting replacement buses at short notice here.

 

[sammyg901]

At least it is Sunday night and hotels are plentiful, Travelodge has rooms from £28.99 which is very reasonable for London!

 

[paul1609]

Is there no contingency to have some buses running in situations like this? For the whole of the WCML to be screwed it's not enough to say just get a hotel.

Tomorrow will be a nightmare as well.

Given the frequency that their infrastructure fails perhaps Network Rail should lease a fleet of A380 airbuses. Passengers could then be directed to Heathrow where rail replacement flights could operate to Glasgow calling at Manchester and Aberdeen calling at Newcastle and Edinburgh.

 

[dk1]

When there are problems, they want the customers to just go away!

Can’t blame them. What else can they do?

 

[skyhigh]

Hundreds, no, but some? Any at all?

If the whole ECML is up the spout it'll make things 10 times worse to say 'We're providing replacement buses' and only be able to provide a handful of coaches. Asking any passengers who are making discretionary travel to travel on any service tomorrow at no extra charge is the best option when there is this disruption on this scale.

 

[gazzaa2]

If the whole ECML is up the spout it'll make things 10 times worse to say 'We're providing replacement buses' and only be able to provide a handful of coaches. Asking any passengers who are making discretionary travel to travel on any service tomorrow at no extra charge is the best option when there is this disruption on this scale.

I'd say try and at least run some buses for those with an urgent need to travel today but you can't trust people to be fair about it, if it's going to be a free for all.

 

[dk1]

I'd say try and at least run some buses for those with an urgent need to travel today but you can't trust people to be fair about it, if it's going to be a free for all.

That causes even more chaos usually. As you say it becomes a free for all stampede. Advice to come back another day will help thin things out.

 

[Grumpy Git]

At least it is Sunday night and hotels are plentiful, Travelodge has rooms from £28.99 which is very reasonable for London!

Off topic warning, but I wouldn't stay in Travelodge for a big clock, (based on being overbooked even though I'd only made the reservation an hour earlier).

 

[Ianno87]

That causes even more chaos usually. As you say it becomes a free for all stampede. Advice to come back another day will help thin things out.

And it's the most vulnerable who usually get pushed in front of.

 

[fgwrich]

Here in Sheffield we've got a reduced timetable from tomorrow due to shortage of bus drivers, so there wouldn't be much hope of getting replacement buses at short notice here.

Add into the mix of a large Engineering blockade between Basingstoke and Southampton, and a number of the Southern bus companies will be preparing their drivers and fleets for tomorrow’s Southampton to Bournemouth closure too, then you’d be hard pressed to find any spare drivers and buses in this region (even the midlands based Johnson’s have been covering down here of late!).

 

[dk1]

And it's the most vulnerable who usually get pushed in front of.

There are some horribly vile people out there.

 

[godfreycomplex]

Given the frequency that their infrastructure fails perhaps Network Rail should lease a fleet of A380 airbuses. Passengers could then be directed to Heathrow where rail replacement flights could operate to Glasgow calling at Manchester and Aberdeen calling at Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Those wishing to board at Bodorgan, Ty Croes and Rhosneigr please make a clear hand signal to the driver.

 

[LAX54]

When there are problems, they want the customers to just go away!

same with ANY transport system !

 

[nanstallon]

If the whole ECML is up the spout it'll make things 10 times worse to say 'We're providing replacement buses' and only be able to provide a handful of coaches. Asking any passengers who are making discretionary travel to travel on any service tomorrow at no extra charge is the best option when there is this disruption on this scale.

Will the TOC pay for hotel bills?

 

[CW2]

I was trying to make a simple Manchester to Crewe journey. Normally there are 3 trains per hour, with 3 different operators. So:
1755 Euston (Avanti) Cancelled
1809 Crewe (Northern) Cancelled
1824 Milford Haven (ATW) Cancelled
Cheers then. A toxic combination of weather and train crew shortages. The queue for the information desk stretched across Piccadilly station concourse. Along with seemingly half the population of the North West, I boarded the XC service to Stoke, to be met by a choice of a rail replacement bus (from Derby) or a fester for a 350 stopper.
Hey ho. Worse things happen at sea!

 

[Dougal2345]

At Waterloo at the moment, many long distance services showing as delayed or cancelled.

 

[DarloRich]

Caught up in the east/ west coast issues today trying to get home from leeds to milton keynes.

Good advice at leeds: you are welcome to go by either tpe or xc and try for an avanti if you like but the line is blocked ( looks closlry at screen) at some where called long buckby and near rugby and i cant gaurentee you get home. Best wait here at leeds for a bit and go from there!

Now heading south on LNER hoping LNWR are running from Euston to MKC! I am 2 hrs plus late but moving

 

[Horizon22]

Regarding the derailment, there is already a thread on this:

Collision and derailment near Salisbury (Fisherton Tunnel) 31/10/21

Mod note: Please take care when posting; any speculation should be reasonable, proportional and clearly identified as such. As this incident is being reported in the mainstream media, we need to ensure speculation posted here isn't picked up and reported as fact. Additionally, this is a...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[greeny11]

I too was caught up in this earlier today, on the 09.17 Euston to Liverpool Lime Street. Progress was slow throughout, and we first came to a stand still at Tring, then just outside Bletchley, where the train manager said a train had failed. We got through Milton Keynes Central, but then came to a holt north of Wolverton for nearly an hour. We made a tiny bit more progress before stopping just before the Northampton line branches off, which is when we reversed back to Milton Keynes and the service was terminated, along with 4 other Pendolino services (needless to say it was busy). Some of the passengers went back to London on some of the Pendolinos in Milton Keynes, but I decided to stay put as I figured Euston would be chaos, which it seemingly was. Even at that stage (12.15) - it became clear that getting home by train wasn't an option today. I did see some services go through after 3.30 (incidentally, all 5 Pendos that got caught up in the disruption at MK earlier), but I gather there's been more trouble on the WCML this evening. I dread to think how much money Avanti will lose through delay repayments and refunds today.

 

[Nova1]

A friend of mine was at Marylebone station today trying to make it to Birmingham, they had booked these tickets a few weeks ago (not just an WCML straggler), apparently it was total chaos, most services leaving very very full, overcrowding on platforms etc. apparently staff tried locking the gateline to control the crowding on the platforms and people started trying to jump the barriers. i feel sorry for staff on the ground today having to deal with unruly passengers.

 

[RailWonderer]

Just reminds you why nationalisation is looming. No private company in their right mind wants to keep paying out thousands for acts of God especially when profits aren't rolling in.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Just reminds you why nationalisation is looming. No private company in their right mind wants to keep paying out thousands for acts of God especially when profits aren't rolling in.

Just as a matter of interest, does any other country run the railway like the UK currently (pre GBR)?

 

[DarloRich]

Just reminds you why nationalisation is looming. No private company in their right mind wants to keep paying out thousands for acts of God especially when profits aren't rolling in.

No private company will be paying for any of this. NR will.

Profits or otherwise dont come into it

 

[158756]

Things maybe looking up on the WCML at last, it looks like the now over five hours late 1437 Euston-Manchester is moving north from Northampton.

 

[RailWonderer]

No private company will be paying for any of this. NR will.

Profits or otherwise dont come into it

So ToCs bill NR for delay repay compensation? Come on.

 

[The Planner]

So ToCs bill NR for delay repay compensation? Come on.

NR will be paying the TOCs for the delays.

 

[DarloRich]

So ToCs bill NR for delay repay compensation? Come on.

I am not sure you know what you are talking about.

 

[londonmidland]

Reports of the WCML being blocked between Preston and Lancaster due to flooding.

 

[dk1]

Reports of the WCML being blocked between Preston and Lancaster due to flooding.

It’s one of those days. Poor control staff.