Transport Central

It all started on Sunday evening. The wires came down onto the track at Watford Junction causing all kinds of issues – every single train in and out of London Euston was cancelled. As I personally travelled on Sunday evening, I was witness to a complete lack of information and problems all over the railway network. Passengers were being diverted to London Marylebone to catch the train to Birmingham Moor Street and change there.

The Chiltern service connects reasonably well at both Banbury and Leamington Spa to CrossCountry’s Birmingham New Street and Manchester Picadilly service thus preventing the need for the walk from Birmingham Moor Street and New Street in sub-zero temperatures. This, was not mentioned however. There were delays en-route due to a trespasser on the line on the Chiltern route and big delays on the route via Coventry due to a cracked rail. 

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The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has approved the recently unveiled Network Rail delivery plan as detailed in March 2008. The ORR considers the delivery plan sufficiently robust for the completion of the modernisation work by the end of 2008. The aim of the work is to allow the number of services to run to increase by 30% and also allow for much improved journey times.

The work is going ahead in the way Network Rail desires despite protests from the Train Operating Companies that use the Main Line for its passenger and freight services. There will be disruption to routes at all bank holidays and most weekends until the end of the year meaning the challenge to passengers and the desirability of traveling via rail will be much reduced.

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Although the overhead line problems affecting the West Coast Main Line have been fixed, there is now another, separate issue affecting the area between Tring and Leighton Buzzard which all Virgin Trains to and from London Euston go through. This is causing delays of up to one hour and the odd cancellation.

A quick look at the live departure boards reveals that the London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street 11:07 is currently running an hour late, as is the 11:56 London to Glasgow service. These issues are also affecting London Midland causing delays of up to thirty minutes on some services. Network Rail have no estimate as to when a normal service will be resumed.

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A problem which impacted in a big way on the West Coast Mainline today brought misery to many hundreds of passengers waiting at Euston and other stations around the country for their Virgin Trains services. The problem was at Rugby where there has been an overhead line issue. Any other information about this is not available because the railway industry does not seem to like publishing this strange but amazing thing called information.

However, it has resulted in a large number of delays and cancellations which will affect services until the end of business today. Having a quick look at the London Euston live departure boards shows a number of cancellations into London Euston: 2100 from Wolverhampton, 2120 from Manchester Picadilly, 2122 from Manchester Picadilly, 2201 from Liverpool Lime Street, 2208 from Wolverhampton and the 2228 from Manchester Picadilly.

A Preston to London service has been substantially delayed with an estimated arrival time of 2243 when it should have arrived at 2128.  We can only imagine what the conditions will be like on this train!

Virgin Trains have said that tickets issued for today will be valid on services tomorrow and Monday 7 April.

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A number of issues affected the network today:

• There were overruning engineering works between Oxted and Uckfield / East Grinstead (TOC: Southern)
• There were signalling issues between Nottingham and Worksop (TOC: East Midland Trains)
• There was a security alert at Moorgate (TOC: First Capital Connect)

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National Rail Enquiries will be keeping an up to date summary of routes affected by the line closures on their website. It is very advisable to check this website before travelling over the Easter period Friday to Monday inclusive. The Association of Train Operating Companies has offered a useful summary of the situation:

• “The West Coast Main Line will be closed from Good Friday to Easter Monday between Coventry, Rugby and Northampton and from London Euston on Easter Saturday until Easter Monday. No intercity services will operate from London Euston from Good Friday.  Local train services will operate between London Euston and Northampton only on Good Friday.  Local services will be replaced by buses at other times. Chiltern Railways will accept all valid Virgin and London Midland tickets on London Marylebone to Birmingham services.”
• “The East Coast Main Line from 2pm on Easter Saturday to 2pm on Easter Sunday, when services between London King’s Cross, the North East of England and Scotland will be diverted via Leeds due to work between Doncaster and York.”

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There are a number of issues affecting the network today:

• There are signalling problems affecting the Redbridge area near to Southampton Central (TOC: CrossCountry, First Great Western, South West Trains)
• There has been a fatality between Leeds and Wakefield Westgate (TOC: CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, National Express East Coast, Northern Rail)
• There has been a broken down train between Oxted and Uckfield (TOC: Southern)

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Here’s a quick summary of today’s railway incidents:

• There was a fatality at Harrow & Wealdstone which is situated between London Euston and Watford Junction (TOC: London Midland, London Overground, Southern, Virgin Trains)
• There were two separate events of signalling issues at Llansamlet which is situated between Bridgend and Swansea (TOC: Arriva Trains Wales, First Great Western)
•  There was a fatality at Tile Hill which is situated between Coventry and Birmingham New Street (TOC: CrossCountry, London Midland, Virgin Trains)

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RAIL 587 reports that Deutsche Bahn (DB) and EWS, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn since last year, have launched container freight traffic from Duisburg to Manchester using the Channel Tunnel.

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There were a number of issues affecting the railway network on 12 March 2008.

• There were overhead line issues between Doncaster and York (TOC: CrossCountry, Grand Central, Hull Trains, National Express East Coast). This is still on-going and there are no through services between the North East and Scotland. National Rail Enquiries are advising passengers to delay non-essential journeys until Friday when tickets will still be valid.
• There was a tree on the line between Chester and Hooton (TOC: Merseyrail)
• There was a broken down train at Bootle Oriel Road situated between Liverpool Central and Southport (TOC: Merseyrail)

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