Transport Central

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.

Other issues affecting the network today, as well as about fifteen planned engineering works going on:

• Signalling issues at London Waterloo (TOC: South West Trains) – full service resumption delayed until 21:30 after an original report of 19:30 stated.
• Signalling issues affecting Stanstead Airport (TOC: CrossCountry, National Express East Anglia)
• All routes via Cambridge affected due to a security alert (TOC: First Capital Connect, National Express East Anglia, CrossCountry)
• Signalling issues in the Clifton area affecting routes between Salford Crescent and Bolton (TOC: Northern Rail, First Transpennine Express)
• There was a broken down train in the Sittingbourne area (TOC: Southeastern)
• There was a bridge struck in the Cam & Dursley area.
• There were signalling issues in the Mill Hill Broadway area affecting routes between Luton and London St. Pancras (TOC: East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect)
• There was a bridge struck in the Ruabon area affecting routes between Chester and Shrewsbury.
• There were signalling issues affecting the line between Treherbert and Porth (TOC: Arriva Trains Wales)

Additionally, there were a large array of service alterations (which now seem to be referred to as “Travel Updates”) on CrossCountry services with a few trains suffering cancellations and delays due to a lack of staff. Some of these automated updates are woefully inadequate at providing decent information; we really need to know more about the situation of these trains.

---