Posted 7th January 2010 | 9 Comments

Passengers urged ‘don’t travel’, as winter continues to tighten its grip

Picture: Network Rail

Moreton in Marsh

ONE train operating company is urging its customers to stay at home today, as sub-zero temperatures continue. Clear skies in many places meant another very cold night, and many TOCs are reporting problems with widespread signalling problems and train failures. In addition, forecasters expect snow to return by the weekend.

First Capital Connect is one TOC that has been particularly badly hit, with services on both the Thameslink and Great Northern routes being delayed by up to 90mins. FCC said the disruption was being caused by a combination of train faults and signalling problems, both of which are being blamed on the weather. FCC is ‘strongly advising’ against attempts to travel on its routes today.

CrossCountry trains between Bristol and Birmingham are being diverted via Chepstow with delays of 90mins, because of a rock fall inside Wickwar Tunnel in Gloucestershire at about 07.30 today. Network Rail has closed the line and engineers are at the scene. It is not yet clear if the collapse was related to the weather.

Other CrossCountry problems are affecting the York/Newcastle and Cambridge/Stansted Airport routes. In addition, no CrossCountry trains are running across the Scottish central belt, and passengers are being advised to use ScotRail instead.

East Coast trains are being delayed by up to an hour. Many Leeds services have been cancelled, and there are almost no EC trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow.


First Great Western
is also affected by the closure of the line through Wickwar Tunnel, and telling its passengers to travel via Swindon. No trains are running between Westbury and Swindon, Avonmouth and Severn Beach or Oxford and Bicester Town.

Trains on several key Transpennine Express routes are being delayed by numerous signalling problems at Carlisle, Glazebrook, Selby, Northallerton and Ulleskelf, while a failed train is causing delays at Bolton. The Northallerton problem is also delaying Grand Central and East Coast services, and there are speed restrictions elsewhere on the East Coast Main Line.

ScotRail services have been suspended between Dalmuir and Springburn, Milngavie and High Street (Glasgow)/Bellgrove, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central via Carstairs and between Dyce and Elgin. Replacement buses are running where possible between Motherwell and Lanark, Bathgate and Edinburgh and Inverness and Aviemore. Other services are being delayed or reduced in frequency, particularly in the central belt. Sleeper services between Scotland and London will be ‘subject to change’ for the rest of this week.

London Midland is reporting delays of up to an hour between Rugby and London Euston, and also signalling problems between Birmingham and Liverpool. Virgin has reduced its London and Birmingham/Manchester services to twice an hour, and is also facing delays because of signalling problems near Liverpool, at Edge Hill.

National Express East Anglia has reduced its London–Norwich service to hourly, and trains on the Cambridge and Great Eastern routes are being delayed.

Northern Rail
is also being affected by signalling problems, and has reduced the frequency of several Manchester area services.

Southern has cancelled many services between London and the South Coast, and South West Trains has no service between Brockenhurst and Lymington or between Ascot and Guildford. Trains between London and Weybridge via Hounslow are terminating at Staines, and SWT is warning that many trains will be shorter than usual, with fewer on-board services. 
 
Southeastern is having a better day than yesterday, but its trains are being delayed between London Bridge and Cannon Street, while problems are reported on the lines to Dartford and Faversham.

Both Arriva Trains Wales and Wrexham and Shropshire services are being delayed by signalling faults at Telford.

Meanwhile, ATOC has attributed delays on the National Rail Enquiries website yesterday to ‘intermittent technical problems’ rather than a lack of capacity. A spokesman said the site had been handling an average of 95,000 visitors an hour. “While this is a lot more than normal, it is well within the capacity that the site is designed to handle,” he added.

Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

  • BGB, Manchester, UK

    I started work on BR in August 1962 at Chester just a few months before the BIG freeze which lasted until around March/April '63. Going to work one morning (on time and I had either to travel either by 'bus, cycle or walk four miles) the down Irish Mail was in Chester a mere SEVEN hours late but still made it eventually to Holyhead. It had left Euston approx. 2.5 hours late but, try as I might, I cannot recall a single train being cancelled. Granted cirmumstances were different then but so were attitudes, ie none of the risk averse "institutional wimpism" which pervades so much of this country today.

  • Anders, London, England

    Andrew Ganley, Cannon St platforms and layout have only over been able to handle 12 carriages max, so I've no idea where you are getting your memories from. The truth is, I remember the 1985-6 winter when Kent last had a lot of snow, trains didn't run for 2 full days. It took a third day to get a unit onto Sheppey too. Yes I remember the diesels, but these were one an hour through North Kent and they were virtually empty. The same line has been getting 4 an hour this week. So much for the glory days of BR when almost half as many passengers were travelling. Please take your rose tinted spectacles off !

  • anon, London, England

    Tony, Euston - I've worked in your delivery unit mate and it's one of the most poorly organised I've seen. What makes it worse is the amount of lazy and obstructive staff, who always see a problem in doing anything new and never get anything done on time. What your area needs is new, stronger management team and a total shake up of the staff, to keep the motivated, professional, well meaning workers and lose the rest. The railway has got to become more efficient and I'm sorry to say this, but on my travels around NR maintenance is the best place to start.

  • john kelvin, oxford

    What I cannot understand is that the roads are truly treacherous, there are massive delays at airports, whereas in fact most trains are running and with relatively little delay. So why are the TOCs not in fact saying - if you have to travel, this is exactly the time to take the train, as opposed to the current message which is to avoid train travel. Seems to me a missed opportunity for the rail industry. Go on, take a chance - tell everyone the railway is open and in fact doing pretty well at moving people from A to B?

  • tony, london, uk

    i work on the overheadlines out of euston all year round. we do the best job we can but its high up the problems are, cuts in everything. too many pen pushers making cuts when all they know of the railway is in a picture book. a lot of managerment are for lack of better words useless, so much miss planning and understaffing, and the cuts are making it worst and dangerous. at the present rate of decline there will be another potters bar crash, and many more deaths before they relise the infrustutor needs a major overhaul. a lot of the system we see today is over 50 years old. dating from the 60s. i feel for the cummuting public because i am also 1 and am very frustrated with the poor services.

  • Patrick Houghton, London, England

    I applaud the train companies and all rail staff who are doing the best they can to keep trains running and minimise delays in extremely difficult and challenging conditions. Understandably, there are problems but this is very adverse weather we are having to cope with. I know they are working at all hours of the day and night in subzero temperatures to do all that is possible. Keep up the hard work, despite the seemingly lack of appreciation from many.

  • David Spencer, Bolton, United Kingdom

    I am really apalled at the constant delay news bleated out by TOCs and by the railway industry at large. Monitoring the Swiss railway operations all week also where there is similar weather consitions, not a single train is delayed or cancelled. This strikes me of a mardy disorganised industry where staff and management cry when the going gets a little tough. It also shows how fickle the signalling systems are and how inapproporiate our design of rolling stock is. I have no sympathy with any of the reporting difficulties and would conclude by saying GET ON WITH IT. You are all supposed to run a service. DO YOUR JOB and be proud!

  • Joel Kosminsky, London, Britain

    If there were more staff, not bean-counted numbers; if there were more depots, not mega-sheds in middles of nowheres; if there were sufficient and distributed spare rolling stock... We can't stop bad weather but we could recover quicker. Cut-cut-cut is only short-term 'bottom line' maths, and very bad maths too.

  • andrew ganley, cheam, england

    If there is one thing that comes out of the collapse of Britains rail netowrk at this time its that privatisation has been and is a total failure,where exaclty has all the hundreds of millions gone when a cold snap sends the signals into meltdown?
    Its hight time all these money grabbing TOCs were made to hand in the keys.
    Many years ago in BR days the old network south east ran 16 coach diesel hauled trains out of Cannon Street,freezing cold carriages but at least the effort was made,now they just shrug and say get a bus!