Posted 21st February 2013 | 5 Comments
East Coast repairs nearly complete
SERVICES are returning to normal on the East Coast Main Line, after a kilometre of overhead lines came down near St Neots two days ago. The incident is now being described as a 'dewirement', and a Network Rail investigation has been under way.
Although two of the lines affected reopened yesterday, trains continued to be delayed and diverted. After a further night of repairs, three of the four lines are now open to electric trains and most operators are reporting near-normal services this morning.
The incident was the second of its kind within a few days, because about a kilometre of overhead lines collapsed on the Midland Main Line at Radlett, south of St Albans, last week.
Network Rail said sections of the Midland conductor wires have been examined in a laboratory to see how last week's failure occurred. The company has not commented on claims by the RMT union that failures of overhead lines are the result of maintenance cutbacks.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The chaos on services hitting hundreds of thousands due to cancellations out of central London as a result of the lines down overnight reinforces RMT's demand for a full review of OHL maintenance and emergency staffing numbers and capacity to cope with this growing infrastructure issue and a massive backlog of essential works."
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
John Airey, Peterborough
Sorry to state the absolute obvious - but there are three electrified lines into London that are within a few miles of each other, WCML, Bedford and ECML. Anyone looking at this would wonder why they aren't connected to each other by electricified lines (eg electrify Bedford-Bletchey and restore the link from Sandy-Bedford). Furthermore Peterborough-Ely could be electrified - it would still require a 75mph limit but they could still get trains into London.
Not forgetting that the "headspan" catenary was a stupid idea - any broken cable incapacitates at least two lines if not more. I was told by a Network Rail engineer recently that the cabling is near the end of its useful life now, only about six years left.
(Bedford–Bletchley, at least, is part of the 'electric spine' electrification programme as part of the modernised East-West link between Oxford and Bedford.–Editor.)
Tony Pearce, Reading
From what I know, electric wires can be subjct to excess wear and tear due to friction and therefore need replacing regularly on heavily used routes. They also seem subject to high winds (of which the UK has many exposed places which can affect the wires) and the weight of snow. However Europe which has generally had the 'wires' since 1945, does not seem to have the same problems (or does it?) that we have in the UK. In places such as Czech Republic and Germany snow is common throughout the winter and all cars by law have to have Winter tyres fitted. So our problems should be curable.
Stephen Lawrence, Cambridge, England
I think it's high time we got the unemplyed engineering graduates on to this problem - send out the data to all the universities and let them work on it too.
Lutz, London
What are the chances of two such events, one shortly after the other, occurring in a due to natural causes?
Tony Pearce, Reading
I'm not looking forward to any wires 'problems' in the near future on the Paddington line. Can anyone help regarding the current usage of 'Thunderbird' diesel locomotives which hauled electric trains over sections when the electrification failed ? Do they still have any anywhere on the Network ? Is it a case of wires fail and goodbye to any services except Buses ?