ECML Disruption - Saturday 27th December

[wensley]

At Kings Cross there's now wires connecting properly the ECML and Thameslink... that's a positive.

Remember, whilst it did over run by 24hr, the work did get done.

To be fair the completion of that bit of OLE work was some weeks behind the original plan...

However, structures work on the Nene and King Edward Bridges, a new OLE neutral section near Hitchin, alternative OLE feeds, various bits of Thameslink work at Peterborough and Hornsey, the plainline track job at Harringay all came off on the ECML.

Could have been worse...

 

[ainsworth74]

As a driver I always get a sick sense of satisfaction when arriving 29 down

Or you could not be evil )) and accidentally tap the brake a bit early ensuring a 30 minute late arrival for the benefit of your long suffering passengers

 

[455driver]

Or you could not be evil )) and accidentally tap the brake a bit early ensuring a 30 minute late arrival for the benefit of your long suffering passengers

After putting all that effort in to keep the train below the magic 30 minutes?
Not bloomin likely.

 

[Marton]

After putting all that effort in to keep the train below the magic 30 minutes?

Not bloomin likely.

Must be the bonus ? Or is it PRP?

 

[Bald Rick]

I seem to remember they were to "learn lessons" after the Rugby overrun fiasco of a couple of Christmases ago. Are they the same lessons to be learned yet again or somewhat different lessons?

Apparently today, January 5, the London Bridge works, which had helped themselves to well over the "shutting the railway for a week" disdainfully dismissed above, have also had a chaotic ending. Have ANY of the major works over the Christmas/New Year period delivered anything like a positive outcome?

Rugby was 7 years ago, and it is not too much of an understatement to say that the cross industry planning and co-ordination of works was transformed as a result of the lessons learned. I live it every day.

The underlying issue at KX was very, very different to that at Rugby.

As for the other Christmas works - how many of the 800+ jobs done have been in the papers?

 

[QueensCurve]

I was on the worksite yesterday and for a number of reasons the work was extremely behind schedule.

Without compromisiing your position, are you able to tell us more?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There's an editorial piece by Nigel Harris in Rail about the KGX problems (and those at PAD).
It reads as though there was a succession of planning/people/equipment failures, with the project team not escalating the problems early enough.
On top of which the work was relatively small scale and not critical - it was just bungled.

The problems at Paddington look like a spat between the signalling contractors and Network Rail over testing, again with no escalation until too late.

NR senior Directors (other than Robin Gisby) were on holiday.
GTR's office was unmanned too on the 26th.
There's little analysis of the TOC response and events at Finsbury Park, but no doubt that will come.

Squeaky bum time!
Just my reading of it.

 

[QueensCurve]

Grand Central's Twitter is operated by the Cross Country team, and from a previous tweet they posted they aren't allowed to use Twitter outside of the office.

That is a bit silly, there should be someone with authority who is on call do do so. They could be disturbed in the night but wouln's need to be sober enough to drive.

 

[PHILIPE]

There's an editorial piece by Nigel Harris in Rail about the KGX problems (and those at PAD).
It reads as though there was a succession of planning/people/equipment failures, with the project team not escalating the problems early enough.
On top of which the work was relatively small scale and not critical - it was just bungled.

The problems at Paddington look like a spat between the signalling contractors and Network Rail over testing, again with no escalation until too late.

NR senior Directors (other than Robin Gisby) were on holiday.
GTR's office was unmanned too on the 26th.
There's little analysis of the TOC response and events at Finsbury Park, but no doubt that will come.

Squeaky bum time!
Just my reading of it.

I've heard nothing of any response from ECML re explanation, apology or anything, especially looking after their passengers at Finsbury Park. I've pushed this item several times already but had no response from any members. This makes me assume they've said nothing !!!

 

[Taunton]

Rugby was 7 years ago, and it is not too much of an understatement to say that the cross industry planning and co-ordination of works was transformed as a result of the lessons learned.

There's an editorial piece by Nigel Harris in Rail about the KGX problems (and those at PAD).
It reads as though there was a succession of planning/people/equipment failures, with the project team not escalating the problems early enough.
On top of which the work was relatively small scale and not critical - it was just bungled.

The problems at Paddington look like a spat between the signalling contractors and Network Rail over testing, again with no escalation until too late.

NR senior Directors (other than Robin Gisby) were on holiday.

Hmmmm.

 

[QueensCurve]

Just a railwayman doing his duty.

Lovely to hear that ~20 years after the demise of British Rail.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Whoever signed off using Finsbury Park instead of Kings Cross as the sole alternative to handle the same number of passengers, should probably be receiving his P45. They should have provided coaches from Kings Cross to Peterborough as well.

The problem with dismissing the person who made the mistake is that you lose the expertise of the one person who will not make the same mistake again.

Keeping a corporate memory and ensuring mistakes are not made again means keeping the people who made the mistakes.

Leadership means supporting people for making bold decisions even when they turn out with hindsight to prove to have been bad ones.

None of this implies you don't reprimand people in private for making bad choices that failed to take account of available evidence.

 

[carriageline]

Without compromisiing your position, are you able to tell us more?

Wait until Friday and all will be revealed!

 

[wensley]

Whoever signed off using Finsbury Park instead of Kings Cross as the sole alternative to handle the same number of passengers, should probably be receiving his P45. They should have provided coaches from Kings Cross to Peterborough as well.

I'm not defending events at Finsbury Park in their entirity but it was a reasonable decision, if it had been managed correctly. It was a very good decision to limit the number of trains turning round there to two intercity services and the booked GTR turnbacks. In my opinion it was the crowd control in the morning that let the trainplan down.

Buses would simply not have worked.

(a) Where do you get so many from at short notice on Boxing Day night?
(b) Would there have been enoguh considering the Watford Blockade was on? No.
(c) Have you ever tried road transport from Kings Cross? The volume of passengers involved would have gridlocked a good part of North London assuming a fleet of vehicles was drafted in to move them.

I know for a fact that various other plans were mooted to divert passenger flows by other routes to ease the pressure on Finsbury Park but this is very difficult for any TOC to resource when their Control team walk abck in the door for night shift on Boxing Day and staff not working are (quite rightlly) not looking at thier phones and enjoying themselves, and those rostered early on the 27 are tucked up fast in bed.

 

[NSEFAN]

I'm not defending events at Finsbury Park in their entirity but it was a reasonable decision, if it had been managed correctly. It was a very good decision to limit the number of trains turning round there to two intercity services and the booked GTR turnbacks. In my opinion it was the crowd control in the morning that let the trainplan down.

Agreed, the usage of Finsbury Park would have been much more bearable if crowd control had been used from the outset. Things were flowing much more smoothly (albeit still delayed), once this was organised. The severe overcrowding on both the platforms and in the subway are what really knackered operations on that day. This is from my perspective, hanging around on the down fast platform for several hours, waiting for the subway to clear out!

 

[QueensCurve]

On a more lighthearted note Finsbury Park auto corrected to "Funsbury Park" in a text to a friend.

To me it will always be Krapy Rubsnif.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Having the WCML out did help .....(Watford resignalling) - which apparently went fine , so we can breath a sigh of relief for another 40 years or so....

 

[Class 170101]

Coaches to Luton for Thameslink services might have been an option, but where do you get enough coaches from at that time of year at short notice, to make enough of a difference?

Could coaches (edited for spelling) also not have been used between MK and Stevenage with some trains from Peterborough turning round at Stevenage?

Even assuming you could get coaches on Saturday 27th December (and I have my doubts you could) then the MML would have been under pressure as the sole Main Line from the north into London. Remember passengers from Crewe / Stoke north to Preston were being encouraged to use the MML from Sheffield to St Pancras - additionally were the MML Manchester specials running on the 27th?

 

[Tomnick]

At some point, I'm sure that I read that coaches had been arranged to run from somewhere around Hitchin to somewhere on the Midland, for the benefit of Cambridge passengers. Was this the case?

 

[DelayRepay]

Even assuming you could get coaches on Saturday 27th December (and I have my doubts you could) then the MML would have been under pressure as the sole Main Line from the north into London. Remember passengers from Crewe / Stoke north to Preston were being encouraged to use the MML from Sheffield to St Pancras - additionally were the MML Manchester specials running on the 27th?

That was why I was suggesting Luton, to connect with Thameslink. If it had all been planned in advance they could have made sure the Thameslink service used as many 8 car sets as possible. Again though I appreciate the arrangements all had to be made at short notice on Boxing Day so there would have been serious constraints on how much could be done.

I think in the circumstances the TOCs did the best they could. It wasn't an ideal situation but in reality with the resources available I'm not sure how much more they could have done.

 

[infobleep]

Rugby was 7 years ago, and it is not too much of an understatement to say that the cross industry planning and co-ordination of works was transformed as a result of the lessons learned. I live it every day.

The underlying issue at KX was very, very different to that at Rugby.

As for the other Christmas works - how many of the 800+ jobs done have been in the papers?

Well none of the other works occurred in London. It's Christmas. I doubt the journalists would want to go somewhere more remote to report on any problems.

 

[GodAtum]

Wait until Friday and all will be revealed!

sounds ominous!

 

[QueensCurve]

Diverted everything into Broad Street.

Oh, do catch up. Broad Street Closed 31 years ago.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

There's an editorial piece by Nigel Harris in Rail about the KGX problems (and those at PAD).
It reads as though there was a succession of planning/people/equipment failures, with the project team not escalating the problems early enough.
On top of which the work was relatively small scale and not critical - it was just bungled.

The problems at Paddington look like a spat between the signalling contractors and Network Rail over testing, again with no escalation until too late.

NR senior Directors (other than Robin Gisby) were on holiday.
GTR's office was unmanned too on the 26th.
There's little analysis of the TOC response and events at Finsbury Park, but no doubt that will come.

Squeaky bum time!
Just my reading of it.

Thank you very much. Would it be fair to say that the common thread with Rugby 2008 is no escalation until too late?

 

[stut]

Well none of the other works occurred in London. It's Christmas. I doubt the journalists would want to go somewhere more remote to report on any problems.

Well, they'd be hard pressed to get out of London in the circumstances

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Thank you very much. Would it be fair to say that the common thread with Rugby 2008 is no escalation until too late?

Having read what Nigel Harris wrote in his editorial (down at Tesco this morning, can't afford £3.60 anymore!), failure to even acknowledge that there was a problem, rather than failure to escalate! Truly appalling.

Of the claimed 800 pieces of work, you are only as good as your last piece of work. Completing the other 799 on time matters not one jot if it is this one you are affected by. Of the 800, how many were on a main line, out of the capital city, the day after suspension of services for 2 days for a major holiday when millions of people travel to family, a Saturday, and the first day of the sales? A perfect storm looking for a home, and boy did it find one.

 

[MichaelJP59]

sounds ominous!

Well it's Friday, anyone seen any sign of the much awaited initial report?

 

[wensley]

Well it's Friday, anyone seen any sign of the much awaited initial report?

The report is going to Ministers on Monday so I would imagine it will be available then...

 

[amcluesent]

Anyone read Rail magazine?

Daily Mail

Rail chiefs blasted for engineering crisis that caused festive chaos for thousands of train travellers

The litany of mistakes and ‘truly barmy’ decisions by ‘abysmal’ managers has been laid bare for the first time by industry experts ahead of Network Rail’s own official report into the fiasco at King’s Cross and Paddington stations, to be published next week.

The magazine Rail has pieced together a timetable of what caused a simple and ‘piffling’ 24-hour engineering project near London’s King Cross station to massively overrun during the Christmas break...rail bosses ‘kept schtum’ about the true scale of the deepening crisis at Holloway Bank tunnels near King’s Cross hoping it would sort itself out.

 

[Zoidberg]

Just mentioned on the BBC News on the wireless that Network Rail has released its report on the incident but I see nothing yet on the BBC or NR websites to which to link.

Main cause, seemingly, was signalling contractors vastly under-estimating the time necessary to do what they had to (EDIT, relates to Paddington, not clear from news item). Machinery breakdown was also mentioned (EDIT this relates to Kings Cross, again,not clear from news item) as was a feeble back-up plan.

Looking forward to knowing the facts.

EDIT, from the NR website at http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2...er-disruption-investigation-report-published/ where this a link to a PDF file of the report

12 January 2015

Our report it the disruption affecting thousands of passengers using King's Cross and Paddington services on 27 December has been published.

On 27 December thousands of passengers using King's Cross and Paddington services, many of whom were travelling home after visiting friends and family, suffered severe delays and disruption.

Wework Rail launched an immediate investigation into what went wrong and today publishes its findings.

Mark Carne, chief executive, said: "The report highlights what went wrong and it is quite clear that there are areas that could have been done better. Equally, our contingency plans should have protected the travelling public from any problems we had and our industry service recovery could have done more to minimise the impact of disruption.

"We sincerely apologise for the disruption over the festive period and we are determined to learn the lessons so that we can continue to make the improvements the travelling public deserve."

This ought to take you to the PDF ... http://www.networkrail.co.uk/review...-and-paddington-services-27-December-2014.pdf ... and here is an extract

Executive Summary

On 27 December, many train passengers on the East Coast main line and the Great Western main line experienced significant delays and disruptions. While some passengers were delayed at mainline stations, others were diverted to smaller stations and experienced overcrowding and, in the case of Finsbury Park, some had to queue outside for at least two hours. The disruptions followed the overruns of two very significant pieces of engineering works, at Holloway, north of King’s Cross station, and at Old Oak Common, west of Paddington station. The nature of the issues meant that the train operating companies (TOCs) were given around 14 hours advance notice on Boxing Day of the overrun affecting King’s Cross station, but no warning at Paddington. These were two very different incidents, with different types of passenger impact. The report therefore addresses each in turn.

Network Rail recognises that it needs to improve both project and operational contingency management, so that better identification of delivery problems results in better operation of recovery services. It may also be necessary in some circumstances to change the threshold for project contingency although this will have cost consequences and add to disruption for other sets of passengers.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I'm not defending events at Finsbury Park in their entirity but it was a reasonable decision, if it had been managed correctly. It was a very good decision to limit the number of trains turning round there to two intercity services and the booked GTR turnbacks. In my opinion it was the crowd control in the morning that let the trainplan down.

Finsbury Park copes with huge crowds when Arsenal have been playing at home, but the difference there is that there are the staff on the ground to sort it out.

It's also previously been used when engineering work has left only the single line into KGX open- there have been several weekend closures over the last 12 months all using the same plan.

The issue seems to be that the engineering side buried their head in the sand about their difficulties and didn't give anyone enough time to organise an alternative plan. So it does sound very similar to Rugby 2008, even if the underlying causes are different this time. Although GTR should get some serious flack for not organising something in the 14 hours they had.

EC shouldn't have come any further south than Peterborough (or possibly Stevenage), with GTR running 12-car shuttles from Finsbury Park to Peterborough and Cambridge. Crowd control should have been in place- the main issue was that no arriving passengers could get off the station- and if it had been there would not have been anywhere near so many delays (or trains leaving virtually empty, either). Given Finsbury Park is one of the few stations where there is a single track between two platform faces, the inability to separate arriving and departing passengers was inexcusable.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

The Telegraph is reporting a shortage of drivers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...il-chaos-caused-by-lack-of-train-drivers.html

Not passenger train drivers, but freight drivers to move engineering trains. Is that a new one?