Penkridge Disruption

[sonic2009]

Last Night according to London Midland on Twitter

a 350 travelling Liverpool - Birmingham bought the wires down around about 2045 yesterday evening bending back the pantograph. A Rescue 350 unit transferred passengers off the stricken train in the Birmingham - Stafford Direction.

It appears that London Midland aparting from Stafford for Liverpool. With buses Wolves - Stafford. XC Bristol - Manchester either being cancelled at Birmingham New Street or Running via Nuneaton, with the Bournemouth - Manchester services avoiding Birmingham all together, and running Coventry - Stafford via Nuneaton and Trent Valley.

No Estimate on Resumption of Normal Services.. OUCH! Not been a Very good Week within the Wolverhampton Area.

 

[Crossover]

Coupled with a signalling problem at Stafford this morning as well = double trouble!

Must be a major dewirement for the effects to be felt for so long

Also, does this mean XC's are running via Bedworth?

 

[western Champion]

Normal working was resumed at roughly 7am only for another Desiro to fetch them down again between 8 and 9am.

Estimate for normal working put at tomorrow morning.

 

[Minilad]

Looks like my Manchester run later might be up the spout then !!

 

[western Champion]

Looks like my Manchester run later might be up the spout then !!

Sign via Nuneaton dont you !

 

[Minilad]

Nope. Sign to Nuneaton but since dropping from link A to B the Trent is no longer on my card

 

[sonic2009]

Update.:

As London Midland put it. Specialist engineers are on site. Estimate to re-open at 18:00 with line shut again at 21:00

what's a XC voyagers top speed along the Trent Valley?

 

[ole man]

Crewe OHLE Maintenance are going into Penkridge tonight to reinstate the OHLE.
This is the third time the same OHLE as come down, Stafford OHLE are obviously not capable of doing this work.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Update.:

As London Midland put it. Specialist engineers are on site. Estimate to re-open at 18:00 with line shut again at 21:00

what's a XC voyagers top speed along the Trent Valley?

110mph (since they switched off tilt).

 

[bb21]

Here's hope to me getting some odd workings in tomorrow.

Incidentally if some of the trains are going Birmingham - Nuneaton - WCML, how do they reverse at Nuneaton? via the chord into Nuneaton then reverse back out?

 

[sonic2009]

Here's hope to me getting some odd workings in tomorrow.

Incidentally if some of the trains are going Birmingham - Nuneaton - WCML, how do they reverse at Nuneaton? via the chord into Nuneaton then reverse back out?

Last night there were workings via Nuneaton.

Yes that's correct via the chord.

The situation at the moment is. :

XC Bristol - Manchester's caped at Birmngham &

XC Bournemouth - Manchester running Stafford - Coventry direct via Trent Valley
&vice versa

LM Stafford/Crewe - Liverpool

VT. Stafford/Crewe - Scotland, services that usally run via BHM to London are running via Trent Valley with additional stop at Rugby.

Buses Stafford - Penkridge - Wolves

 

[M60lad]

Not to sure whether this has anything to do with the problems but this afternoon when I went past Longsight Train Care Depot I noticed a Cross Country Voyager stabled up at the far side of the depot, not to sure how long it had been there (whether it had been there since yesterday) but it did seem unusual seeing something other than Virgin Trains or Northern stabled up at Longsight

 

[Class172]

The first train ran through Penkridge 15 minutes ago during the Midlands Today report, it was a VT 221.

 

[LouJ]

The line has reopened at around 1840 this evening.

Correcting previous posts Birmingham - Liverpools completely cancelled with no trains running. Some Birmingham - EDB & GLC services running no further south than Stafford.

The whole episode has been extremely badly handled with the impacts of the loss of wires felt across a wide area. The inability of NR to maintain services is unforgiveable - they have a single track mind and cancel everything they can and forget the travelling public. Sadly they seem not to realise the importance of diversionary routes as they have let these go to rot in recent decades.

NR must also be held to account over the poor flow of information throughout the system despite this being seen as something they have admitted to handling badly in the past. Even an hour after the second loss of power little was known by station staff at either Stafford, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street. Everone seemed to be kept in the dark.

Stafford has always been a well managed station and tonight the station manager was very hands on directing railway customers, connecting buses and generally making sure his staff looked after everyone. Congratulations to him and his equally good staff. Wolverhampton couldn't really be bothered. No one overseeing operations and I guess the manager stayed in the warm of his office. New Street was even worse - "get the first train to Wolves" and you won't be our problem any more!

One point that all station staff forgot was the relatively frequent (hourly) service available between Stafford and Birmingham via Tamworth. This a valid route and nobody seemed to have thought this was better than enduring the bus. Perhaps next time staff can be reminded that this is a much better option than the lengthy bus transfer and onward train.

So five stars for Stafford station staff. No stars for NR and their incompetent OHLE crew (3 times in a week is beyond excuses). 2 stars for Wolverhampton station staff and a miserable 0ne point for New Street.

The only remianing question - how many times does it take before NR can learn some lessons?

Oh before I forget the NR computer was showing all direct trains from Coventry to Stafford (i.e. Bournemouth to Manchester services) as being cancelled netween the two stations - so much for the reliability of this system when things go pear shaped!!!!

 

[ushawk]

Yeah, NRE is reporting a limited service ran with XC and Virgin "diesel" trains (meaning voyagers) is running through the area, so im guessing the problem is mostly fixed - correct me if im wrong.

 

[Class172]

Yeah, NRE is reporting a limited service ran with XC and Virgin "diesel" trains (meaning voyagers) is running through the area, so im guessing the problem is mostly fixed - correct me if im wrong.

The line is going to be closed again tonight to allow engineers to fix the OHLE properly.

 

[ushawk]

Lets hope this time then it is completely fixed and wont come down again

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The line has reopened at around 1840 this evening.
Some Birmingham - EDB & GLC services running no further south than Stafford.

It still beats me why VT don't go Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury-Crewe with Voyagers when the Stafford route is closed.
Much better than fiddling about via Nuneaton or on buses.

 

[AlterEgo]

I heard a quote of nine hours work from 2100 tonight. Wow.

 

[ushawk]

It still beats me why VT don't go Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury-Crewe with Voyagers when the Stafford route is closed.
Much better than fiddling about via Nuneaton or on buses.

Probably the drivers don't sign the route, could be used in future though, perhaps Virgin may look into it - wouldnt hold my breath though.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

How about via Walsall and Rugeley (and Stoke if need be) to Crewe as means of a diversionary route? Wouldn't that be shorter than via Shrewsbury?

 

[Class172]

Probably the drivers don't sign the route, could be used in future though, perhaps Virgin may look into it - wouldnt hold my breath though.

Or why not Wolverhampton-Walsall-Rugeley-Stafford?

EDIT: Matt's beaten me to it.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Or why not Wolverhampton-Walsall-Rugeley-Stafford?

EDIT: Matt's beaten me to it.

Plus if you electrify the Chase line then there's no need for 390 dragging or Voyager substitution!

 

[Class172]

Plus if you electrify the Chase line then there's no need for 390 dragging or Voyager substitution!

The amount of times now I've suggested that the Chase Line be electrified...

 

[GB]

The whole episode has been extremely badly handled with the impacts of the loss of wires felt across a wide area. The inability of NR to maintain services is unforgiveable - they have a single track mind and cancel everything they can and forget the travelling public.

Service cancellations are taken with consultation with the TOCs under "Management of the Network" and and the service recovery plans.

Delays and cancellations during such incidents are often compounded by stock and train crew displacement and train crew hours which adds to the troubles.

Sadly they seem not to realise the importance of diversionary routes as they have let these go to rot in recent decades.

"recent decades"??

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Or why not Wolverhampton-Walsall-Rugeley-Stafford?

EDIT: Matt's beaten me to it.

But that involves a reversal (as does Nuneaton) and a generally slow route via Walsall.
Wolves-Salop-Crewe is direct and quite fast (if you can avoid the LM stopper to Shrewsbury) - would take about an hour.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

But that involves a reversal (as does Nuneaton) and a generally slow route via Walsall.
Wolves-Salop-Crewe is direct and quite fast (if you can avoid the LM stopper to Shrewsbury) - would take about an hour.

Why would it need to run Birmingham-Wolves? it could either start back at Wolves in the first place or just start from new St then run via Soho Jn or Aston...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
New St-Crewe via Soho, Hednesford and Madeley - 60mi 15ch
New St-Crewe via Soho, Hednesford and Stoke - 63mi 05ch
New St-Crewe via Shrewsbury - 75mi 25ch

The first gives miles of WCML running, and the second 90-125mph ~ for a good few miles from Rugeley TV to Kidsgrove. I'm going to guess that via Shrewsbury would be 75mph or so max.

 

[steffo]

Was as at New St trying to catch the 09.20 Virgin to Lancaster. The departure board just said delayed with an annoucement confirming the latter.

No further annoucements and people had to go looking for information. They tried to route me via Nuneaton, but that would have got me in after 1pm and too late for my 1pm meeting.

Got the 10.22pm back to Coleshill and drove up to Lancaster with 5 mins to spare!!!!!

I take it i can get a refund????

 

[CosherB]

110mph (since they switched off tilt).

Do XC Voyagers have tilt? I thought Virgin retained the Super Voyagers which do tilt.

How fast do Virgin Voyagers go down the Trent Valley (eg Holyhead - Euston trains)?

Why would switching off tilt on a Super Voyager make it faster? Surely the whole point of tilt is to run a higher speeds round bends?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Do XC Voyagers have tilt? I thought Virgin retained the Super Voyagers which do tilt.

How fast do Virgin Voyagers go down the Trent Valley (eg Holyhead - Euston trains)?

Why would switching off tilt on a Super Voyager make it faster? Surely the whole point of tilt is to run a higher speeds round bends?

a) XC got them too, but removed it as it is only available to use on the WCML.
b) 125mph, same as 390s.
c) It makes them slower IIRC, 110mph non-tilt in lieu of 125mph with tilt.