Possible disruption 19th September?

[nickswift99]

Why only within 10 minutes? The operators of motorway signs often seem to prefer to keep you on the motorway by not warning you of a queue, rather than divert you off the motorway.

Your description of getting out of your car etc is exactly my experience when I had the clutch fail on my car. For safety it is recommended you get out of the vehicle and wait on the roadside whilst waiting for the AA ( other rescue services are available), watching all the other cars go by while waiting an unknown time until you (and you car) are loaded onto another vehicle to be taken home.

Real time traffic updates in Google/Waze use data from devices to show delays. This is typically much faster than the Highways Agency response.

I appreciate that some people experience unreliable cars. I've been fortunate in that I've been able to maintain my vehicles so that they have not broken down (and before anyone asks, my current car is 6 years old). The point though is that the railway needs to be more focused on reliability than the public and their cars as one train breaking can impact hundreds of passengers directly, whereas one car failing may impact 4 or 5 people directly.

However, for the analogy to be accurate, it would be the AA promising to turn up every 30 minutes, then not arriving, not telling you why and you see an AA van go past

 

[Horizon22]

It appears a new problem has been identified, although separate to Monday’s incident. A part of the OLE has become detached around the Acton area. Trains still running but on reduced lines.

 

[800001]

It appears a new problem has been identified, although separate to Monday’s incident. A part of the OLE has become detached around the Acton area. Trains still running but on reduced lines.

A gwr suffered an Add and after inspection the pan is damaged after coming into contact with a loose registration arm.

Not a good week for the OHL in that area.

 

[EdChap]

Will all this disruption and the accompanying bad publicity be the point at which Network Rail decide to upgrade the OLE in this area to try and improve reliability and repair bad publicity?

 

[JN114]

Will all this disruption and the accompanying bad publicity be the point at which Network Rail decide to upgrade the OLE in this area to try and improve reliability and repair bad publicity?

There likely isn’t the budget to upgrade what isn’t already planned to be.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Will all this disruption and the accompanying bad publicity be the point at which Network Rail decide to upgrade the OLE in this area to try and improve reliability and repair bad publicity?

The first question should be why did it happen and what was root cause don't blame the OLE if it was a pantograph issue that instigated the incident.

 

[Horizon22]

A gwr suffered an Add and after inspection the pan is damaged after coming into contact with a loose registration arm.

Not a good week for the OHL in that area.

I believe further investigation has shown that when the first impacted unit approached that section, the OLE was already damaged; this is not to say another unit didn’t cause the issue.

 

[HBUG]

One question that crossed my mind when I first heard about the incident was why such a long section of overhead had come down. I have noticed in the past that down bi-mode IETs have arrived into Reading under diesel power for some strange reason. Is it possible that the IET involved in this incident was running under diesel and the pantograph came loose because if running electric I would have thought that it would have stopped in much less than 2 miles.

 

[LancasterRed]

Oh, you're spot on, a good MP should always respond well to critical discussion and I believe the good ones do that.

The difference between how to approach this has already been solidified in this thread alone with one individual acting considerably more childish who up until this post has been completely ignored.

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EDIT: I thought this was the GWR thread still, whooops

Bringing this from the ECML thread because I lost track - with my GWR addendum:

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To GWR's credit, at Paddington on the incident day, staff were fully mobilised and offering support to the point where they outnumbered the passengers. Obviously this wouldn't be the case if the railway was working, but still, good to see a keen workforce and plenty of staff brought in in preparation for the numbers. I don't live near or use the GWR lines regularly but when I do I am always impressed by how professionally they handle things, especially with ticket acceptance. I find they handle this exceptionally well, albeit based on limited anecdotal evidence

 

[800001]

One question that crossed my mind when I first heard about the incident was why such a long section of overhead had come down. I have noticed in the past that down bi-mode IETs have arrived into Reading under diesel power for some strange reason. Is it possible that the IET involved in this incident was running under diesel and the pantograph came loose because if running electric I would have thought that it would have stopped in much less than 2 miles.

It was on electric, and not in diesel.

 

[HBUG]

Thank you, so much for that theory then

 

[Benjwri]

One question that crossed my mind when I first heard about the incident was why such a long section of overhead had come down. I have noticed in the past that down bi-mode IETs have arrived into Reading under diesel power for some strange reason. Is it possible that the IET involved in this incident was running under diesel and the pantograph came loose because if running electric I would have thought that it would have stopped in much less than 2 miles.

The train travels at 125mph, it will take quite a while to stop. Plus the wires are not going to snap immediately, a train wiould have pulled down a considerable amount of wiring behind where the incident happened.

 

[mr_moo]

I've finally found somewhere that seems to havre a picture of some of the damage - I'm really surprised that I've managed to find no pictures of it elsewhere.

Third day of rail disruption after electric wires damaged

Delays to journeys in and around London after man reportedly hurt dangling object from bridge

www.theguardian.com

Impressive damage and I can see why all 4 lines were blocked!

Third day of rail disruption after electric wires damaged​

Delays to journeys in and around London after man reportedly hurt dangling object from bridge

Damaged overhead electric wires near Hayes and Harlington station, west London. Photograph: Network Rail/PA

Rail services in and around London are being disrupted for a third consecutive day after a man was reportedly injured dangling an object from a bridge that damaged overhead electric wires.

Problems at Stevenage and Hayes and Harlington caused delays to trains to and from King’s Cross, Paddington and Moorgate on Wednesday, National Rail Enquiries said.


Passengers were warned that Great Northern and Thameslink services through Stevenage would remain disrupted – including cancellations and 50-minute delays – for the rest of the day.

The severe damage to wires in Stevenage happened shortly before 5pm on Tuesday.


It was reported that a man was taken by air ambulance to a hospital in Cambridge after dangling an object from a bridge in Stevenage at about 4.40pm.

Hertfordshire police said they were called to Broadhall Way “following concerns for the welfare of a man who had injured himself while on a bridge crossing over a main railway line”. There were no arrests, the force added.

It initially also affected long-distance LNER trains serving locations on the east coast mainline.

Engineers worked overnight to fix nearly two miles of damaged wires at Hayes and Harlington, whichprevented thousands of mourners from travelling to Paddington for the Queen’s funeral on Monday morning. The cause of the problem is being investigated.

Lines were blocked from about 6.30am on the day of the funeral, triggering the suspension of services between London Paddington and Reading.

The line closure and delays led some to instead watch the funeral on their phones.

Passengers on a Great Western Railway train due to run to Paddington were told by a member of staff using the public address system: “My sincerest apologies for the delays on such an important day for the country.”