Southern and Thameslink signalling woe

[secretlondon]

Thameslink Govia: Rail services in South East hit by signal failure https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-68400084

Rail services across Sussex and Surrey have been severely disrupted due to a major signalling fault.
A power failure in the early hours of Monday has caused delays and cancellations to Southern and Thameslink services.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: "At 03:04 there was a loss of power across some the UK Power Network which significantly impacted our Three Bridges Signalling Centre which controls the signalling across the majority of our Sussex route.

The article has been updated. It originally said there were no Thameslink and Southern trains running at all. It now says there was a power cut affecting the ROC at Three Bridges. Don’t they have backup generators? It feels risky to have everything centralised if it means it can break so catastrophically.

 

[Bald Rick]

there are multiple seperate power supplies.

The power cut was at grid level, and affected a wide area, but only for a short time. Most of the signalling didn’t notice it or restored itself quickly.

 

[Sussex Ben]

Is half of Haywards Heath being blocked also linked to this? Second Monday on the trot that the BML has suffered from major infrastructure issues, both coincidentally off the back of engineering works.

 

[Stampy]

Did the Tea Lady tread on the 3-pin plug again...... ???

 

[TrainBoy98]

Is half of Haywards Heath being blocked also linked to this? Second Monday on the trot that the BML has suffered from major infrastructure issues, both coincidentally off the back of engineering works.

According to Southern, there's points failures at Haywards, so maybe it's just they can't get trains into certain platforms/lines too? Reportedly failures at Hove and Preston Park meaning services can't use Cliftonville curve either

 

[infobleep]

there are multiple seperate power supplies.

The power cut was at grid level, and affected a wide area, but only for a short time. Most of the signalling didn’t notice it or restored itself quickly.

Out of interest, are the points failures related to the sudden loss of power?

Currently estimating disruption until 18:00 but there are trains from Haywards Heath after this time also cancelled but not so many.

The disruption was originally expected to end 12:00, then 15:00 and now 18:00. There was also issues on the Redhill line, which won't have helped. Bags getting stuck on trains. One got caught in some train equipment and I don't know the issue with the others. Just unlucky to have that happen on the same day.

 

[Somewhere]

Out of interest, are the points failures related to the sudden loss of power?

Currently estimating disruption until 18:00 but there are trains from Haywards Heath after this time also cancelled but not so many.

The disruption was originally expected to end 12:00, then 15:00 and now 18:00. There was also issues on the Redhill line, which won't have helped. Bags getting stuck on trains. One got caught in some train equipment and I don't know the issue with the others. Just unlucky to have that happen on the same day.

I suspect related to the block over the weekend. Everytime there's a weekend possession lately there's a points failure afterwards

 

[didcot_watcher]

there are multiple seperate power supplies.

The power cut was at grid level, and affected a wide area, but only for a short time. Most of the signalling didn’t notice it or restored itself quickly.

It looks like there was a grid frequency incident at the time. The question is why was the signaling center dropped when other loads should have been taken off first.

 

[Sussex Ben]

I suspect related to the block over the weekend. Everytime there's a weekend possession lately there's a points failure afterwards

If that is the case, it doesn’t reflect well on Network Rail or their subcontractors given it appeared to happen last Monday as well.

 

[infobleep]

If that is the case, it doesn’t reflect well on Network Rail or their subcontractors given it appeared to happen last Monday as well.

But surely the block didn't cover Hove, given trains were running into Hove over the weekend.

If it is related to anything I still think it's the power outage but may be it was both.

 

[Sussex Ben]

But surely the block didn't cover Hove, given trains were running into Hove over the weekend.

If it is related to anything I still think it's the power outage but may be it was both.

There were points failures at Haywards Heath today and last Monday, both following all weekend blocks.

 

[infobleep]

There were points failures at Haywards Heath today and last Monday, both following all weekend blocks.

There was but there wasn't a points failure at Hove last Monday but there was today. Hive had trains running at the weekend.

Haywards Heath didn't. For full info, Preston Park also had a signalling issue today and dosnt last Monday but was part of the engineering works.block.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There were points failures at Haywards Heath today and last Monday, both following all weekend blocks.

Possibly points left in manual is a favourite cause after blocks

 

[infobleep]

Possibly points left in manual is a favourite cause after blocks

So would the points in Hove, where trains were running yesterday, have been left in manual?

 

[Bald Rick]

it was points damage at Preston Park. Nothing to do with the power failure

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

It looks like there was a grid frequency incident at the time. The question is why was the signaling center dropped when other loads should have been taken off first

Because this wasn't the Grid dropping the load. If the lights went out at Three Bridges it's more likely that the equipment there is designed to trip off the moment there's any change in Frequency, eg. below 49.5 or 49Hz. This is done because electrical equipment is very sensitive to frequency. Once frequency restored, the equipment will often just reconnect without any intervention at all.