Storm Doris Thursday 23rd - Major disruption on some routes

[miami]

VTWC out of Euston suspended again, nominally until 1700, due to the Trent Valley being blocked by wires down on 1U33.

1U33
"This service was cancelled between London Euston and Rugby due to temporary speed restrictions as a result of heat (X4)."

Seems stuck at Tamworth.

 

[Qwerty133]

1U33
"This service was cancelled between London Euston and Rugby due to temporary speed restrictions as a result of heat (X4)."

Seems stuck at Tamworth.

Control teams have too much to do to on a day like today and getting the reason for cancellation to display correctly is the last of their worries.

 

[danpick]

Looks like some stuff is moving? My dads train is currently 323m delayed, just leaving crewe now.

There's no train running that late, is it London Midland?

 

[OFFDN]

I don't even think it's an error. I'm pretty sure the full reason for an X4 is "heat and/or high winds", it is just shortened when displayed on some sites to 'heat'.

 

[chris89]

Can say was glad i went up to Scotland last weekend at least (Thur - Tue)

Just looked up at the normal train when coming home i take (8:51, Edinburgh - Euston) Left Haymarket 165L with timings stopping at Beattock.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P52446/2017/02/23/advanced

Sadly though a horrible day today for travelling or just being out, Although not rail quite a few tree's come down on my local roads, a person sadly died in Wolverhampton city centre as well.

Chris

 

[miami]

There's no train running that late, is it London Midland?

Some LM trains seem to have been abandoned - 1U27 has been approaching Stoke for 6 hours!

 

[mrmartin]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P51754/2017/02/23/advanced

Virgin service - 330m delayed now.

 

[Tracked]

Just got home from work in Chesterfield to Doncaster, thankfully my journey was only about 10 minutes longer than it usually is (I get the 15:43 from CHD, then the 16:10 TPE to DON, normally in for 16:35-7 but tonight it was in at 16:42). Think I lost as much time from walking home into the wind as I did from the 50 mph limit!

Chaos though, we were looking at the national rail & realtimetrains sites at work and things were being cancelled all over the place. The train I caught at Chesterfield was the 15:44 to Liverpool, which isn't a normal service but replaced the cancelled 15:20. This train was not showing just before I left work, but was a single 158. The late running 14:52 Norwich train was made up of 1 x 158 and 2 x 156's.

 

[danpick]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P51754/2017/02/23/advanced

Virgin service - 330m delayed now.

If there's people doing the full journey, they'll have been on for over 10 hours....

 

[philjo]

I saw various trains moving through Hitchin in the last hour. I alighted from the 15:22 Peterborugh service from Kings cross around 16:30.

3 VTEC services (1x HST and 2x 225 then went north - one would be the 15:35 to Leeds that was also boardin when I was at Kings Cross - everything is using the slow lines though hitchn (but seems to be only using the Fsat lines betweek Finsbury Park and Hitchin though we went onto the slow through platfrom 3 at WGC)

saw 2x VTECs and 3 or 4 GN services going south.
at Stevenage there was a 313 in platfrom 4 announced for Hertford north (& would terminate at Hertford)
I think the train I got from Hitchin to Letchworth was a Moorgate-Letchworth service that had been diverted via Welwyn (& was almost full at hitchin).

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Trains do seem to be moving on all routes in/out of Preston now.
9M56 1251 EDB-EUS has just reached Preston 134 down.
9M54 1051 EDB-EUS cancelled at Lancaster.

 

[class387]

Just got home after taking me 2.5 hours to get from Potters Bar to Hatfield.

 

[signallerscot]

I don't even think it's an error. I'm pretty sure the full reason for an X4 is "heat and/or high winds", it is just shortened when displayed on some sites to 'heat'.

XW is high winds, X4 is blanket speeds due to heat or wind.

 

[G0ORC]

I see there is a schedule in the system for a 1Z67 1730 St. Pancras - Nottingham, so maybe there is to be some movement soon out of St. Pancras.

Still blocked at Radlett and Harpenden at the moment though..

Edit :- Left Pancras at 1740 - clearly they expect the blockage to be removed soon

 

[boxy321]

Leaving the Friday evening peak when trains are already full and standing free from additional passengers. The lifting of restrictions isn't designed to enable day trips to be moved back a day but rather getting those who can't get home today back home. People wanting to make day trips are best of getting a full refund which is available on all tickets in these circumstances and rescheduling for in a few weeks.

Thanks, but it wasn't a day trip. A bag was left and I was going to get it back from EUS lost property. Is 1st really packed on a Friday afternoon?

 

[Antman]

Chaotic at Kings Cross this evening.

A lack of clear information not helping, and rather amusingly a member of platform staff trying to communicate with customers with a loud hailer that was either not turned on or broken.

 

[mildertduck]

Does anyone happen to know the distance between Grantham and Leeds? Given we're stuck at 50mph for the time being, I'd like to calculate a ballpark arrival time...

 

[800001]

Does anyone happen to know the distance between Grantham and Leeds? Given we're stuck at 50mph for the time being, I'd like to calculate a ballpark arrival time...

Deleted

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Does anyone happen to know the distance between Grantham and Leeds? Given we're stuck at 50mph for the time being, I'd like to calculate a ballpark arrival time...

81 miles...
Normally run in 66 minutes with a couple of stops.

 

[philjo]

There were some pasengers arriving at hitchin for Luton - having been told to got Hitchin by Kings Cross.
there appear to be no buses laid on (& no taxis avilable either) - staff at Hitchin were saying the passengers should have been told to change at Stevenage to use the 100 Arriva bus as it passes the station (but does not pass Hitchin station without a 15 min walk)

 

[800001]

Speed restrictions on ECML to be removed at 18:00.

 

[mildertduck]

Speed restrictions on ECML to be removed at 18:00.

Yay!!!!

 

[boxy321]

The best thing you can do is either not travel at all and get a refund or travel both ways on Saturday as VT have said todays tickets are valid at any time on Saturday. If you tried to use your ticket after 2pm tomorrow you'd either be refused travel or charged for a new anytime single depending on where the ticket check took place.
There simply isn't the capacity to allow people who were meant to travelling both ways today make the trip tomorrow instead, as Friday's are busier than Thursdays and some people are stranded away from home, and transporting them is more important.

What concerns me is you can get to London before the magical 2pm; but no info on how to get back. This would simply leave more people stranded who can't afford the £100+ ticket up north.

 

[rg177]

Well I'm on 1H18 1020 Euston to Manchester, having joined it at about 3pm at Stafford. We're a mere 362 minutes late [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[danpick]

Well I'm on 1H18 1020 Euston to Manchester, having joined it at about 3pm at Stafford. We're a mere 362 minutes late [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

7 hours?! Even the Metro hasn't ran 7 hours late yet.....

 

[mildertduck]

Full speed ahead! See you soon, Leeds...

 

[D365]

What concerns me is you can get to London before the magical 2pm; but no info on how to get back. This would simply leave more people stranded who can't afford the £100+ ticket up north.

VTEC have just sent me an email:

Hi there,

As you will probably have seen, Storm Doris means we're experiencing high winds today which is causing major delays. We're strongly advising all customers not to travel today. Tickets can be used on any train tomorrow, Friday 24 February.

To try to make this as painless as possible for you we have changed our ticket "rules", so simply put, if you're booked to travel today you can travel anytime on Friday 24 February.

For regular updates visit our website or follow @Virgin_TrainsEC on Twitter

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and thanks in advance for your understanding.

 

[Darandio]

That is East Coast though, the VTEC Twitter and the website are stating that for the full day.

West Coast are not.

 

[D365]

My apologies, I didn't read the full post.

 

[Llanigraham]

End of angry please.

I simply wanted to know what would happen if I used an advance the day after, when Virgin say, DO NOT TRAVEL TODAY. If I try and use my ticket tomorrow, nobody could tell me what would happen after 2pm on my return journey. Some clear rules would help things as I know they don't want to annoy the 1st class season ticket holders from Euston on a Friday.

Am I supposed to use LM?, walk or what?

If your tickets were from Virgin, and state Virgin only, then they will transport you tomorrow.
If your tickets were LM ones then only they will transport you back tomorrow, unless there is a Notice stating otherwise issued tomorrow.

Perhaps if your original posting hadn't been quite so aggressive and contained more information you might have got a quicker answer.