Wires down at Luton (8/11/16)

[Saint66]

Very early reports of overhead wires down at Luton and all lines blocked. Only appears to have happened a few minutes ago.

 

[SPADTrap]

Signalling cable across a gantry has also parted and come into contact with the OLE. OLE down between P3 and P4 at Luton.

 

[Deepgreen]

National Rail claims that nothing is running between Bedford and St. Albans. This, combined with signal problems at Redhill, should make for yet another fun Thameslink journey this evening.

 

[Francis]

From the NR website

Damage to the overhead wires at Luton is causing major disruption to trains between Bedford and London St Pancras International. Trains are currently unable to run between Bedford and St Albans and as a result trains to and from London St Pancras International may be amended, cancelled or delayed by up to 90 minutes. Although Network Rail engineers are attending the problem, we expect disruption to continue until the end of service.

Customer Advice:

East Midlands Trains: You may London Midland between London Euston and Northampton to help you complete your journey.

Thameslink: You may use your rail ticket on London Buses between Elstree & Borhamwood and Central London / Sutton, UNO buses in the St Albans area and also London Overground, London Midland, Gatwick Express, Southern, Great Northern and London Underground on reasonable routes.

Replacement road transport has been requested to run between St Albans and Bedford, there is no current time of arrival.

 

[Deepgreen]

From the NR website

Damage to the overhead wires at Luton is causing major disruption to trains between Bedford and London St Pancras International. Trains are currently unable to run between Bedford and St Albans and as a result trains to and from London St Pancras International may be amended, cancelled or delayed by up to 90 minutes. Although Network Rail engineers are attending the problem, we expect disruption to continue until the end of service.

Customer Advice:

East Midlands Trains: You may London Midland between London Euston and Northampton to help you complete your journey.

Thameslink: You may use your rail ticket on London Buses between Elstree & Borhamwood and Central London / Sutton, UNO buses in the St Albans area and also London Overground, London Midland, Gatwick Express, Southern, Great Northern and London Underground on reasonable routes.

Replacement road transport has been requested to run between St Albans and Bedford, there is no current time of arrival.

Indeed, having the typos and missing words that seem to characterise such messages these days!

 

[Francis]

Does this mean that passengers for Kettering, Mkt Harbro, Wellingbro are expected to get buses from Northampton?
Can Leicester passengers go via Nuneaton? Derby and Sheffield via Tamworth or Birmingham? LM to Northampton alone isn't all that helpful.

Are trains turning back at St Albans? If so why the comments about London buses at Elstree and Borehamwood? No doubt all will be revealed in due course.....

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Are trains turning back at St Albans? If so why the comments about London buses at Elstree and Borehamwood?

Yes - and passenger south of Elstree have other bus / tube options to get home - so discouraging them from filling the only trains running to SAC , makes room in theory for others who have many less options. (and more miles to travel) - SAC can only really turn 4 tph an hour in any case ...unless the isolations allow HPDN to be accessed , which I doubt as there is a neutral section at Sandridge...

 

[asylumxl]

As usual GoVia's information is stellar (sarc). My trains gone from terminating at Bedford, to St Albans and now London Blackfriars.

If passengers had been told before, they could have alighted at far more convenient places to change than Blackfriars (Elephant & Castle for the Northern line to St Pancras, for example).

To be honest though, just another day on Thameslink. And they think it's possible to run 24tph?!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Expect severe crowding on the Abbey branch tonight ....

 

[AndyY]

>> You may use your rail ticket on London Buses between Elstree & Borehamwood and Central London

Is this a joke or something? So if you do not have travelcard, they expect you to use the bus (as underground not mentioned, so not allowed) to travel all the way from Blackfriars to Elstree and Borehamwood (e.g. 63 + 205 + 113 + 107) during rush hour? You are lucky if you can get there in 3h!

 

[Andrew1395]

At Nottingham, suggested option was Grantham and then onwards to Kings Cross. A colleague was detrained at Leicester for Peterborough and onwards KGX. Derby is via Birmingham to Euston

 

[asylumxl]

So someone has been taken ill on the train now and we are holding up services behind us. When it rains, it pours.

 

[philjo]

FCC used to have a standard plan that replacement buses would operate Hitchin to Luton and Sandy/St Neots to Bedford (& St Albans to Hatfield) if there were any issues blocking either the MML or ECML. They would often start running some form of imited shuttle within a short time of any problems (assuming buses were available - e.g. not at school travel times) Don't GTR provide these any more ?

I see GTR journeycheck is listing specific UNO buses from Hatfield to St albans this evening which could be quite cosy if a whole train load turned up !

1st class on a number of GN services declassified this evening. (mainly royston & Peterborough services) - the peak Royston trains often call additionally at Hatfield if there are any problems on the MML but nothing mentioned so far.

GTR journeycheck:

Cancellations to services at Luton
Due to damage to the overhead electric wires at Luton all lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running through this station may be cancelled, delayed by up to 90 mins or revised. All stations between St Albans City and Bedford will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice:
Network rail report that there is a fault with the overhead power supply lines at Luton. We are unable to run trains between St Albans City and Bedford. Please see alternative travel posters at stations, or click the link below for onward travel options from St Albans. We have ordered rail replacement buses to run between St Albans and Bedford and are expected to commence service at 16:30.
The train service between St Pancras and St Albans will be severely limited.
Where possible, customers are advised to avoid travelling between St Pancras and St Albans, and to travel by alternative routes to complete their journey. Journey times will be significantly extended.
-
Cutomers for Bedford may consider London Midland services from Euston via Bletchley, although the service between Bletchley and Bedford is infrequent and limited capacity.
-
Customer for Three Bridges and Brighton should consider Southern/Gatwick Express services from London Victoria.
-
http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/your-journey/planning/alt-maps-tl/
-
Bus services between Thameslink stations north of London and Great Northern stations are as follows:
*601 UNO from Welwyn GC bus station to St Albans
15:42 15:40 16:16 16:49 17:22 17:58 18:36 19:06 19:36
*601 UNO from St Albans to Welwyn GC bus station
15:27 15:30 16:03 16:05 16:39 17:12 17:56 18:26 18:55 19:25 19:55
*602 UNO from Hatfield to St Albans
15:39 15:42 16:08 16:45 17:19 17:54 18:50 19:20 21:20
*602 UNO from St Albans to Hatfield
15:42 15:39 16:18 16:45 17:13 17:48 18:18 18:48 19:10 19:38 20:03 21:03
*610 UNO from Hatfield town to Luton via Harpenden
16:02 16:24 17:29 19:09 19:52 20:46
*610 UNO from Luton to Hatfield via Harpenden
15:25 16:35 17:50 18:20 18:50 20:45 21:45
*610 UNO from Harpenden to Hatfield
15:50 17:00 18:15 18:50 19:14 21:07 22:07
-
Network Rail, who own and maintain the equipment have staff on their way to investigate and will update us.
-
Whilst this is ongoing, our services will be subject to severe disruption.
-
Once the fault is repaired, we will be working to restore the train service to the normal timetable as quickly as possible.
-
To assist passengers with connections ticket acceptance is being arranged with, Southern and Gatwick Express by all reasonable routes, London Midland, Great Northern, UNO Buses in the St Albans area, Tfl London buses between Elstree & Borehamwood and Central London and onwards to Sutton, and the Wimbledon loop, London Trams, London Underground and London Overground on all reasonable routes, SouthEastern trains between London and Sevenoaks. Passengers may consider travelling by Green Line coaches between Luton Airport and London and claiming the fare back from Thameslink Customer Services.
Additional Information:
We are sorry for the delay to your journey today.
For the latest real time live train information direct from our control centre, visit www.thameslinkrailway.com. You can also get in contact with us via Twitter (@TLRailUK). You may follow this incident at #luton.
If your journey with us has been delayed by 30 minutes or more, you may be entitled to compensation for a portion of your fare. Please visit www.thameslinkrailway.com/delayrepay for details.
Last Updated :08/11/2016 16:40

 

[asylumxl]

FCC used to have a standard plan that replacement buses would operate Hitchin to Luton and Sandy/St Neots to Bedford (& St Albans to Hatfield) if there were any issues blocking either the MML or ECML. They would often start running some form of imited shuttle within a short time of any problems (assuming buses were available - e.g. not at school travel times) Don't GTR provide these any more ?

I see GTR journeycheck is listing specific UNO buses from Hatfield to St albans this evening which could be quite cosy if a whole train load turned up !

1st class on a number of GN services declassified this evening. (mainly royston & Peterborough services) - the peak Royston trains often call additionally at Hatfield if there are any problems on the MML but nothing mentioned so far.

So long story short, they haven't actually organised any rail replacement buses, just agreed ticket acceptance with Uno. ****ing brilliant.

 

[stut]

They've also actively been telling Luton passengers to go to Hitchin. Hitchin is chaotic, as nobody seems to have told them. All local cab companies are overwhelmed, and the only bus is a mile away (and will be full of passengers from Stevenage anyway). 2-300 people waiting for taxis. Traffic from the station is backed up all around the area, so they can't even get in.

Station staff appear to be tearing their hair out, poor sods, doing their best with what little they have!

 

[Class377/5]

Are trains turning back at St Albans? If so why the comments about London buses at Elstree and Borehamwood?

Yes - and passenger south of Elstree have other bus / tube options to get home - so discouraging them from filling the only trains running to SAC , makes room in theory for others who have many less options. (and more miles to travel) - SAC can only really turn 4 tph an hour in any case ...unless the isolations allow HPDN to be accessed , which I doubt as there is a neutral section at Sandridge...

Seems trains could get to Elstree and turn there. Cause is a signal gantry as come into contact (in part) with overheads taking out the signalling completely in the Luton area. Lines are partly re-open in some places helping trains move however signalling in Luton is still affected so slow moving at best on reduced pathways possible soonish.

 

[muddythefish]

I was at Luton when it happened waiting to leave on the 14.10 ex-Bedford. There was an enormous bang followed by a smaller bang a few moments later when a train went through - presumably it came into contact with the loose OLE. Managed to get one of the first taxi back to Bedford so was quite lucky. Is the line open yet? I saw some diesel trains going through Bedford when I got back.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Seems trains could get to Elstree and turn there. Cause is a signal gantry as come into contact (in part) with overheads taking out the signalling completely in the Luton area. Lines are partly re-open in some places helping trains move however signalling in Luton is still affected so slow moving at best on reduced pathways possible soonish.

In all my long experience of the route , I have never seen a train reversed at Elstree using the Radlett Junction ....not safe with a 319 pair in any case with no walking route or change ends platform unless you did this at Radlett and went back unsignalled ....(no platform staff to assist in detraining either unless you could find a competent person to help out ....)

Absolute nightmare scenario for all ......

 

[Class377/5]

In all my long experience of the route , I have never seen a train reversed at Elstree using the Radlett Junction ....not safe with a 319 pair in any case with no walking route or change ends platform unless you did this at Radlett and went back unsignalled ....(no platform staff to assist in detraining either unless you could find a competent person to help out ....)

Absolute nightmare scenario for all ......

Not sure anything did even attempt as it was discovered that a cable off a signal came into contact with the overheads trying out both. Limited services right now with on Bedford to Brighton services running between Bedford and Luton.

 

[asylumxl]

Finally home, four hours after leaving work...

 

[Failed Unit]

>> You may use your rail ticket on London Buses between Elstree & Borehamwood and Central London

Is this a joke or something? So if you do not have travelcard, they expect you to use the bus (as underground not mentioned, so not allowed) to travel all the way from Blackfriars to Elstree and Borehamwood (e.g. 63 + 205 + 113 + 107) during rush hour? You are lucky if you can get there in 3h!

Still a rubbish journey but great northern to new Barnet and then the bus. Better than a kick in the teeth but not much.... I wouldn't rush to do it if trains are making it.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Finally home, four hours after leaving work...

That is a bad one .....

 

[yorksrob]

FCC used to have a standard plan that replacement buses would operate Hitchin to Luton and Sandy/St Neots to Bedford (& St Albans to Hatfield) if there were any issues blocking either the MML or ECML.

I remember using that between Sandy and Bedford once when the ECML was down. Either GNER or NX days.

 

[Class 170101]

Surely Euston to Bedford via Bletchley is a better option than via Northampton?

 

[infobleep]

They've also actively been telling Luton passengers to go to Hitchin. Hitchin is chaotic, as nobody seems to have told them. All local cab companies are overwhelmed, and the only bus is a mile away (and will be full of passengers from Stevenage anyway). 2-300 people waiting for taxis. Traffic from the station is backed up all around the area, so they can't even get in.

Station staff appear to be tearing their hair out, poor sods, doing their best with what little they have!

This sums up GTR. I was at East Croydon once where passengers from Victoria were told to head to pick up a rail replacement bus. It was even announced on the train. Alas staff at East Croydon were unaware of this. I suspect such bus service didn't exist.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Class377/5]

Expect tomorrow to have major discretion for the AM peak folks.

 

[asylumxl]

Expect tomorrow to have major discretion for the AM peak folks.

Very glad I am not at work tomorrow if more disruption is expected.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Booked on the 21:30 STP-LEI.

All trains posted as cancelled; although various gate line staff confirmed one train an hour would be leaving.

1D81 22:00 STP-NOT finally left 28L and has been at standstill south of Radlett for about 20 minutes now. Standing room only, no catering of course, and very few updates from crew.

An additional 22:15 Derby train was announced, traveling via Nottingham, but I've no idea if it left behind us.

 

[bramling]

Expect tomorrow to have major discretion for the AM peak folks.

Wonderful advert for Thameslink!

 

[jamesontheroad]

1D81 22:00 STP-NOT finally left 28L and has been at standstill south of Radlett for about 20 minutes now. Standing room only, no catering of course, and very few updates from crew.

Now parked at St Albans City, 90L + and growing.

Frequency and quality of information from EMT tonight has been appalling.