Wolverhampton issues 14/11/21

[syorksdeano]

I'm hearing its chaos around Wolverhampton at the moment.

Apparently a engineering train has derailed just north of the station, and everything going to Wolverhampton is cancelled or diverted via Bescot.

AWC also allegedly have trains blocked in a depot and can't get them out

 

[duncanp]

Oh brilliant, just as people are being advised they can use trains between Wolverhampton and Birmingham to as a replacement for the complete withdrawal of West Midlands Metro services between.... Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

 

[syorksdeano]

A derailed engineering train in the Wolverhampton area is causing major disruption to trains at this station.

Trains in the Wolverhampton area may be cancelled or diverted via an alternative route.

Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice:

Avanti West Coast

A derailed train has blocked the line immediately North of Wolverhampton Station. This means that Avanti West Coast can not get trains off of the depot near Wolverhampton (ten trains). Subsequently they have fewer trains to run a full service. Where Avanti West Coast can run services they will not call at Sandwell & Dudley and Wolverhampton.

You may use your ticket on the following to help complete your journey:

• Chiltern Railways between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street in both directions
• West Midlands Railway between London Euston and Wolverhampton in both directions

Rail replacement buses will run between Wolverhampton and Stafford from 12:00.

CrossCountry

Train services between Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street via Stoke-On-Trent and Stafford will be diverted via Bescot Stadium.

Wolverhampton will not be served.

You may use your ticket on the following to help complete your journey:

• National Express West Midlands between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in both directions
• West Midlands Railway between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton in both directions

Road transport between Wolverhampton and Stafford is currently being sourced to run between these stations.

Transport for Wales

You may use your ticket on Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway on reasonable routes.

Passengers are advised to travel via Crewe and Hereford where possible.

London Northwestern Railway / West Midlands Railway

Train services to and from Liverpool and Crewe (via Stoke-on-Trent) will divert and will not call at Wolverhampton and local stations between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Rail replacement buses are running on the following routes:

• Between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury
• Between Wolverhampton and Stafford calling at Penkridge

National Express West Midlands are accepting passengers between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton in both directions on the following:

• 4H: Walsall - West Bromwich - Oldbury - Blackheath
• 4: to/from Sandwell & Dudley to either Rowley Regis/Cradley Heath (for Birmingham Snow Hill) or West Bromwich (for Wolverhampton)
• 4M: Walsall - West Bromwich - Oldbury - Blackheath - Cradley Heath
• 12: Dudley - Birmingham
• 12A: Dudley - Birmingham
• 42: Tipton – West Bromwich
• 54: Wolverhampton - Stafford
• 69: Walsall - Wolverhampton
• 89 (Walsall): Walsall - Bloxwich - Wolverhampton
• 89 (Birmingham): Birmingham - Smethwick - West Bromwich
• 74: West Bromwich - Dudley
• 80/80A: Birmingham - Five Ways - Smethwick - West Bromwich
• 81: Wolverhampton - Coseley - Dudley
• 82: Dudley - Wolverhampton
• 87: Birmingham - Dudley Road - Smethwick - Oldbury - Dudley
• X8: Wolverhampton - Dudley - Bearwood - Birmingham
• 289: West Bromwich - Blackheath – Oldbury

 

[dk1]

Oh brilliant, just as people are being advised they can use trains between Wolverhampton and Birmingham to as a replacement for the complete withdrawal of West Midlands Metro services between.... Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

It never rains…

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

NRE's standard of English on the incident is not too bright either:

A derailed train has blocked the line immediately North of Wolverhampton Station. This means that Avanti West Coast can not get trains off of the depot near Wolverhampton (ten trains).

A Birmingham-Wolverhampton local does appear to have just got through.
Realtime Trains - 2W12 0907 Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton

Is it beyond the ken of Avanti to shunt some of its trapped 390s round to the wires at Bushbury Jn?

 

[blue87]

Looks like that's happening now, 5Z05 just come off Oxley and around the chord to Bushbury.

Just watched the Bushbury rail cam and a 57 has indeed just passed heading towards Stafford dragging a Pendolino.

 

[185]

NRE's standard of English on the incident is not too bright either

Grammatically correct or not, thats one of the clearest most descriptive messages I've ever seen any rail firm put out

 

[Ianno87]

Grammatically correct or not, thats one of the clearest most descriptive messages I've ever seen any rail firm put out

Agreed. No vague "operating incident" or something like that. Clear, frank, transparent and to the point.

But, hey, the grammar police have to get their kicks somewhere...

Looks like that's happening now, 5Z05 just come off Oxley and around the chord to Bushbury.

Just watched the Bushbury rail cam and a 57 has indeed just passed heading towards Stafford dragging a Pendolino.

Off-topic, bit makes me wonder how much wires on the Oxley chord would cost (even just cheap-and-cheerful tramway wire), as Wolverhampton is a bit of a "single point failure" cut off of Oxley.

 

[TheBigD]

Looks like that's happening now, 5Z05 just come off Oxley and around the chord to Bushbury.

Just watched the Bushbury rail cam and a 57 has indeed just passed heading towards Stafford dragging a Pendolino.

There can't be many instances of 57s dragging pendos these days. Certainly doesn't seem to get reported much if they do.

 

[londonteacher]

A Birmingham-Wolverhampton local does appear to have just got through.
Realtime Trains - 2W12 0907 Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton

According to post on this thread and NRE states that it occurred north of Wolverhampton so there is no reason why some services to Wolverhampton couldn't run.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Explains the screenful of cancellations I saw at Wigan NW this morning.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

They're not publicising it, but they're running a local service Wolves-Brum using 170s at the moment. I think that's it, though.

 

[The Planner]

Agreed. No vague "operating incident" or something like that. Clear, frank, transparent and to the point.

But, hey, the grammar police have to get their kicks somewhere...



Off-topic, bit makes me wonder how much wires on the Oxley chord would cost (even just cheap-and-cheerful tramway wire), as Wolverhampton is a bit of a "single point failure" cut off of Oxley.

Been suggested more times than I can remember, but never gets anywhere as it only really benefits Oxley and Wolves Shrewsbury is well down the list of wires. Avanti/Virgin never wanted to chip in and to be honest how often does this scenario happen?

According to post on this thread and NRE states that it occurred north of Wolverhampton so there is no reason why some services to Wolverhampton couldn't run.

Depends on if/how any isolation works.

 

[gg1]

Off-topic, bit makes me wonder how much wires on the Oxley chord would cost (even just cheap-and-cheerful tramway wire), as Wolverhampton is a bit of a "single point failure" cut off of Oxley.

When was the last time it was necessary to send Pendos that way? If we're talking a handful of days per decade I doubt it's worth the effort and expense as long as drags are still an option.

 

[High Dyke]

According to post on this thread and NRE states that it occurred north of Wolverhampton so there is no reason why some services to Wolverhampton couldn't run.

Partly depends on where any isolated sections are, that may affect electric services. Equally, it could be the typical 'headless chicken' mode of Network Rail control and TOC's disagreeing the best plan of action for services on the unaffected section of line.

 

[Domh245]

Grammatically correct or not, thats one of the clearest most descriptive messages I've ever seen any rail firm put out

Would be clearer and more descriptive to the public if it said:

A derailed train has blocked the line immediately North of Wolverhampton Station. This means that ten of Avanti West Coast's trains can not leave the depot near Wolverhampton.

(IMO)

 

[sonic2009]

According to post on this thread and NRE states that it occurred north of Wolverhampton so there is no reason why some services to Wolverhampton couldn't run.

It depends if the units were available this morning, as 1 Rugeley and 1 Walsall AFAIK start at Wolverhampton off stock from the sidings to the north.

 

[standish1]

Trains now running ,not sure when they restarted,

 

[OrangeJuice]

Trains now running ,not sure when they restarted,

NRE says between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton/Birmingham are running, but not between Wolverhampton and Stafford yet

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

What was the engineering train which derailed; loco hauled, track machine, on track plant?

 

[island]

A lot of the Euston to Birmingham and onwards (and v/v) today ended up being run as Voyagers, including Birmingham terminators.

 

[Boodiggy]

What was the engineering train which derailed; loco hauled, track machine, on track plant?

Track Machine, OLE work

 

[Omnishambles]

Off-topic, bit makes me wonder how much wires on the Oxley chord would cost (even just cheap-and-cheerful tramway wire), as Wolverhampton is a bit of a "single point failure" cut off of Oxley.

Comparable question to why only the slow lines from Kings Norton to Barnt Green.. Must be a Midlands thing to not fully electrify to give greater contingency coverage

 

[Watershed]

Comparable question to why only the slow lines from Kings Norton to Barnt Green.. Must be a Midlands thing to not fully electrify to give greater contingency coverage

Because the cross-city scheme was done to a budget. It would have cost more to electrify the fast lines and there was no suggestion (at the time, or indeed now!) that Intercity/XC would ever use electric traction.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Yeah just to confirm, track machine was derailed literally on the points at Wolverhampton North Junction.

OLE had been isolated so no EMUs could run via the stations, DMUs (170) operated from around lunch time Wolves-New St while everyone else went Bushbury-Perry Barr-Soho diversion.

As with the weather related Sunday the other week, many units were out of position especially for AWC, so there will have been a knock on effect into today.

I did have photos but forgot to screenshot them unfortunately, was just glad it didn't knacker the points!

 

[Elecman]

Off-topic, bit makes me wonder how much wires on the Oxley chord would cost (even just cheap-and-cheerful tramway wire), as Wolverhampton is a bit of a "single point failure" cut off of Oxley.

There was a electrification joint walk out with Avanti and Network Rail this week looking to carry out the necessary electrification work

 

[supervalkoinen]

Further to the earlier discussion of 'grammar', there was another period of serious disruption around Wolverhampton last night (20 Nov), during which many of the public announcements were rushed and garbled, making them virtually unintelligible.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Further to the earlier discussion of 'grammar', there was another period of serious disruption around Wolverhampton last night (20 Nov), during which many of the public announcements were rushed and garbled, making them virtually unintelligible.

As in the station announcements? There was a lot going on in fairness, lots of changes happening every few minutes as all the disruption was being ammended constantly but I take your point, they could've been done better

 

[The Planner]

There was a electrification joint walk out with Avanti and Network Rail this week looking to carry out the necessary electrification work

Its not funded or anything, so it is likely just a chat.

 

[supervalkoinen]

As in the station announcements? There was a lot going on in fairness, lots of changes happening every few minutes as all the disruption was being ammended constantly but I take your point, they could've been done better

Yes, I should say that the station staff were doing an admirable job in very trying circumstances with a rapidly changing situation and with some challenging passengers. I'm reasonably familiar with the station, its routes and timetables but there were a number of passengers who were left confused by the station announcements and consequently started looking for staff for clarification, making everyone's job harder.