Memories of Delays

[Pompeyfan]

i myself can't remember any major delays, i seem to be lucky, or i don't catch the train that often, (most prob the second one then)

one delay i can remember is i was on the Wessex portsmouth - penzance service. we were held at redbridge(just west of soton central) for about quater of an hour. when we finally set of onto the romsey line i remember loads of rspca vans, police and men chasing swans....

it was standing only by cosham, southampton people got turned away. anyway, onto salisbury where people got on..... at bruton (can't remember the name, station between frome and castle cary) a man asked me how long it was until southampton...... the look on his face when i told him we was on the wrong train was priceless, he said that platform staff at salisbury had told him to board our train.... he wasn't happy, he was ment to be flying home to belfast to see his girlfriend. the guard did some phoning around and was told to get off at Exeter ST D, presumably to get the train back to salisbury....

i eventually arrived into plymouth ten down, the unit was exmoor explorer, NASTIEST unit i've ever traveled on. was disgusting inside, smelly, loud, cramped, un refurbished, uncomfertable...........

[y2flexy]

Oh! i've remembered a bizarre one from last year, was on the train home from london to gravesend, and the emergency brakes kicked in just outside my station, tennoy announcement comes on, "sorry for the sudden brakes, we have a drunk man deciding to walk onto the tracks and sit infront of the train" he literally walked down the platform and onto the tracks, and sat infront of the train. it's all 3rd Rail down here so no idea how he didn't manage to electricute himself! Power was turned off, and we sat outside gravesend for 2 hours waiting for network rail and BTP to remove him!

[AlistairW]

Not mine but my Mums (who knows little about trains).

She was returning from Bath to Derby Via Bristol during the summer last year, only she travelled on the day that it rained and rained and rained. She arrived in Bristol to find trains to both London and the North were cancelled and told to find alternative transport. The bus station (as you can imagine) was in mayhem, especially with National Express coaches being all over the place as well. Anyway she was forced to return back to Bath on a local bus for the night.

The following morning, with the Bristol - Derby route still closed, she waited for a Bristol - London service at Bath. FGW, in the infinite wisdom decided to half the service to just hourly, and then laid on a 5 coach HST (must had been mid-refurbishment). As you can guess it arrived in Bath PACKED, unable to get on at any door she tried to get on at the very rear door but was told she couldn't by platform staff. She ignored them and got on anyway with everybody moaning about the lack of standing space in the vestibules (although they soon piped down after she said she had been trying to get home since the day before). The train was then further delayed en-route as people were turned away or fought to get off. Whilst getting off the train at Swindon (to let people off) she dropped her shoe between the train and platform which further delayed the service.

She arrived home around 18 hours late.

Not may memorable delays personally, once the Edinburgh - North Berwick class 508 unit failed on the ECML and we were pushed to Drem by a class 56. I've also been rescued by a class 58 back on the days of BR although have little memory of it.

My worst journey ever has to be Derby - Exeter on a 47 and 7 Mk2's on the day after the Hatfield speed restrictions were introduced, the average speed must have been around 40 mph, no water in any of the toilets, no food or drink in the buffet and standing throughout.

Cheers,
Ali

[Pompeyfan]

Not mine but my Mums (who knows little about trains).



My worst journey ever has to be Derby - Exeter on a 47 and 7 Mk2's on the day after the Hatfield speed restrictions were introduced, the average speed must have been around 40 mph, no water in any of the toilets, no food or drink in the buffet and standing throughout.

Cheers,
Ali

i can't remember restriction being introduced, what were they? and why were they?

[allypally]

I was involved in the rainy day last year too, except my story came off slightly better!

I was booked on the 0840 or whatever Wolverhampton to Exeter summer sat HST. This was cancelled so duly went down to Euston on the 0810 train.

Went over to Paddington to find chaos with no trains running anywhere bar shuttles to Swindon and Bristol.

By sheer luck was standing next to a train when a dispatcher came up and said to us 'This ones going off to Exeter, the only train so far today, if you want to get on it, it's going in a second'.

So managed to get the first (and only) train of the day to Exeter and got plenty of room as it was never announced over the tannoys, the main purpose for it's running being to check the line between Reading and Westbury.

Eventually arrived in Exmouth about 2 hours late, not bad at all.

[chriscooper]

Oh! i've remembered a bizarre one from last year, was on the train home from london to gravesend, and the emergency brakes kicked in just outside my station, tennoy announcement comes on, "sorry for the sudden brakes, we have a drunk man deciding to walk onto the tracks and sit infront of the train" he literally walked down the platform and onto the tracks, and sat infront of the train. it's all 3rd Rail down here so no idea how he didn't manage to electricute himself! Power was turned off, and we sat outside gravesend for 2 hours waiting for network rail and BTP to remove him!

Reminds me of two bizarre delays I've had. The first one was coming back from a trip to Newcastle University for an open day with a group of friends. We'd already been delayed on the way up due to the 158 (suprise ) we'd got from Loughborough to Peterborough gave trouble with the door interlock after each station and was refusing to release the brakes, causing us to miss our GNER (naturally just pulling out as we arrived). Was told to get the following one and change at Doncaster, arriving about 30mins late. Of cource on arrival at Doncaster the Newcastle was running about 15mins late, arriving with the 91 blunt end first, and lost more time on route, so we were over an hour late arriving (this was the second time I'd been late for an open day, after another 158 related delay going to Liverpool a few weeks before). It was on the way back that it got really interesting though. We were to go Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Sheffield, Loughborough, the extra change being that the York train was one of the pullmans and none stop beyond York. York to Doncaster was a White Rose Eurostar, which left on time, before coming to a stop just before Colton Junction. After a few minutes the train began moving again slowly and we got the following annoucement (it was quite a few years ago, so it's my best recolection), "ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the current delay to this service, the signaller stopped us so that he could inform the driver of reports of a naked man on the line (we were trying so hard not to laugh now, especially since the coach was full of business type people working on their laptops), and to proceed at low speed and report at the next signal if he has been seen. If anyone sees this man, please inform one of the on train staff, and please point him out to the rest of your carriage (at this point we and everyone else in the carriage started laughing, with most people standing up to try and get a better view, although he wasn't seen).
The other time was an unusual Norwich to Nottingham train via the Ely avoiding loop, formed of a 3 car Turbostar (since it was sunday and quiet, otherwise a 2 car would have been more normal), with me sitting at the back. As we were going around the loop, I was looking forward at the front of the train, and noticed a horse on the side of the track, just the other side of a small fence (on railway property), running up and down. Suddenly the brakes came on hard, and another horse came into view around the bend, this time standing right infront of the train. Luckely the speed on the loop is slow (25mph I think) so we stopped before hitting it, but it was close. The driver then got out and tried to move the horse, but it just ran off towards the mainline. After a while he gave up and got back in the cab, and we crawled along until passed the horse, which was off the track. I presume the driver reported it on the CSR or NRN, so trains on the mainline could be warned (the linespeed at Ely North Junction isn't that high, but unit vs. large animal, at any real speed, won't do the animal or unit much good). Of cource, the cause was a gate being left open.

[gswindale]

Strangely enough, I had no problems on the rainy day last year - got into and out of London fine on the Reading/Waterloo line.
Everyone else who attended the same Wedding reception as us in Windsor that night who could have had a train journey around London claimed that everything was up the spout.

[AlistairW]

i can't remember restriction being introduced, what were they? and why were they?

The cause of the Hatfield accident in October 2000 was due to a rail 'crumbing' as the train passed over it. This led Railtrack to impose speed restrictions of 20mph on (as far as I know) all sections of line with that used that 'batch' or 'type' of rail until they had been checked for cracks. It took the railways years to recover.

Huge delays were caused by Railtrack's decision to impose hundreds of speed restrictions throughout the national network so that rails could be checked for possible cracks.

Service levels slumped, with long-distance operators such as Virgin Trains particularly badly hit.

Shortly after the Hatfield accident, Virgin Trains chief executive Chris Green - an admired official with many years of rail experience - said: "We are now living through the biggest disruption to the rail network that I have ever experienced".

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/sep/0 ... .transport

Cheers,
Ali

[Pompeyfan]

i can't remember restriction being introduced, what were they? and why were they?

The cause of the Hatfield accident in October 2000 was due to a rail 'crumbing' as the train passed over it. This led Railtrack to impose speed restrictions of 20mph on (as far as I know) all sections of line with that used that 'batch' or 'type' of rail until they had been checked for cracks. It took the railways years to recover.

Huge delays were caused by Railtrack's decision to impose hundreds of speed restrictions throughout the national network so that rails could be checked for possible cracks.

Service levels slumped, with long-distance operators such as Virgin Trains particularly badly hit.

Shortly after the Hatfield accident, Virgin Trains chief executive Chris Green - an admired official with many years of rail experience - said: "We are now living through the biggest disruption to the rail network that I have ever experienced".

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/sep/0 ... .transport

Cheers,
Ali

cool. was that the GNER 225 set that derailed? and i don't remember it hitting my area that hard, mind you, i was only 9 at the time....

[6rdfar90]

i can't remember restriction being introduced, what were they? and why were they?

The cause of the Hatfield accident in October 2000 was due to a rail 'crumbing' as the train passed over it. This led Railtrack to impose speed restrictions of 20mph on (as far as I know) all sections of line with that used that 'batch' or 'type' of rail until they had been checked for cracks. It took the railways years to recover.

Huge delays were caused by Railtrack's decision to impose hundreds of speed restrictions throughout the national network so that rails could be checked for possible cracks.

Service levels slumped, with long-distance operators such as Virgin Trains particularly badly hit.

Shortly after the Hatfield accident, Virgin Trains chief executive Chris Green - an admired official with many years of rail experience - said: "We are now living through the biggest disruption to the rail network that I have ever experienced".

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/sep/0 ... .transport

Cheers,
Ali

Imo, the railways really haven't recovered from such crashes. Thus one of the reasons I think that GNER went Bankrupt (amongst other reasons I know)

[AlistairW]

Imo, the railways really haven't recovered from such crashes. Thus one of the reasons I think that GNER went Bankrupt (amongst other reasons I know)

In what sense? Passengers numbers and punctuality have are now both higher than that of the pre-Hatfield levels. Obviously things may have been even better without Hatfield but we will never know. The reason why GNER went bankrupt its because their parent company, Sea Containers was bankrupt it wasn't so much the premium payments. This is proved as other operators who bid for the ECML bid around the same amounts.

Cheers,
Ali

[Astrovana]

So they say the french can run a railway...

So my family and I are getting the eurostar down from Waterloo-Libourne (on the LGV-Atlantique) and the journey goes exceedingly well up until 20 miles before our station.
I could feel the brakes applying on the train as the service passed through an area of dense forest, and we reduce from 270kph-0kph in about 4 minutes (bloody quick).
Eventually after sitting in silence for 30 mins the driver announces over the intercom, that due to a problem with another train on the lines ahead, our train is subject to a 50 minute delay- totally to an 80 minute delay on one of the busiest high speed lines in france.
Not really much of a problem, as the driver pulls the train to the next station for the locals to disambark for a cigarrette, and we were travelling to our holiday home. Finally after an hour and a half delay we arrive at our final station (Libourne) and are happy to disembark the service.

Now on the return journey, I thought that things couldnt go that way- plus we had a non exchangeable eurostar ticket. So typically, the train boards ring up with a sign saying the TGV for Paris is 20 minutes late (okay, i guessed, not too far behind), and then the board popped up again saying 40 minutes late, the again 1h30 minutes late. Finally after 80mins of waiting and trainspotting the single TGV (that was meant to be 2 units, but due to a fault with the trailing unit, the train was overcrowded and crammed into 1 10 car unit) arrived. I was genuinely worried, because it looked like we weren't going to be able to get home that night. But the driver belted it up the LGV, and we caught up 40 minutes of delay, due to some break neck driving, and we managed to board our eurostar and return to blighty. But it was close. Memories of bardging parisians out the way on "le metro" as we rushed towards gare de nord to make our eurostar service.

Still it wasn't as bad as the 10 minute delay on the northern line when we arrived at waterloo- Even the TGV was less packed than that station...

[andylloyd]

After spending a weekend with my lass up in Newcastle, my train was getting later and later on a monday evening.
It was when a EWS train carrying vans caught fire and damaged the OHLE.

The train was due at 18.34 and was then 19.34, then 21.34 then eventually cancelled. Then the down service from Aberdeen arrived 20.00 instead of 19.04. This was then terminated at Newcastle because of a fault.
A train then terminated from KGX and was turned around was then scheduled to leave at about 21.20 for KGX.
That for me was far too late, as I would have missed all my connections back in the smoke.

Finally managed to locate a friendly member of GNER staff, who said that I could travel on my ticket the following morning on any service. Fantastic I thought. Was told to explain the situation to the guard who would allow me to travel....
So I got the 0600 from Newcastle which would get me into KGX for about 0900 give or take a few mins.
Just got through Durham when the guard came through, so i'd explained the situation... which he knew about.
He would not let me travel any further south than York until I got my ticket validated, I was fuming.

Got my ticket re-validated missed my early train and had to wait another 30 mins for another train.

Cheers

Andy

p.s could the guard have contacted control for authorisation for me to complete my journey whilst on-board rather than kicking me off?

[bigvern]

Cardiff to Crewe service for 3 hours just south of Ludlow in 1976 doing a circular trip from Northampton on a Midland Railtourer Rover.

Train formed of a 3 car Class 126 IC unit plus 3 car Class 120 Cross Country on rear. While I believe this was a regular formation on the route at the time, it appears the two types of DMU not 100% compatible.

Anyhow the formation blew up just by Wooferton box. Not sure what the technical fault was but despite lots of prodding and probing with the isolating bars it was fairly obvious the formation wasn't going anywhere under its own power.

Eventually a southbound freight was recessed in the refuge siding and the Class 47 commandeered to assist forward to Shrewsbury. Ignomiously terminated in the bay at Shrewsbury with nary a word of apology. Was only 15 at the time but of course in those days communication was not what it is now (my parents didn't even have a home phone) so were worried sick when I arrived home at about 2000 instead of 1700.

[XPTE]

Babble mode from me again....

I could do with a journey on a train that gets delayed soon. Not just several minutes, a real interesting delay like the journey duration is somewhat longer than scheduled. A good half hour or so at least. Being stuck at a red signal for ages, riding the yellows and reds behind a queue of other trains. That's what I'm after. As long as I'm in no particular rush to get somewhere that is.

I'm probably one of very few people who looks at the departure screens and hoping that the train I'm due to get on is delayed. I look at the screens, see "on time" and think "on time again. Dear oh dear.".

Passing through London Waterloo station yesterday evening, the departure screens read DELAYED for practically every service listed. Which is very rare for services from that station and South West Trains services in general. It's interesting when the expected departure time just says DELAYED as you have no real estimate as to when your train will be departing. Could be several minutes away, could be an hour away. You have no real idea.

Interesting journey several months ago I was on, could be last year. I'm not sure. Boarded a train from London Paddington-Bristol Parkway. Due to signalling problems between Wootton Bassett and Bristol Parkway however, the train took a diverted route after Swindon, via Chippenham, Bath, St Annes, the "GWR Rhubarb Loop"(mainly used by freight trains), and Filton Abbey Wood. It was a nice nonstop journey between Swindon and Bristol Parkway, with a journey duration of about 50 minutes instead of the usual half hour. Whizzing through Chippenham, but riding the yellows and reds after Bathampton Junction. Nice journey, and a pleasant change from the same old same old.