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Post by Ryan Webb on Nov 17, 2009 18:31:55 GMT
If today is anything to go by, what's gonna happen if something similar happens in a little over 2 weeks time ...  Quoted from SET website (18:26): The signalling problems (or is it a fire in the substation as I've heard from various people?) was first reported at 0853 this morning, and will continue until further notice, I was told by a member of staff at Sittingbourne to not expect a train until Thursday at the earliest. If Gene or someone could confirm exactly what's happened, that would be appreciated. I like to find out what's gone wrong, and also so I can try and claim compensation if the disruption continues tomorrow. Luckily I was able to travel to work by train (I got the 0657 Sheerness-Sittingbourne train) and coming home we were rammed onto a double decker bus with all the schoolkids ....  Looking forward to tomorrow morning ..... not! Hope everyone else's commutes/journeys went well ... Thanks Ryan |
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Post by Becs Faversham on Nov 17, 2009 19:33:00 GMT
just got home from the 4.44pm from cannon st to faversham. took 2 1/2 hrs. Arrived at faversham and was told fire in substation and expect trains to be up the creek tomorrow.
Apparently my train was the first they had seen all day from London!
Frustratingly we thought we had a guard that said nothing the whole journey. It was only when he walked through that people accosted him for having absolutely no news. It appears in our carriage the tannoy was not working at all yet he had been putting out updates every 15mins or so. Also there was no mention of any problems at cannon str station tannoy whilst waiting to leave
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Post by Ryan Webb on Nov 17, 2009 19:48:55 GMT
Geez. 465239 has been sitting at Sittingbourne there all day, been a ghost town there I bet. There was a pair of 466s at Sheerness as well ...
You were lucky to depart Cannon Street - if the train has defective PA/tannoy then the train usually goes out of service .... And surely there should be announcements at Cannon Street warning passengers of their potentially extremely long journeys ahead ... :S
Let's hope tomorrow is better .. by the reports I was hearing at Sittingbourne, we could be in for a rough ride for the next few days ...
Thanks
Ryan
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Post by NoOnions on Nov 17, 2009 23:06:37 GMT
I too was on the 16:44 from Cannon Street to Rainham. I was alerted to the problems by a couple of SMS messages from South Eastern at 13:42. I then kept checking the SE Trains website and Network Rail.
There were two problems today, as I understand it. The signaling problems that kicked in mid-morning and then the later problems due to a fire that knocked out the Victoria service.
The 16:44 was packed, as many Victoria passengers had managed to get to Cannon Street. Those waiting at London Bridge (an added stop) had no chance of a seat.
We spent a good twenty minutes sitting at Meopham. The guard guessed that this was due to the trains ahead of us having to be parked at Gillingham (the PA worked fine in the second carriage!). I think we were the first train to go beyond Gillingham.
There were no announcements at Cannon Street about the problems.
Looking at the SE Trains site tonight it still all looks messed up.
We could be in for fun tomorrow :-(
NoOnions
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Post by chapelwood on Nov 17, 2009 23:40:25 GMT
I was monitoring what was going on, on the National Rail 'Live Departure Board' site, and it did seem that a lot of delays were due to congestion at Gillingham. Victoria trains were either cancelled, or only ran as far as Gillingham, apart from two Victoria to Ramsgate trains, at 1710 and 1810, which called at Swanley, Maidstone East, Ashford, and Canterbury West. Most of the Cannon Street trains ran through, so the 1644 was the first to go through between Gillingham and Faversham, but they were badly delayed west of the Medway by the congestion at Gillingham, and were further delayed between Rainham and Sittingbourne, presumably by having to be 'talked through' the signals that weren't working. The information on both the Southeastern and the National Rail sites wasn't very helpful, at least in the evening peak, with no information about the delays because of congestion at Gillingham, and, while the Southeastern site did announce the two Victoria to Ramsgate trains, it gave no information about their route and calling pattern. The BBC News Kent site has no mention, and there doesn't seem to be any information anywhere as to what is likely to happen on Wednesday morning.
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Post by chapelwood on Nov 17, 2009 23:57:00 GMT
Some information about Wednesday morning has now been posted on the Southeastern site, though it seems a bit garbled. www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/index.php/news/news_items/view/122It seems there will be some up trains running through between Gillingham and Faversham in the morning peak, but only buses in the down direction, and off-peak. The Sheerness branch will also be bustituted. |
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Post by Ryan Webb on Nov 17, 2009 23:59:50 GMT
I briefly spoke to a member of staff at Sittingbourne who said they expected no trains or a very limited shuttle in the peaks tomorrow, with buses replacing most of the trains between Faversham and Gillingham. According to the Southeastern Live Departure Boards for Gillingham and Victoria, the 2339 service to Gillingham is running, departing from Platform 1 according to TrainTracker Text ... I have been reliably informed that there is no train at that platform. Victoria Departure Boards have cancelled the train, whereas NRES and SET LDB both show it as running .. a quick call to NR and I've been told "We don't know if its running or cancelled." Helpful or what? :S The next and last train from Victoria to Gillingham, the 0003, is running and departing from Platform 5 ... or so the LDB says ...  Thanks Ryan PS I have found one media article on the internet - www.thisiskent.co.uk/news/Sittingbourne-sparks-rail-chaos/article-1524170-detail/article.htmlOnce again, the media completely gets it all wrong - where's the signalling failure and the complete cancellation of all trains between Faversham, Sittingbourne, and Gillingham and also to/from London Victoria?  EDIT: Found a different link, complete with an out of date image of the least used train on the network ... Slightly better information at least ... www.yourswale.co.uk/kent-news/Severe-delays-after-Sittingbourne-rail-fire-newsinkent30092.aspxFound a link with more detail as to what happened: www.kentonline.co.uk/times_guardian/news/2009/november/17/train_disruption_for_island_se.aspx |
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busman
Junior Member
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Post by busman on Nov 18, 2009 13:23:00 GMT
Had great fun getting home last night like others. But got To Rainham Station this morning at 5.20 after hearing that Bus replacement was still in force this morning. Now considering they had all night you would have though a member of staff would have been there to help and explain what was going on, no sign of bus replacement' board showing only Cannon street trains that the times kept slipping back, Suddenly a bus turns up driver shouts out Faversham only, not giving any one on platform 2 time to get over the steps to get on before pulling away  Train turns up for Canon street only 4 coaches full nearly before it left. Changed at Gillingham and waited for a Victoria train to turn up 10 or so minutes later only 4 coaches again full nearly again before leaving giving others further up no chance, so much so they had to change to a fast not stopping service.. Hopefully some from SET my read this and have people at station at all times trains are due, have as many coaches on trains as possible some think you would have though they would have done. |
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Post by Ryan Webb on Nov 18, 2009 19:18:02 GMT
I saw a Cannon Street train this morning at approximately half 7 leave Sittingbourne, it was formed of 3 x 375s = 12 coaches.
Any idea why the Sheerness Line was caped all day when there were 2 trains at Sheerness and Sittingbourne from the previous day? Lack of drivers?
Thanks
Ryan
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Post by chapelwood on Nov 18, 2009 23:04:53 GMT
Any idea why the Sheerness Line was caped all day when there were 2 trains at Sheerness and Sittingbourne from the previous day? I presume that they've concentrated on getting the main line signals working again, but haven't completed repairs to enable the Sheerness branch to reopen. |
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Post by genehuntisking on Nov 19, 2009 8:40:05 GMT
A bit of back ground information into the last couple fo days drama in the Sittingbourne area.
On Tuesday morning (somewhere around 08.30 - 09.00) two seperate fires were discovered at Murston, I believe in the substation or TP hut, and once put out were found to have damaged a significant amount of the signal cabling in the Sittingbourne area.
After moving trains stuck in section, all services between Faversham and Gillingham were suspended. A shuttle service of sorts was implemented between Faversham and Dover/Ramsgate, and also Gillingham - Victoria. This isn't as easy as it sounds, particularly half way through the day, as there are numerous crews who get stuck either side of the line blockage. For the evening peak Network Rail were able to resource staff for temporary block working on the down line only, and a maximum capacity of three trains per hour. In simplified terms this meant only one train allowed between Newington and somewhere on the approach to Faversham. It also involved having to clip up points in the Sittingbourne area preventing anything on the Sheerness branch.
As most of the Cannon St services are formed from stock that sits in the London area all day, and run roughly every 20 minutes with crews right through, these were run on Tuesday evening, and in fact 17.08 and 18.46 from Cannon St were actually made up to 12 coaches. However for a number of reasons, Gillingham became over congested with trains from Victoria, which led to the Cannon St trains suffereing delays before getting to The Medway Towns.
Overnight, it was agreed that similar would happen in the morning on Wednesday, with Cannon St trains running through. Estimates of the line reopenning varied from 12.00 to shut all day Wednesday with temporary block working in the peaks. Around lunchtime the mainline reopened, and again trying to convert the emergency timetable back to the booked timetable took some time with various crews in the wrong place. For this reason it was decided to provide some extra crews to try and return the mainline to normality by cancelling the Sheerness branch for the rest of the day.
By 16.00 the Chatham line service was getting back together again, although there were still some short formed trains owing to stock in the wrong place. This wasn't for the want of trying, as people were chasing round all day trying to find where stock was. Perhaps most irritating of all was at 17.50, having run a few short formed trains, Victoria then revealed there was a "spare" 12 coach train there. Of course it wasn't spare, as the units should have been on 17.08 Cannon St, 17.20 Charing Cross and 17.48 Victoria which all ran short!
As for the lack of staff at statons, well you and I would both like stations to be manned, but most of them seem to be run on a skeleton staffing level now. Its not just at stations either, with frantic slashing and cost cutting measures, but thats another story.
Hope this goes some way to trying to answer a few of the queries raised here.
The Gene Genie
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