Over the next few weeks I'll be publishing a log of the worst delays and disruption affecting Greater Anglia' customers. This is not everything by any means, and slight delays and/or isolated incidentrs may not get reported. It should be noted that the majority of incidents are not down to Greater Anglia, but it is a demostration of how the rail network in this region is in need of major investment and upgrade. Here is what happened last week.
11/8/14
Ipswich: Over running engineering works means no trains until 0630 and multiple delays and cancellations throughout the day due to displaced rolling stock and crew
12/8/14
Hatfield Peveral: Broken down freight train blocking line for an hour. Multiple cancellations and delays. Another failed freight train between Southend and Shenfield means another blocked line during morning peak.
Mainline: 1810 London Liv St - Norwich cancelled as usual - is this GA's most unreliable train.
Manor Park: Overhead wire probs mean metro service running with severe delays, which has knock on effect to mainline services
13/8/14
Ipswich: Points failure means delays of up to 30 mins and cancellations well into late morning.
Shenfield: Total signal failure means all lines blocked. Two lines reopened by late morning. delays and cancellations inevitible.
Norwich: 0930, 1030, and 1130 NOR - LON all short formed due to train faults so presumably 1200, 1300 and 1400 return journeys similarly affected.
Hackney Downs: Signalling problems cause 20 min delays and diversions
14/8/14
Norwich: 0624 NOR - LON cancelled due to fault on train
Shenfield: Delays of up to 10 mins due to signalling pro
Colchester: 1130 LON - NOR terminated at Colchester due to train fault. 1430 NOR - LON cancelled as consequence as was 1700 LON - NOR.
Hertford East: Due to lightning strike all services between Hertford East and Ware suspended
Stanstead Airport: Due to speed restrictions all services to and from Stanstead delayed by 10 mins. After 2000 buses replace trains Bishop Stotford to Stanstead
Mainline: 1900 and 2200 NOR - LON 8 car 321 not IC stock, also 1930 and 2100 LON - NOR
15/8/14
Clapton: Services via Clapton suspended throughout morning peak due to points failure at Chingford. All Stanstead/Cambridge/Enfield.Chingford/Hertford East services diverted via Stratford which in turn causes congestion on GEML already delayed due to earlier probs at Kelvedon. Line not reopened till 0900.
Mainline: 0900 and 1400 NOR - LON and 1130 and 1630 LON - NOR operated by 8 car class 321. Also 0902 LON - IPS started from Colchester.
Ipswich: 0920 IPS - CAM and 1044 CAM - IPS cancelled due to train fault
16/8/14
Yarmouth: Due to a lack of stock the Summer services from Yarmouth to London and reverse will start and finish at Norwich. So instead of an 8 or 9 coach train for the holidaymakers they all have to cram themselves AND their luggage onto a single car 153. Beggars belief.
Romford: Romford - Upminster services suspended due to a broken down train
Saxmundham: Due to animals on line (4 legged type I assume) East Suffolk line services delayed by up to 30 mins
Manningtree: Disruptiove passenger on 1800 from Norwich causes 25 min delay which has knock on effect to 5 services resulting in trains running fast and Harwich Town, Dovercourt, Marks Tey, Kelvedon, Witham, Hatfield Peveral and Chelmsford effectively having trains cancelled.
17/8/14
Cheshunt: Due to a broken down train Liv St - Hertford East services diverted via Totenham Hale. No service Teobald's grove - Southbury
Um: well the rolling stock available in our privatised railway depends on investment decisions made by the Government doesn't it? The weather - I'm sure we'd all be grateful if you have any suggestions for controlling that, or the rest of nature. Overrunning and emergency engineering works - well, we either maintain it or close it. Which? And health and safety: we all want it for ourselves but not, apparently, the inconvenience when it's for anyone else. Perhaps GA should take a leaf out of certain bus companies' books and tell us nothing - oh, apart from their childish self-publicity!
ReplyDeleteRolling stock is what you make of it and how it's maintained - but the Class 90's seem to be failing with alarming regularity, and the huge majority of freight locos are a darn sight newer than passenger rolling stock yet fail just as, if not more frequently.
DeleteNo one can control the weather but preparations can be made. We still live in a fairly temperate climate compared to other places yet our network falls apart at the first sign of anything - has it been THAT hot this year yet speed restrictions were in place in case the rails got too hot - those same rails that can't cope with a few degrees of frost. Japan and Switzerland must laugh at us! Lightning strikes are something else and random but again we get far fewer than other parts of the world that seem to cope ok - is it the British "that'll do" culture again?
Engineering works of course are needed - but on the mainline to Norfolk on a Summer Holiday Saturday? Honestly? And maybe the passenger forced to drag cases and kids onto a replacement bus might like to know exactly why the line is closed and what is being repaced/renewed/upgraded.
Health and Safety goes without saying and I'm not sire which incident you are commenting on there. I know from experience the Railway has extremely stringent and well laid out procedures to protect the safety of both employees and passengers.
Someone said earlier this week that the main trouble is the company name changes, liveries and uniforms look different, stations get a paint job but the management stays the same. So the same excuses from the same people who cocked it up last time emit from the same anonymous offices, leaving the frontline staff both on board and at stations to take the heat. Been there, got the t-shirt and battle scars, and nothing has changed. Same delays, same excuses, same disregard for passengers. Oh sorry - something has changed - fares have risen, and risen, and risen some more. Has the service improved? Perhaps someone with more time to spare than me can collate the punctiality figures over the last 40 years and tell us if anything has improved. I have my doubts somehow.
Well, anecdotal, but I recently found some of my old diaries from when I was commuting to college in London in the mid 1970s. Overcrowded, cancelled and late trains, virtually every day . . . Are those other foreign railways running on Victorian infrastructure, neglected pre- and post- the 1948 nationalisation? As so often I'd agree that privatisation UK style is more about politics than anything else, and because of that East Anglia gets a rum deal. There no (more) votes in it. GY and the Essex (and Suffolk) badlands ain't sexy. Getting anything done is horrendously complicated, but I suspect we've probably had more useful investment in the last 20 years than in the 50 before that. (Didn't BT famously order steam trains and scrap them at the same time?). But memory is a funny thing, and the drip feed just makes it more painful.
ReplyDelete