Disruption between Bristol and Weston super Mare

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

A ‘late running freight train’ is causing all sorts of issues between Bristol and Weston super Mare and has been since first thing. Surely there’s more to it than just running late. Broken down perhaps or a sensitive cargo (nuclear)?

Due to a late running freight train between Bristol Temple Meads and Weston-Super-Mare the line towards Weston-super-Mare is blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 10:30 11/01.

[bobm]

It was a freight from Felixstowe which was stuck on the main line for over three hours waiting to be accepted into Bristol Freightliner yard.

[Timmer]

It was a freight from Felixstowe which was stuck on the main line for over three hours waiting to be accepted into Bristol Freightliner yard.

Will be interesting to know who pays for the delays and cancellations that it caused.

[GBM]

It was a freight from Felixstowe which was stuck on the main line for over three hours waiting to be accepted into Bristol Freightliner yard.

May you please clarify "waiting to be accepted..."  Surely provided the signal(s) were good to go, the freight could just roll into the yard.  If the signals were against it and it had to wait (over three hours - really?) purely because of the signals, then it's a Network Rail fault.

[stuving]

It was a freight from Felixstowe which was stuck on the main line for over three hours waiting to be accepted into Bristol Freightliner yard.

Will be interesting to know who pays for the delays and cancellations that it caused.

This incident was initially attributed as "waiting for terminal/yard acceptance (AA)", applying to all the delayed and cancelled passenger services.

In the DAPR, the list of codes has AA (Waiting Terminal/Yard acceptance) under freight terminal operating company causes". In section 4.2, explaining such incidents (Acceptance into Freight Terminals/Yards) in more detail, it has:

Circumstances: Incident within a yard/terminal, off Network Rail operated infrastructure, causing trains to be delayed entering into either that yard/terminal or an adjacent yard/terminal sharing the same connection to the Network.
Delay Code:  Appropriate A*, F* or M* Code
Incident Attribution:  Freight Operator(s) - separate Incident for each Operator involved (A##*)

Circumstances: Freight Operator of train waiting outside terminal/yard does not provide information on incident in terminal/yard
Delay Code:  AA
Incident Attribution:  Operator of train concerned

(I presume that by Freight Operator is means terminal operator.)

In any case, the contracts linking the train and terminal operators will cover who ultimately pays for it.

[Celestial]

I thought I read some months ago that the Bristol Freighliner yard had closed, and it's traffic rerouted to Pengam, which was more viable since the toll was removed on the bridge.

[stuving]

It was a freight from Felixstowe which was stuck on the main line for over three hours waiting to be accepted into Bristol Freightliner yard.

May you please clarify "waiting to be accepted..."  Surely provided the signal(s) were good to go, the freight could just roll into the yard.  If the signals were against it and it had to wait (over three hours - really?) purely because of the signals, then it's a Network Rail fault.

It means going off NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s network onto someone else's. That move can only happen (and only be signalled) after it is accepted by the operator of the other "network" - even if it's just a bit of track.

[stuving]

I thought I read some months ago that the Bristol Freighliner yard had closed, and it's traffic rerouted to Pengam, which was more viable since the toll was removed on the bridge.

There were several movements last week - not every day, but at weekends in particular, and including to/from Felixstowe.