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1M58 14:45 Bournemouth to Manchester has hit 10 (yes, ten) cows near Tackley at 16:45, so all trains are currently cancelled between Oxford and Banbury.  I should imagine that'll be a mess that will take a while to clear up even if the train isn't damaged too badly!

National Rail Enquiries report, in addition to animals on the line, a broken down train.

So it could be Cows 1 Voyager 0. Possibly a posthumous victory for Team Bovine though.....

More seriously, one hopes the driver is okay.

I heard this by way of a PA announcement coming through reading tonight. This got me thinking - how many eventualities do they have recorded announcements for? I suppose animals on the line is probably predictable but how long would it take to get a new announcement recorded so it fits in with the other voices?

I really must be spending too much time at stations :)

Widespread effects:
The 17:22 from Paddington to Hereford was being terminated at Shrub Hill.
The 17:50 from Paddington to Shrub Hill was 20 minutes late out of Oxford, presumably on account of congestion.

Well, I once heard a recorded announcement at Exeter St David's that there were delays due to 'swans on the line'.

There was an obvious difference in the spoken words in the recorded message, so I can only assume that 'swans' was one of many words that had been recorded and could be added to '... on the line'.

From CrossCountry Trains on Facebook:

I've been on a Voyager that hit one cow before, and although it came off a lot better than the cow it didn't come off that well. There was a long delay whilst the underframe was checked before a limited speed move to the next station where we duly terminated. A lot of the bodywork around the coupler had been damaged or removed by the impact. I can imagine if a Voyager was to hit 10 cow the damage would be quite significant.

someone on twitter has posted a picture, of just the side window, and there appears a lot of blood up the side windows, not pleasant

The anatomy of cows means they tend to explode when hit, its all to do with their digestive system.  Even though a Voyager may weight 300 Tonnes hitting a cow at 1/2 Tonne at 70mph (plus) means a lot of damage to the train (and a dead cow)

On the plus side CrossCountry have just added numerous beef dishes to their buffet menu.

The Voyager that hit the cows.
(https://p.twimg.com/Ase7pTFCQAANlSz.jpg)

They'll need a big can of Isopon to fix that...

I believe the black device that's normally hidden by the valance is the Voyager style of 'anti-climb' overiding protection which interlocks with the same fitting on another unit if there's a serious collision or jack-knifing.  Hence the valance has to be sacrificial and break away easily.  A number of the trains have damage to the valance caused by bird strikes, they are fairly weak by design.

Paul

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-18020332):

There was absolute chaos at Birmingham New Street. Phil and Celia couldn't cope, meaning that most announcements were made by a stressed member of staff. The screens were all wrong, with XC services being advertised as LM and axed trains showing up as on time AND axed! Some trains were being advertisied as departing from "The far end of Platform 3B", something that to baffled staff and the announcer.

Most XC services were affected. Trains from Newcastle heading down to Reading were being turned back to Newcastle, resulting in tired commuters being dumped onto already overcrowded platforms. They were being transferred to the Mancheser to Bournmeouth trains, resulting in sardine conditions.

There was a knock on effect on the CrossCity line, meaning that some trains had all stops to Longbridge axed, and were terminated early at Barnt Green.

An ATW service to the airport was re-platformed literally as the train pulled in, resulting in a mass stampede up and down the stairs- many passengers were families with luggage.

XC reservations coped well, but didn't remove the ones made redundant by the cancelations. Bewildered commuters boarding at Derby wondered why all the seats marked "Reserved from Winchester/Reading/Oxford" were empty and were initially hesitant to sit down.

Catering services were axed on XC much to the anger of commuters, famished after a hard day's work. Luckily, I had been to M&S minutes beforehand... 8) but I was gasping for a cuppa (even at XC prices).

Aw diddums. So you couldn't get a cup of tea Btline? My heart bleeds.  ::)

I can't imagine many commuters use the on train catering - it would be too expensive (not to mention monotonous) on a regular basis - they'll wait until they get home to eat like everyone else. But hey, don't let that get in the way of a bit of hyperbole.     

Seriously...? Change the record, please? It's gotten very, very dull. Yawn.

Apologies for sort of feeding the troll...  :-\

Really, I was on a XC service the other night; had a full range of trolley and first class services. Strange, having asked Customer Services (well, technically someone who works for Cross Country CS), they weren't aware that refreshments weren't available.

Strange, very strange.

This just in from the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk):



Oh wait... just another btline post.

Just trying to get this thread back on course....

In cases like this does the railway have any claim against a farmer?

From the wording in the BBC news item I quoted, it would appear not:


So, it appears that Network Rail do maintain the fence - up to the point at which it collapses under the weight of a cattle stampede. They therefore seem to accept that it's not a farmer's fault if that happens, so they can't really claim any 'compensation' from a farmer.

I wonder what caused them to stampeed. Shame it was just when a train was coming. Had they waited 20s they would have avoided the bloodbath.

Hmm. I'm not sure stampeding cows follow quite such a logical thought process, Btline.  ::)

Whilst NR has an obligation to fence its property (probably the only railway in the world with this responsibility - discuss), the type of fencing it has to provide is probably subject to the test of reasonableness in law. A basic fence is probably sufficient in most cases. In some areas, palisade fencing is appropriate. Next to a farm, I would guess that some sort of stock fencing would be required.

However, its probably unreasonable to expect a fence to withstand a stampede of 10 cows, if this was indeed what happened. There is a law which states (basically) that you are responsible for anything which originates on your land and causes damage to your neighbour (the obvious example being a tree on your land which is blown over on to your neighbours property). If the farmer was in some way responsible for the stampede, then NR would have a case. So the question is, what caused the stampede?

Whatever the answer, its unlikely tha NR would get very far without damning evidence. Its probably cheaper just to move on!

Could the cows have been spooked, by lightning for example, I know there has been some particularly wild weather other Oxfordshire in the last few days!

I have been involved in discussions with live stock owners in the past when they complained that the Railway fence was not sufficient to stop there animals getting onto the Railway, the railway fence is not there to pen live stock that responsibility lies with the owner of the animals to provide adequate means to control their animals (a fence for sheep, goats is different to that for cattle or instance) indeed NR could claim against the live stock owner

See an article on the Farmers Weekly (http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/11/05/2012/132834/Fifteen-cattle-dead-after-train-crash.htm) website for further details.

I've been at Birmingham New Street on a similar day of comedy. I was sent to three different platforms by harassed staff who may have believed that the advice they gave me was good at the time it was given. I decided I could probably work it out for myself better, and on the second platform I went to (3b or something) found a XC service with Bristol on the destination board. The train manager confirmed that's where we were going, albeit late. After a while, we set off, not stopping again until we got to Platform 3a.

Eventually, off we went. The conductor came to check tickets en route to Cheltenham. The man behind me, of oriental appearance, asked what time we got to Telford. I didn't hear the reply...



Edited to fix quote. bignosemac.

Oh dear. I have to say, I've been at BHM when it's been far worse, but Wednesday night was the worst I'd seen it in a long time.

Back before they changed the PIS system, it always coped and flustered commuters were given calm, concise and clear announcements by Phil telling them where to go. Overcrowded - yes. Platform alterations - yes. Cancellations = yes. But clear announcements.

Now, not only is the system unreliable, we have Celia barking on pointlessly about the train FROM Euston terminating. That is NO use to anyone, and besides, it will be going back to Euston in 20 minutes!!! So we have stressed staff members having to tell people manually that their trains are axed and then forgetting to wipe it from the screens.


Ok, perhaps I imagined the announcement saying catering was axed and failed to spot the invisible trolley. ::)