Waterloo closed by engineering over run

[whole diary]

[rogerw]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46258720

At least Filton bank opened on time

[Timmer]

Another day of shockingly poor service for SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)’s customers.

[JayMac]

Whilst blame doesn't lie with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about), they have to handle the fallout. And it looks like they're not doing a very good job communicating.

Sadly it appears to be another example of FirstGroup's Maxwell touch. Thats the polar opposite of the Midas touch. Named after Robert Maxwell - everything he touched turning to s***.

[stuving]

As of 10:16:

All lines have reopened between Surbiton and London Waterloo as the overrunning engineering work has now been completed. As trains and train crew are in the wrong locations for their next duty, services will remain severely disrupted for the rest of today.

Despite the way the news has been presented, most Windsor Lines services were running, though with a few gaps due to missing stock. Reading trains were worse than that, most delayed and some missing, but that was our old friend "signalling at Earley" having a bit of a strop.

And then, a little to the east:

Trains across the whole Southern and Thameslink network may be delayed, cancelled or revised this morning, this is due to earlier overrunning engineering work at various locations.
...
Following planned weekend engineering works over running, all lines have re-opened in the London Victoria area.

Additionally, a freight train is currently blocking the line in the Haydons Road area. This train was supposed to cross over onto the Wessex route earlier this morning but has been unable to due to overunning engineering works in the Surbiton area. Due to no alternative routes being available for the train to take the southbound line is currently blocked. Attempts are being made to move the train off the route as the engineering works have concluded, however as this took place a Track Circuit failed at Wimbledon and is now requiring further attention from Network Rail specialist signalling technicians.

[SandTEngineer]

I was never called a 'SPECIALIST' signal technician in my time in the S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph).  Can't repeat here what I was called at times, though......

[ChrisB]

Whilst blame doesn't lie with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about), they have to handle the fallout. And it looks like they're not doing a very good job communicating.

Correspondents here too.....The subject line is incorrect, as noted by posts above.

[stuving]

I was never called a 'SPECIALIST' signal technician in my time in the S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph).  Can't repeat here what I was called at times, though......

It's odd, isn't it? I guess they say that to make it sound as if these are a superior kind of technician, not the ordinary ones who know very little. But if it means anything in this kind of highly technical field, it means someone who has only been trained on a limited range of equipment, and can't be sent out to fix any fault anywhere. In other words, the equivalent of semi-skilled (but when did you last hear that used?) - after all the French equivalent of that is ouvrier specialisé (which you don't hear much these days either).

[JayMac]

Correspondents here too.....The subject line is incorrect, as noted by posts above.

Do you mean the thread title? What's incorrect about it?

[ChrisB]

Waterloo was severely disrupted, not 'closed'

[Electric train]

Simple sequence of events ……….. as I understand it.

• Defective rail need to be replaced, just routine work that had been planned in.
  Defective rails had been removed.
  RRV^▸ (Road Rail Vehicle) runs through a set of points in the wrong direction thus damaging the points, something that should not happen but sadly does.
  Whole team stood down for 3 hours for a safety brief /investigation
  Re-rail team informs NR^» (Network Rail - home page) that they will not complete intime
  At this time SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Shunters had gone off shift, mainline drives do not have route knowledge for depots.
  

Melt down!!!!

[Oxonhutch]

Point 4 appears to be the major problem - was that really necessary? Then Point 6 - what happened to the real [multi-tasking] railway workers?

[JayMac]

Simple sequence of events ……….. as I understand it.

• Defective rail need to be replaced, just routine work that had been planned in.
  Defective rails had been removed.
  RRV^▸ (Road Rail Vehicle) runs through a set of points in the wrong direction thus damaging the points, something that should not happen but sadly does.
  Whole team stood down for 3 hours for a safety brief /investigation
  Re-rail team informs NR^» (Network Rail - home page) that they will not complete intime
  At this time SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Shunters had gone off shift, mainline drives do not have route knowledge for depots.
  

Melt down!!!!

What was the issue with NR staff unwilling to tamp that I've heard of elsewhere?

[bradshaw]

Christian Wolmar on Twitter earlier today.

“Chaos at Waterloo today was caused by works to replace long sections of track which then proved to be faulty on testing and had to be relaid, along with tamper problems.”

[SandTEngineer]

I trust he means rails, not track.  If the track had to be replaced it would have been very drastic and certainly taken more than a week.....

[TaplowGreen]

I trust he means rails, not track.  If the track had to be replaced it would have been very drastic and certainly taken more than a week.....