Absolute nightmare journey.
Havant to Milton Keynes Central, all on Southern via the West London Line.
0930 to Clapham Junction, on time. At Clapham, we were informed the service to
MKC▸ would be cut short and an announcement would be made on the train. On boarding the train, we were told it would terminate at Shepherds Bush. Customers for stations beyond this were told to go to Victoria and use the Underground where tickets would be accepted by any reasonable route to Euston.
Off I trot to Euston on the tube. On arrival, only London Overground services were operating.
One hour to travel the 17 miles to Watford Junction ... and stood up the whole journey. I phoned Southern to see if any replacement transport had been arranged, but they seemed a bit oblivious to the whole disruption (one person told me to get the Underground from Watford Junction where my ticket would be accepted by any route
).
During this journey, we could see many trains stuck, including one where passengers were being evacuated onto the track. I understand the Overground was also closed later during the evacuations.
At Watford, there was no information whatsoever. No one knew what was happening. In the end (around 2pm), a Virgin Trains service appeared which we were told would be going to Manchester Pic and would make an additional stop at MKC.
Arrived about 1hr 30mins late.
I have some photos of the queue for coaches at Milton Keynes. Many passengers were clubbing together to organise taxis to reach their destinations instead of waiting for the coach.
Oh well, at least I managed to bash the Watford
DC▸ line and travel on a 378 (and at a cost of ^3.25 for the whole journey which will duly be refunded in full by Southern's Delay Repay, it was also a bargain!)
