Severn Tunnel

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website :

Line problem in the Severn tunnel area.

Train services between Bristol Parkway and Newport South Wales have been disrupted due to safety checks being made in the Severn tunnel area. Delays may still occur.

17:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 20:48
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads. It will no longer call at: Cardiff Central, Newport South Wales, Severn Tunnel Jn and Filton Abbey Wood. This is due to safety checks having been made earlier.

18:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 21:47
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads. It will no longer call at: Cardiff Central, Newport South Wales, Severn Tunnel Jn and Filton Abbey Wood. This is due to safety checks having been made earlier.

[Lee]

Rail services between Bristol and Wales were severely disrupted earlier after an alert in the Severn Tunnel (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6442085.stm

Officials said the driver of a Portsmouth to Cardiff service stopped his train and reversed back out of the tunnel after hearing a bang.

[whistleblower]

This happens quite a lot.  We regularly get pager messages reporting that a train has hit something in the tunnel and then everything is put on hold or diverted until the MOM^▸ (Mobile Operations Manager) (Mobile Ops Manager) has walked through and checked.  (What a job!).  Invariably, the next message is: nothing found, services back to normal (apart, obviously, from the inevitable ensuing disruptions).

The general consensus is that it is possibly debris on the tracks that has fallen from a freight train or a brick falling from the roof and hitting the train.  I can understand the driver wanting to get out quickly - it's horrible down there and nobody goes through unless they're pretty sure they can get out the other side!

Did you know that there are 36 huge pumps which keep the tunnel dry, of which 24 must be working continuously.  If they stopped the tunnel would fill with water in 20 minutes.  They pump between 23 and 30 million gallons a day into the Severn.  And did you also know that it is fresh water?  It doesn't come from the Estuary, it is from a huge underground spring between the roof of the tunnel and the seabed.  And did you know that it took 76.4 million bricks to build the tunnel and that they are now 120 years old?

You wouldn't catch me walking through it!

[Lee]

That reminds of a quote by Christian Wolmar (regarding double - tracking Swindon - Kemble , link below.)
http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/articles/rail/551.shtml

"Apparently NR^» (Network Rail - home page) realises the importance of the line, not least as a diversionary route given that the Severn Tunnel is always going to be a somewhat dodgy piece of infrastructure."

[Jim]

This happens quite a lot.  We regularly get pager messages reporting that a train has hit something in the tunnel and then everything is put on hold or diverted until the MOM^▸ (Mobile Operations Manager) (Mobile Ops Manager) has walked through and checked.  (What a job!).  Invariably, the next message is: nothing found, services back to normal (apart, obviously, from the inevitable ensuing disruptions).

The general consensus is that it is possibly debris on the tracks that has fallen from a freight train or a brick falling from the roof and hitting the train.  I can understand the driver wanting to get out quickly - it's horrible down there and nobody goes through unless they're pretty sure they can get out the other side!

Did you know that there are 36 huge pumps which keep the tunnel dry, of which 24 must be working continuously.  If they stopped the tunnel would fill with water in 20 minutes.  They pump between 23 and 30 million gallons a day into the Severn.  And did you also know that it is fresh water?  It doesn't come from the Estuary, it is from a huge underground spring between the roof of the tunnel and the seabed.  And did you know that it took 76.4 million bricks to build the tunnel and that they are now 120 years old?

You wouldn't catch me walking through it!

Normally thats nearly the only message some days that have something to do with the ex-wessex things, the pager is pretty boring if someone from the ex-GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) side is on the pager's