No wonder the vast majority want to renationalise the railways.
James certainly found out the hard way.
From 2023:
1.
I’m not quite sure how to explain what’s happened tonight, because it’s still happening – but here goes…
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
At 4:40pm I jumped on a train from London to Edinburgh..
It was comfy, it was quiet
In hindsight, too good to last…
2.
Around 7:26pm I received an email that my train had been cancelled.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
This was a surprise because:
a) I was still on a moving train
b) there had been no announcement on the moving train
3.
About 10mins later the train manager came on the speaker to say they “heard from passengers” (!) that the train had been cancelled and was going to investigate because everything looked fine to them.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
4.
Shortly after that, they informed us that the “rumours were true” and the train had been cancelled and would be terminating at the next stop: Preston.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
“Where is Preston?” you may ask.
Only god and Northerners know. Even the scot’s weren’t sure.
5.
So we got off at Preston.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Apparently there was a connecting train to Glasgow we could get that was being held so we could jump on it.
It turned out that train was full, so as we arrived, it left.
It was around 8pm, and we were told to wait for the next train.. at 9:42
6.
Preston Station has a few cafes, and they all were shut except for one coffee stall who saw a couple of hundred people on a platform and went “they won’t need food or hot drink”
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
So they closed at 9.
No one noticed because at 8:50 the train we were waiting for was cancelled.
7.
It turned out there were no more trains “North” after that and, excitingly, no forthcoming information.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Some people stood staring at the screens.
Some people queued to ask the one ticket booth worker the same question everyone else was.
No one knew anything.
8.
Around 9:20 news came down:
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Alternative transport had been arranged.
Bus? An extra train? Horses?
No.
Taxis. For hundreds of people. To a city 3 and 1/2 hours away.
9.
Except we weren’t all going to Edinburgh, because it wasn’t an express train.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Some were going Glasglow, some to Dundee, Carlisle, and other stops.
But all of us queued to be taken away 3-7 people at a time. And if that sounds slow and ridiculous, it was. pic.twitter.com/2LusQ8rHwg
10.
Take a moment to appreciate how long the trip to Edinburgh from Preston is, how long the return journey would be.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Think about how big the fare would need to be, and then try and estimate how many various cabs were needed to shift a couple of hundred people off home.
11.
Somehow I ended up in the last cab with 3 other strangers, all guys travelling alone.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Probably the correct people to be catching the latest cab in terms of safety.
And also the cast of a 70’s British play.
The time was 10:30.
The train was due at Edinburgh at 10:15.
12.
We left the station, and then he pulled into a petrol station to fill up and “grab some snacks”
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
Fair enough.
The driver then asked us, while holding his android phone, what the post code for edinburgh station is.
We said there two stations. He called his boss.
13.
After a bit of light banter, we realised we all were staying near the same station.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
The oldest of our “Cab Team” asked if the cabbie might drop us at our locations, since he was getting a flat rate, and he was not in fact a train, bound by rail lines.
the cabbie refused.
14.
After a bit of light banter, we realised we all were staying near the same station.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
The oldest of our “Cab Team” asked if the cabbie might drop us at our locations, since he was getting a flat rate, and he was not in fact a train, bound by rail lines.
the cabbie refused.
15.
So now it is midnight, and I am in a black cab in the middle of nowhere (well, the M6) with three strangers who are all asleep.
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
One is snoring.
I’m tweeting mainly to both stay awake, and also because I’m worried I went insane somewhere after Stafford and this is a delusion.
16.
I will provably give some updates, but also better conserve my phones battery because, as you can see, there’s still 2hrs 20min to go… pic.twitter.com/xvLREGiwEM
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
We hope James got there and is safe and well. However, whether he had to walk from Carlisle to Edinburgh is any one’s guess.
Nothing appears to have improved since this report in 2013:
Around 350 travellers aboard the 11 am East Coast service departing from King’s Cross experienced a significant delay less than an hour into their journey on Monday. The disruption occurred when overhead power lines came down just north of Peterborough.
Unfortunately, a rescue locomotive was brought in to tow the train northward but encountered a breakdown at Dunbar. Consequently, passengers eventually arrived in Edinburgh at 10:41 pm, a staggering seven hours behind schedule.
This incident, which resulted in overhead wires collapsing across all four tracks over approximately half a mile, had a cascading effect, impacting more than 30,000 passengers traveling on the East Coast Main Line. Nearly 90 East Coast trains had to be canceled as a result.
The delays continued into the following day as engineers worked tirelessly to make necessary repairs.
Frustrated passengers took to Twitter to voice their grievances. One passenger, Matthew Brown from Edinburgh, tweeted, “Spent 9 and a half hours on @eastcoastuk train. And it breaks down. SEND HELP.” Another passenger, Gemma Watson, inquired, “Is there any food, drink, or toilet roll making its way to the 11 am train? #frustrated #hungry #sweaty #tired #stick-yourrefund.” Stefan Ward from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, shared, “11:00 Kings Cross to Edinburgh only just arriving into Edinburgh a whopping 8 hours late. Ouch.”
By the time some passengers reached Dunbar, there were only 12 bottles of water to share among them.
Network Rail, responsible for the tracks, stated that the overhead wires’ failure seemed to be linked to an inherent design issue that was not detectable. The issue was traced to weaknesses in wire joints.
Phil Verster, the managing director of the London and North East route, apologised, saying, “We can only apologise for the incident. Our engineering teams are working to recover services as quickly as possible.”
The train operator, East Coast, expressed frustration over this being the third major incident on the line in eight months.
Karen Boswell, the managing director, said, “This incident has been extremely frustrating for our customers, and I want to say sorry to everyone whose journey was delayed, or who was inconvenienced. This is the latest in a series of incidents related to the infrastructure on the line – and currently overhead line failures are the biggest cause of delays.”
An East Coast spokesperson explained, “The most severely delayed train, the 11 am London King’s Cross to Edinburgh service, was passing Tallington at the moment when the overhead power lines failed. A rescue locomotive was attached to the train, and as soon as Network Rail cleared the line, the service resumed its journey north. Unfortunately, the hired-in locomotive also failed at Dunbar and a replacement had to be brought from Edinburgh to enable the train to complete its journey, some 7 hours and 20 minutes behind schedule.”
Notably, East Coast services faced significant disruptions in August when two miles of wires came down near Retford in Nottinghamshire and in February when a kilometer of overhead power lines collapsed onto tracks at St Neots in Cambridgeshire.
These issues with overhead power lines have played a substantial role in East Coast’s struggle with punctuality, making it one of the least punctual train services in Britain.
Corporate Britain is alive and well.
Douglas James
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