Great Western Coffee Shop

Only the 0434 and 0534 Reading to Gatwick Airport services got though this morning before signalling issues and a tree on the line between Guildford and Reigate messed up the service for the rest of the day.

Given that this line has very few signals and a train every half hour at most, what kind of signalling problem can mess up the whole service all day?  Shalford to Reigate is basically simple two-line railway with unused crossovers at Gomshall and Betchworth.  There are are a number of level crossings but drivers could be instructed to take the train at walking pace past these and the service could be thinned.

I don't see how you can have signalling problems that suspend the service on this line.

Pity those travelling to Gatwick but also FGW to be thanked for running a Redhill-Reigate shuttle even though the rest of the service was messed up.


Jonathan

Welcome to the Coffeeeshop, Jonathan.   I heard a very interesting comment the other day, describing how railway systems are getting more complex year on year.  Meaning that when something goes wrong, it can't be overridden very easily if at all.   The comment actually related to taking carriage out of Pendelinos, which apparently has to be done back at the manufacturers because of all the complexity with the tilt mechanisms.  Could there be something along the sime lines with the signalling on the North Downs Line, and the need to get some highly specialised engineer who was off for the Bank Holiday?

According to local radio when I was in that area the signalling problems were caused by flooding.

It took most of the day to get the service back.

According to a guard I spoke to, the signals were out all the way from Chilworth to Betchworth with slow passage by late afternoon and trains taking the level crossings at walking pace.  But this seemed to take a long time to organise.

Hopefully, OK for tomorrow.

In my days the rule book wording from the signalman to the driver was along the lines of:

Pass signal NNN at danger proceed with caution to ..... be prepared to stop short of any obstruction.

So off the trains trudled at 10-15 mph.   

So if the line is not physically blocked it will get through and the next trian can be sent under caution until the signalling is fixed.