Great Western Coffee Shop

As of 07:00 this morning, trains between Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham are being replaced by buses.

The National Rail website is reporting this as being due to vandalism.

But if you click on their map of the incident, at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/managed/service-disruptions/sa6a3ea6374d4d4abb3053cef40c3729/additionalMaps/Moreton-in-Marsh.pdf (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/managed/service-disruptions/sa6a3ea6374d4d4abb3053cef40c3729/additionalMaps/Moreton-in-Marsh.pdf), you find that there are "overhead wire problems between Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham".

i'd bet is was (attempted) cable theft ("someone has stolen the wires") which could be interpreted as vandalism or misinterpreted as overhead line problems.

Currently showing on FGW site as an obstruction on the line, while National Rail (and assorted online travel news providers) are going for vandalism. May well be signal cable theft, which wold make it at least the fourth such incident in the area since last Spetember or October.

A little more detail here:

http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/8199960.Severe_delays_on_the_Cotswold_Railway_Line_after_train_strikes_debris/ (http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/8199960.Severe_delays_on_the_Cotswold_Railway_Line_after_train_strikes_debris/)

I was told later in the day that it was an attempted cable theft. One modus operandi is to pull cables across the rails and have a passing train sever them, sometimes with unpredicatable results. The front two coaches were damaged.

Is it the same problem thats been affecting the line all day?  I've just been thinking I'm glad I decided to go to the office yesterday and not today

The first down service to go through was the 1020ish Hereford off Padd. Problem was of course that there were no trains West of Moreton - the up HSTs in the morning were diverted via Swindon. So, it took longer to get the up service restored. Coaches were used for the early afternoon service off Worcester.

And then...........

Broken Rail between Ledbury and Colwall. LM ran coaches between GMV and Hereford. FGW Hereford services this evening terminated at WSH. Must have been a bad break - they are usually clamped and a 20mph speed restiction imposed within an hour or so.

WSH? Quite some diversion - 15 miles south-east of Glasgow!  :P  ;) ;D

(Correct location code for Worcester Shrub Hill is WOS)

A fair point, bignosemac - but we do tend to be quite flexible here on the forum, allowing the use of either BRI or BTM for Bristol Temple Meads, for example.  ;)

I will endeavour to be pedantic as well as informative, in future.

I always want to refer to Birmginhams main station as an orange vegetable with strangely phallic resemblance

Can't find the three letter code for that one!  ;)

ok - Birmingham

My post was also a way of informing others what WSH may've stood for. You've seen me ask what abbreviations stand for on other threads when I've had no idea. I think it's good form to include the full unabbreviated text once in a post before subsequently using the abbreviation. Admittedly, I'm guilty occasionally of not doing this.......  IYKWIM  ;)


<slaps wrist> Sorry!! My pedantry radar has now had a software upgrade and should let minor location code infringements pass without comment in the future.  :P

Afternoon update from Evesham Journal with some more details.

http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/8200860.Train_evacuated_after_hitting_debris_at_a_level_crossing_near_Blackminster/

I gather BTP are treating it as suspected attempted theft.