Severe delays twixt Oxford and Banbury

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

1M58 14:45 Bournemouth to Manchester has hit 10 (yes, ten) cows near Tackley at 16:45, so all trains are currently cancelled between Oxford and Banbury.  I should imagine that'll be a mess that will take a while to clear up even if the train isn't damaged too badly!

[JayMac]

National Rail Enquiries report, in addition to animals on the line, a broken down train.

So it could be Cows 1 Voyager 0. Possibly a posthumous victory for Team Bovine though.....

More seriously, one hopes the driver is okay.

[BerkshireBugsy]

National Rail Enquiries report, in addition to animals on the line, a broken down train.

So it could be Cows 1 Voyager 0. Possibly a posthumous victory for Team Bovine though.....

More seriously, one hopes the driver is okay.

I heard this by way of a PA^▸ (Public Address) announcement coming through reading tonight. This got me thinking - how many eventualities do they have recorded announcements for? I suppose animals on the line is probably predictable but how long would it take to get a new announcement recorded so it fits in with the other voices?

I really must be spending too much time at stations

[Worcester_Passenger]

Widespread effects:
The 17:22 from Paddington to Hereford was being terminated at Shrub Hill.
The 17:50 from Paddington to Shrub Hill was 20 minutes late out of Oxford, presumably on account of congestion.

[JayMac]

This got me thinking - how many eventualities do they have recorded announcements for?

Well, I once heard a recorded announcement at Exeter St David's that there were delays due to 'swans on the line'.

There was an obvious difference in the spoken words in the recorded message, so I can only assume that 'swans' was one of many words that had been recorded and could be added to '... on the line'.

[JayMac]

From CrossCountry Trains on Facebook:

We would like to apologise to customers who are affected by an incident in Oxfordshire this evening that resulted in our services currently being suspended between Oxford and Banbury.

An earlier CrossCountry service was in collision with a number of cows that had strayed onto the railway near the village of Tackley. As soon as the line has been cleared we will move the train to Banbury where we will transfer the customers onto another service to complete their journey.

Alternative road services are being arranged to enable customers to travel between Oxford and Banbury while this situation continues.

[Southern Stag]

I've been on a Voyager that hit one cow before, and although it came off a lot better than the cow it didn't come off that well. There was a long delay whilst the underframe was checked before a limited speed move to the next station where we duly terminated. A lot of the bodywork around the coupler had been damaged or removed by the impact. I can imagine if a Voyager was to hit 10 cow the damage would be quite significant.

[LiskeardRich]

someone on twitter has posted a picture, of just the side window, and there appears a lot of blood up the side windows, not pleasant

[Electric train]

The anatomy of cows means they tend to explode when hit, its all to do with their digestive system.  Even though a Voyager may weight 300 Tonnes hitting a cow at 1/2 Tonne at 70mph (plus) means a lot of damage to the train (and a dead cow)

[James Vertigan]

On the plus side CrossCountry have just added numerous beef dishes to their buffet menu.

[EBrown]

The Voyager that hit the cows.

[paul7575]

They'll need a big can of Isopon to fix that...

I believe the black device that's normally hidden by the valance is the Voyager style of 'anti-climb' overiding protection which interlocks with the same fitting on another unit if there's a serious collision or jack-knifing.  Hence the valance has to be sacrificial and break away easily.  A number of the trains have damage to the valance caused by bird strikes, they are fairly weak by design.

Paul

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Cow stampede 'caused Oxford train crash'



A train hit a herd of cows after the animals stampeded through a fence, Network Rail has said.

The Crosscountry Trains service hit the animals near Tackley, Oxfordshire, on Wednesday.

Network Rail said it was believed the cows broke through the fence - which it maintains - but said it had no plans to compensate the farmer.

John East, another farmer who operates nearby, told the BBC that Network Rail did not properly maintain its fences. "It takes something like this to happen to get something done quickly," he said.

But a Network Rail spokesman insisted the fences were regularly inspected. "There's nothing you can do if animals decide to stampede," he said.

The line was closed between Oxford and Banbury and the train and its 200 passengers were stranded for about four hours. No-one was injured.

Network Rail faces having to pay compensation to those on the train, or those affected by the disruption, a sum which could amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

Passenger Felix Medd told the BBC: "All of a sudden the whole thing shuddered uncontrollably. I have to say my first thought was that we would go off the track. I was absolutely terrified."

Another passenger, Luke Spiller, said: "It was strange and really surreal. You could hear everyone going silent and holding their breath."

[Btline]

There was absolute chaos at Birmingham New Street. Phil and Celia couldn't cope, meaning that most announcements were made by a stressed member of staff. The screens were all wrong, with XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services being advertised as LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) and axed trains showing up as on time AND axed! Some trains were being advertisied as departing from "The far end of Platform 3B", something that to baffled staff and the announcer.

Most XC services were affected. Trains from Newcastle heading down to Reading were being turned back to Newcastle, resulting in tired commuters being dumped onto already overcrowded platforms. They were being transferred to the Mancheser to Bournmeouth trains, resulting in sardine conditions.

There was a knock on effect on the CrossCity line, meaning that some trains had all stops to Longbridge axed, and were terminated early at Barnt Green.

An ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) service to the airport was re-platformed literally as the train pulled in, resulting in a mass stampede up and down the stairs- many passengers were families with luggage.

XC reservations coped well, but didn't remove the ones made redundant by the cancelations. Bewildered commuters boarding at Derby wondered why all the seats marked "Reserved from Winchester/Reading/Oxford" were empty and were initially hesitant to sit down.

Catering services were axed on XC much to the anger of commuters, famished after a hard day's work. Luckily, I had been to M&S minutes beforehand... but I was gasping for a cuppa (even at XC prices).

[JayMac]

Aw diddums. So you couldn't get a cup of tea Btline? My heart bleeds.