What on earth's happening (or not happening!) at Waterloo 15th July 2013?

[whole diary]

[Phil]

Just spotted this on Twitter - anyone have any ideas what's causing it?

Looks fairly horrid, especially given the record temperatures we're enduring at present

http://twitpic.com/d2umo8

[TonyK]

No what trains? I didn't know there were trains for that.

Looks awful. Lots of people with no place to go any more. Send money now.

[stuving]

Depends on where you are going, though even Reading trains were affected earlier.

Emergency engineering works are taking place near London Waterloo to resolve a track defect that is preventing trains using platforms 1-4 at London Waterloo.
Because of this, the following changes will apply until further notice:
Trains between London Waterloo and Dorking are cancelled. Passengers should travel on Southern services between London Victoria and Dorking.
A train shuttle service is in operation between Hampton Court and Surbiton. Passengers will need to change trains at Surbiton
Trains between London Waterloo and Chessington South are cancelled. Passengers travelling Malden Manor, Tolworth, Chessington North and Chessington South will need to travel on alternative train services to Surbiton and change for a London Bus service to their destination. Passengers will be accepted on the following routes. Surbiton to Malden Manor - K1. Surbiton to Tolworth - K1. Surbiton to Chessington South/North - 465, 65, K4.
Services that run from London Waterloo at 50 minutes past each hour to Salisbury / Yeovil Junction / Gillingham are not running between Waterloo and Basingstoke. Customers travelling from London Waterloo / Woking will need change trains at Basingstoke or travel on services to Exeter St Davids departing London Waterloo at 20 minutes past each hour
Some services heading towards London Waterloo may be cancelled before they reach London Waterloo in order to ease congestion at the station.
Other services may be delayed by up to 30 minutes

[TonyK]

No trains to that unfortunate village in Austria, I thought.

[grahame]

"Engineering works to fix a broken piece of railway track which had buckled as a result of the recent hot weather have now concluded allowing normal service to resume at Waterloo, reports Network Rail."

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2013-07-16/normal-service-resumes-at-waterloo/

[Phil]

Thanks, graham (and stuving) - that certainly explains it.

"South West Trains say they do not expect any further delays to their services but are advising customers to carry extra water for their journeys" - presumably to pour onto the track to stop it warping again?

[Brucey]

The track defect was identified at about 2pm and affected all services by putting Platforms 1-4 out of use.  As the stations already operates at almost full capacity, it really did hit services badly (coupled with a speed restriction).

To add to the delays, a power supply issue knocked out signalling between Haslemere and Guildford, completely closing the Portsmouth Direct for a few hours.  Taxis replaced trains between various smaller stations and Southern/Stagecoach buses accepting tickets on all reasonable routes.  When the issue was resolved, most services started/terminated at Guildford or Woking.  SWT^▸ (South West Trains) dropped all ticket restrictions and allowed season ticket holders to travel on any on their services, regardless of validity.

I was lucky as I could take a much slower Southern service to Havant.  It is the people at intermediate stations who were hit the worst.  One man this morning said it took five hours to get from Waterloo to Haslemere.  He must've arrived just as the problems initially hit.

As an aside, what's the difference between a "Code Black" and "Code Red"?  The warped rail was a black and the signalling was a red.