Evesham station - services, footbridge, facilities, incidents and events (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

According to Network Rail, it was a train fire on 1P63 1944 Great Malvern to Paddington. Passengers de-trained at Evesham. Fire brigade in attendance.

No other detail I can find on severity or rolling stock type. The 1944 is a non HST^▸ (High Speed Train) service so either a Turbo or Adelante.

[trainer]

Thanks for those replies.  I hadn't realised there were so many insomniacs (or night workers) on here.   I hope no-one was hurt in the incident. I have searched around the local news sites and can find no details, but it has been cleared from the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) site this morning.

[CLPGMS]

TWICE IN A DAY!
I wonder how many times a passenger has had to leave a train unexpectedly at the same station twice on the same day.

Yesterday, 21st November, I was on my way to the West Midlands, intending to catch the 1124 London Midland train from Worcester Foregate Street to Birmingham New Street.  On arrival of the 0822 ex PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) at Worcester Shrub Hill, the Train Manager announced that he had been advised that, due to flooding in the Ledbury area, the train would be terminating at Shrub Hill and that road transport was being arranged for stations to Hereford.  In pouring rain, we had to walk down to the coach which was waiting about 100 yards away.  We arrived at Foregate Street well in time for the 1124, which was shown as expected at 1126.  It eventually turned up around 50 minutes late.

On my return, I was on the 2059 HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from Foregate Street.  On arrival at Shrub Hill, we were held in the platform for a few minutes before the Train Manager announced that due to a "train in distress" in the Evesham area, we would be going "nowhere soon" and he would go through the train to obtain details of where passengers were travelling to.  It was then announced that the train was cancelled and that taxis were being arranged - in my case to Charlbury.  Two other passengers in the taxi were travelling to Pershore and Evesham.  At Evesham, there were blue lights flashing all around the station, but I could not see the actual train involved in the fire incident.  It may have been the 1944 from Great Malvern, but I gained the impression from staff at Worcester that it could have been the 1822 from Paddington.  Because, as that was "delayed", the 1750 from Paddington was extended to run through to Foregate Street - it normally reverses into a siding at Shrub Hill and the 1822 overtakes it.  It arrived in Worcester around 35 minutes late, but in time to depart on its return journey at 2059.

As we passed Moreton-in-Marsh station a HST was in the down platform and I noted later on JourneyCheck that the 2050 from Paddington terminated at Oxford.

It remains to be seen which train was involved.  If it was the 1944 from Great Malvern, then it should have been a class 180 (Adelante), but, Adelantes appear to be in difficulty again.  On 20th November I see that the 1732 from Oxford was "formed by 2 coaches instead of 5" and I travelled on the 1728 ex Worcester which was a 3-car Turbo instead of an Adelante.  Earlier in the day on 21st November, I had noted that the 0954 from Great Malvern was a 3-car Turbo instead of an Adelante, although I did see 180104 and 180108 during my journey and extended wait at Foregate Street in the morning.

[IndustryInsider]

It remains to be seen which train was involved.  If it was the 1944 from Great Malvern, then it should have been a class 180 (Adelante), but, Adelantes appear to be in difficulty again.

It was the 1944ex Malvern and it was a Class 180 (180104).  Nothing too major, but there was an engine fire which was put out by the automatic extinguisher.  Train crew usually arrange for the fire brigade to be called as a precaution, so they attended but were not required to fight any fire - merely to observe and confirm that with the engine isolated that there was not chance of anything re-igniting.

As I commented in another thread, the 180s have been struggling this week.  Maximum of two diagrams covered this week with only one covered on Tuesday.  One is/has been stranded on a broken jack in Old Oak Common though I believe - so it wasn't the trains fault!  180103 hasn't been seen in action for a couple of weeks now!

[JayMac]

These 180s are jinxed aren't they? 

[lordgoata]

These 180s are jinxed aren't they? 

Yes, and they are royally peeing me off! Its been a nightmare this week, and when they are running they are totally useless on the local stopping services - they are full to bursting most of the time (especially if any prior cancellations or if they are delayed), and getting on or off takes ages with everyone standing in the isles.

Ticket inspections that were ramped right up on the morning turbos just prior to the 180's coming in, have all but stopped now (no inspections unless you are in First Class).

The overhead luggage shelf is so narrow most people can't get more than a jacket and a laptop bag on there, so bags all end up on the chairs/floor/tables, taking up yet more room.

The ridiculous chair back tables don't have a latch, so are starting to open by themselves due to the mechanism wearing out.

The only advantages appears to be the aircon (during summer), and a PA^▸ (Public Address) which you can actually understand. I would much rather we had the 165/166's back though 

[Worcester_Passenger]

I would much rather we had the 165/166's back though 

Your wish has (alas) been granted:

15:51 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 18:08
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to an earlier train fault.
Message Received :22/11/2012 15:31

That'll be cosy...

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Malvern Gazette:

First rain, then fire delays rail services

Rail services to Malvern came to a halt for several hours on Wednesday night when the engine of a train caught fire in Evesham.

Firefighters attended the town^s station at 8.50pm following reports of a blaze in the undercarriage of the 19.44 service from Great Malvern to Paddington. On arrival, they found the fire had already been extinguished, but two crew members used foam to ensure it was fully out. They left the scene at 10.30pm.

First Great Western spokesman James Davis said it was too early to know the cause of the fire, which happened as the train pulled into the station. He said the flames extingushed themselves and all 14 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. Passengers were then taken to their destinations in taxis.

The train was stationary for about an hour and a half before it was taken to First Great Western^s Oxford depot to be assessed.

There were delays to trains travelling in both directions, with some terminating at stations several stops before their final destinations.

Mr Davis said it was not clear how much of the holdup was due to the fire, given earlier problems on lines caused by bad weather.

Dr Richard Long, of Bromsberrow Heath, near Ledbury, was a passenger on the 18.22 from Paddington which was forced to stop in Honeybourne, near Evesham, while the fire was dealt with.

He said: ^The train had already left half an hour late because of the weather. When we got to Honeybourne, we stopped and the train manager instructed us that the engine of the train in front was on fire. We sat there for about an hour and a half while the fire brigade came and put the flames out and then the engineers had to come make sure the train was safe to proceed.

^We had to get out at Worcester Shrub Hill and change trains to the 19.22 from Paddington. I finally got into Ledbury at about 12.45am ^ almost two-and-a-half hours late.

^When we had to get out at Shrub Hill there were 57 of us waiting to get to Ledbury or Hereford or Colwall, and so on. There was one complaint ^ but there was nothing more that the excellent First Great Western could have done.

^They were absolutely splendid and they kept us all informed and invited us to the buffet car and gave us carte blanche to have what we wanted.

^They brought round a sheet for us to write our email adresses on to compensate us, but I shan^t accept it because they were brilliant.^

[Witham Bobby]

When I drove past the Evesham station approach just after 0700 this morning, I noticed boards out the front indicating that the footbridge was out of use, and directing intending passengers to use the road bridge to enter the station via the Worcester Road entrance and gain access to the up platform via the step-free route that has been created over the old Up Goods Loop.

Any ideas what's happened to the footbridge?  Maintenance, or is there an abundance of caution about using the bridge in frosty times (there was no frost this morning, but there has been on the past couple of mornings)

[IndustryInsider]

It's been shut for a couple of weeks now for a heavy refurbishment, including replacement of all the steps.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I've merged a couple of topics here - simply because they all relate to Evesham.

That will hopefully assist in future reference for any of our readers on the Coffee Shop forum looking for 'Evesham'. 

CfN.