Landslip between Ash and Guildford - 11/03/20

[whole diary]

[RichT54]

Affecting GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services.

A landslip between Ash and Guildford is resulting in all lines being blocked between these stations.

Trains between these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on Friday 13 March.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/244781.aspx

[stuving]

Some crossed messages here. NRE^‡(resolve) have it like this:

Great Western Railway customer advice:
To help with your journey, tickets will be accepted on South Western Railway services via any reasonable route.

Rail replacement buses have also been requested to run between Reading and Guildford.

South Western Railway customer advice:
Customers travelling in the Guildford direction are advised to travel to Aldershot or Woking and then to Guildford. The Farnham / Aldershot to Guildford trains will be taking this route. The trains from Guildford to Aldershot / Farnham will run their booked route.

To help with your journey, rail replacement buses will operate between Aldershot and Guildford as follows:

    Rail replacement buses are operating between Guildford and Aldershot.
    A further 2 buses will operate from 15:30 between these stations.

But if the line is closed, how come "The trains from Guildford to Aldershot / Farnham will run their booked route."?

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) say this:

What's Going On
Due to a landslip between Ash and Wanborough all lines are blocked. Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

What We're Doing About It

We have been informed of a landslip between Ash and Wanborough. All services between Farnham and Guildford are now suspended. Customers travelling between Aldershot and Guildford are advised to travel via Woking.

How we're helping you complete your journey:

- there are 4 replacement buses in operation between Aldershot and Guildford which will call at Ash and Wanborough.

- your tickets will be accepted at no extra charge on Kite Buses between Guildford and Aldershot

I can see no sign of any SWR trains taking the long way round or the short one. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have one train on the Reading side, running a shuttle (to get the schoolkids home, for one thing). On the other side, they appear to only be running someGuildford-Redhill/Gatwick services, but not many.

[eightonedee]

Great Western Railway customer advice:
To help with your journey, tickets will be accepted on South Western Railway services via any reasonable route.

Can I recommend the Woking-Basingstoke zigzag for any Reading to Guildford passengers?

Although timings are not always kind on the connections, and it pays to check your trains between Basingstoke and Woking to avoid getting on a slower train that gets overtaken, there are sufficient trains between Reading & Basingstoke (GW^▸ (Great Western) & XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))); Basingstoke and Woking, and Woking and Guildford to make this viable. In the morning it will probably be quicker as I imagine that the replacement bus will end up stuck in Guildford traffic whichever route it takes from Ash to Guildford.

[stuving]

For speed, that may well be best - from Wokingham, via Virginia Water is a bit similar;  lousy connections don't help. NRE^‡(resolve) is (of course) a bit confused, largely because it's not being given the right info on which trains are cancelled. However, it does suggest via RDG^‡(resolve) and BSK^▸ (Brake Standard Corridor (carriage)) as well as via North Camp/Ash Vale/Woking.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have all sorts of helpful ideas:

Cancellations to services between Reading and Guildford
Due to a landslip between Reading and Guildford all lines are blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
During this disruption if you wish to use local buses as an alternative means of transport and the local bus is not accepting Great Western Railway tickets please keep the bus ticket and send it, together with your rail ticket, to us for a refund.
South Western Railway are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice. Arrangements have been made for Great Western Railway rail tickets to be accepted for these journeys.
Southern Railway are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.
London Underground are conveying passengers between London Victoria and London Paddington in both directions until further notice.
Additional Information
Replacement road transport has been requested to operate in both directions between Reading, Guildford, Ash and Redhill. For any information regarding road transport please speak with station staff or use the customer information help points.

This time, SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) are being rather slow with their advice.

[RichT54]

The repair schedule has been updated:

The line is expected to reopen tomorrow at 09:00.

Further work will then be required overnight tomorrow night, and the line will be closed again from 23:00 on Thursday 12 until 09:00 on Friday 13 March.

[eightonedee]

Today it's claimed that it will be open from 8 am, but the 7.58 Reading to Redhill has now been cancelled so I am on my way to Basingstoke

[IndustryInsider]

Today it's claimed that it will be open from 8 am, but the 7.58 Reading to Redhill has now been cancelled so I am on my way to Basingstoke

Lines opened at 07:55, but with a 20mph restriction on the down line, and a very severe 5mph restriction on the up line.  Normal working resumed at 10:55.

[IndustryInsider]

Another possession being taken tonight from 23:30 to 08:00.

21:30 to 06:00 would seem a better time to do it as it doesn't wipe out the morning peak.  I presume there's a reason for the late start?