Signalling problems between Cosham and Fareham (27/07/2010)

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

Wondering if anyone knows any more details about where/when this problem occurred.

Since around 7am this morning, there have been no SN services between Havant and Southampton Central, no FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services beyond Fareham and a minimal schedule of SWT^▸ (South West Trains) services between these stations.

Took my dad about 45 minutes longer to get to work this morning and had to change trains at Fareham.  Fortunately, I'm not needing to travel to Chichester this week.

At 11am the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) websites were still advertising delays of up to 60 minutes, until 1pm, with most trains in the area still cancelled.  SWT are accepting SN and FGW tickets by all reasonable routes and there are various bus services running.

Also caused many problem outside the area: 06:51 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central.  Due in Bristol at 09:39, now the expected arrival is 11:46 where the service will terminate, so will no longer call at Filton, Newport or Cardiff.

[paul7575]

Wondering if anyone knows any more details about where/when this problem occurred.

Since around 7am this morning, there have been no SN services between Havant and Southampton Central, no FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services beyond Fareham and a minimal schedule of SWT^▸ (South West Trains) services between these stations.

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) were reporting that to reset the signalling in the area they needed to 'clear the triangle' of trains, so it sounds like they have a major problem with the train detection (using axle counters) somewhere on the triangular junction between Hilsea, Cosham, and Farlington.  I suspect all moves to clear the tracks if the axle counters have failed will require units to be hand signalled individually?

Background reason could be anything - even cable theft, and the same problems were going on yesterday in the evening peak, although they'd supposedly been fixed overnight

Paul

[Brucey]

Here is the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) article.  It appears that they were reporting a problem that occurred yesterday.  Would this be the same problem as today?

Thousands of commuters travelling from Portsmouth to London have been experiencing delays after a Network Rail signal box failed.

South West Trains (SWT^▸ (South West Trains)) said it was alerted about the problem with the box, which controls signalling for Fratton, Havant and Fareham, at about 0530 BST.

Signalling failures also shut part of the line at Havant in Hampshire on Monday, disrupting SWT services.

Network Rail is resetting signalling systems in the affected area.

A spokesman said: "We have a signalling centre in Havant so we have cleared a small area of the Portsmouth, Havant and Fareham triangle to reset all the signals.

"Trains are running at an amended timetable.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to get the trains running normally as soon as possible."

A spokeswoman from SWT said: "Train services returned to normal after 1900 BST yesterday."

SWT services between Guildford in Surrey and Aldershot in Hampshire were also disrupted because of the signal problems on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-10774766

SWT's buses and ticket acceptance on SWT services will only continue until 15:00, so hopefully the problems will be sorted by the evening rush hour (albeit with stock displaced round the network).

[paul7575]

No I still think that is today's problem, started at 0530 this morning.  Further on they report that they'd also had problems at Havant yesterday. Not clear if that is the Havant area, or the area controlled by Havant.  Either way it would cause similar chaos...

The news definitely has it down as a repeat problem:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Train-passengers-faces-second-day.6441045.jp

Paul