Signalling problems cause travel chaos (From Wandsworth Guardian)
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Signalling problems cause travel chaos on Southern trains
9:20am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News
Normal service resumes after signalling problems cause travel chaos on Southern trains
Train passengers have reacted with anger after signalling problems caused delays at Wandsworth Common station and Wimbledon this morning.
Passengers turned to social networking site Twitter to vent their frustration.
One user, Timmo, said: "I've been on the 'fast' train from Woking and after 45 mins haven't reached Clapham yet."
Another tweeter, David Martin, said: "The Clapham area is a first class joke when it comes to travelling at peak times. #squeeeeeeze."
Normal service on Southern Trains has now resumed after services between West Croydon and Victoria, Epsom and Victoria, New Cross Gate and Victoria and Sutton and Victoria were affected.
However a second major signalling failure at Wimbledon station is still causing delays and disruption to passengers travelling to or from Waterloo.
The signalling failure has been fixed by South West trains but knock on delays of up to 30 minutes are expected on services running to and from Waterloo until 12pm.
A spokesperson for the South West Trains said: "Services to and from Waterloo are currently being disrupted as a result of a signalling problem at Wimbledon earlier this morning.
"There was an issue with the signalling at Wimbledon signal box, which controls the signals between Vauxhall and Waterloo, between 07.00 and 07.30 this morning.
"The signalling has been fully restored, however due to the large volume of trains operating into and out of Waterloo around this time, this has caused knock-on delays to services this morning. The majority of trains are now running, but with up to 30 minutes delay.
"We apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience this will have caused to their journey this morning."
South West Trains tickets are being accepted on the tube, buses and Southern and First Great Western.
To check your journey visit www.journeycheck.southwesttrains.co.uk, or follow @SW_Trains
Comments(6)
Hove Ex-Pat
says...
10:12am Wed 6 Feb 13
Jay2010 wrote:No, to be correct, the problem was caused by Network Rail. They operate the signalling & control the tracks. No one seems to have asked them what was going on.
The two tweets that have been quoted in this article relate to problems affecting the Clapham Area are more than likely related to the issues with South West Trains this morning. The Woking one would certainly be South West Trains as Southern do not even operate at this station. It seems rather unfair to put the whole blame on Southern here when a majority of this mornings disruption was caused by South West Trains.
321200
says...
12:34pm Wed 6 Feb 13
This stuff is doing my absolute nut in that everyone is always moaning about how **** Southern, SWTrains etc are and should be stripped of their franchises!
Get a grip people and start focusing your abuse and blame on the real problems!! The INFRASTRUCTURE, ie Network Rail and untimately the government for their cuts. Engineers are thin on the ground
TheSuicideKing
says...
1:03pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Unfortunately his attitude is that because its not as bad as The District Line, he's not really that interested in doing anything
Jay2010
says...
3:13pm Wed 6 Feb 13
Brianfromsutton
says...
10:47pm Wed 6 Feb 13
It's a shame that they still have to rely on a system of signals which is fallible and then causes massive delays and knock on effects all over the place whenever there are problems.
Not sure how else they could do it with the technology available at the moment but it is annoying when such delays occur.
Jay2010 says...
9:28am Wed 6 Feb 13