Transport Services During Snow in February 2012
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Appendix Responses from Train Operating Companies about their services following snowfall in early February 2012 Contents: 1. C2C 1 2. Chiltern Railways 5 3. First Capital Connect 7 4. First Great Western 13 5. Greater Anglia 17 6. Heathrow Express 19 7. Southern (and Gatwick Express) plus additional information on Streatham Hill station 21 8. Southeastern 24 9. South West Trains 26 10. London Midland 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 Caroline Pidgeon AM Chair of the Transport Committee London Assembly City Hall The Queen’s Walk London, SE1 2AA 23rd February 2012 Dear Ms Pidgeon Thank you for your letter dated 7th February 2012 Please see below a detailed response to your questions regarding the impact of the snowfall on Saturday 4th February. 1. How many, and what proportion of First Capital Connect services in and out of London on Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th, and Monday 6th February were affected by the bad weather? The snowfall of the evening of Saturday 4th February had an effect on First Capital Connect’s (FCC) train service due to a variety of weather-related incidents affecting train services from the early evening as snow began to fall and settle. According to FCC’s delay attribution records, a total of 114 FCC services were delayed by two minutes or more by the bad weather. Of these 114 services, five were fully cancelled and four were partly cancelled (see section 4 for further details). To put this in perspective, FCC planned to operate a total of 803 train services throughout the entire day of Saturday 4th February, of which 422 were on the Thameslink route and 381 were on the Great Northern route. The vast majority of these services are planned to operate into and out of Greater London. The 114 services that experienced disruption of two minutes or more represent 14.19% of FCC’s total planned train service for the day. 7 Our overall reliability for the day was 98.13%, which takes into account every cancellation over the course of the day. FCC train services were not affected to any significant extent by bad weather on either Sunday 5th February or Monday 6th February. Therefore, the following responses will relate specifically to the severe weather events of Saturday 4th February. 2. What plans were put in place prior to the bad weather to prevent service disruption? Following Extreme Weather Action Team teleconferences with the appropriate Network Rail areas and MeteoGroup, FCC arranged an internal teleconference at 1400 on Friday 3rd February. The purpose of this was to communicate the forecasted weather conditions for the weekend, specifically taking into account the following day’s snow and plan our response from all parts of the business including Operations, Fleet, Customer Service, and Communications. No issues or concerns were reported by our Fleet team for the weather forecast. However, as a precaution we stood down our Class 321 fleet throughout the weekend due to their particular susceptibility to snow ingestion can cause traction motor failures. Any electrical isolations at depots for planned engineering works were cancelled to enable power to be fed through to trains overnight to assist with heating, to prevent on-board toilet water supplies from freezing, and to assist with morning start-up. An additional Fitter was rostered to work at Cambridge after 1600 on Saturday to assist with any weather-related issues affecting our trains. As a precaution, our Thameslink route Control sought to double train formations from four to eight carriages wherever this was operationally feasible. This allows for additional redundancy within a train set in the event of any system failure caused by ice or snow. Our stations were treated for ice overnight throughout the weekend, with snow clearance also requested for station platforms as required through Saturday night as the snow fell. Due to the exposure of the third rail to ice at Drayton Park for the Northern City Line into Moorgate from Finsbury Park, it was planned to have Network Rail treat the section with de-icer and run a ‘ghost train’ into Moorgate very early on 8 Monday morning. This would ensure our ability to operate over the Northern City Line in time for the Monday morning peak. Network Rail preparations to protect FCC services were as follows: London North Eastern route – staff were planned to come in five hours early, with full off-track, maintenance and operational staff coverage and additional staff if required. It was planned for a Mobile Operations Manager to visit Drayton Park to treat the third rail for ice, if required. Anglia route – additional staff were planned to act as ‘snowmen’ at Shepreth Branch Junction and Ely to clear points and junctions of snow and ice. East Midlands route – additional staff were planned to act as ‘snowmen’ to clear points and junctions of snow and ice and to check for icicles forming on structures. Kent route – additional staff were planned to act as ‘snowmen’ to clear points and junctions of snow and ice. Point heaters were all reported to be working without issue. Sussex route – additional staff were planned to act as ‘snowmen’ to clear points and junctions of snow and ice and four wheel drive vehicles were available. Point heaters were all reported to be working without issue. The message to customers was that there was no anticipated change in the train service over the weekend, but to take care when on or about stations and car parks due to the slippery underfoot conditions. 3. Which parts of the plans worked well and which parts, if any, did not? The decision to stand down our Class 321 and utilise other fleets for these services fleet worked well. With this fleet being particularly vulnerable to snowy and icy conditions, the plan to keep them stabled throughout the weekend resulted in a much lower failure rate than we might have otherwise seen, thereby giving more reliable journeys to our customers without a reduction in capacity. Network Rail’s ability to clear snow and ice from the running line was the major cause of weather-related disruption to FCC. We were particularly exposed in this respect on the Fen Line (between Cambridge and King’s Lynn via Ely) and ice on the third rail on the Brighton Mainline between Gatwick Airport and Brighton. This was the cause of a noteworthy level of disruption as the evening progressed on Saturday 4th February (as described in sections 1 and 4). 9 We were also unable to have the third rail at Drayton Park treated for any potential ice build-up before the Monday morning peak due to Network Rail’s Mobile Operations Manager being re-deployed to a separate incident. However, the first and empty train on the Northern City Line checked for the absence of problems and progressed without incident. 4. Where services were changed because of the bad weather, what particular circumstances led to the changes, in particular any reliance on track and signalling services beyond First Capital Connect’s control? No planned changes were made to FCC services prior to Saturday 4th February as the weather forecast did not necessitate the need. However, cancellations and alterations to services were made on the day as a result of the bad weather. These services were all altered due to problems with traction current (either third rail or overhead) or points and junctions. Five services were fully cancelled due to the bad weather. These were: 0542 Bedford to London King’s Cross 0704 London St Pancras to Luton 2135 King’s Lynn to London King’s Cross 2310 King’s Lynn to Cambridge 2357 London Bridge to Three Bridges Four services were partly cancelled due to the bad weather. These were: 0538 Bedford to London St Pancras (ran fast) 0720 London St Pancras to Bedford (ran fast) 2123 London King’s Cross to Peterborough (ran fast) 2315 London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn (terminated at Ely with passengers forward on the late running 2215 London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn) Three services ran in excess of 120 minutes late due to issues with points in the Ely area. These were: 1945 London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn (145 minutes late arriving at King’s Lynn) 2045 London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn (180 minutes late) 2215 London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn (174 minutes) 10 These services spent a significant proportion of their delay in the station platform at Ely whilst waiting for route clearance forward onto the Fen Line towards King’s Lynn. 5. How effective were your communications with passengers during the period of bad weather? Communications with passengers was largely through Tyrell Line Messages to inform them of service disruption. This feeds downstream systems including National Rail Enquires and FCC’s website. The following customer messages were distributed throughout the evening, relating the most disruptive incidents: ‘Owing to poor weather conditions between London Bridge and Brighton, train services may be delayed by 30 minutes. Disruption is expected until 0230.’ ‘Owing to snow between London King’s Cross and King’s Lynn trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines. Train services on the entire GN network may be delayed by up to 40 minutes or revised at short notice. Disruption is expected until 0300. ‘ ‘Owing to signalling problems between Ely and King’s Lynn some northbound and southbound lines are blocked. Trains services may be delayed by 90 minutes or revised at short notice. An estimate for resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.’ ‘Owing to signalling problems at Wimbledon, train services through this station may be delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised at short notice.