Trio of storms cause rail chaos
Three back-to-back storms in February brought major disruption to the rail network, including a total shutdown in Wales at one point, affecting the travel plans of millions of passengers.
FIRST to arrive overnight on February 16 was Storm Dudley, weather forecasters predicting wind gusts of 60-70mph, along with warnings of structural damage.
ScotRail took the rare decision to wind down all services midafternoon on the Wednesday (16th) until mid-morning the following day. Services on the Far North, Kyle of Lochalsh, and Aberdeen-Inverness routes were unaffected. It proved to be a wise decision, as a tree damaged an overhead gantry between Kilwinning-Largs, but Network Rail staff worked through the night to complete repairs at other locations where trees and debris had fallen.
In Wales, a trampoline became stuck under a GWR IET at Cardiff, causing delays, while on the Midland Main Line, the overhead wires came down between Luton and St Pancras in the afternoon, leading to massive chaos for evening peak service. Some passengers did not reach their destinations until 01.30 the next morning. Repairs were carried out overnight allowing the slow lines to operate, the fast lines remaining out of use until the early hours of Friday 18th.
Another ‘Dudley’ casualty was the 10.52 Edinburgh WaverleyEuston, which stopped at Beattock because of fallen trees fouling three running lines, with the ‘Pendolino’ finally returning north to terminate at Carstairs four hours after it had passed previously.
Eunice follows
Hot on the heels of Storm Dudley came Storm Eunice, which made landfall on the 18th, forecasters predicting winds in excess of 100mph across England and Wales, with a red warning issued to London and the South East.
Transport for Wales and Network Rail jointly took the unprecedented decision to cancel all rail services in the Principality on Friday 18th. GWR services for South Wales were halted at Bristol Parkway.
There was a recommendation in England not to travel at all because of the risk of trees and debris on lines. Alternative rail replacement services could not be provided in many cases because of risk of disruption to the road networks, with gale force winds and rain.
Blanket speed restrictions of 50mph were imposed by Network Rail so journey times took longer. This had the knockon effect of vastly extending journey times, leaving trains in the wrong places for cleaning and maintenance, as well as staff running out of permitted hours. This meant the aftereffects continued into Saturday 19th, with train operators short of crews and trains.
Just before lunchtime on the Friday, Network Rail took the decision with SWR to close Waterloo station and suspend services as there were more than 30 trees down across the South Western network.
By 13.20, services from Euston to Milton Keynes were suspended, and this was later extended to Rugby. With more trees falling, services over most of the West Coast Main Line were suspended. At Preston, the station was closed because of loose roofing panels, any trains still running passing through without stopping. Friday’s Caledonian Sleeper services were cancelled because of blocked routes.
Services at most other London termini were suspended at some point on the Friday
– c2c, GWR, Greater Anglia, Southeastern and Chiltern all stopped trains, as did the Island Line, while there was major delays and disruption on Great Northern, Thameslink and
LNER. East Midlands Railway suspended its services in Lincolnshire and open access operator Hull Trains cancelled its services.
The situation was a rapidly changing one and in Scotland, with the arrival of snow, Network Rail arranged for five locomotives with mini-ploughs, prepared independent snow ploughs, treated key junctions with de-icer and had extra staff at strategic locations to deal with any problems.
South West to East
In the South West, GWR cancelled all branch line services in Devon and Cornwall (except Exmouth-Exeter) and suspended the Seven Beach line.
Kent and East Sussex were badly affected by Storm Eunice, lines between Ramsgate and Folkestone, and TonbridgeHastings suspended with no replacement road transport available.
On the Great Eastern main line, damage to the overhead lines meant no services (inc TfL Rail) between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, and also no services between Norwich-Sheringham/ Cromer/Lowestoft/Yarmouth. The third storm in five days, Storm Franklin, hit the UK overnight February 20/21. Train operators were quick to advise of potential disruption, with Avanti West Coast advising passengers not to travel north of Preston on the 20th. Blanket 50mph speed limits were imposed again until the winds subsided. Northern were particularly affected in Lancashire, Cumbria, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, with services cancelled and no replacement road transport. The River Don burst its banks and flooded Rotherham Central, something that has become a regular occurrence. At Preston, platforms 1 and 2 were closed. In Wales, there were around 100 fallen trees across tracks, and Network Rail teams were needed to secure roof panels and canopies, repair damage to level crossing barriers and drain flooded parts of the tracks before allowing services to restart. After the snow in Scotland, rain and thawing meant a risk of flooding, and a landslip between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum Upper on the 20th led to cancellation of the sleeper portions, Network Rail wanting to undertake a daylight inspection. Many trees were blown down across the third rail networks, leading to diversions and cancellations. Such was the widespread impact of Storm Franklin with flooding and debris or unsafe structures, every operator was affected, again the message was not to travel.
THE Integrated Rail Plan is a “huge opportunity for the railway to deliver transformational change”, said Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines in a briefing to the railway press on February 3. “But we should not underestimate there is a huge amount to do.”
Mr Haines believes that negative comments in the mainstream press about the Government’s recent announcement of a £96 billion investment in Britain’s railways have done a disservice with the Treasury at a time when the economics of the railways are really challenging.
“The hyperbole that has been applied to this has been damaging and done us a disservice,” he said. “It’s a huge level of investment and might not be everything everybody expected. Many of those expectations were never grounded collectively in a business case that could stand up to all the other demands in infrastructure investment. We have to weigh up competing demands.”
However, the investment is still a significant amount of money that can make a real difference. “I always give the example of when I joined Network Rail 3½ years ago, when the TransPennine Route Upgrade [TRU] was a £3.5bn project,” continued Mr Haines. “It’s now nearer a £10bn project – not because of cost escalation, but scope change with full electrification and ECTS projects, and key parts of IRP factored into it.”
“The immensity of the challenge to deliver IRP should not be underestimated. We have a huge amount to do to understand how and when we deliver IRP. In the meanwhile, we are getting on with the TRU, which is probably the biggest thing for the next five or ten years.”
Uncertainty
Another challenge is that passenger numbers are struggling to recover from the pandemic, only returning to 49% of pre-Covid levels just before the Omicron variant hit Britain. Within that figure, commuting was at 50% of preCovid, business travel at 30%, but leisure use was at 90%. With Omicron now on the way out, there remains uncertainty how and where demand will recover.
Another factor contributing to uncertainty is that coronavirus has hit operators’ forward planning. “Covid has hit driver training plans and it will take several years to recover,” said Mr Haines, “which brings some uncertainty of train service levels this year before potential big changes in December 2022 dependent on the Spending Review.
Pre-consultation documents for Great British Railways were due out at the end of February after being signed off by the Government, with a view to a Bill being presented to Parliament by July, but progress is dependent on the Department for Transport. The White Paper will say how
GBR will be governed and held to account, while changes to access and management conditions will also take place.
This reform programme could commence in 2023 if the legislation can be carried through to royal assent by spring 2023. There is a relatively small window of opportunity, however, because a general election is due again in May 2024, and any legislation not completed by then would have to start all over again in the next Parliament.