ECML void day

"spark" <davidjbissell@> wrote in message
news:9e670034-9efa-4b6c-a0e2-f630e05a8539@c65g2000hsa..com...
> From the live departure board at Peterborough at 2240 to give a
> flavour of the tail end of a rather abysmal afternoon for passengers
> on the ECML: 2028 London King's Cross delayed 143 minutes, 2038 London
> King's Cross delayed 210 minutes, 2121 London King's Cross delayed 108
> minutes, 2215 London King's Cross delayed 116 minutes.
>
1350 Glasgow - Kings Cross was 231 late at Peterborough. 1700 Kings Cross -
Edinburgh is expected 208 late at York and will terminate at Newcastle.

NXEC will have a hefty taxi bill tonight - though they should be reimbursed
by Network Rail, whose signals have packed up at Retford.

Peter

GC's 1650 off Kings Cross hasn't got home yet either!

I had a grand tour of Lincolnshire behind 67002 this evening, so I too was
surprised on getting home a couple of hours late that the NXEC website
reports 'No disruptions reported'.

Still, NXEC seem to have their own time system. If you go to Live Train
Times on the NXEC site and take KX as an example, trains are three/four or
so hours late, so for example, the 2220 arrival from Aberdeen is expected
at, er, 2523.

Then compare systems. NXEC expects the 2214 arrival at Edinburgh to get
there at 2457, yet other real time systems suggest 0142 (or I presume 2542
in NXEC-speak) and my money is the latter.

There's other oddities between systems. On NXEC 2052 arrival Newcastle from
KX is expected 2533, yet other systems don't show the train at all.

I was looking for a train I saw at Newark about 2245 for Scotland, so I
would guess Edinburgh around 0400! But that seems to have disappeared from
all systems.

David

The state of ECML is certainly worrying.

On 18th I was caught up in p.m. chaos with 91101 failing on down train -
rescued by 67019 to Doncaster where train terminated.

My next trip on ECML was 26th. Going out 91108 had failed with 67016 to
rescue (0752 Newcastle - KX). This was blocking platform at York causing
much congestion, so although I wasn't very late into York, connection had
gone. So ended up hour late.

The coming home on 26th was the chaos that initiated this thread, but the
ride with 67002 via Gainsborough made a change.

On top of above there are the minor delays, but sufficient to miss
connections at Grantham. I cannot even remember the last time I actually
made the 2046 Grantham - Nottingham, so I'm consitently hour late home. In
fact I've given up on ever getting the 2046 again, so now get off at Newark
for longer connection to 2105 Newark - Nottingham bus.

David

Just picked up on local news that the chaos was result of cable theft. It
claims they stole the overhead cable. Is that a first, although I suspect
that might not be quite what we think? More likely overhead cables leading
towards the rail cables.

David