Christmas Eve Train problems in Worcester Park

According to this all trains through Worcester Park are currently cancelled:

Description.Electrical supply problems are causing disruption at Worcester Park.

Because of this, there are delays of up to 40 minutes between Epsom and Wimbledon. These delays are expected to last until approximately 15:00.

15.00?? Hmmm... I'd say that with the trains out of position they'll be a knock-on effect and that it's going to be an evening of pain on the trains. Keep an eye on the live departure board for Worcester Park here or London Waterloo here. It seems to be having an effect on other lines too so I'm not sure going to New Malden would help much.

Ah well. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

A balancing act

The title's an apt description of the trip (pun intended) down Central Road this morning as the nicely swept pavements of yesterday turned into sheet-ice deathtraps overnight and even my hiking boots couldn't save me from momentarily balancing most of my bodyweight on three fingers for a split second. The net result of that little adventure is that I've lost the ability to right-click..... or move some of my fingers into anything other than a slightly curled position. Ah well. Press on!

My praise for South West Trains may have been a tad too generous yesterday morning as the service out of Waterloo in the afternoon had some 'issues'. To be fair there were a selection of trains running but the real-time train info web site insisted there weren't any, which nearly dissuaded me from going to Waterloo to check. The main reason I did go was because my backup plan of going to Morden and then catching a 93 bus had been thwarted by the news that the 93s were only going as far as Stonecot Hill, which would have meant a particularly long walk home. As it worked out when I got to Waterloo I found a train going to Chessington South, hopped off at Motspur Park and walked up to Malden Road, getting there just as a 213 came into view. As there was no traffic on the roads I ended up getting home only 15 minutes later than I otherwise would, which I thought was pretty good going.

Actually the biggest problem I've faced is SW Trains so-called train "information" which, yesterday afternoon, seemed to consist of showing that there weren't any trains from Waterloo, which there were, and at Motspur Park showing that there were two Worcester Park trains due imminently even though there had been no sign whatever of them at Waterloo when we'd left there not long before. Similarly this morning I checked before going out and the website showed all of the trains as being "On Time" which meant that I was then doomed to spend an hour standing in minus 8 degree temperatures until a train finally arrived. Their information page can be useful, which is why I've got a link to it here but do remember that it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Just sayin'

A pair of spectacles.....

....in that this video shows a train actually running while it was snowing but the more impressive spectacle is the shower of sparks being thrown up by the train's "shoe" and the live rail because of the snow!

I'd seen the sky light up eerily with the flashes from the train when I left Brinkster Central and it was fortunate for me that my train happened to be on time that day, a couple of minutes after taking this video!

Jam tomorrow?

If, like me, you commute into London by train then there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that by the end of 2013 the platforms at Worcester Park will have been lengthened to accomodate 10-carriage trains, rather than the 8 we now get. I know this because Network Rail have published a fairly inpenetrable 192 page document (PDF) that tells me so, together with 191.5 pages of other things that I don't care about. For the nerds amongst you the trains will most likely be the Class 455 stock that are already in use rather than anything newer and flashier though I did get one of those nice news trains from Worcester Park recently when the guard apologised that they'd run out of the old ones that particular day. Fine by me.

Now for the bad news. Well actually there isn't any. Not in the document at least, but I can't imagine that building work on that scale will pass without any kind of disruption at all to the army of hardy commuting-folk. So what do we reckon? Do the work off-peak? In the evenings? Close the station for a month and give us buses instead?

Boom and bussed.

It's nearly Easter Bank Holiday weekend and those of us who aren't jetting abroad might take a look at the somewhat gloomy-looking weather forecast and decide to forget the beach and the sunny walk and think that it'd be a good opportunity to get up to London to, perhaps, visit a museum, stroll around the shops or maybe take in a show.

Ermmm, no. Think twice.

SW Trains are celebrating the weekend by extending their recent weekend engineering activity across the whole Easter weekend, meaning that the only thing arriving or leaving from Worcester Park station between Friday and Monday will be the buses of the rail replacement service. If you have the bright idea of getting to Wimbledon and escaping the bus service on the District Line don't bother, that's out between Wimbledon and Wimbledon Park as well with the ever-present bus service as a replacement. You could always catch the bus to Morden and go on the Northern Line, but only as long as you didn't want to go any further north than East Finchley as the rest is closed for... you know what's coming... engineering works.

I hope that news hasn't dampened your weekend plans and I do hope you have a great weekend!

SW Trains Engineering Works
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/en6158774bda49de9bcff10803ddea47/details.html

An auction through the centuries

I'm happy to say the trains were back to normal this morning after the carnage and confusion of last night. The poor SW Trains staff were having to cope with the misinformation appearing on the illuminated overhead boards as well as the disruption. I wasn't happy. At all.

For all of you with eBay accounts you may want to have a bid for the copy of "Worcester Park and Cuddington A Walk Through The Centuries" that's currently listed for the price of ninety-nine of Her Majesty's pennies with £2.00 tacked on for postage. The auction ends on Sunday, but for those for whom used books just aren't enough then you can get a new copy from David Rymill himself if you cantact him directly (put his name in the search box at the top of the page for details).

For those that were wondering, but hadn't checked, nobody bid for the Ryan Gate in the recent eBay auction.

National frail?

I hope you had a great weekend! We made the most of the good weather by joining the throngs heading to Legoland together with friends on Saturday and then on Sunday we were at a country show in the afternoon having gone geocaching in the morning, though if you want to know more about that you'll have to wait for the next installment of the Worcester Park Life. I was particularly pleased to see that it was sunny all weekend and is gloomy now, rather than the other way around, although with the onset of autumn getting up in the dark is taking some getting used to.

This morning saw Dorking trains through Worcester Park cancelled due to power supply problems at London Waterloo. To me it looked like platforms 1 and 2 at Waterloo were out of action which would explain why they'd had to reduce the number of trains going in or out. I resorted to getting a bus to New Malden which got me a seat on a train, which probably wouldn't have happened if I'd stuck around at Worcester Park. As I write a quick glance at the National Rail website suggests the problem's still ongoing although it although they do say that it'll be fixed by 10am.

And you can read the ITV Local London blog interview with me here.

EDIT: 15.26 The trains still aren't fixed and National Rail is saying the problem will continue "until further notice". If you're heading home by train this evening be prepared for delays and overcrowding. You can check the Waterloo train times here and the service bulletins here.

South West Strange?

Part of my morning routine is to turn on the computer and, with mug of tea in hand, check the weather forecast for the day (BBC and Metcheck) and check the National Rail website to make sure that the trains are running before I set off down the hill for the station, which is a habit that has saved me much inconvenience on numerous occasions. Normally the National Rail web people contain themselves to reporting on the South West Trains services which are currently running and leave the forecasting to the weather people but this week they've taken to the prognostication business with some gusto by reporting all trains to London Waterloo in the future as being "On Time".


This means I can set off for work safe in the knowledge that there can be no delays as National Rail have declared it so and that no disaster, be it natural or man-made, can possibly interfere with the timely running of the trains.

Now that's customer service...............

And there's still time to support Steve's marathon effort!!

More good news, train strike suspended

In a flurry of good news items (well.... two) I'm pleased to say that next week's train strike on SW Trains is suspended. As I have to be in the office at least in won't be a struggle to get in or out.

And click here - http://worcesterpark.myminicity.com

SW Trains impending strike

For those oft-embattled commuters, like me, who wend our sometimes weary way into London from our very own Worcester Park station the news that there may be another train strike next week is about as welcome as Mohamed Al Fayed at Balmoral.

What information there is on the matter is provided at the National Rail website including a highly informative and very detailed map of the services that will be available during the strike, which shows that SW Trains have decided that the best way to maintain a service to Worcester Park for the duration of the strike is not to send any trains. Nada. Zilch. None.

For those who are interested there is a timetable for those non-existent trains here but for the rest of you there's the additional news that they don't appear to be running a service that includes Wimbledon or Clapham Junction on strike days either......

Those sweet members of ASLEF might call it off at the last minute, but if they don't then I'll be on the 93 to Morden.........

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses"

It's good to be back in the UK, away from the unrelenting cheeriness, hot sun, strange sports and behemothic shopping malls of Phoenix and embraced by the finest that English weather has to offer casting a comforting blanket over the friendly shops and traffic of Worcester Park.

I lie.

Cold? wet? grey?....... take me back to Arizona.

The promised storm has arrived and the trains were royally up the creek this morning with the pièce de résistance being the train that hurtled through the station around 7.40 which didn't bother to stop for passengers, probably because it would disrupt the timetable. The sodden, cold and huddled masses eventully poured themselves into a train around 7.50 and in the end it only took me an hour and a half to do what would normally have taken an hour (I'm being sarcastic if you can't tell).

A number of passengers at Worcester Park did try and bolster the spirits of their fellow passengers by attempting to fight off the torrential downpour and associated gales with that mightiest of implements........ the umbrella. Seriously, I know people want to stay dry but the most likely result on a day like to day is to give the assembled crowd an impromptu display of manned flight, with the possibility of dislocating a shoulder as a potential bonus. After the first few umbrellas had been comprehensively disassembled by the wind it was left to the ninjas of the umbrella art to to try and maintain their dignity, which they managed to greater or lesser degrees....... the most spectacular failure being that of an enormous golf umbrella and the subsequent attempts to right the situation left me wiping the moisture from my eyes for more than one reason.

Umbrella spotting has become a bit of a sport in the office today with assorted staff congregating pressed against the glass sides of our building attempting to prognosticate the fortunes of umbrellas and their carriers as they negotiate their way across the road and the adjoining square with such comments as "I give her ten seconds", and "He'll never hang on to that" being the standard fare. The more impressive failures are greeted with an "ooooh" and much respect is given to those who can salvage resurrect their inverted implement.

Maybe it is nice to be back in the UK after all.

Train timetable during emergency engineering works

Because of the landslip/landslide affecting all Worcester Park train services National Rail have just posted a timetable of the services that will be running during the day, which can be found here. The long and short of it is that there will be half hourly services running during the peak periods but don't bother using the usual link for running times as it appears to be borked.

For those that like pictures instead of text/numbers they've got one of those too:

More info from National Rail

Some details of the emergency service operating through Worcester Park because of the landslip have been posted here but to make your life a little bit easier I've reproduced them below:
----------------------------------------------
Train services between Epsom and Raynes Park are being disrupted due to emergency engineering works at Worcester Park.

To help deal with the greatest of passengers using services on this route, the levels of disruption at different times of the day will be as follows:

Morning peak (until 09:30)
The normal service between London Waterloo, Epsom and Dorking / Guildford is suspended and the following special service will operate:
- a half hourly service will run between London Waterloo and Epsom, calling at all usual stations; - a normal service between will run London and Chessington South, with a number of additional services operating in the London bound direction only;
- services between London and Guildford via Leatherhead will be diverted and not call at stations between Motspur Park and Bookham. Services from London will call additionally at Surbiton and Effingham Junction and services to London will call at all stations between Guildford and Surbiton via Oxshott and also at Raynes Park.

Daytime and evening (between 09:30 and 15:30 and from 19:00 until end of service)
As morning peak, although the additional services from Chessington South to London Waterloo will not run.

Evening peak (between 15:30 and 19:00)
As morning peak, although additional services will run from London to Chessington South only.

In addition to the above, replacement bus services will run between Malden Manor and Leatherhead and between Leatherhead and Effingham Junction, calling at all stations.

South West Trains passengers may travel on Southern services. Customers wishing to travel between Dorking and Epsom should use Southern services.

London Underground are accepting South West Trains passengers between London Victoria and London Waterloo.

This disruption is expected to continue until Monday 17 December.

Landslide chaos - day three

Gave up on any idea of a train from Worcester Park this morning and jumped straight on a 213 for New Malden and got there before 7.20 in time for the 7.25, with traffic being lighter than I expected. The number of people who got on the bus outside the Worcester Park make me suspect that there were no trains of any shape or size this morning. The whole journey took me an hour and 20 instead of yesterday's hour and 50. My "Nanook of the North" commuting outfit came in useful as the outside temperature was registering -4.6 when I left.

Last night I came back via New Malden and got a 213 to WP, which was reasonably swift. The fact that the slip road off the A3 is closed for the roadworks seems to have helped ease the traffic.

If you have any good alternative routes can you post them and give an indication of time vs a normal day as they may be helpful to people wh oare struggling. The ones I've heard of so far (thankyou for the various contributions!) are:
- 213/151 bus to Cheam station,
- 213 bus to New Malden station,
- 213/151 bus to North Cheam then 93 to Morden,
- 213 bus then walk to Malden Manor (trains every half an hour),
- Walk along path by Green Lane school to Motspur Park (ditto),
- Wait at Worcester Park and just hope...........

On the bright side I've got a day off tomorrow...........

Transport woes

It took an hour and 50 to get into work this morning instead of the usual hour. Aiming for the 7.12 I got to the station and a delightfully empty train with only a smattering of passengers pulled in at 7.17, then stood there for several minutes before departing without opening its doors......... back towards Stoneleigh! Working on the theory that they were using it to test the work they'd done overnight and that it would be back in due time I persevered, and I was right...... it did return........ 30 minutes later.......

The now frozen hordes piled aboard and endured a slow commute to Waterloo (no heating of course) and for me it was a swift trip through the drain to Bank.

My "Plan B" was either going to be bus to New Malden and then train from there (discounted because of the traffic) or bus to North Cheam then Morden and in on the Northern Line......... so when I heard at Bank that the Northern Line was suspended in both directions from Morden to Stockwell I was just about glad I stuck with "Plan A".

Emergency engineering works at Worcester Park

Check Worcester Park train times here.

Emergency engineering works at Worcester Park

Last Updated: 13:22

Route Affected:
London Waterloo, Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Raynes Park, Worcester Park, Stoneleigh, Epsom, Leatherhead & Guildford / Dorking

TOC/s Affected: South West Trains

Description: Train services between Raynes Park and Epsom are being disrupted due to emergency engineering works at Worcester Park.

London Waterloo to/from Dorking services are currently suspended.

London Waterloo to/from Guildford via Epsom services are being diverted via Cobham. They will run non-stop between Raynes Park and Effingham Junction.

Buses are replacing trains between Raynes Park and Epsom in both directions, calling at all planned interim stations.

This disruption will contimue until at least the end of service today, Monday 10 December


Easements:
Southern are accepting South West Trains passengers. London Underground are accepting South West Trains passengers between London Victoria and London Waterloo.

More train chaos

After this morning's train chaos there was more woe this evening when Waterloo was closed because of a security alert. The station was reopened at 1.30 but when I got there at 4 there were no trains to be seen on the first 6 platforms. I ended up jumping on the first (and only) train I saw, which was going through New Malden, then getting the 213 down to Worcester Park, which added an extra half an hour to my normal journey time. I think I did well to get out of Waterloo quickly though as service updates seemed hard to come by.

Sadly, it seems that the girl injured in this morning's incident hasn't got off lightly according to the local Guardian:
"She was rushed to St George's Hospital where she remains in intensive care after suffering massive blood lose (sic) in the accident. The girl is believed to be in a stable but serious condition."

I do hope it's not a lasting injury but the description's not encouraging. It sounds as thought the emergency services responded well though so that will have made a difference to her chances.

Train disruption at Worcester Park

As The Parkerilla spotted trains are delayed and the National Rail website is saying that "Train services are being disrupted due to a person having been hit by a train at Worcester Park."

No more details at the moment but I'm sure more will come through.

I hope it's nobody you know.

-------------

EDIT - 10:51: The Local Guardian is running a story now:
A schoolgirl fell on tracks at Worcester Park station as she ran for a train. The teen, thought to be from Raynes Park High School, was taken away on a stretcher as police cordoned off the area. The incident caused chaos for commuters who were told to get off the 7.52am train from Epsom to London Waterloo this morning.

British Transport Police were called around 8am after the girl slipped and fell between the carriages and on to the track. She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting with an injury to her left foot.

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: "We were called just after 8am to reports of a person under the train at Worcester Park station. "We sent two fast response cars, an ambulance and an officer to the scene; the first of which was there in six minutes. "We treated a teenage girl who was taken to St George's Hospital."

A spokeswoman for South West Trains said: "We currently cannot operate services out of Worcester Park but commuters can use their tickets to get local buses to the nearest station where they can get a train. "We apologise to passengers who are trying to get to work but we have to allow the emergency services to carry out their work."

EDIT - 15.34 Photo added

[image from the local Guardian website]

Friday mega-entry II

It's another Friday and the 6.27 from Worcester Park was fabulously empty. It's tempting to make it a habit seeing as the 7.12 is getting unpleasantly full.

Having railed about the ineffectiveness of CCTV in a previous post the Evening Standard took up the subject yesterday, coming to pretty much the same conclusion. Sutton's clear-up rate seems to one of the best of all even though the borough allegedly has less than 100 council CCTV cameras (though many more placed by other organsiations).

I was interested to see that there was activity yesterday in the former Choices Video shop with the gap between the two parts of the store being bricked up. I don't know whether this was a new tenant re-jigging the layout or the owners trying to make it seem more appealing but hopefully something will happen soon.

Activity was continuing at the Huntsmans yesterday with more painting and some work on the frontage. Anticipation mounts!

The Debra charity shop opened it's doors yesterday after its fit-out. It looks quite organised but I really shouldn't get excited about another charity shop.