The Ticket Collector

Snow and Icey conditions predicted from early 08Feb

Update at 23:55
People should be prepared for severe disruption to all services tomorrow if the snow falls.

In preparation for this First Capital Connect are running empty trains throughout the night to stop rails and power lines from freezing over, treating train doors and other equipment to ensure they don’t freeze over.

At stations, each station will have ice thawing granules laid along the platforms and extra staff have been mobilised to clear station platforms. Special announcements are being prepared for stations and trains tonight to warn customers of the potential disruption.

12:03
Snow is predicted to fall in most of England from 01:00 tomorrow morning.

Passengers are advised to check and double check there journey, and consider is it worth going into work today and then call in sick, or work from home.
Current indications are that the snowfall will be heaviest across the midlands and East of England, including routes via Stevenage, Peterborough and Cambridge.

The snow is currently forecast to start falling from approximately 01:00 on Thursday, with the heaviest falls expected during the morning peak hours. The snow is then expected to clear by the late afternoon / evening peak of Thursday, although this is followed by a risk of widespread icy conditions, which may cause problems with electrical supplies and line-side equipment, leading to further train service disruption. All snowy and icy conditions are expected to clear early on Friday morning.

As soon as we have any further information I will update this blog entry.

Recent vists to this site.

As nothing much is happening latley I thought I would disclose exactly who is visiting this blog.

Well the big people anyway.

We have recently had visits from:
Network Rail at 6th February 2007 - 16:09:11 and 18:07:54
Transport & General Workers Union at 6th February 2007 - 15:31:30
HSBC Bank at 6th February 2007 - 11:56:43
British Airways Plc at 5th February 2007 - 16:26:47 (searching for “great western” seat pitch)
Telegraph Group Limited at 5th February 2007 - 16:11:16
Emap at 5th February 2007 - 14:03:24
Deutsche Bank at 5th February 2007- 08:58:05
South West Trains Ltd at 5th February 2007 - 03:02:59

Now I see that Network Rail and South West Trains are spying on this blog, and anyway what on earth are SWT doing at 3am in the morning. Ah yes I know what ordering taxis for staff to get home and leave normal passengers in the cold.

OHLE problems today.

Ok today was an interesting day to say the least for everybody concerned.

At approx 08:00 this morning reports started coming through that the Overhead lines had failed between Peterborough and Sandy. I belived that this would be a minor delay and services would have slight delays on them.

At 08:15 GNER suspended ALL services between Peterborough and London Kings Cross. There was a replacement Coach service between Peterborough and Stevenage set up for travelers in either direction. People had to change at Stevenage for a FCC Train Service to and from London Kings Cross. I have had reports from all parts of the line that there were staff on hand at Sandy, Stevenage, Peterborough and Kings Cross and most of the reports I have heard were good.

At around 12:00 the lines were re-opened and services were able to start getting back to normal, there were a few later GNER cancelations.

Save 20% on most items from station shops.

Thanks to a comment on a fellow bloggers site GNER Commuter, you are able to get 20% off on items from most stores on railway stations.
The Card is called a BITE card and can be ordered from http://www.bitecard.co.uk.

This gives 20% most items from retail outlets on Railway Stations, The site has a list of what accepts the card.