The Ticket Collector

Update on GN route disruption.

Services back to normal from this morning.

22:15
National Express East Coast services are now running in/out of London Kings Cross.

21:50
Services are now running into London Kings Cross, Services continue to be subject to delays and cancelations.

19:05
All services into or out of Moorgate have been cancelled for the rest of the evening.

Services to Welwyn Garden City and Hertford are starting and terminating at Alexandra Palace. People wishing to use these services are advised to take the Piccadilly line to Wood Green underground station and walk to Alexandra Palace station.

Passengers for Cambridge and stations to Kings Lynn are advised to use underground services to London Liverpool Street and then ‘one’ railway services to Cambridge and then catch connecting train services to continue their journey.

Customers for Stevenage, Peterborough, Letchworth, are advised to use underground services to Finsbury Park station for replacement bus services to Stevenage and then shuttle train services to continue their journey.

18:50
Tickets are now being accepted on FCC Thameslink and East Midlands Trains from St. Pancras via reasonable routes.

18:38
Due to a major signalling failure in the Finsbury Park area services are unable to get to Kings Cross or Moorgate. Stopper services (to Hertford North and Welwyn Garden City) are being terminated at Alexandra Palace for an underground/bus connection.

Fast train services are also stopping at Alexandra Palace for connections with the stopper services, with the exception of the 12 Carriage services which will not fit on the platform.

Tickets are being accepted on London Underground, ‘one’ trains from London Liverpool Street and London Buses.

This is affecting Grand Central, First Hull Trains, First Capital Connect and National Express East Coast.

Further information will be posted on here as and when it is available.

Major disruption on FCC tonight - TL&GN

Due to a major signalling failure in the Finsbury Park area Southbound trains are currently unable to reach King’s Cross or Moorgate stations. Services are subject to severe delays, alterations and cancellations.

Train service between St Albans and Bedford has been restored following an earlier signalling failure.Please allow extra time for your journey as there will be ongoing delays throughout the evening. Services are subject to alterations and cancellations.

First Capital Connect tickets will continue to be accepted on FCC Great Northern route services, London Midland trains, South West Trains, Southern trains and London Buses.

Help Eurostar prepare for the big day, and get free travel.

Help us prepare for the big day and get free travel on Eurostar

On 14th November 2007, Eurostar will begin running train services to and from Paris and Brussels on the new high speed line from St Pancras International. The last services in and out of London Waterloo International will be on 13th November. On 19th November we will open our brand new station in North Kent, Ebbsfleet International.

To ensure that services from the our magnificent new stations run as smoothly as possible we are planning a period of intensive testing and to help create a realistic environment we would like as many people as possible to act as travellers in the various test scenarios.

If you interested in participating as a passenger in one of these test days and to be one of the first to see the new stations you just need to register your details and we’ll let you know where and when to come along.

You will be acting as a typical traveller – picking up tickets, going through check-in, security and passport control, boarding and departure and finally arrival – up to 3 times in one day.

Testing will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 30th October,
Wednesday 31st October,
Thursday 1st November,
Wednesday 7th November and
Thursday 8th November.

You will only need to be available for one of these days. You will need to arrive at St Pancras some time between 08:30 and 11:30 and will be required for somewhere between 5 and 6 hours.

Although trains will not be going through Eurotunnel (they will either turn round outside St Pancras International or go to and return from Ebbsfleet International), all participants will need a passport/national ID card (valid for international travel).

Refreshments will be provided during the day, including lunch, and travel expenses will be reimbursed up to a limit of £25.

As well as the chance to take part in this unique phase of testing, participants will also get a voucher to be redeemed for a free standard class return ticket to Paris, Lille or Brussels on HS1 (terms and conditions will apply).

For the link to register etc, check out this link:

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/travel_information/testing.jsp

Here comes the rain again - Updated Monday 23rd

People are advised to check the relevent railway companies websites before traveling, if they are traveling in the next few days.

Currently problems are happening on Central Trains, Chiltern Railways, First Great Western and Virgin Trains

More information can be found at the very slow loading National Rail website.

Central Trains:
The Birmingham New Street to Cardiff Central route is now open and a normal service is expected to operate.
The route between Birmingham New Street and Hereford will operate only between Birmingham and stations to Great Malvern due to flooding at Ledbury. Replacement road transport is not available due to poor road conditions.

Chiltern Railways:
Damage caused by flooding will affect services between Amersham and Aylesbury. It is expected that a near normal service will operate on other lines.

First Great Western:
The route between Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford will remain closed. A limited service is expected to run between Gloucester and Worcester.
Due to rising water levels in the River Thames in the Oxford area, it is expected that the route between Didcot and Oxford will close in the early hours of Monday morning and not reopen until at least 12:00. Replacement road transport will not be available.

A near normal service is expected on all other routes, subject to short notice alterations and cancellations.

Virgin Trains:
The route between Birmingham New Street and Gloucester has now reopened.
The route between Reading and Oxford has been closed and is not expected to reopen before Thursday 26 July.

No Smoking on ANY UK station.

Smoking Ban finally arrives.

So its finally arrived, the national smoking ban. All of the railway companies have decided to make all of their premises and property completely smoke free areas.

If you are caught lighting up in a enclosed public area or on a railway station you will face a fine of £50. Railway stations are covered by existing bye-laws and belive it or not were smoke free before the new national smoking ban even came into force.

Also dont drop your fag ends on the floor as this will result in a fine of £80. There are lots of Enforcement officers just waiting around the corner to fine you.

Notwork Rail overuns again

Ok so its a bank holiday and the weather outside is well stormy to say the least, its raining and some of the Thameslink route is flooded.

But to top it all, as with all bank holidays Notwork Rail has decided to improve the track and completly shut down the line.
However today they decided at the last minute they were going to over run and not give back the line to the signallers at the correct time.

This caused huge nock on delays, and a few services were cancelled, other services were running with up to 1 hours delays.

Overhead wire problem at Farringdon

This problem is now cleared

There are some electrical supply problems in the Farringdon area, this is currently affecting all Thameslink services which use Kings Cross Thameslink, Farringdon, City Thameslink.

Services are being terminated short, and cancelations are expected. Delays of up to 1 hour are likley. FCC tickets are being accepted on reasonable routes using the London Underground.

Estimated time of ‘normal’ train service is 1-2 hours.