Rail chaos continues as commuters face battle to get home

Problems began overnight after a major power failure affected signalling in the Streatham area, causing huge disruption to services travelling to and from London Victoria.

Commuters were advised by Southern Rail not to travel to the capital by train this morning as services were cancelled whilst engineers continued to create a ‘temporary fix’.

Network Rail, which is responsible for the railway lines, said the fix had been made and services were being reintroduced.

However due to the ‘displacement of trains and crew’ disruption is expected to continue with Southern adding delays are expected until 7am tomorrow (July 6).

Rail users have expressed their anger and frustration along with many MPs who were due to travel to the House of Commons for a debate on the issues surrounding the network.

Crawley MP Henry Smith said he was unable to get to a debate due to the state of the rail service today (July 5)

Other Sussex MPs have said the chaos is ‘ruining people’s lives’, and criticised rail bosses for having ‘no sense of urgency’.

John Halsall, Network Rail’s managing director for the South East route, apologised for the delays.

He said: “I would like to offer a sincere apology to everyone who has had their journey disrupted today. Our job is to provide a reliable railway for train operators and the travelling public and today it’s clear we’ve failed in that task.

“We’ve now been able to restore signalling and trains are beginning to run again to and from London Victoria, though passengers are advised to check before travelling throughout the day as knock-on impacts are likely to be significant.”

Nick Brown, Chief Operating Officer at Govia Thameslink Railway, added: “We are working hard with our colleagues at Network Rail following a major power failure at Streatham this morning. We apologise to our passengers caught up in the disruption to services. Tickets are being accepted on alternative routes. We encourage any passengers delayed by 15 minutes or more to claim Delay Repay compensation via our websites.”

Further delays are being caused by a signalling failure at Three Bridges this evening.

Have you been affected by the chaos today? Send your stories and pictures to [email protected]

‘Lives are being destroyed’ over Southern rail chaos

Signal failure at Three Bridges set to cause further rail disruption

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/rail-disruption-trains-being-reintroduced-but-passengers-should-avoid-travelling-1-8557580|Rail disruption: trains being reintroduced but ‘passengers should avoid travelling’|Rail disruption: trains being reintroduced but ‘passengers should avoid travelling’}