Thursday 12 July 2012

Railway travails

Yesterday was a bad day for commuters on the London Bridge-Tonbridge route.  Signal failure between Orpington and Sevenoaks and flooded track between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge.  Whilst the signal failure cause delays, the effect of the flooding was to bring the railway to a standstill: third rail electricity and water do not go together.

In such circumstances my reaction would have been to catch a train from London Bridge to Croydon and thence to Redhill to connect with the Redhill-Tonbridge service.  Before the Sevenoaks-Tonbridge line was built the South Eastern Railway was via Redhill and the route has been used as a diversionary route. In the days of British Rail I am sure efforts would have been made to divert services, but now we have a fragmented railway it is much harder for the railways to respond in such a way.

Passengers on the London-Brighton route are subjected to line blockages and for them there is no diversionary route, only the dreaded 'bustitution'.

The following article is timely:

http://www.wealdenline.co.uk/the-news/197-time-to-revisit-sussex-reopening-study-.html

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