Train service is a joke!!

[Admiral Huddy]

The National Express train service between London Liverpool St and Ipswich is becoming a bit beyond a joke now. For the fourth time this year we’ve had a total suspension of service. The first three were due a new bridge being built as part of the East London Line extension into Shoreditch. On all three occasions I’ve been forced to take a days leave.
This was the last time when the bridge collapsed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/7424757.stm

Anyway, last night, I got the 5:20 from Liverpool Street to Ipswich when the train sudden anchored its brakes after a rather loud explosion. It pretty much shook everyone. It felt like we hit something and there was this awful feeling that it was car or something. It turns out that the train managed to bring down the overhead electric cables but we didn’t know this at the time.

After an hour with no open windows or air conditioning, we instructed to leave the train and wait for further instructions at the line side. I wasn’t quite sure were we were. I know we had passed Ingatestone but it was hard to tell as we were in a slight embanked cutting.

got some pics:







We were kept on the line for nearly 2 hours before a train on the opposite side rescued us. This meant walking along the line to get on the Inter-city train. I seemed weird being at ground level with the trains.




It was quite scary really but in all credit, it was dealt with quite well. I guess since this is such a regular occurrence, they must get used to the drill. The police were on the scene in no time and track marshals weren’t far behind. The driver must have been waiting for these to arrive before opening the doors. You’d think there would have been panic but in general everyone was patient and compliant.

As the rescuing train pulled away, I realised I was 30 minutes walk from home. I got in the end just after 9:30. A friend of mine got a slightly later train got home about 11:30pm.
This morning, the service is running a limited service and the train I was on was still there. You can see the damage just behind. Loads of tangled over head cables and engineers scratching their heads.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7445445.stm