Trains delayed by water in tunnel near Farringdon - please check before you travel

Tuesday 27 Jan 2015

Trains delayed by water in tunnel near Farringdon - please check before you travel

Region & Route:: | Southern

Water in a rail tunnel near Farringdon is causing delays of up to 45 minutes to this evening’s Thameslink service.

Water was first seen this morning following earlier flooding at the weekend and Network Rail has four high volume pumps at work. However, the water has also caused a signalling problem and a speed restriction of 5mph has had to be imposed to prevent damage to the trains passing through.

Phil Verster, Network Rail's route managing director, said: “Our engineers have been working in the tunnel since Friday to keep the tracks clear and keep trains moving. We are doing all we can to run trains under difficult circumstances and I thank passengers for their patience. We continue to work with Thames Water to find the source of the problem so we can begin the process of returning the tunnel to normal use.”

Stuart Cheshire, Passenger Service Director for Thameslink, said: “We thought the flooding was over after the burst Thames Water main at the weekend but water is back in the tunnel and a temporary speed restriction has had to be put in place to prevent damage to Thameslink trains. It is extremely frustrating that a burst water main should cause so much disruption to our services and so much frustration for our passengers.

“Checks on our fleet show that water penetrated various components of at least one of the trains when the water was at its highest on Sunday morning. Three other trains, that have already been checked, have not been damaged. However five further units need to be checked and may need to be taken out of service for repairs which could lead to some shorter trains tomorrow (Wednesday) and possibly some cancellations.”

Passengers are advised to check before they travel tomorrow morning (Wednesday).

For details of affected services please go to www.nationalrail.co.uk or www.thameslinkrailway.com

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

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