Dear Stakeholder

I’m writing to apologise for the disruption  to our train services this morning.

Passengers experienced severe problems on our mainline and high speed services due to freezing conditions in the early morning causing ice to form on the third rail (conductor rail) that supplies power to our trains. This prevented our services from running to schedule, and other trains struggled to draw power from the icy rails. Network Rail advise us that they ran all de-icing trains overnight, and the rail heating was switched on, but this was not enough to prevent the issues caused this morning.

In conjunction with this, at around 4am Network Rail identified a broken rail in the Kidbrooke area. As a result, the Bexleyheath line was closed to allow Network Rail to carry out repairs. Services were cancelled or diverted via the Sidcup and Woolwich lines. Network Rail worked hard to carry out the repairs as quickly as they could and the line was re-opened at 6:50am but some trains were running with delays of up to 30 minutes.

We are working with Network Rail to undertake a full and thorough review into this morning’s problems, and will be looking at what extra measures we and Network Rail can put in place in the coming days when temperatures are again set to drop.

We have been working hard to recover the service throughout the day – so that passengers have a better service home this evening, however there has been a small number of short-formations and delays as a result of this morning’s problems as train crew and rolling stock have been displaced.

We encourage passengers who were delayed by 30 minutes or more to claim compensation under our Delay Repay scheme via our website: southeasternrailway.co.uk

We’re keeping all information systems up to date as possible, and urge you to download our free journey planning app, On Track, or visit our website for live running information.

Please also see Network Rail’s statement below:

Alasdair Coates, Network Rail’s route managing director said: “I would like to apologise for the disruption passengers have experienced this morning. We know this level of service isn’t what people expect and passengers and train operators have had a very difficult morning. 

“While our de-icing train fleet ran overnight and our rail heaters were all on and working, this still hasn’t been enough to prevent delays. We are investigating what further action we can take to mitigate the problem of ice forming on the third rail. 

“All lines are now open but there are delays while we work with train operators to get the service back to normal.”

For more information passengers should check www.nationalrail.co.uk

Sincerely

Benjamin Ward
Press Office & Public Affairs Executive
southeasternrailway.co.uk