"Jack Taylor" wrote in message
...

"Fat Richard" wrote in message
om...
I have to say that I was amazed how the Sth central service was still
doing at 13.00 when I went to work some 12 hours after the initial
incident.

Still as bad at 20:00, when I passed through the area. Numerous up trains
running between 20 and 90 minutes late due to the knock-on effect of crew
displacement earlier in the day, down trains equally as late if not later,
where not cancelled. Victoria concourse awash with irate passengers.

Is this any way to run a railway?

Whether or not the incident could or should have been cleared more quickly,
it does seem that SC and NR did not have an adequate contingency plan to
cope with a line closure at Balham. In the Metro area, suspension of the
whole of the Victoria service (apart from Victoria - London Bridge via
Denmark Hill) would still have left most stations with a London Bridge
service. For express services, the capacity of London Bridge to accept
diversions should be known, and those that couldn't be fitted in there
should have been cancelled or terminated further south - East Croydon,
Gatwick, Three Bridges or Haywards Heath, for example. Was the Tulse Hill,
Herne Hill route used for diversions to Victoria? - probably the best use of
the limited capacity available this way would be for Gatwick Express
(bearing in mind the effect on passengers of missed planes) - with SC
passengers conveyed from Victoria on GatEx to Gatwick, or by LUL to London
Bridge.

Peter