On 28 May, 20:03, Great Eastern wrote:
Reported about 19:52 this evening, trains in and out of Liverpool Street
stopped.

Seems to be a problem with the new ELL bridge, but nothing confirmed yet


Network Rail released this strongly worded statement late this
afternoon:

-----
http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co...ReleaseID=3744
-----

NETWORK RAIL SEEKS URGENT ANSWERS FROM TfL FOLLOWING LIVERPOOL STREET
BRIDGE FIASCO

Thursday 29 May 2008 16:45

Network Rail's Chief Executive today wrote to Transport for London's
Commissioner Peter Hendy to seek urgent answers about the severe
disruption caused to tens of thousands of passengers as a result of
the failure of TfL infrastructure outside Liverpool Street station on
the evening of Wednesday 28th May.

At about 1915 last night a concrete slab fell from a TfL bridge that
had been erected over the May Day bank holiday as part of TfL's
ongoing project to extend the East London line. Services were stopped
as a result of the incident and it wasn't until 0930 this morning that
TfL gave the 'all clear' and services were allowed to re-start.

Because of concerns over TfL's handling and management of both the
project and its contractors, Network Rail has banned work on the
bridge, effective immediately. This will remain in place until TfL has
completed an investigation and reported back on the causes of the
incident and what measures it will be putting in place to prevent a
repetition.

Commenting on the incident, Network Rail's Director of Operations and
Customer Service, Robin Gisby, said: "Passengers rightly want an
explanation, as do I. Passengers deserve an apology for the disruption
they suffered last night and this morning and I want assurances that
such an incident can't and won't happen again."
-----

On Thu, 29 May 2008 12:35:41 +0100, Roland Perry
mangled uncounted electrons thus:

In message , at 10:07:32
on Thu, 29 May 2008, Richard J. remarked:
'The contractors were jacking up the bridge. The jack collapsed and

And this was happening while trains were running underneath ?!?!?!

Indeed. I have no doubt that HSE will have some fairly robust
views on this, once the investigation has finished - and they
tend not to take prisoners...

The London Lite was speculating this evening, in the rather vague
way that free papers tend to when they don't have any real facts,
that Network Rail allowed the work to be carried out over live
tracks because they were unwilling to close LST again due to the
criticism over the closures that have already taken place on
every (so far!) Bank Holiday this year.

Not mind you that I put any faith in what LL says about anything
(except their quite true claim that the ink doesn't come off on
your hands ^_^ ) !

debris from the supports

Which some reports are calling "scaffolding", perhaps.

for the bridge fell onto the tracks. We are investigating
the incident,' he said."

How much damage was done to the OHLE? There must have been
*some*, surely?

Martin D. Pay
Who was evicted from my service from Chelmsford at Stratford this
morning. Fortunately the DLR came to my rescue!

On May 29, 11:31*am, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"MIG" wrote in message

...

On 29 May, 11:22, "Paul Scott" wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4024826.ece

and it must be true because the picture shows a Mark 1 EMU approaching
Clapham Junction for good measure...

Paul

Dparting from, I think.

Arrgh no - I saw the embedded caption, but not the red blind...

Paul

Nevertheless I felt slightly embarrassed by my snirkiness as soon as I
clicked on Send.

In message
, at
10:40:38 on Thu, 29 May 2008, Mizter T remarked:
Because of concerns over TfL's handling and management of both the
project and its contractors, Network Rail has banned work on the
bridge,

I wonder if this qualifies as a "bad word" in Mr Polson's estimation?
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 29 May 2008 10:40:38 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:


Network Rail released this strongly worded statement late this
afternoon:

NETWORK RAIL SEEKS URGENT ANSWERS FROM TfL FOLLOWING LIVERPOOL STREET
BRIDGE FIASCO

Thursday 29 May 2008 16:45

Network Rail's Chief Executive today wrote to Transport for London's
Commissioner Peter Hendy to seek urgent answers about the severe
disruption caused to tens of thousands of passengers as a result of
the failure of TfL infrastructure outside Liverpool Street station on
the evening of Wednesday 28th May.

At about 1915 last night a concrete slab fell from a TfL bridge that
had been erected over the May Day bank holiday as part of TfL's
ongoing project to extend the East London line. Services were stopped
as a result of the incident and it wasn't until 0930 this morning that
TfL gave the 'all clear' and services were allowed to re-start.

Because of concerns over TfL's handling and management of both the
project and its contractors, Network Rail has banned work on the
bridge, effective immediately. This will remain in place until TfL has
completed an investigation and reported back on the causes of the
incident and what measures it will be putting in place to prevent a
repetition.

Commenting on the incident, Network Rail's Director of Operations and
Customer Service, Robin Gisby, said: "Passengers rightly want an
explanation, as do I. Passengers deserve an apology for the disruption
they suffered last night and this morning and I want assurances that
such an incident can't and won't happen again."

While I am not at all surprised that top level communication has
occurred as a result of this incident I do find the tone of Network
Rail's "outrage" and their "banning" to be tinged with a large splash of
hypocrisy given the almighty cockups that they have inflicted on the
travelling public.

A more measured press release might have kept things in perspective.

--
Paul C

In message , at 19:51:31 on
Thu, 29 May 2008, Martin D. Pay
remarked:
Which some reports are calling "scaffolding", perhaps.

for the bridge fell onto the tracks. We are investigating
the incident,' he said."

How much damage was done to the OHLE? There must have been
*some*, surely?

That's why I'm sceptical it was scaffolding that fell on the line (some
reports say scaffolding fell on the *bridge* and made it collapse, which
seems even less likely).

And Mr Thant didn't report seeing anything odd, and I hope he wouldn't
have missed scaffolding on the line.

They seem to have got things running again as soon as this afternoon, so
I suspect the only thing that fell to the track level was a few concrete
blocks (which missed the OHL) - and the Network Rail complaint seems to
confirm this.
--
Roland Perry

On 29 May, 20:13, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Thu, 29 May 2008 10:40:38 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

Network Rail released this strongly worded statement late this
afternoon:
NETWORK RAIL SEEKS URGENT ANSWERS FROM TfL FOLLOWING
LIVERPOOL STREET BRIDGE FIASCO

Thursday 29 May 2008 16:45

Network Rail's Chief Executive today wrote to Transport for London's
Commissioner Peter Hendy to seek urgent answers about the severe
disruption caused to tens of thousands of passengers as a result of
the failure of TfL infrastructure outside Liverpool Street station on
the evening of Wednesday 28th May.

At about 1915 last night a concrete slab fell from a TfL bridge that
had been erected over the May Day bank holiday as part of TfL's
ongoing project to extend the East London line. Services were stopped
as a result of the incident and it wasn't until 0930 this morning that
TfL gave the 'all clear' and services were allowed to re-start.

Because of concerns over TfL's handling and management of both the
project and its contractors, Network Rail has banned work on the
bridge, effective immediately. This will remain in place until TfL has
completed an investigation and reported back on the causes of the
incident and what measures it will be putting in place to prevent a
repetition.

Commenting on the incident, Network Rail's Director of Operations and
Customer Service, Robin Gisby, said: "Passengers rightly want an
explanation, as do I. Passengers deserve an apology for the disruption
they suffered last night and this morning and I want assurances that
such an incident can't and won't happen again."

While I am not at all surprised that top level communication has
occurred as a result of this incident I do find the tone of Network
Rail's "outrage" and their "banning" to be tinged with a large splash of
hypocrisy given the almighty cockups that they have inflicted on the
travelling public.

A more measured press release might have kept things in perspective.


It did cross my mind that maybe the hostile undertone of that
statement perhaps spoke of a wider institutional animosity within NR
towards TfL.

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 19:51:31 on
Thu, 29 May 2008, Martin D. Pay remarked:
Which some reports are calling "scaffolding", perhaps.

for the bridge fell onto the tracks. We are investigating
the incident,' he said."

Isnt this why we have factory/hse inspectors - to shut down any
dangerous practice... Surely jacking up bridges while high speed trains
qualifies as dangerous....

mf

On Thu, 29 May 2008 21:23:32 +0100, Mystery Flyer
wrote:

Isnt this why we have factory/hse inspectors - to shut down any
dangerous practice... Surely jacking up bridges while high speed trains
qualifies as dangerous....

That it might, but calling EMUs at 40mph "high speed" is pushing it.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 29 May 2008 10:40:38 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:


Network Rail released this strongly worded statement late this
afternoon:

Because of concerns over TfL's handling and management of both the
project and its contractors, Network Rail has banned work on the
bridge, effective immediately. This will remain in place until TfL has
completed an investigation and reported back on the causes of the
incident and what measures it will be putting in place to prevent a
repetition.

While I am not at all surprised that top level communication has
occurred as a result of this incident I do find the tone of Network
Rail's "outrage" and their "banning" to be tinged with a large splash of
hypocrisy given the almighty cockups that they have inflicted on the
travelling public.

A more measured press release might have kept things in perspective.

They must be hoping that one of their contractors doesn't manage to drop
something from one of their bridges on to a motorway running underneath ...

Peter