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  • Re: What is the state of our tracks?

    From Martin@3:633/10 to All on Friday, August 28, 2026 22:19:15
    On 26/08/2026 09:21, Trolleybus wrote:
    I was on the XC Stansted to Birmingham service yesterday. All the way
    in both directions. Between March and Peterborough I walked to the
    tiolet two cars away - or tried to. The lurching of the class 170 was
    such that I had to hold on for dear life all the way, and there was absolutely no possility of urinating in the traditional male manner.

    We arrived at New Street ten minutes late due to 'track defects'.

    On the return we were warned on three widely seperated occasions that
    we should hold on tight if standing or walking around the train, again because of track defects. We got to STN/SSD 13 minutes late, but it
    would have been worse if it wasn't for a scheduled nine minute stop at Cambridge, truncated to a couple of minutes. At one point near Ely we
    were travelling at 15-20mph.

    I know the Fens are particularly bad but I suspect that problems
    caused or exacerbated by the drought are widespread. What will happen
    to lines, subsiding due to shrinking subsoil, once it starts to expand
    again? We know that Network Rail's budget has been cut so addressing
    the problems is likely to be slow. Can we expect TSRs over much of the network for the foreseeable future?

    (I missed my hourly bus home from Stansted. I'd have complained to XC,
    but it was only after I left the station that I realised that I'd
    travelled from Birmingham on a super-cheap Advance dated 25th
    September. Oops).

    Last Saturday I traveled both ways between Brandon and Peterborough and
    can confirm the track over the fens is in a very poor conditions with
    slow running. My four services each lost a few minutes and Ely North
    Junction was performing as expected with late sunning services and
    adding to the delays.

    I did have my car with me and the track was in a visibly poor condition
    in the vicinity of level crossings.

    I did notice an accommodation crossing under repair. One of the ramps
    from ground level up to 15ish foot higher track bed level had partially collapsed.

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