Published on: Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Abellio Greater Anglia and Network Rail want to apologise for the disruption caused by the closure of lines across our network earlier this week.
On Sunday we took the difficult decision to suspend all Abellio Greater Anglia services on Monday morning based on the high winds forecast and with the safety of passengers in mind. This approach not only ensured we could undertake a full assessment of the damage done by the storm, but also prevented trains with customers on board becoming stranded with the risk that our teams would be unable to reach them quickly and provide assistance. Had we been running trains in these conditions we would have been compromising passenger and staff safety.
Throughout the early hours of Monday morning, it became clear that despite the additional resources we deployed on our entire route, the storm damage was more severe than anticipated across the region which was hit last by the adverse weather conditions.
Hundreds of staff have worked round the clock to remove more than 230 trees from tracks , 24 of which were entangled in the overhead lines, as well as repairing overhead lines brought down by heavy winds at four different locations.
On Monday we worked to reopen lines as soon as they were cleared of debris. We also ran engineering trains over each route at low speed to ensure that we could operate safely. Twenty-seven teams dedicated to clearing fallen trees were also deployed. The extent of the clearance work required meant we were unable to reopen all lines before the start of service on Tuesday morning, but we worked as quickly as possible to restore services.
Abellio Greater Anglia ticket holders who were unable to travel on Monday and/or Tuesday are entitled to a full refund and customers (including those with season tickets) can claim via our Delay Repay process, details of which are here: http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/about-us/our-performance/delay-repay
We want to thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we have worked to restore the full scheduled timetable.
Ruud Haket
Managing Director
Abellio Greater Anglia
Dave Ward
Route Managing Director
Network Rail