Due to popular demand, commuter chaos this morning has been extended to all-day travel chaos at London’s Tower Bridge and King’s Cross.
The iconic London bridge might not be falling down anytime soon it was stuck up from 6am to 7.30am due to ‘technical problems’ wasn’t exactly ideal either. The road between Tower Hill and Queen Elizabeth Street was blocked.
A broken rail in the Finsbury Park area of north London means trains are running at a reduced speed, rippling through the Great Northern and Thameslink lines.
Trains between King’s Cross and Stevenage, about 27 miles north of London, may be cancelled, delayed by half an hour and won’t stop at particular stations. National Rail says journeys between Moorgate and Hertford North, Hertfordshire, may also take about 30 minutes more than usual.
Elsewhere, South Western Railway warns that some routes in Surrey and Hampshire aren’t running due to ‘overrunning engineering works’.
Euston hit with 80-minute long delays amid ‘incident’ between Lancaster and Preston
Avanti West Coast between Edinburgh / Glasgow Central and London Euston is one of several routes seeing ‘major disruption’ due to an incident.
National Rail says the disruption should ease up by 1pm, with impacted lines:
- Northern between Barrow-in-Furness / Windermere and Manchester Airport
- TransPennine Express between Edinburgh / Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport, and also between Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime Street
Line of lines impacted by broken rail continue to pile up
More train routes are being impacted by the broken rail in Finsbury Park, which has led to trains being slowed down. The disruption is expected to last for most of today.
Here are all the routes affected:
- Grand Central between Sunderland / Bradford Interchange and London Kings Cross
- Great Northern between Cambridge / Letchworth Garden City and London Kings Cross, and also between Welwyn Garden City and Moorgate
- Hull Trains between Beverley / Hull and London Kings Cross
- LNER between Aberdeen / Stirling / Edinburgh / Newcastle / Sunderland / Middlesbrough / York / Harrogate / Skipton / Leeds / Hull / Lincoln and London Kings Cross
- Lumo between Edinburgh and London Kings Cross
- Thameslink between Peterborough and London Kings Cross / Three Bridges / Horsham, between Welwyn Garden City and Sevenoaks, and also between Cambridge and London Kings Cross / Brighton
Mum claims she was singled out by Ryanair but gave ‘young and attractive’ people a pass
Maxine Haughian, a 63-year-old grandmother, has claimed that Ryanair staff treated ‘young and good-looking’ passengers better than her.
She was flying to Alicante, eastern Spain, from Leeds Bradford Airport last month when staff plucked her out of the queue was slightly too large for the cabin baggage.
‘I’m absolutely disgusted with Ryanair! I’ve just been held up for 20 minutes because they said my cabin bag was too big and I must pay an EXTRA £75 for it to go in the hold,’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘Alternatively, I can leave it and forfeit the bag and its contents!’
‘It’s funny (not funny) how other bags that are exactly the same were allowed through without comment. It’s a good job I took the photo of this (gorgeous) girl pushing her case into the box and being allowed through.’
Ryanair has been approached for comment.
‘Severe delays’ on M25 after van and trailer crash
Traffic is held on the M25 anti-clockwise between junctions 5 (M26) and 4 after an ‘accident involving a vehicle crossing the central reservation’, National Highways says.
The incident caused ‘extensive damage’ to the central reservation and is causing 30-minute delays.
London could see ‘another Heathrow’ if government approves airport expansions
The government will soon rule on expansion plans submitted by London’s top airports which, if approved, would see ‘another Heathrow’s’ worth of planes to the capital.
Five of London’s six airports want to upgrade their facilities to some degree, whether it be new runways or terminals. If officials approve them all, airports could serve 83.5 million more people a year by the 2040s.
Though experts worry that doing so isn’t exactly good news for the environment. Alethea Warrington, head of aviation, heat and engineering at the climate charity Possible, told The Standard: ‘I don’t see how this Government can possibly hope to be genuinely seen as a climate leader if it allows airport expansion.’
‘Hottest’ and ‘noisiest’ tube line is actually the best during rush hour – here’s why
You’d struggle to find anyone who enjoys taking the Tube in London during rush hour.
But on a scale of hellish-ness, there are some that could be considered better than others thanks to their frequency.
According to EasyTubeMap.com, the line with the most frequent service during weekday peak times is the Victoria Line, with 36 trains per hour.
Paddington latest major London station to see disruptions of up to 30 minutes
National Rail has just said that there will be disruption between Abbey Wood and Paddington until 12pm. Trains might be cancelled or delayed about half an hour.
This is down to a ‘failure of the electricity supply’ between the stations. The Elizabeth line has also been impacted.
HS2 will go to Euston, transport secretary insists
High Speed 2, usually known as HS2, will go to London Euston, the transport secretary has confirmed.
The high-speed rail line, decades in the meaning, was reportedly going to run from Birmingham to Old Oak Common in west London as it was cheaper.
But Louise Haigh told Times Radio doing so would make ‘no sense’.
‘Euston was always planned to be part of the picture for HS2. We are hoping to make an announcement on that very soon,’ she said.
Yet another issue on the Elizabeth Line
Earlier today, we reported how Stratford was at a standstill due to a broken-down train, causing delays in east London.
It seems Reading was feeling a little left out. So a signal failure in Twyford, Berkshire, has led to minor delays between Maidenhead and Reading, according to TfL.
Lorry fire on the M61
A lorry fire on the M61 Northbound is causing ‘severe delays’ on the motorway towards Lancashire.
While lanes that were closed have all since reopened, the traffic jams aren’t going away anytime soon. Cameras show logjams at junction 15 back to 18.
According to Inrix, the traffic monitoring service, some cars on the M61 Southbound are inching only by 10mph, with traffic of about 25 minutes expected.
Tower Bridge stuck open causing severe delays
London’s iconic Tower Bridge was stuck in the raised position since 6am after lifting up to let a cruise ship pass, giving a fair few motorists headaches this morning.
‘Technical problems’ caused the bridge to freeze up, blocking the road between Tower Hill and Queen Elizabeth Street. Traffic is backed up to Limehouse along The Highway from the Limehouse Link Tunnel.
Buses 42, 78 and 343 are on diversion.
TfL is reporting no severe traffic disruptions.
Minor delays on the Elizabeth line
Sometimes the morning commute is worse in theory than it is in practice. Today is not one of the days.
Commuters at Stratford have been left with not much to do other than stare at a packed train that has suffered from a ‘technical fault’, TfL says. Nobody has been able to get off the train.
‘Minor delays between Whitechapel and Shenfield while we fix a faulty train at Stratford,’ TfL says.
There are also minor delays on the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Uxbridge as engineers repair a faulty train.
Even more South West Railway train disruption
A signalling problem between Fratton and Hilsea in Hampshire means trains are slower than usual. They’re all subject to cancellations, delays and time revisions.
The disruption should end by midday.
South West Railway trains ‘cancelled, delayed or revised’
The railway operator says trains heading to Haslemere, a Surrey borough that includes Haslemere and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood, might be ‘cancelled, delayed or revised’.
This is because of a fault with the ‘electric third rail’, also known as a live rail, which powers trains. Disruptions should ease up by 12pm.
Stevenage and London King’s Cross disruption to last ‘until the end of the day’
Railway tracks are, well, a pretty vital part of making trains run. And National Rail says there is some ‘damage to the rail on a set of points in the Finsbury Park area’.
An engineers patch it up, National Rail has imposed a speed restriction on the affected track, reducing the number of trains running between London King’s Cross/Moorgate and Finsbury Park.
This is mainly impacting Great Northern and Thameslink services, with some trains not running:
- From Peterborough towards London King’s Cross
- Between Moorgate and Gordon Hill/Hertford North
Some peak early morning services won’t be running, while routes heading away from Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City/Stevenage will not stop at Harringay or Hornsey.
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