THOUSANDS of passengers had their journeys disrupted on the East Coast Main Line on Saturday, after a major signalling failure affected the York area. But operators are mainly coming under fire for not keeping their customers informed.
The problem at York panel was caused by a software fault, which led to all signals going to red between York and Northallerton.
Network Rail said ten trains were stranded in the section, five of them passenger services. Reports have suggested that 3,000 passengers were delayed.
The passenger operators affected included CrossCountry, East Coast, Grand Central and TransPennine Express. East Coast introduced a contingency timetable north and south of York and provided emergency buses.
The problem was finally cleared five and and a half hours later, at 18.30, but disruption continued during the evening, because many trains and crews had become displaced.
Network Rail said it had no reports of any problems on Sunday.
Details of the fault have not been revealed, but Network Rail said the software had not been recently installed.
Passengers involved have voiced bitter criticisms of the lack of information: one of those who had been trapped on a stalled train was described to Railnews as being ‘very angry’, and reports suggest that many others were also unhappy.
East Coast has apologised, saying that extra staff were sent to York to help, and that one problem had been that it did not know when the line would be reopened.
The incident was the second to affect a major signalling panel within a week. Services around Cardiff Central came to a halt on Tuesday morning after a fault with the mains supply, which was then worsened by the failure of an emergency generator.