Disruption between Moorgate and Finsbury Park expected until 17:30 

Route(s) affected

Between Moorgate and Hertford North / Welwyn Garden City / Stevenage

Description

A fault on a train in the Drayton Park area means that some lines are blocked between Moorgate and Finsbury Park.

As a result, services running between these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised.

Disruption is expected until 17:30.

Customer advice:

If you are travelling between Moorgate and Finsbury Park now, you will need to use an alternative route to complete your journey and it will take longer than usual to reach your destination.

If you are travelling now we recommend that you allow an extra 30 minutes to complete your journey.

Service changes in place:

• Trains that normally run between Welwyn Garden City and Moorgate will now run between Welwyn Garden City and Finsbury Park only

• Trains that normally run between Stevenage and Moorgate will be diverted after Finsbury Park and will terminate / restart at London Kings Cross

This means that the following stations will not be served:

• Drayton Park: please use Finsbury Park as an alternative which is a 15 minute walk from Drayton Park

• Highbury & Islington: please use alternative London Underground (Victoria line) services between here and Finsbury Park to complete your journey

• Essex Road: you will need to use London Buses to/from Finsbury Park to complete your journey to or from this station

• Old Street: please use alternative London Underground (Northern line) services between here and London Kings Cross to complete your journey

• Moorgate: please use Farringdon as an alternative which is a 15 minute walk from Moorgate using Thameslink services to connect between Farringdon and Finsbury Park

How can I complete my journey?

You can use your ticket at no extra cost on the below alternative operators:

• Great Northern between Finsbury Park and London Kings Cross

• Thameslink between Farringdon and Finsbury Park

• London Underground between Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington and between London Kings Cross and Old Street

• London Buses between Finsbury Park and Moorgate

Using an alternative route will take longer than usual. Please allow up to 30 minutes of additional time for your journey.

Planning your journey:

You can view live departure boards, and a live map of the Great Northern network.

You can also use an alternative route guide.

If you're travelling in the London area, you can plan journeys on alternative routes by using the TfL Journey Planner.

The Great Northern app will also help you plan your journey.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

Great Northern have had a report of a fault on a train, and this is now causing delays to other services travelling through this area.

Normally, when a fault on a train occurs, our crews will gather details and report this to Fleet teams. If possible, the defect will be fixed promptly, and we'll get the train on the way. Our initial steps are designed to take around 10 minutes.

However, sometimes the fault cannot be fixed in this time frame. In this case, wherever possible, the train will be taken out of use and sent to a depot. This does take additional time, as the crew will need to make sure that everyone's managed to leave the train.

If this can't be done either, we'll send our specialist engineers to site, known as "fitters". There are fitters based in key locations around the network, 24 hours a day, and they are able to attend anywhere on our routes. Once they are on site, operators then monitor progress updates and ensure that the railway can be reopened as promptly as possible.

Until the defective train can be moved, Great Northern will try to find a way to get other trains around the issue. This depends how many lines are available, and whether the signalling equipment is set up to allow trains to be routed around the problem. This is more often the case on our major routes, but not always. Staff will work with Network Rail's controllers to decide how many more trains can be sent through the area, and if this isn't possible, we'll see what alternative solutions are available to help you continue your journey.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.