Disruption between Ford and Barnham expected until 09:15 

Route(s) affected

Between London Victoria and Bognor Regis / Portsmouth Harbour, between Brighton and Bognor Regis / Chichester / Portsmouth & Southsea / Portsmouth Harbour / Southampton Central, between Horsham and Bognor Regis / Portsmouth & Southsea / Portsmouth Harbour, and also between Littlehampton and Chichester

Description

A fault with the signalling system at Ford means that trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines. As a result, trains running between Ford and Barnham may be cancelled, delayed by up to 15 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 09:15.

Customer advice:

You may need to change trains to complete your journey and allow extra time to arrive at your destination. Trains running now are being delayed by up to 15 minutes.

How the service is being affected:

Services that normally run between Brighton and Southampton Central will terminate and restart at Barnham. A number of these services have been cancelled in full.

You may need to change at Havant or Portsmouth for an alternative South Western or Great Western Railway service towards Southampton Central.

Services that normally run between London Victoria and Portsmouth Harbour may terminate and restart at Bognor Regis.

You may need to change at Barnham for onwards travel towards Portsmouth.

Services that run between Bognor Regis and Barnham have been cancelled.

Trains that normally run between London Victoria and Bognor Regis are not affected. This means that you can continue to use train services to / from Bognor Regis, but your journey is likely to take longer than usual.

Tickets are being accepted at no extra cost on:

• Great Western Railway services between Portsmouth and Southampton Central

• South Western Railway services between Portsmouth and Southampton Central

Travelling via an alternative route will take longer than usual. Please allow at least 20 minutes more time to complete your journey.

Planning your journey:

For help planning your journey, check live departure boards, view a live network map or see alternative route guides.

If you’re travelling within London, you can use the TfL Journey Planner.

Stay up to date on the move with Southern’s WhatsApp channel. Live updates are available Monday to Friday, 07:00–21:00.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

Trains are likely to have some delays due to a fault with a signal in this area. In this case, the signal has been reported to be showing the wrong colour indication to drivers. This means drivers have to stop at the preceding signal and gain verbal instructions to continue. Your journey will unfortunately take longer as a result.

Railway signals are designed to warn drivers that they have to stop because the system can't yet confirm that the route ahead is clear. In most places, the signalling system will show a green light, or aspect, when the track is clear for a long distance ahead, and drivers will then be shown one or two yellow lights to warn them when they are approaching a red signal. This means that they can anticipate the amount of braking that's required to stop before they reach another train or any form of problem on the line. In this case, as the signal isn't reliably showing the necessary indications to drivers, they'll need to take extra safety precautions to travel through the area.

The signalling system is maintained by Network Rail, and work is being to diagnose the fault and make sure it is fixed as quickly as possible. Until this is done, the train service will be monitored and all will be done to keep to the timetable.

Ticket flexibility:

If your train is cancelled, you will be able to travel on an alternative service operated by any other participating train company, either two hours before or two hours after the original departure time of the cancelled service, in order to reach your destination.

If you decide not to travel or cannot complete your journey due to cancellations, you are entitled to a full refund from your original point of sale.

For further information and guidance please contact your train company or speak to a member of railway staff.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail 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.