Minor delays between Herne Hill / Denmark Hill and London Blackfriars expected until the end of the day  

Route(s) affected

between Herne Hill / Denmark Hill and London Blackfriars

Description

A fault with the signalling system in the Loughborough Junction area means that all lines are disrupted. As a result, trains running between Herne Hill / Denmark Hill and London Blackfriars may be delayed by up to 10 minutes.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer advice:

If you're travelling between Elephant & Castle and Loughborough Junction your journey may take up to 5 minutes longer than usual.

You can continue to travel using your normal route, but please allow extra time to reach your destination.

Planning your journey:

To help you plan your journey, you can find alternative route maps on the Thameslink website.

Please check journey planners and station information boards before you travel and allow extra time to reach your destination.

You can view live departure boards, and you can check a live map to see if your journey has been affected.

You can also use the Thameslink app to find up-to-date travel information.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

A track circuit failure is affecting trains travelling in both directions on the route between Loughbrough Junction and Elephant & Castle.

This part of the network uses track circuits to detect the position of trains. These are electrical systems which monitor whether a train is on a section of track. They operate as part of the signalling system, which is designed to be "fail-safe".

When a track circuit fails, the signalling system will interpret this as a train remaining in place, even though there may not be a train present at all, or the previous service may have long since left the area.

As a result, further trains cannot be automatically allowed onto the relevant section of track. Train drivers will be stopped by red signals on approach. They will then get verbal permission from the signaller so that they can proceed, and will run at a heavily reduced speed as far as the next signal. This is so that the drivers will stop safely if they see anything ahead of them.

In some areas, the sections between signals can be several miles long, so this can result in delays building up. Even with shorter sections of track affected, there would still be a delay of at least a few minutes to each journey.

Track circuit faults can be caused by several different issues, including electronic faults or obstructions on the track. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including track circuits, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible.

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.