Disruption between Hove and Preston Park expected until 12:00 

Route(s) affected

Between Littlehampton and London Victoria

Description

A fault with the signalling system between Hove and Preston Park means that some lines are blocked. Trains running through these stations may be delayed by up to 40 minutes or diverted as a result.

This is expected until 12:00.

Customer advice:

If you are travelling between Littlehampton and London Victoria, your direct train service will not run. Please allow an extra 30 minutes to complete your journey and use alternative routes to complete your journey.

If you are travelling from Brighton towards London, your service may be delayed by up to 10 minutes.

How services are affected:

Littlehampton to London Victoria services are cancelled in both directions.

If you from stations between Littlehampton and Hove towards London should take a West Coastway service towards Brighton and connect with services towards London Victoria or London Bridge.

Passengers travelling from London towards Littlehampton should travel to Brighton and change for connecting West Coastway services.

Ticket acceptance:

To help you complete your journey you can use your ticket on any of the following, at no extra cost:

• Any alternative Southern between Littlehampton, Hove and Brighton

• Thameslink between Brighton and London

• Gatwick Express between Brighton and London Victoria

• London Underground between London terminals

Can you tell me more about the incident?

A track circuit failure will disrupt your journey in the Preston Park area.

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 a number of 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. Southern are closely monitoring progress updates.

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.