Delays through Tulse Hill expected until 17:00 

Route(s) affected

Southern between Tulse Hill and Beckenham Junction / East Croydon

Thameslink between St Albans City and Sutton

Description

A fault with the signalling system at Tulse Hill means that trains must run at a reduced speed in the area.

As a result, trains running through this station may be delayed by up to 10 minutes.

Disruption is expected to continue until 17:00.

Customer advice:

If you are travelling in the Tulse Hill area, you can use your normal route, but you are recommended to allow extra time to complete your journey.

Services travelling away from London are experiencing delays on the approach to Tulse Hill, which may add around 5 - 10 minutes to your journey time.

Planning your journey:

You can use live departure boards and view a live map of the network.

You can also see the alternative route guide.

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

You can also use the Thameslink or Southern apps to find up-to-date information.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

A track circuit failure will disrupt your journey in the Tulse Hill 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.

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.