Disruption between West Croydon and Norwood Junction / Selhurst expected until the end of the day 

Route(s) affected

London Overground between West Croydon and Highbury & Islington

Southern between Epsom and London Bridge, and also between Epsom Downs / Sutton (Surrey) West Croydon and London Victoria

Description

A fault with the signalling system in the West Croydon area means some lines are disrupted. As a result, trains between West Croydon and Norwood Junction / Selhurst may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes, diverted or revised.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

London Overground customer advice:

Two West Croydon services per hour will be diverted into Crystal Palace, two West Croydon services per hour will terminate at Surrey Quays / New Cross Gate. This means trains will not run between West Croydon and Sydenham.

Tickets will be accepted on London Buses via any reasonable route.

Southern customer advice:

You may need to change trains to complete your journey and allow extra time to travel.

Service running towards West Croydon are being delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Some trains that normally run between London Victoria and West Croydon will divert to South Croydon.

Please make sure to check your journey before you travel.

Planning your journey:

You can check your journey using the live departure boards, and you can view a live map of the network.

You can also see an alternative route guide.

Southern app will also help you plan your journey.

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

Can you tell me more about the incident?

This part of the network uses axle counters to detect whether trains are in the area. These are electrical systems which check the passage of train wheels and 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 an axle counter 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.

Axle counter faults can be caused by a number of different issues, including electronic faults and debris coming into contact with them. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including axle counters, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible. We're 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.