Widespread Technical Fault Causes UK Rail Network Delays

National Rail has announced that a “nationwide fault” led to significant disruption across at least 10 lines of the UK’s railway network. The organization attributed the problem to the radio communication system used by train drivers and signallers. While the issue has now been resolved, residual delays may persist as timetables are reinstated. Services to and from major transport hubs in England, including Manchester Piccadilly, London Paddington, and Southampton Central, experienced impacts. The affected operators included Great Northern, Northern, ScotRail, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express, and the Elizabeth line. Travel expert Simon Calder informed BBC Radio 5Live that Friday morning had been “a miserable rush hour for a lot of people.” National Rail indicated that the problem appeared to be a fault with the onboard GSMR radio system, which is utilized for emergency communications. The BBC understands that the cause of the fault has been identified and rectified. To alleviate disruption prior to this, a backup system was being employed. Network Rail stated that the issue primarily affected trains at the start or end of the day, which a spokesperson said was “causing a few minutes of delay at the start of the day.” However, it added that “once up-and-running the system is working normally and the impact on passengers is minimal.” Even though the problem has now been fixed, National Rail cautioned that some residual disruption might occur while timetables are being restored. It advises that passengers whose journeys are delayed may be entitled to compensation. One passenger told the BBC he ended up paying for a £54 taxi ride to complete his journey. Matthew Smith, 47, was traveling from Portsmouth to Basingstoke on Friday morning for work. The train he intended to take was no longer stopping at Basingstoke, so he was advised to catch the next one, half an hour later. “Staff at the station had as much information as I could obtain from the app,” he said. Mr Smith eventually caught a train to Havant before deciding to finish his journey in a taxi. “This is the third consecutive day where there have been issues on these trains and it is not pleasurable or acceptable especially given the price we pay for rail journeys,” he said. At London Waterloo, some commuters reported being at least an hour late for work due to the disruption. One woman mentioned she was running three hours late for a job interview. BBC producer Carolyn Rice was aboard a train from Southampton bound for Waterloo, but it ultimately terminated at Woking an hour behind schedule. This was in addition to disruption caused by over-running engineering works. Across the network on Friday morning, most delays appeared to be no longer than 15 minutes, but some services were delayed by up to an hour. Earlier in the day, National Rail had advised travelers to plan for some services to be canceled at short notice. ScotRail confirmed its services were affected on Friday morning but have since returned to normal operation. The Gatwick Express was only running between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport, and some Heathrow Express trains experienced delays. Services along the entire Elizabeth line were also impacted. Elsewhere, journeys between Brighton and Southampton Central, and Kings Lynn and London Kings Cross, were not operating for their full length. The issue was caused by the railway’s GSMR system, which enables drivers and signallers to communicate in areas – such as tunnels – where previous analogue systems did not function. It operates similarly to mobile phones, but the digital system is not reliant on commercial mobile phone operators. The rail network maintains its own contained phone and mast system. One rail source told the BBC that “the system [wasn’t] connecting easily.” The BBC understands that a new piece of hardware, installed as part of an upgrade to the system at a major telecommunications hub in Stoke, was the source of the problem. Replacement hardware has been installed, and the system has been rebooted. While that was being fixed, it was confirmed that there were no safety-critical issues, as staff were using a workaround to manually reconnect. This well-rehearsed backup involves drivers entering a code provided to them on a “wild card,” which allows them to establish communications with the national network. It has been described to us as working like a wi-fi password – when the correct code is entered, the system becomes fully operational and will remain so. Radios that had been manually programmed by drivers are now being switched back to automatic mode. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.