Journeys to and from London Waterloo station in the UK have been heavily disrupted after a trackside fire broke out on the 11th December, causing mass delays and many trains to be cancelled.
The fire meant that platforms one to three were out of service, with disruption lasting until the end of the day, to the point that South Western Railway (SWR) were advising passengers to not use their services.
Track circuits on three lines were directly impacted by the fire, after it came into contact with a 650-volt cable.
Network Rail understandably weighed in on the situation, and claimed that the cable fire – which in turn caused some damage to trackside equipment – was under investigation, and did its best to re-open the platforms affected as quickly as possible.
The damage was so extensive that every driver had to seek out verbal approval before moving onto the next segment of the track, according to SWR, which is one of the reasons why there were so many delays, as this caused a massive backlog.
SWR also made the point that their passengers are very much eligible for compensation as a result of this, however this will only apply if they were delayed by 15 minutes or more.
