An apology for disruption: Monday 21 November
22 November 2022 •
We would like to apologise to customers caught up in disruption on the c2c network yesterday.
What happened?
At approximately 05:00 on Monday morning, all signalling was lost between Barking and West Ham.
Network Rail dispatched a team of engineers to the area who then discovered deliberate damage had been caused to cables that feed the overhead lines and multiple components were damaged.
Because of the overhead lines damage and the signalling failure, no services could run on the London-bound track between Barking and West Ham until the power lines and signal failures were repaired by Network Rail. This severely restricted the number of trains we could operate.
We managed to run a limited number of services through the affected area but these were suspended at 07:00 due to an emergency isolation to fix the fault with the overhead lines and the signal failure. We were able to terminate and restart most services from Barking.
Once the issue was fixed by our Network Rail colleagues, we worked hard to recover the service for customers, with normal running commencing just after 16:16. However, the damage to the overhead lines and signals caused some knock-on delays and cancellations to our service.
Arrangements were made for c2c tickets to be accepted on Greater Anglia and London Underground services to help provide alternative options for travel.
Rob Mullen, Managing Director of c2c said, “We are really sorry to all of our customers who were caught up in yesterday’s disruption on the c2c route, which was due to attempted cable theft at West Ham.
“We know this will have caused extensive delays to your journeys especially as it happened at the worst possible time i.e. the morning peak. We worked closely with our Network Rail colleagues throughout the day to get our services up and running as quickly as possible and thanks to their hard work, services recovered quickly for those customers travelling during the late afternoon and into the evening.”
Compensation for delays
If you were delayed you will be eligible for compensation for your journey. Find out more about the compensation we offer, and how to claim, here.
- c2c smartcard users: You will receive automatic compensation provided you tapped your Smartcard at both the start and end of your journey. If you were not able to do so, you will have to make a manual claim for your delay. This is because our system will not have full information about your journey, so cannot calculate your automatic compensation. We recommend you check your online account to ensure our automatic payments do reflect your actual delay. If you feel they do not, you can use your online account to correct the automatic system or alternatively submit a manual claim.
Paper ticket holders, Oyster and contactless card users: Please fill out your details on this online delay repay form to claim your compensation.