Travel chaos as trains are suspended on major line until end of the day

It’s time to end today’s rolling travel and transport blog, but tune back in tomorrow to see what the Friday has in store for transport.

Passengers have been warned of disruption on Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink services after a points failure in Purley.

Now National Rail has said the issues are set to continue until the end of the day.

Passengers to Gatwick Airport were told to allow an extra 60 minutes to their journeys.

The issue means means Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express trains are blocked in both directions.

Here is a recap of how the services are affected.

• Gatwick Express services will not run
• Thameslink Three Bridges to Bedford (stopping service) will not run
• Southern Reigate to London Victoria via Reigate will not run

The disruption has been going on for most of the day after it was first reported at about 1.30pm.

A string of strikes affecting LNER set to start this Saturday have been called off.

Aslef union members working for LNER were poised for 22 days of strikes until the union and train company bosses reached an agreement.

Read more about it below.

Passengers have been warned of disruption set to last for hours after a points failure in the Purley area.

It means trains face cancellations and up to 20-minute delays.

Gatwick Express told passengers travelling to Gatwick Airport to allow an extra 60 minutes to their journeys.

The disruption is set to last until 10pm, National Rail said.

Here are the affected routes.

• Gatwick Express between Brighton and London Victoria
• Southern between Portsmouth Harbour / Portsmouth & Southsea / Bognor Regis / Littlehampton / Eastbourne / Ore and London Victoria
• Thameslink between Brighton and Bedford / Cambridge, between Horsham and Peterborough and also between Three Bridges and Bedford

A fault on a train at London Fenchurch Street means services through the station could be cancelled or delayed by up to 20 minutes.

The disruption is set to last until 6.15pm, National Rail said.

Passengers were advised to check before travelling, and you can find the National Rail journey planner here.

The road network has been hit by another severe crash today, this time on the A1(M) in West Yorkshire.

The motorway was closed in both directions after a ‘seriously multi-vehicle collision.’

It happened southbound between J41 (M62) and J40 (Ferrybridge) this afternoon.

While the northbound carriageway was since reopened, there are severe delays on the southbound carriageway on approach to the area. Diversion routes have been put in place.

It is not looking promising if your afternoon travel involves Jubilee or Metropolitan line.

The busy commuter lines are experiencing severe delays just as rush hour gets underway.

Here is what to expected on the Tube network.

• Jubilee line – on the entire line after an earlier fire alert at Kilburn
• Metropolitan line – , and severe delays on the rest of the line due to the Kilburn fire alert

Commuters should brace for longer than usual journeys and even cancellations between London Euston and Harrow and Wealdstone after a points failure.

It means some lines are currently blocked. Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway trains could be cancelled or delayed by up to 15 minutes, National Rail warned.

The issue is expected to be solved by 5pm.

Well, kind of. We don’t mean boarding a flight for a holiday abroad for just £2.

MetroBus, which operators buses in parts of Surrey, Sussex, Kent and London, has extended its 420 route to cover Gatwick Airport.

This now means those heading to Gatwick will no longer have to pay for parking or beg someone to pick them up.

The daily bus, which calls at East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, Reigate, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, Banstead and Sutton, will now also stop at Horley, Gatwick’s South Terminal and Crawley.

Drivers who use zip through the Blackwall tunnel, which runs between Tower Hamlets and Greenwich in London, will soon have a new toll.

As will those planning on using the Silvertown tunnel, which is set to open next year to get between Newham and the Greenwich Peninsula.

But drivers only have until next Tuesday to complain and give feedback about these proposed tolls, according to TfL. This is the last week of the agency’s eight-week consultation period.

Drivers would have to pay £1.50 to use either of the tunnels, a tax that would cover the construction costs of the Silvertown tunnel.

During peak times, however, a £4 fee will be imposed on northbound trips from 6am to 10am and southbound from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays.

Driving through the tunnels between 10pm and 6am on weekdays and weekends would be free under the plans.

Taxi, bus and zero-emission cab drivers would be exempt, while low-income locals would only have to pay half the toll.

These plans are only in their proposal stage and haven’t been approved by officials.

All traffic caught within the closure on the westbound carriageway has been turned around and released.

National Highways has also released traffic trapped between the M25 junction 30 and Wennington.

The Romford Recorder reports that two men have been taken to a major trauma centre after the crash on the A13.

One man had to be cut out of his vehicle.

The London Fire Brigade sent two fire engines and a rescue unit to the scene after a lorry and a van crashed at about 7.15am.

Both drivers were injured and a passenger in the van sustained ‘larger injuries’, the Met Police said.

Sussex Police have now confirmed that the collision on the A27 near Pevensey led to the death of a 54-year-old man from Hastings.

A motorbike and a car crashed at about 6.20am this morning, and the motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed.

Officers are still investigating the scene and the road is set to remain closed in both directions until mid-afternoon.

Officers are trying to establish the full circumstances of the incident. They are specifically appealing to the driver of a light coloured vehicle who was travelling east on A27 Stone Cross at the time of the collision.

There are emergency repairs to the safety barriers ongoing on the A38 in Birmingham.

The works are delaying traffic heading in and out of the city, but National Highways says delays on the A38M southbound have started to ease.

Both of these roads are still closed following collisions which blocked their carriageways earlier this morning.

There is currently no indication of when either road could re-open, but National Highways has said the A27 will be closed ‘into the afternoon’.

National Rail warns that services running between Liverpool Lime Street and Runcorn or Manchester Oxford Road may still be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 45 minutes.

It’s hoped normal service will resume by midday.

Forget podcasts and music, bird song and the sound of waterfalls are the key to relaxation.

A new study, undertaken by South Western Railway (SWR) and advised and analysed by Professor Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, measured the impact of listening to nature soundscapes on passengers’ stress levels and relaxation when commuting by train.

During the study, passengers listened to a selection of nature sounds, including bird song, flowing rivers and rainfall, as well as their regular preferred audio source, such as music or a podcast.

Those who listened to nature soundscapes were 35% less stressed and 32% less nervous. By comparison, those listening to music or podcasts only registered an 11% reduction in stress.

Professor Spence said: ‘Much of the research that has been done on this subject area has taken place in laboratories and isn’t very ecologically valid, whereas this study may have been one of the only to have been conducted on a train with real commuters.

‘The results clearly demonstrate that listening to nature-inspired soundscape exerted a significant calming effect on passengers.

‘It would interesting to investigate whether the results could also be applicable to other forms of transport, such as long distance flights or lengthy drives.’

Drivers are queueing for more than 35 minutes on the anti-clockwise M25 between junction 26 for Waltham Abbey and junction 25 for Waltham Cross.

The broken down vehicle has just been towed away from the road, but delays are still affecting traffic.

The A13 is closed westbound between the M25 (J30) and Ferry Lane at Rainham due to a serious collision which has occurred on a section of road managed by the local authority, and not on National Highway’s network.

The eastbound carriageway is also closed between Rainham and Wennington but this is also not on National Highway’s network.

Essex Police are in attendance and due to the nature of the incident the road is expected to remain closed throughout the morning.

National Highways Traffic Officers are assisting with traffic management between the M25 J30 and the A1306 at Wennington, whilst TfL will be assisting with the rest of the closures.

Traffic is being diverted via local routes, and vehicles trapped within the closure will be turned around from the back of the queue.