Thameslink: Misery to continue for passengers as Network Rail fails to repair power lines

Trains cancelled for Monday morning rush hour on line through St Pancras

Delay reaction: commuters at London St Pancras (Simon Calder)

Thousands of rail commuters on Thameslink face another day of disruption after Network Rail failed to complete repairs on overhead power lines outside London St Pancras.

Problems started Thursday, when record high temperatures caused the wires to sag – making them susceptible to damage from train pantographs.

Wires were brought down in several locations on the rail network, but the worst damage was at West Hampstead on the East Midlands line north from St Pancras.

The line is shared by Thameslink commuter services, running to St Albans, Luton and Bedford, and East Midlands Trains to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Both train operators have been operating reduced services all weekend, and were hoping that repair work would be completed in time for the start of services on Monday.

But Network Rail said on Sunday evening: “While work has progressed far enough to allow East Midlands Trains to plan a full and normal service on Monday, the full extent of the required works means disruption will carry on into the working week for Thameslink passengers.”

Engineers working at the scene over the weekend discovered “previously unidentified damage to wiring” that required about 2km of overhead line equipment to be replaced.

Rob McIntosh, managing director of Network Rail Eastern, said: “I know how disruptive this is to our passengers and I’m sorry we haven’t been able to fully reopen the line. We are working as hard as we can to finish the repair work and to reduce disruption for customers.”

The publicly owned rail infrastructure provider said that engineers were working around the clock, but problems could continue beyond Monday.

In the skies, dozens more flights were cancelled as Britain’s two biggest airlines battled to get back on schedule. British Airways and easyJet were hit by bad weather on Friday combined with an air-traffic control systems failure affecting their two main bases, Heathrow and Gatwick respectively.

British Airways cancelled 10 round-trips from Heathrow, to destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin and New York. BA also grounded a handful of services from Gatwick and London City airports.

From Gatwick, easyJet cancelled flights to Alicante, Milan, Munich and elsewhere, blaming air-traffic control problems on Saturday.