A fault with the signalling system between Barnham and Chichester means that trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines. Trains running through these stations may be delayed by up to 10 minutes.
This is expected until 12:00.
Customer Advice
Due to a fault with the signalling system in the Chichester area services due to run through Chichester may be delayed by up to 30 minutes or diverted after Barnham to Bognor Regis.
If your journey this morning involves travelling in the Chichester area we strongly advise that you plan ahead as travel in the area will be disrupted. Please expect your journey to be extended by up to 30 minutes. You can check if your journey will be affected by viewing our live map here.
Currently Southern services due to run between Portsmouth/Southampton and London will now be diverted to run between London and Bognor Regis only. This means if you're travelling between London and Portsmouth/Southampton you will need to change at Barnham or Clapham Junction for alternative South Western services.
Southern services due to run between Portsmouth/Southampton and Brighton will run but will be subject to delays of 30 minutes.
Services between Littlehampton and Portsmouth will also run but with delays of 30 minutes.
Alternative options for your journey
Please consider using another route, if you can. You can check for an alternative route here. To help you complete your journey today Southern tickets will be valid at no extra cost on:
- Stagecoach 700 buses between Brighton, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Chichester and the Portsmouth area
- Brighton & Hove Buses between Brighton, Hove and Shoreham-by-Sea
- South Western Railway services between Portsmouth and Southampton Central, as well as services between these areas and London Waterloo
Can you tell me more about the incident?âââââââ
In this particular situation the fault has been confirmed as a 'Track Circuit Failure'. This means the signalling system is unable to automatically verify if the next section of track past the affected signal is clear.
The rail network is designed so that if a signal stops working, trains will stop before they reach it. Whilst this issue is ongoing, train crew will stop at the affected signal and contact the signalling centre to confirm their location. At this point the signaller will verbally authorise the driver to continue towards the next signal. This process adds time to every train's journey, which means services can experience short delays.
Network Rail response staff are on-site and have found a defective transformer that will need to be replaced. Staff at Network Rail are now locating a spare transformer to replace the faulty one. There is currently no ETA for when this replacement will be on-site but once there is it will be updated here.
Check before you travel:
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner
Twitter:
If you would like to follow this incident on Twitter, please use #Chichester
Compensation:
You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.