Lines have now reopened following a points failure between St Albans and West Hampstead Thameslink. While service recovers, trains running between these stations may still be delayed by up to 30 minutes or cancelled.
Disruption is expected until 22:30.
East Midlands Railway Customer Advice
You should continue to travel as originally planned however your journey may be delayed by 60 minutes.
Thameslink Customer Advice
Services can now run on all lines, however there will still be disruption in the Radlett area so please continue to allow an additional 30 minutes to complete your journey.
Thameslink services that run from Rainham to Luton and Sutton to St Albans will be disrupted in both directions whilst services begin to recover.
Planning your journey:
Live departure boards can be found here.
You can view a live map of the network here.
You can see an alternative route guide here.
If you're travelling in the London area, you can plan journeys on alternative routes by using the TfL Journey Planner here.
Ticket acceptance:
- London Underground on any reasonable route
- East Midlands Railway between London and Bedford
- London Buses between Central London and Elstree & Borehamwood
You can also use these alternative Arriva Bus routes (at an additional cost):
- Route A between Luton Airport, Luton Airport Parkway (Kimpton Road) and Luton town
- Routes 27 / 28 / 23 between Leagrave station and Luton Town
Can you tell me more about the incident?
A points failure has been reported, and this is preventing trains from using some of the routes through this area.
Points are moveable sections of track which can send trains onto different routes at junctions. These are part of the signalling system, generally managed by Network Rail.
Points can stop moving correctly for a number of reasons. For example, there may be an obstruction in the moving parts, or the electronic control systems may have developed a fault.
There are various backup systems which allow signallers to try to "set" the points, and in some cases, the points may be available for trains in one of the directions they serve, but not another. However, with more severe failures, the line in question may be blocked entirely.
Network Rail will send their specialist Signalling & Telecoms teams to site, and they will set up a safe method of working on the track. To allow staff to access the railway, sometimes teams have to stop trains completely, which can lead to your train being held at stations or signals en route.
As soon as it's safe to go on the line, the staff will diagnose the fault and find any quick solutions to resolve it.
Check before you travel:
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner
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.