Cancelled train shown as On Time

[Torfaen]

Not for the first time, today's 0656 Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads service (2C50) was showing on customer information screens and journey planners as "on time" even though it had failed to emerge from Stoke Gifford depot almost two hours earlier. After its scheduled departure time from Cardiff, its status on the departure screens at Newport just changed to delayed, even though there was no possible chance of it ever appearing.

Wrong information is, of course, worse than no information. Had they known, the 40 or so passengers waiting patiently on platform 4 would have done far better to have hurried over the footbridge to catch the London train and change at Bristol Parkway. Even worse, the next Temple Meads service half an hour later was a short-formed (2-car) turbo (which I notice was delayed for 20 minutes in the platform at Newport.)

Presumably GWR control should have updated the systems to show 2C50 as cancelled, but what would it take to get this to happen automatically? When a passenger service forms from an ECS working that hasn't happened, it surely doesn't take very sophisticated software to deduce that the subsequent passenger service isn't going to happen? On RTT it was showing without a unit allocation, which is surely a clue as well?

I'm aware of a similar issue when one service is a continuation of another but with a new headcode, and when the first service is severely delayed, the subsequent service shows as on time until it doesn't start. In both situations, I feel passengers are being let down by information systems that are not all they could be.

 

[Javelin_55]

When a passenger service forms from an ECS working that hasn't happened, it surely doesn't take very sophisticated software to deduce that the subsequent passenger service isn't going to happen?

Except sometimes it does happen - if a unit is swapped for example. It's for reasons such as this that services have to be manually cancelled in the system (at least for my TOC), and it sounds like in this case it was overlooked. Frustrating.

However information systems projecting into the future beyond tracking a single service would be a disaster if the plan changes suddenly (one service now forms another, or a scheduled detachment doesn't happen) and would lead to far more instances of customers being given the wrong information. It's not perfect, but no system is.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Presumably GWR control should have updated the systems to show 2C50 as cancelled, but what would it take to get this to happen automatically? When a passenger service forms from an ECS working that hasn't happened, it surely doesn't take very sophisticated software to deduce that the subsequent passenger service isn't going to happen? On RTT it was showing without a unit allocation, which is surely a clue as well?

Yes you're right, GWR should have made an amendment to show 2C50 as cancelled. It seems like the empty stock should leave Stoke Gifford with 2 units, with them splitting at Bristol Parkway (the other IET forming a Bristol Temple Meads to Plymouth working) but today it was only one unit.

I find errors like these very frustrating when they should/could have been dealt with much earlier, like you've said yourself, if 2C50 had been cancelled much earlier, it would have given passengers time to make alternative arrangements.

Having said all that, I've experienced first hand during service disruption when the TOC I work for (not GWR!) has managed to cancel a few different services, but not also cancelled their next workings, so they were showing on time until I called Control to point out there weren't any units in position to work them because the previous workings had been cancelled.

 

[Torfaen]

However information systems projecting into the future beyond tracking a single service would be a disaster if the plan changes suddenly (one service now forms another, or a scheduled detachment doesn't happen) and would lead to far more instances of customers being given the wrong information. It's not perfect, but no system is.

Agreed that set swaps etc happen - in which case a manual update would surely override the information displayed. Until that happens, and the planned diagram clearly isn't going to happen, I'd prefer the train simply to show as "delayed". That way, anyone who had been intending to travel on it can at least consider their options, or enquire from staff who may be able to find out what is going on.

 

[Javelin_55]

Absolutely, manual updates are the name of the game, and so annoying when they're missed or staff are playing catch up.

I live one station away from a terminus where drivers book on. I've lost count of the number of times the CIS says the train is "on time" until it isn't, then gets cancelled ten mins after. Only to find out later that the driver didn't show up for work and Control knew the train wasn't going to run half an hour before I turned up.

 

[norbitonflyer]

It is not uncommon for trains from Shepperton to be diverted via Richmond instead of Wimbledon. When that happens the trains are usually still shown on the CIS at the unserved intermediate stations as being on time, (or however late they were at Fulwell), long after the train was due, and often even after the train had got to Waterloo. To see, at 0900, that the 0732 departure is "on time" destroys any confidence in the CIS, or that the management actually think it matters.