is TOPS still in use

[daccer]

I was a lowly TOPS clerk in the late 80's and I was wondering if the system is still in use and if not what was it replaced with if anything. For its time it was revolutionary and as a spotty 18 year old it was actually nice controlling some aspect of the railway. As part of our remit at Leicester the TOPS office got to plan the local trip workings ( we still had them in those days!!) and we had class 47's flying all over the place at our beck and call!

 

[Phoenix]

I was a lowly TOPS clerk in the late 80's and I was wondering if the system is still in use and if not what was it replaced with if anything. For its time it was revolutionary and as a spotty 18 year old it was actually nice controlling some aspect of the railway. As part of our remit at Leicester the TOPS office got to plan the local trip workings ( we still had them in those days!!) and we had class 47's flying all over the place at our beck and call!

Indeed TOPS still plays an important role in the railway.
I doubt it will be replaced any time soon.

 

[GB]

As pheonix points out, TOPs is still very important to todays railway operations, but there is also another system in use along side it called Gemini. Dont know much about it though.

 

[HSTfan!!!]

TOPS is still the primary choice, WebGemini can give you a fair bit of information but I know for a fact I rarely use it.

 

[43034 The Black Horse]

As pheonix points out, TOPs is still very important to todays railway operations, but there is also another system in use along side it called Gemini. Dont know much about it though.

Theres P2 aswell and TRUST. All do a different thing granted but all usefull in some way or another.

 

[37401]

TOPS will last years it works well and as stated by Phoenix it plays an important role in the rail industry

 

[TEW]

Web Geminin is used by quite a few TOCs now.

 

[Phoenix]

Generally TOPS and TRUST are the most used systems out there and some of the others mentioned have been adopted by TOC's as there daily operations vary to the operations of freight and spot hire companies.
I have no idea how all systems actually work all I know is that TOPS has provided us with the class numbers we use daily and that TRUST tracks working by head codes and you can find out from it if the working your looking for is keyed in to actually happen.