Made up excuses for lateness

[CaptainHaddock]

Here's a new one on me, seen on the departures screen at Leeds station Wetherspoons just now.



Call me pedantic if you like but surely if a train doesn't stop at a station it was supposed to it would be early rather than late?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Here's a new one on me, seen on the departures screen at Leeds station Wetherspoons just now.

View attachment 213456

Call me pedantic if you like but surely if a train doesn't stop at a station it was supposed to it would be early rather than late?

It's not necessarily that train that had issues.

Looking at RTT, it looks like it was this one.

1653 Hull to Doncaster departed Hessle 17 minutes late.

To me that suggests it overshot the station and was given permission to set back, causing the delay.

I stand for correction, however.

 

[Krokodil]

Call me pedantic if you like but surely if a train doesn't stop at a station it was supposed to it would be early rather than late?

Not if it was subsequently delayed while Control made decisions about whether to relieve the driver etc.

 

[Lewisham2221]

"a late running train being in front of this one"

This one essentially translates as "this train was on time until it was held at a red signal, or encountered yellow signals". The majority of the time, that is because of a late running train - albeit "in front" can often mean just passing a junction rather than anything that you're following for any length of time - although as in your example, a train being sent early and causing another train to encounter cautionary aspects would generate the same reason.

 

[The exile]

This one essentially translates as "this train was on time until it was held at a red signal, or encountered yellow signals". The majority of the time, that is because of a late running train - albeit "in front" can often mean just passing a junction rather than anything that you're following for any length of time - although as in your example, a train being sent early and causing another train to encounter cautionary aspects would generate the same reason.

Or indeed sonetimes it’s the inbound working of that train.

 

[Horizon22]

This one essentially translates as "this train was on time until it was held at a red signal, or encountered yellow signals". The majority of the time, that is because of a late running train - albeit "in front" can often mean just passing a junction rather than anything that you're following for any length of time - although as in your example, a train being sent early and causing another train to encounter cautionary aspects would generate the same reason.

Or indeed sonetimes it’s the inbound working of that train.

As mentioned before, ideally you get to "root cause" (i.e attribute the same reason for the return working that delayed the inbound working) but sometimes especially on congested and complex parts of the network that can involved a lot of digging to find out why train D is late because train C was delayed at location X and that was because Train B was delayed between Y-Z etc which is not always clear cut or easy to do. Information controllers are not delay attributors and the latter may take place hours or even days after the event.

 

[The exile]

As mentioned before, ideally you get to "root cause" (i.e attribute the same reason for the return working that delayed the inbound working) but sometimes especially on congested and complex parts of the network that can involved a lot of digging to find out why train D is late because train C was delayed at location X and that was because Train B was delayed between Y-Z etc which is not always clear cut or easy to do. Information controllers are not delay attributors and the latter may take place hours or even days after the event.

That reminds me of the story from the other viewpoint. Lady travelling in from Elgin on the first train of the day, irate that her connection was not held at Aberdeen. On being told that the policy was only to hold the last train, her rejoinder was “But I’m going to Newquay so that was the last train!”

 

[Horizon22]

That reminds me of the story from the other viewpoint. Lady travelling in from Elgin on the first train of the day, irate that her connection was not held at Aberdeen. On being told that the policy was only to hold the last train, her rejoinder was “But I’m going to Newquay so that was the last train!”

Are there really any places where the first train of the day at origin has an intermidate connection at another station for the last train of the day at destination? Maybe a trivia question!

 

[The exile]

Are there really any places where the first train of the day at origin has an intermidate connection at another station for the last train of the day at destination? Maybe a trivia question!

In the days of longer journeys and sparser timetables almost certainly (though of course in that example the lady would have had at least two more changes to make - it dates from the 1970s at least).

 

[Krokodil]

Or indeed sonetimes it’s the inbound working of that train.

Seems to have been a recent phenomenon. They used to use a dedicated announcement about delays on a previous journey, rather than repurposing the one you would use if following a late runner.