Scotfail

[CarterUSM]

It took me a minute to work that one out after reading your post

Cool, i'll set them up, you deliver the punchline!
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All in Inverness! A fitter put one on a 158 after chisling snow off the coupler!

Did he use a portable gas burner too? I find it hard to believe Corkerhill has no snowbags though!

 

[scotsman]

Did he use a portable gas burner too? I find it hard to believe Corkerhill has no snowbags though!

He shoud've!

 

[ayrshire_voyager]

Seems I have stirred a hornets nest. This is organisational criticism, I know the staff do their best. However I have great difficulty understanding how a train that is supposed to arrive in 5 mins can suddenly be cancelled. My guess is that it never left Kilmarnock, therefore we should have been told earlier. I got the 11:42 and there was no sign of a broken down train, being a single track like for most of the way it may have been evident.

 

[CarterUSM]

Yes, but the unit you are expecting doesn't come from Killie, it comes from East Kilbride. Or it is diagrammed to anyway! During disruption, things change minute to minute, it may be decided to step up another unit, taking it away from the service its on, or perhaps bringing empties from the depot instead. I will say that you're not being lied to, but things can change that fast that it could be construed as such. I understand your frustation, but hope it isn't too common for you regardless.

 

[Bittern]

Yes, but the unit you are expecting doesn't come from Killie, it comes from East Kilbride.

Where the snow is exceptionally bad, where there's gonna be blizzards, where someone in particular has to be tomorrow!

JOY! -__________________________________-

 

[Train Pilchard]

The North Clyde and Argyle Lines weren't too clever this evening, loads of cancellations and delays, Partick is full to the brim, Milngavie train arrives, 3 cars long, one of the cars is closed, train already packed with all the aisles and standing room taken up, a coupe of hundred people waiting to get on.

But to be fair a random out of nowhere MIlngavie service turned up about 15 minutes later that was not on the screens and was described by the driver as a 'booked service'? There were only a handful of people on it, no idea where it came from.

 

[me123]

North Clyde and Argyle were an absolute mess today. I don't know where the problems lie, but I'm assuming that for some reason they simply couldn't operate a number of the trains. I wonder if anyone "in the know" could tell me why just so many cancellations were necessary today.

Basically; Larkhall-Dalmuir, High Street-Milngavie and Springburn-Dalmuir were all cancelled. This reduced a lot of services by about half (so only a half-hourly train via Yoker and via Singer, only half hourly to Milngavie, only half hourly to Lanark...). Goodness knows what happened in the peaks; thankfully I avoided both today.

Interestingly, the services via Yoker had an hour long gap in service this morning due to a timetable fluke. Slightly less good than the usual 4tph frequency. And particularly annoying as it affected me this morning, and will do tomorrow if the same contingency plan is followed...

What I did notice was that Yoker depot only had a handful of units in it this morning, and that there were quite a few 6 carriage trains running around. So hopefully there's not been a huge reduction in capacity even if there has been a reduction in frequency. Interestingly, services to Airdrie were unaffected in the morning peak and only marginally affected in the evening peak, so we seem to have done rather well.

And the announcements didn't help either. Scotrail's website has very helpfully explained what's happening. But the announcements at the stations for the cancelled services were along the lines of "I am sorry to announce that the 08:00 service to Springburn has been cancelled. The next train to Springburn will be at 08:30". But, of course, all trains to Springburn are cancelled for the day, so the next train will most certainly not be at 08:30. So hopefully not too many people were expecting any trains to run. There weren't any announcements explaining what was happening, nor was there much info on the boards. But the staff at least had some idea of what was going on.

Moans and groans aside, I take my hat off to Scotrail's station staff this morning who were visible at all stations clearing the platforms for the morning rush hour. They did an excellent job today in difficult conditions.

Interestingly, I was due out at EK this afternoon. I decided against it, given that the EK line is quite often disrupted and that EK itself would be a nightmare in the snow. It seems to be about the only line in Glasgow that wasn't disupted

 

[Bittern]

Looking at live departure boards for Partick. This confirms above that both lines are a mess right now.

22:29 Balloch via Singer - Delayed
22:30 Motherwell via Hamilton - Delayed
22:34 Springburn - Delayed
22:35 Milingavie - Delayed
22:45 Dalmuir via Singer - Cancelled
22:47 Helensburgh Central - Delayed

Dear god.

 

[route101]

North Clyde and Argyle were an absolute mess today. I don't know where the problems lie, but I'm assuming that for some reason they simply couldn't operate a number of the trains. I wonder if anyone "in the know" could tell me why just so many cancellations were necessary today.

Basically; Larkhall-Dalmuir, High Street-Milngavie and Springburn-Dalmuir were all cancelled. This reduced a lot of services by about half (so only a half-hourly train via Yoker and via Singer, only half hourly to Milngavie, only half hourly to Lanark...). Goodness knows what happened in the peaks; thankfully I avoided both today.

Interestingly, the services via Yoker had an hour long gap in service this morning due to a timetable fluke. Slightly less good than the usual 4tph frequency. And particularly annoying as it affected me this morning, and will do tomorrow if the same contingency plan is followed...

What I did notice was that Yoker depot only had a handful of units in it this morning, and that there were quite a few 6 carriage trains running around. So hopefully there's not been a huge reduction in capacity even if there has been a reduction in frequency. Interestingly, services to Airdrie were unaffected in the morning peak and only marginally affected in the evening peak, so we seem to have done rather well.

And the announcements didn't help either. Scotrail's website has very helpfully explained what's happening. But the announcements at the stations for the cancelled services were along the lines of "I am sorry to announce that the 08:00 service to Springburn has been cancelled. The next train to Springburn will be at 08:30". But, of course, all trains to Springburn are cancelled for the day, so the next train will most certainly not be at 08:30. So hopefully not too many people were expecting any trains to run. There weren't any announcements explaining what was happening, nor was there much info on the boards. But the staff at least had some idea of what was going on.

Moans and groans aside, I take my hat off to Scotrail's station staff this morning who were visible at all stations clearing the platforms for the morning rush hour. They did an excellent job today in difficult conditions.

Interestingly, I was due out at EK this afternoon. I decided against it, given that the EK line is quite often disrupted and that EK itself would be a nightmare in the snow. It seems to be about the only line in Glasgow that wasn't disupted

I live in EK and the trains are running ok , some delays in the morning ,Your fine as long as your not bailed out at Busby.
I

 

[Sadsmileyface]

I wonder if anyone "in the know" could tell me why just so many cancellations were necessary today.

A number of staff struggled to make it in on time today. Probably a contributing factor.

 

[Bittern]

Wouldn't be surprised if the snow adds to the list of problems the 380s have been faced with. Still, they couldn't get any worse than the 334 situation last winter.

 

[me123]

I live in EK and the trains are running ok , some delays in the morning ,Your fine as long as your not bailed out at Busby.

That was my fear. I don't want to be stuck in EK/Busby all night!

I'm a wee bit peeved with Scotrail this morning. Sketchy information regarding which trains are running, and their webpage is ridiculously slow. They had info up this time yesterday.

 

[Bittern]

Live Departures show Larkhall - Dalmuir running, but some have been delayed so far.

 

[Failed Unit]

Travelling in the morning peak yesterday was strangely quite. Probably because people couldn't get to the station.

 

[route101]

That was my fear. I don't want to be stuck in EK/Busby all night!

I'm a wee bit peeved with Scotrail this morning. Sketchy information regarding which trains are running, and their webpage is ridiculously slow. They had info up this time yesterday.

Yeah in the last year trains have terminated at Busby a fair few times when there has been disruption , you have the 66 bus running outside tho. It is where the line singles.
I thought the FSR website was pretty useful , but the situation changes minute by minute.

 

[CarterUSM]

Yeah in the last year trains have terminated at Busby a fair few times when there has been disruption , you have the 66 bus running outside tho. It is where the line singles.
I thought the FSR website was pretty useful , but the situation changes minute by minute.

Beware when an EK leaves more than 10 min late, ad termination at busby is often the end result!

 

[me123]

I thought the FSR website was pretty useful , but the situation changes minute by minute.

It was very good yesterday. This morning, it was appalling. The information just wasn't there, and trains which were cancelled were still showing as running. There were no service disruptons on the website at half past seven this morning, so a lot of people who were at the station who checked expected (perhaps rather naively) that everything was back to normal.

All in all this morning, everything was really bad. Pretty poor considering it's exactly the same as yesterday, which they handled as well as could be expected. But today, the announcements were saying one thing, train staff were saying another, the station staff had a different take on events, the screens were complete works of fiction... And the train service operated managed to do something completely different to all of that!

To be fair, the service reductions don't seem too bad because so many people just can't get to the station. This morning, the 07:52 Airdrie-Milngavie service (terminating early at Hyndland due to the snow) was eerily quiet. Although perhaps that was because the screens claimed that the train was cancelled and the train itself had "not in service" written on the destination board...

 

[route101]

Beware when an EK leaves more than 10 min late, ad termination at busby is often the end result!

I guess thats because of the single line and the need to turn the train back on time .

 

[me123]

Aye it is. And, of course, the cancellations will be done with the intention of keeping the rest of the trains up to time. But given the size of EK and the popularity of the services, an upgrade is long overdue to double track the line and improve reliability.

 

[tbtc]

given the size of EK and the popularity of the services, an upgrade is long overdue to double track the line and improve reliability

Is that happening when the line gets wired?

I know the single-lead at the junction is meant to be doubled, but not sure about the top end of the line

 

[Flywaver]

...........

 

[me123]

I don't know, but I would certainly hope so. It's not infrequent for the train to be terminated as Busby, and it's understandably rather annoying. As I've already said, East Kilbride is a huge town and a really important station, with over a million passengers using it per year making it by far the most used station on the line. For services to get curtailed at Busby all the time is simply not acceptable, and it will just drive people onto the roads.

 

[rail-britain]

It's ironic as the East Kilbride service in the 1980s was horrific; irregular timetable, cancellations, plus poor loadings
I know passengers from Clarkston used to travel down to Williamwood instead
Now it seems to be the other way round, as there aren't many pairs of Class 314 on the Neilston service

 

[me123]

In all fairness, though, the line was hardly built to cope with the demands of a thriving new town. EK was little more than a village when the line opened at first, and I don't think anyone at that point would have envisaged it becoming an important hub in West Central Scotland with a population over 70,000!

 

[route101]

It's ironic as the East Kilbride service in the 1980s was horrific; irregular timetable, cancellations, plus poor loadings
I know passengers from Clarkston used to travel down to Williamwood instead
Now it seems to be the other way round, as there aren't many pairs of Class 314 on the Neilston service

Ive got an Timetable from 1989 and there seemed to be a skip stop pattern on the EK line then with expresses. There is a passing loop past hairmyres as well. The Neilston is generally more realible tho.

East Kilbride has 2 stations serving 70,000 people , people have to travel quite a bit to the stations which have pretty poor bus service.

 

[rail-britain]

Ive got an Timetable from 1989 and there seemed to be a skip stop pattern on the EK line then with expresses

That sounds like the first Sprinter timetable
Try between 1986 and 1988
I was never able to work out the frequency of those services, yet just about every other was fairly frequent

 

[Train Pilchard]

Despite most trains being late/cancelled today at least the ones that did show were pretty much all 6 cars.

 

[Bittern]

334006 (the Saltied one) and 334012 (the almost Saltired one) were paired together today.
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Some interesting things from the live departure boards for Hamilton West:

22:30 Milingavie - Due 22:54
22:31 Coatbridge Central. - Due 22:46
22:47 Hamilton Central - Delayed
22:48 Dalmuir - On time
23:01 Motherwell - Cancelled
23:03 Milingavie - On time
23:17 Hamilton Central - On time

Wonder why the 22:30 Milingavie and the 22:31 Coatbridge Central haven't been cancelled as they're running almost a half hour late. Also, interesting to note that they've now partially reinstated Larkhall services, only they are now terminating at Hamilton Central. This would've been helpful to me a few hours ago!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

That sounds like the first Sprinter timetable
Try between 1986 and 1988
I was never able to work out the frequency of those services, yet just about every other was fairly frequent

My May-September 1986 BR timetable shows East Kilbride as an hourly all-stations service to Glasgow Central, rising to half-hourly in the peaks (some of which called at Clarkston and Hairmyers only). Saturday trains were hourly throughout the day, and there was no Sunday service at all . Hope this clears up what you were after.

 

[route101]

My May-September 1986 BR timetable shows East Kilbride as an hourly all-stations service to Glasgow Central, rising to half-hourly in the peaks (some of which called at Clarkston and Hairmyers only). Saturday trains were hourly throughout the day, and there was no Sunday service at all . Hope this clears up what you were after.

Yeah there wasent a sunday service for 10 years after that. There is 2 expresses each way still which always get caught on a signal. The Class 101s managed to stay on to about 2000. It it is a very busy route hence 6 car 156s. Im sure there was EK to Ayr trains years ago?