Snow related disruption (Jan 2013)

[sarahj]

I've heard two reasons why the BML was naff today. One came from a passenger, the other from other staff. One reason was a :roll: the other a

But it all stemmed from the engineering works over the weekend between Brighton and Three Bridges. With no trains able to run, the lines and third rail was a bit iced up. This should have been cleaned ready for service on monday, it was not, possible due to :roll: or

Tonight we have the de icers out, the ghost trains and the 73 all running around and I've just come back from vic with minimal delay (23.32 Vic to Btn) so fingers crossed.

As the the WLL there were power supply issues. Not sure where, but there are parts that only southern work (eg the change over section) so might have been there. I had the info, but that was 130 emails ago.

 

[infobleep]

last night - that wouldnt stay on NRE for 3 hours showing as delayed.

Id rather a service which has been delayed for a long time be removed from boards than having it left on there in place of a service which is actually running.


I agree here, i dont have a clue why the WLL wasnt running and thats very poor. It comes across that they were totally focusing on the Brighton Mainline and forgot about the WLL which is wrong. They cant just say its because of bad weather as LOROL were still operating. I personally think it was a lack of 377/2s so they had to source them from other parts of the network.

To give Southern's Tweeter staff member some credit, I did get a reply from them. They said they didn't know what the cause of the problem was but that there were delays of an hour. As far as I could tell some trains were running and others were not, which meant delays of more than hour if it so happened that multiple trains following one another were not running. It wasn't that trains were each running with an hours delay. Although the person responding didn't know but at least he responded.

Thanks for your comments Sarah. All Southern had to do was put that online rather than keeping it more of a secret. I alerted Southern to their home page only giving out details to desktop users and not mobile users but I didn't think to enquire on that about the West London Line. I just assumed the info would appear online.

It's rather complicated trying to piece together information about train delays. There never seems to be one source for it. One has a choice of NRE web site; NRE app; Journey check if the company uses; London Midland's own service status pages; Tweeter; Journey status alerts and now it seems possibly direct e-mail as well. Although I imagine the e-mail you received was for staff only. Perhaps they should release those to the public. OK I know they can't do that but it would at least give us some information.

Still given the lack of info I could find, I felt justified when I put in my claim this morning for my 30 minute delay. At least I work near the railway station so didn't have to wait on the platform.

 

[Qwerty133]

To give Southern's Tweeter staff member some credit, I did get a reply from them. They said they didn't know what the cause of the problem was but that there were delays of an hour. As far as I could tell some trains were running and others were not, which meant delays of more than hour if it so happened that multiple trains following one another were not running. It wasn't that trains were each running with an hours delay. Although the person responding didn't know but at least he responded.

Perhaps the real reason for the problems was considered embarrassing so Southern decided they didn't want to make it public. However that sounds like a conspiracy theory and I'm sure that's was not the case.

Still given the lack of info, I felt justified when I put in my claim this morning for my 30 minute delay. At least I work near the railway station so didn't have to wait on the platform.

By the sounds of it Southerns twitter team could learn a few lessons from sister toc London Midlands head of marketing.

 

[tsr]

By the sounds of it Southerns twitter team could learn a few lessons from sister toc London Midlands head of marketing.

Ironically, Southern's early attempts at tweeting were far, far better than they are now - the tweeters now don't seem to have the technology or in-depth information they need, whereas previously it seemed they were better equipped and possibly located in a better department for the job.

 

[sarahj]

You would not want access to the internal email systems. The ammount that comes through is sometimes overwhelming. I've come back from a few days off with over a 1000 emails. And sometimes its a bit slow, i've had passengers know whats going on before I get a email. Sometimes its all dull as well, 'ticket office at mitcham eastfields shut' 5 mins later, its open. OK, so he went for a pee.:roll:
And sometimes its a pain. Youre sat there for 10 mins, you get an email, oh and its telling you that a train in 4 hours time will be 5 coaches rather than 8.

I guess the info on the WLL was just lost in the crowd of stuff that came through. As i said, I had over 150 emails that day and just glanced at it then deleted.

I think the NRE frontline app is the best external one out there, I use it all the time for finding out platforms for passengers and stops for other trains. Ok, it might not tell you the reason, but it gives live running times to the point where I knew how long my hove to Brighton service today was going to be delayed by a late running vic - littlehampton almost to the min and thus informed my passengers.

 

[infobleep]

By the sounds of it Southerns twitter team could learn a few lessons from sister toc London Midlands head of marketing.

London Midland are certainly very good at using Tweeter. Much better than there trains, which on average during peak travel are always running late. If you want to know why the trains are running late then you just send them a tweet and they responded. Your less likely to know from any other source why their trains are late.

Take this morning. When I arrived into Harrow I noticed that 3 trains heading to Euston from Harrow were shown as running between 10-12 minutes late. I clicked on one on National Rail Enquires and it didn't give out any reason for the delay. If I had sent London Midland a tweet I would have been given the answer.

I have in the past alerted Southern's Tweeter staff to delays or possible congestion on the line when no information was being given out. They replied with a thank you. I think that day my train was running 10 minutes late into Victoria with no word as to why. It was only the Gatwick Express I was on, nothing major.

This morning my train was also 10 minutes late for no given reason. I didn't bother letting the Southern Tweeter staff know today. I was too busy looking at and photographing the newly fallen show along the route. I still managed to make my connection at Euston, which wasn't cancelled today.

I've noticed that since Gatwick Express no long has guards on board, the chances of being told why the train is running late are greatly reduced. The driver has far more important things to do. The other week we were told of major problems, half an hour after all the people around me had seen them online. Like I said the driver has more important things to do like drive the train safely, never mind finding out if their has been delays and telling the passengers.

 

[telstarbox]

VT services between Scotland and Birmingham are being diverted via Manchester and Crewe at the moment as the line between Preston and Wigan is out of action.