Southern / TL Disruption - 17 November 2016

[Bald Rick]

When are Thameslink going to bite the bullet and put a manned diesel loco at a strategic point that can get stalled electric units out of the way.

Where do you suggest?

Bear in mind that last night there were 5-6 trains stuck behind the one that failed all the way back to Blackfriars, and the failure was across the junction at Carlton Road, with an empty EMT bound for St Pancras on the Up Slow, therefore blocking all southbound traffic.

How would a diesel standby have been any quicker than getting the first available compatible unit and driver (which was at West Hampstead) to assist?

 

[Abpj17]

To add for the audit trail

Thursday was the third time in around two weeks I've seen passengers club together in London to share taxis home. The Luton wires/signalling problem lead to around half the train emptying even after it had started crawling north.

Thursday's was awful comms and alternatives - yet again.

At City Thameslink (CTK), we were told that the first train had been cleared, then it hadn't, then that the train rescuing it had broken down as well.

The advice varied between - use Tfl/other routes (thanks - there are no credible alternatives, especially if you don't put on proper bus shuttles from Great Northern), or going to St P. The staff were trying to be helpful but something that was more confusing. E.g. 20 mins notice for a St P train - as CTK isn't on the tube, that's pretty difficult to make - or a warning that St P EMTs would be severely overcrowded.

I went for an EMT option - and was lucky enough to get a seat, but caught it two hours after first leaving work after waiting it out at CTK for a bit.

(whoever was told West Hampstead was awful advice)

 

[DelayRepay]

To add for the audit trail

At City Thameslink, we were told that the first train had been cleared, then it hadn't, then that the train rescuing it had broken down as well.

(whoever was told West Hampstead was awful advice)

I guess we were at City at the same time - were you in the small crowd waiting near the ticket barrier?

I was on the platform when a lady from Harpenden who was worried about picking her kids up was given two helpful pieces of advice by staff:

1: "Look at all these people madam. They all need to get somewhere just like you do". :roll:

2. She was advised to get the tube to West Hampstead. But the rail employee did not know how to get there and suggested going to Blackfriars to ask TFL staff the best route. After he had gone I suggested she would be better going to St Pancras as online sources suggested nothing was running from West Hampstead. I suggested from St Pancras she could either get an EMT to Luton or the parkway then get a cab back to Harpenden, or alternatively could go over to Kings Cross and travel via Hatfield/Welwyn Garden City. (I did make the assumption that people from Harpenden can afford taxis )

I'm sure every time there is disruption, Thameslink say they are taking steps to improve the information flow including giving their frontline staff smart phones and tablets to find the latest information. I saw no evidence of staff using these devices to look up information. The staff I saw did radio the control room for information but the response was generally "don't know".

 

[Verulamius]

I was at Blackfriars on the 18.56 when it was cancelled. The platform despatch staff were extremely helpful, providing us with information from their tablets as and when it appeared. It was clear from the advice that the lines would be closed for at least a couple of hours whilst they sorted the broken down train. So I headed up to Kings Cross (walking to Farringdon and then tube) and caught the late running 20.40 to Hatfield where I was picked up by my wife.

I certainly had good information and helpful responses from the platform staff at Blackfriars.

 

[maniacmartin]

Part of the problem is that most of City Thameslink station has no mobile phone signal, with it being underground. For information via tablets to work, they will need to invest in Wifi coverage or mini cells from a mobile operator, which I'm guessing they haven't done.

 

[DelayRepay]

I certainly had good information and helpful responses from the platform staff at Blackfriars.

To avoid any doubt, my earlier comments about City Thameslink staff were critical of the lack of information the staff had. The staff themselves were doing their best, the problem was that passengers looking on the Thameslink twitter feed seemed to know more than the staff.

This includes the staff upstairs by the barrier, where there is a perfectly adequate mobile signal (and I am not sure that installing wifi on the platforms would be a huge issue?)

 

[Ze Random One]

I wonder if part of the problem with staff awareness is that a lot of passengers in central London are, and are employed as experienced information workers, and that may be their primary function in their current job. This also extends to the social media teams at TOCs.

Train dispatch and gateline staff are not necessarily skilled information workers. Their job is not primarily to process and disseminate large amounts of information from potentially contradictory and fast moving textual and numerical feeds, so they may not be as adept at doing it as the passengers themselves. Particularly for train dispatch, an eagle-eye on the train-platform interface, and being able to enact rare parts of the rule book automatically, are far more important skills, as this will keep passengers from being maimed or killed.

Therefore it is really up to the TOCs to have people at key hubs/control, with access to station CCTV, internal industry systems, a weather eye over control's ability to call on trains and staff, and an ability to quickly disseminate timely information. These people can be employed as information workers and have the right skill set. I'm not sure the TOCs have this right now.

Perhaps an alternative is an internal 'Twitter' like system allowing 2 way information flow to such an officer from the bodies on the ground.

 

[Deepgreen]

Yet another poor day on the GTR network today - various failures have resulted in another day of disruption. The number of train failures recently has been very high, and they don't appear to be weather-related. The steady implosion of the GTR network continues unabated.