Thameslink Railway performance

[jon0844]

The information about the train splitting, and saying you'll have time to change when actually at that station, is a good thing.. but it certainly does mention that over and over. I suppose that's necessary for those who board further up the line, however. It's also good to warn people when stopping at a station that is the last one you can use Oyster at, although some of the warnings just say you might get a penalty fare and don't mention anything about possible prosecution (ironic, given the latter is a lot more profitable!).

By and large, I can't really complain about the information given. It does make things a lot clearer for the irregular travellers. It also makes the 365s seem incredibly archaic - but weren't they going to be updated? Nothing has happened as far as I can see.

As for the volume, it can vary a lot from coach to coach, but I think there might also be ambient noise sensors that adjust the volume - and perhaps they don't work very well. Remember the old Circle line trains where it didn't smoothly adjust the volume and stepped up and down so it could start pretty quiet and then bellow out at max volume without any warning.

And it's mad that even with the latest software update, the system can't detect when it's running in reverse (i.e. it's been left with the diagram from the previous service). After passing one or two stations, the software could easily work out it was wrong and disable future station announcements (and perhaps alert the driver) but, no, you keep getting told the wrong station and that you're approaching as you pass the GPS location where it would be approaching (i.e. just after you left the same station).

I don't know what system it is, but that's a pretty big cock up on the part of the company that built it.

 

[al.currie93]

The 317s now welcome you aboard the train at every single service and hardly shut up, including details about Oyster, penalty fares, following on Twitter and getting tickets on the website. Most of the screens are still broken or flickering, but I'm yet to be on a train where they've not been in use.

I also noticed today that they had notices about the new car park at Hatfield which had the incorrect URL of greatnorthern.co.uk (and was covered up with white paper) on it. Whoops.

The announcements on some of the 317s get louder during the announcement - not sure if this is a fault or designed to stop people sleeping!

If you get on at the starting station, you get the announcement in full 3 times.
They do now announce that the train will be dividing at Letchworth/Royston/Cambridge etc, but tend to repeat this annoucnement at random intervals along the line.
The other day it wasn't set properly as I was on a train towards Cambridge but the announcements were saying it was the train to Kings Cross - then announcing the previous station just after we had left it, with the announcement getting longer after each stop along the line. one person got on at Stevenage (platform 4) , saw the screen (which was one of the few workign properly!) said next station is Welwyn North (the system thought we were at Knebworth) & promptly got off again.

Welcome to the "wonders" of Southern announcements! We've had to put up with them for years :P if I get a train from Vicky to Ockley I get told that my train is going to Horsham 48 times along the journey...

Yes they do get louder at random points, usually for the "Coach number X of Y" statement.

 

[physics34]

Welcome to the "wonders" of Southern announcements! We've had to put up with them for years :P if I get a train from Vicky to Ockley I get told that my train is going to Horsham 48 times along the journey...

Yes they do get louder at random points, usually for the "Coach number X of Y" statement.

they are so bloody frequent that passengers i think have learnt to ignore them.

I just find it strange that with many management who travel on Southern services that they havent got fed up with the amount of announcements.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Welcome to the "wonders" of Southern announcements! We've had to put up with them for years :P if I get a train from Vicky to Ockley I get told that my train is going to Horsham 48 times along the journey...

Yes they do get louder at random points, usually for the "Coach number X of Y" statement.

Heaven forbid someone with a nervous disposition get one of those 313s where the announcements vary between "National Trust guide with laryngitis" to "Brian Blessed with stubbed toe"!

Welcome aboard this Southern service to HASTINGS.

 

[hassaanhc]

Points failure at Bedford this morning

 

[philjo]

Not GN's fault but there were Overrunning engineering works preventing northbound services calling at Brookmans park, Welham & green & Hatfield this morning - there were replacement coaches waiting at Potters Bar. There have been overrunning works every Monday for several weeks now.
Southbound services running as normal.

On my GN service this morning there was a ticket inspection - this was announced as a GN/DfT survey - each ticket was checked & logged electronically in a mobile device. I haven't seen them do this before - what are they trying to find out? I assume they were logging destination & ticket type? one of my colleagues further down the train asked & was told they were assessing the proportion of season ticket holders (I would have thought they could have got this from ticket sales data?)
Are they checking usage on specific services (for future timetable changes) or is it in preparation for the Thameslink through services i.e. those who could change to london thameslink tickets or for extension of Oyster ?

 

[SPADTrap]

Not GN's fault but there were Overrunning engineering works preventing northbound services calling at Brookmans park, Welham & green & Hatfield this morning - there were replacement coaches waiting at Potters Bar. There have been overrunning works every Monday for several weeks now.
Southbound services running as normal.

On my GN service this morning there was a ticket inspection - this was announced as a GN/DfT survey - each ticket was checked & logged electronically in a mobile device. I haven't seen them do this before - what are they trying to find out? I assume they were logging destination & ticket type? one of my colleagues further down the train asked & was told they were assessing the proportion of season ticket holders (I would have thought they could have got this from ticket sales data?)
Are they checking usage on specific services (for future timetable changes) or is it in preparation for the Thameslink through services i.e. those who could change to london thameslink tickets or for extension of Oyster ?

Have you not answered your own question? Why wouldn't you believe that answer out of interest? Maybe it was how many ticket types on that service specifically?

 

[jon0844]

The disruption is being shown as emergency engineering work, so I guess it isn't if it's been like this for many weeks. Someone hasn't planned the works very well.

GTR has put on buses though.

 

[Abpj17]

On my GN service this morning there was a ticket inspection - this was announced as a GN/DfT survey - each ticket was checked & logged electronically in a mobile device. I haven't seen them do this before - what are they trying to find out? I assume they were logging destination & ticket type? one of my colleagues further down the train asked & was told they were assessing the proportion of season ticket holders (I would have thought they could have got this from ticket sales data?)
Are they checking usage on specific services (for future timetable changes) or is it in preparation for the Thameslink through services i.e. those who could change to london thameslink tickets or for extension of Oyster ?

Ask the twitter account. TL had those last week - I queried if it was genuine. (The two guys doing it didn't look very familiar with trains; one of them couldn't work out how to open a door between carriages...)

I have a season ticket but wasn't asked where I was planning to get off.

 

[87015]

Sounds very much like a ticketless travel survey if the DfT were actually in on it - you'd tend to have some bluff rather than say that of course.

 

[westcoaster]

The disruption is being shown as emergency engineering work, so I guess it isn't if it's been like this for many weeks. Someone hasn't planned the works very well.

GTR has put on buses though.

Believe it was a derailed tamper.

 

[Abpj17]

Sounds very much like a ticketless travel survey if the DfT were actually in on it - you'd tend to have some bluff rather than say that of course.

The badges were 'Rail Executive' which is a new thing connected to DfT.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ent-for-transport-creates-rail-executive.html

and the survey had been outsourced to http://skyhightechnology.com/

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The badges were 'Rail Executive' which is a new thing connected to DfT.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ent-for-transport-creates-rail-executive.html

and the survey had been outsourced to http://skyhightechnology.com/

In the new order - the DfT (Rail Executive) takes the revenue risk , and the operator takes the cost risk. Hence a series of checks to ensure / see what the level of ticketless travel is. Nothing new in this - it happened before on SE and Greater Anglia amongst others. Seems to have ruffled a few feathers amongst the travellers by all accounts.

 

[SF-02]

In the new order - the DfT (Rail Executive) takes the revenue risk , and the operator takes the cost risk. Hence a series of checks to ensure / see what the level of ticketless travel is. Nothing new in this - it happened before on SE and Greater Anglia amongst others. Seems to have ruffled a few feathers amongst the travellers by all accounts.

Doesn't sound much use. On the rare occasions ticket inspectors get on a Southeastern service half the train decamps down through the carriages to avoid the inspectors, before getting off at the next station to catch the next one or waiting it out.

 

[DelayRepay]

In the new order - the DfT (Rail Executive) takes the revenue risk , and the operator takes the cost risk. Hence a series of checks to ensure / see what the level of ticketless travel is. Nothing new in this - it happened before on SE and Greater Anglia amongst others. Seems to have ruffled a few feathers amongst the travellers by all accounts.

This is, I presume, how Thameslink will measure ticketless travel. They've set themselves targets. If these inspectors find someone without a ticket, what do they do? Would they be followed by an RPI to take the details, or would they just note it within their statistics and carry on?

 

[andrewkeith5]

This is, I presume, how Thameslink will measure ticketless travel. They've set themselves targets. If these inspectors find someone without a ticket, what do they do? Would they be followed by an RPI to take the details, or would they just note it within their statistics and carry on?

Good question! If I were in charge I would train the inspectors as RPIs but I suppose it will depend in the results of the ticketless travel checks... In my experience the inspectors haven't yet made it out of first class.

I'll be interested to know whether, with the DfT taking on the revenue risk, they will be responsible for enforcing the penalties involved?