Useless information systems

[Bluejays]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, but what an absolute farce today is turning into. Lots of people have obviously worked hard to get extra services running. Unfortunately the info systems are so useless that they are showing these trains as cancelled.


Trains are out there, yet people are quite rightly not turning up to the stations because national rail site and other sites are showing them all as cancelled.

I feel for the customer service teams dealing with the deluge of complaints. Must be galling for any passengers who change plans, only to then find out that their trains did actually run.

 

[alistairlees]

Or, maybe no-one has added the info to the various systems, so services can't be shown?

 

[185143]

I've just been sat looking out of the window at a PIS screen at Wilmslow, scrolling "NO TRAINS. Due to cancelled strike action there are no trains running from this station today."

The window I was looking out of, of course, being a train window! Wilmslow has had trains on every strike day that hasn't involved ASLEF as far as I know. It's not even meant to be "No Northern trains" as that's one of the few routes that Northern can be bothered to run a service on!

 

[Horizon22]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, but what an absolute farce today is turning into. Lots of people have obviously worked hard to get extra services running. Unfortunately the info systems are so useless that they are showing these trains as cancelled.


Trains are out there, yet people are quite rightly not turning up to the stations because national rail site and other sites are showing them all as cancelled.

I feel for the customer service teams dealing with the deluge of complaints. Must be galling for any passengers who change plans, only to then find out that their trains did actually run.

Any particular systems / services / routes in question?

When the original timetable is removed and a new one added, it should wipe over but the short-notice of everything probably means there’s “duplicates” around. Deleting /hiding (not cancelling) those trains from the CIS would probably be the best approach

People working hard also includes controllers who maybe haven’t had the most time to sift through everything. Not excusing it, but there are some reasons as to why, especially if trains are running ad-hoc.

 

[ChewChewTrain]

Even the ticket seller I’ve just bought my ticket from said it was “embarrassing”. Better than the trains not running, though, and at least I’ll know about it for the rest of the day.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Any particular systems / services / routes in question?

One example: the live departure boards on nationalrail.co.uk, the TIGER Worldline boards, and I presume the real ones at stations, were all showing up services on the Cotswold Line as running and "On time" this morning. As RealTimeTrains shows, all these were cancelled and never left their origin stations. But NRE etc. were still showing them as running at intermediate stations right up to the moment of departure.

 

[ChewChewTrain]

Any particular systems / services / routes in question?

When the original timetable is removed and a new one added, it should wipe over but the short-notice of everything probably means there’s “duplicates” around. Deleting /hiding (not cancelling) those trains from the CIS would probably be the best approach

People working hard also includes controllers who maybe haven’t had the most time to sift through everything. Not excusing it, but there are some reasons as to why, especially if trains are running ad-hoc.

Local stations between Reading and Didcot Parkway have usual trains running towards Reading which are not being shown on the station screen or the “Trains” app. They are, however, being shown in the other direction, as well as the “strike day” trains which are now presumably not running, as if they are then we’re getting 50% more trains than normal…

EDIT: I note that RTT seems more accurate. Perhaps I’ll rely on that today.

EDIT 2: Even RTT has said that my train didn’t stop at Pangbourne when it, well, did. Nothing is sacred today, it seems.

 

[Nicholas43]

Trains are existing, and calling at Radley, and known to Real Time Trains, which are not known to National Rail Enquiries or the platform information screens.

 

[trainophile]

I wonder if you'd get delay repay on your Advance ticket if you didn't bother going to the station due to "not running" information, but then your booked train did run.

 

[Horizon22]

GWR are having to rewrite their timetable from scratch today having been previously amended for the strikes.

Control doing this manually versus a planning team is a HUGE undertaking so I’m not surprised there are errors all over the place. For instance when you create “new” trains the default is to remove all platform information.

 

[Steddenm]

The boards at Belfast Lanyon Place today were saying "Welcome to Carlisle" and scrolling text saying that due to strike action services are disrupted. Once pointed out to Translink it was fixed - apparently the IP address was entered incorrectly at the weekend when it was rebooted.

 

[swaldman]

Even the ticket seller I’ve just bought my ticket from said it was “embarrassing”. Better than the trains not running, though, and at least I’ll know about it for the rest of the day.

No trains showing is possibly / arguably also better than what I saw at Meadowhall yesterday, where there were *some* trains arriving and departing that the PIS didn't know about - so for example a 1915 train arrived and departed while the PIS said that it was the 1930 to a different destination... I hope nobody got carried away to the wrong place!

(for any pedants looking it up, the times are approximate)