25 Sept Mirage at Liskeard.

[whole diary]

[smokey]

It was a lovely morning at Liskeard, however Thunder Clouds rolled in for Passengers heading west with the News that the 09.48 Penzance service was CANCELLED, thanks Digital Doris.

However whilst some passengers went to give grief to the poor station staff, the staff could only state that TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS) was saying the train was 4 minutes late off Saltash, and YES the Train appeared, stopped picked up some passengers dropped off others, and carried on it's way.

However passengers who took the Cancelled message a  bit more lightly were re-appearing at Liskeard station around 11.00 for the Next train the 11.07.

It's bad enough to cancell a train bit it takes real idiots in control to perform like this.

BRING BACK WESSEX.

[devon_metro]

Looks like Dorris failed then, which was installed by Wessex!

[Tim]

Might have been installed by Wessex but the wrong infomation wasn't fed to it by Wessex

[Ollie]

CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) sometimes goes wrong, it's fact of life.

I've been on the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) network when the CIS displayed that the station must be evacuated. On speaking to the staff at the station was told that there CIS control said it's a fault and was showing at all stations they cover.

[dog box]

Wessex aint comming back!!!!!.............get over it

[vacman]

Bring back Wessex? NO THANKS!!! constant short formed trains (well, they were booked to be short!!), pricey "cheap" day returns, crap uniform, didn't care about revenue protection, spent thousands sponsoring the weather but couldn't spend a few quid doing up the train crew messrooms, the same people who slag off FGW^▸ (First Great Western) now are the same ones who always moaned about Wessex.

[The SprinterMeister]

Looks like Dorris failed then, which was installed by Wessex!

Theres loads of odd problems being thrown up by the automated CIS^▸ (Customer Information System). For example every train that runs off the Barny line into Exeter St Davids gets greeted with 'Please stand clear, the next train is not scheduled to call at this station' unless somebody rapidly overrides the system manually.

[bemmy]

That reminds me of the time a few months back when I was getting a train back from Weston-super-Mare, the all stations service to Parkway. Suddenly the train PA^▸ (Public Address) system played a selection of old announcements, including a promise that there was a trolley service of light refreshments. It was nice to know that Wessex Trains' priority is still our safety, 18 months after they lost the franchise. 

It shows how much attention the passengers pay to these things, that no-one else in the carriage smiled or batted an eyelid at these surreal announcements, or even asked the guard when the catering trolley would come.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

last sunday on a swt from honiton to paignton automated message as we pull into torquay next stop paignton this is our final stop .... quite a few people got off in error was funny

[IndustryInsider]

The best one I ever saw was in the early days of the Thames Trains system about 10 years ago, which, to this day, is still confusing passengers and hindering the efforts of staff that it should be helping!

I forget the time, but early one morning at Oxford it was showing a train being CANCELLED. The train in question... an MGR to Didcot Power Station! The screens were apologising for the inconvienience, but as far as I know Thames Trains stopped short of providing any stranded lumps of coal with a replacement taxi!

[r james]

What causes it to go wrong?  Surely something triggers the wrong message to be played?

[IndustryInsider]

What causes it to go wrong?  Surely something triggers the wrong message to be played?

There are all sorts of interfaces with other systems where things can (and often do) go wrong. Problems can be cause by inaccuracies in TOPS^▸ (Total Operations Processing System)/TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS) reports of the train, inaccuracies in headcodes entered by signalling staff, failure of other lineside equipment which reports a trains location, inaccuracies in the base data that is uploaded from the train service database (especially in the event of service alterations). And when major delays hit the network inaccuracies and the inability of the scant number of human beings controlling it to keep up with things can also mean lots of errors.

Though how the hell it managed to display that coal train really has me mystified!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Erm ... I'm asking this as a complete novice on this subject, but would the coal train have had a headcode - that was perhaps entered wrongly by someone? 

[IndustryInsider]

Erm ... I'm asking this as a complete novice on this subject, but would the coal train have had a headcode - that was perhaps entered wrongly by someone? 

Yes - when they used to run regularly from british coalfields they were class 7's when full and class 6's when returning empty. Though if the system only recognises class 1 and 2 passenger trains even if it was entered wrongly and happened to be another passenger trains headcode then it should have displayed that train rather than the freight train.

Like I say it was in the early days and I'm sure several patches have been applied to the software since, BUT it remains a fact that as soon as disruption hits a certain level, these automated systems really struggle to cope.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, IndustryInsider! 

It does still happen, though!

At BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) one evening, a couple of weeks ago, there were various platform changes, and 'Digital Doris' cut in with a pre-recorded announcement at one stage.  As her 'words of wisdom' directly contradicted what the excellent male station announcer had just told us passengers waiting on platform 8, she was cut off in mid-announcement - we could almost hear our live announcer muttering 'oh-for-goodness-sake!' - as he reiterated his earlier (correct) announcement!