Great Western Coffee Shop

The Met Office don't issue joke alerts, so its definitely real.

The Met Office don't issue joke alerts, so its definitely real.

Indeed. Interesting how FGW have not suggested abandoning non essential travel during this period. At least if they have, It's certainly not easy to find on their website!

Sadly this seems to be the case with FirstGroup in general. I am very much conscious of them publicising amended Bus Services in Frome less than 24 hours before a significant part of the route would be closed, missing one bus and having to get a train 30 minutes later snowballed into a delay of well over 2 hours by the time I got to Southend Victoria. No disrespect to the organisers, but that delay was completely avoidable had the information been advertised with reasonable notice. Less than 24 hours for PLANNED amendments is not in my opinion acceptable and I certainly was not best pleased.

Nothing on the FGW website (sigh) which will be one of the worst affected TOCs if all goes according to the forecast.

Still I got there last week despite lightening strikes so we will see!

Although on 15-16 October 1987, Michael Fish told us not to worry, as there wasn't a hurricane on the way. Telling us it would just be a bit windy, with the worst of it over Spain and France.  ::) ;) ;D

Current weather forecasts indicate that there will be severe adverse weather, overnight from Sunday 27th October until mid-day on Monday 28th October. As well as rain, very strong wind speeds have been projected.

It is our key priority to run a safe railway, therefore there may be a requirement to run trains at reduced speeds for all or part of the journey.

If you are travelling with First Great Western later this evening or tomorrow morning, we would ask that you allow for an extended journey time, and that you check for current train running information on our JourneyCheck pages before starting your journey.
 
Further details of how journeys will be affected will be available later this afternoon once the weather forecasts have been updated. We will make this information available through our website once the situation becomes clearer.

Please follow us on Twitter @FGW for real time updates and your questions answered.

There's been a livecam set up overlooking the sea & rails @ Dawlish

http://www.livestream.com/rcdawlish

South West Trains has advised people not to travel. It said it would operate a "significantly reduced timetable" and some trains would run at reduced speeds.

Southern said its services - including the Gatwick Express - might not start until 9am or 10am on Monday, a move designed to "give Network Rail the chance to clear the tracks". It will also run fewer trains than usual.

At least FGW don't yet have to worry too much about  o/h electric wires etc.!

james linley (@jameslinley1)

27/10/2013 15:29

@Burtshire @FGW @D_isforDanger All plans being discussed at 1700. Suggest peeps check FGW.co.uk after 1800

James Linley runs the ICC public info feeds

No London Underground until 9am.

FGW are saying on Twitter that the down sleeper will only run as far as Plymouth.   Nothing on Journeycheck as yet.

Integrated Control Centre. Should be in the Glossary...

Is there any idea when a decision will be made on an amended timetable for FGW tomorrow? Most other Operators seem to be publishing details whereas FGW are just saying there "may" be an amended timetable.....presumably there must be a time by which they'd have to decide and release the details? I'm an early bird so could do with knowing!!!  :-\

Severe Weather Warning Monday 28th October

Current weather forecasts indicate that there will be severe adverse weather, overnight from midnight on Sunday 27th October until mid-day on Monday 28th October.  As well as rain, very strong wind speeds have been projected.

There will be a requirement to run trains at reduced speeds for all or part of the journey and some routes will have a reduced train service.

We are planning on running trains on all lines, with the exception of the route between Guildford and Gatwick which is suspended until at least 09:00.

Please continue to check this website as full details of alterations will be published by 20:00 this evening.

Please follow us on Twitter @FGW for real time updates and your questions answered.

....................so what about local Paddington-Reading services???  (This was from the NR website by the way, still nothing on FGW's except an assurance that details will be available by 2000 tonight)  ???

...............so NR website is ahead of FGW's own?

Pirate fm reporting long delays on the trains as a train has hit a fallen tree near Ivybridge. 

Storm - 3.30am Update

Speed restrictions that would have caused widespread disruption on the Chiltern line
have been removed. This makes it easier for us to run as near to a normal service as possible on Monday 28th October.

Trains are planned to run as normal.

We currently have severe disruption on all our lines due to trees on the line. Please check our website for more information.

Hopeless trying to get onto NR's Journeychecker this morning and finally got onto FGW at about the 7th attempt - there seems little point referring people to websites for information/before setting out which don't have the capacity to cope when they are really needed - very frustrating.

Stopping services didn't seem to be doing too badly by 10am but now FGW have cancelled all stops on Oxford stoppers before Reading, leaving Langley and Iver with no trains.  Does anyone know why this is?  I'm worried I won't be able to get home tonight!

The Met Office have been congratulating themselves on their forecast being 'on the money', and what transpired was pretty much what was predicted around noon yesterday. This didn't stop an interviewer goading them this morning that they had overdone it, when it was elements in the media that built it up, including using an invented Biblical name for it. Not much more than a routine winter storm really, more damage because it went over populated areas, and trees are still in leaf.

Although this was a slow service I don't remember seeing many fast services pass us on the fast lines in either directions and I got to PAD a bit later than normal but having had a seat all the way.

Main and Relief Lines Sir you are on the Great Western!

Storm cancellations: Were train companies too cautious?

Train services were completely cancelled across large parts of England on Monday, leaving thousands of people seeking alternative transport. But with companies axing services before the storm had even arrived, were they right to be so cautious?

Hours before the St Jude storm began whipping across the coast, senior figures at South West Trains had made a decision - they were going to cancel nearly all services for the following morning. As one of the largest train operators - running a train every minute into London Waterloo at peak times - the company had learnt to put its faith in weather forecasts.

This was a pattern largely imitated across most of the country, with First Capital Connect, Greater Anglia, Southeastern and Southern, also cancelling entire services.

Network Rail defended the decision, saying 100 fallen trees had been found on railway lines.

But were rail operators gambling that the weather would be as bad as predicted? And what would have happened had the storm been a damp squib?

Emma Knight, from South West Trains, said that blanket cancellation was "not a decision that we ever take lightly. If we hadn't had the weather as predicted we could have tried to reinstate the trains as best we could," she said. "But if we had gone ahead with normal services, people would have been stuck on trains, and we would have trains and crews stranded all over the place. We find the best approach is to be realistic. This way passengers know where they stand."

And she said that blanket cancellations had become more common recently.

"In my experience, with some of the extreme weather we've had in the past few years - with really heavy snows and floods - it has become more and more something that has to be done," she added.

(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70759000/jpg/_70759633_empty-railway-tracks-pa.jpg)
Trains were nowhere to be seen in many areas of east and southern England

However, some commuters found the scale of the cancellations to be less than helpful.

George Thomson, who was stranded at Gatwick, tweeted: "Opposite of the British Bulldog spirit, flights on, buses on, but trains all cancelled on Southern Railways lines = over cautious!"

And Stewart Jackson, MP for Peterborough, tweeted: "How come a gust of wind disables whole east of England rail infrastructure with economic consequences too?"

The storm was forecast to be the worst to hit the country in years with winds gusting over 80mph (129km/h). A gust of 99mph (159km/h) was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight, at 06:00 GMT.

A 17-year-old girl and a man in his 50s were killed by falling trees, while many others were injured on roads and pavements in towns and cities hit by strong gusts.

But there have been no reports of injuries at railway stations or on trains, even though one passenger service struck a tree in Devon (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24700513).

Roger Perkins, from First Capital Connect, said passenger safety was paramount. The decision on what to do in the event of severe weather is taken jointly as an industry with Network Rail.

"There are various contingency timetables that can be put into effect," he said.

"All the train companies and Network Rail worked over the weekend to see how we could best respond as an industry.

"But there comes a point at which a decision has to be made."

Network Rail said several hundred staff had been working to monitor conditions and react to any damage caused by the storm.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail's managing director of network operations, said: "While conditions were as forecast during the early part of the morning, the damage caused by the storm has been more severe than expected."

This was an empty CrossCountry Voyager en route from Laira depot to Paignton to form the 0702 to Manchester Piccadilly. That service is now starting at Birmingham New Street.

Mark Hopwood (@hopwood_mark)

28/10/2013 10:41
FGW hasn't run all trains but done our best with NR. Kept most lines open. Received lots tweets from customers who appreciate it #meansalot

Hopeless trying to get onto NR's Journeychecker this morning and finally got onto FGW at about the 7th attempt - there seems little point referring people to websites for information/before setting out which don't have the capacity to cope when they are really needed - very frustrating.

The Abbey Flyer train service will remain suspended today due to damage caused in yesterday^s storm.

London Midland said repair works were still ongoing after a tree was blown over onto the line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey.

A replacement bus service will run today and the train operator said it hopes the service will resume tomorrow.

St Jude Storm - Impact on our customer service


Many more people than ever before used our services on Monday morning and reported a satisfactory experience, but there were problems encountered by some customers. If you were one of those customers who had difficulty in accessing our information on Monday morning, I am very sorry for the additional stress and inconvenience that we caused you. I've set out below a brief account of how we approached preparations for the storm and how events unfolded.

Saturday / Sunday

Storm St Jude was well forecast with the Met Office predicting weather that would have an impact on transport and other infrastructure. Some Train Operators took the decision over the weekend not to run trains early on Monday due to the likelihood of there being debris blown on to the tracks and the consequent potential safety impact. This information was posted onto our website homepage on Saturday evening.

On Sunday evening the amended timetable for Monday was made available in our journey planner.

Over the course of the weekend we had a planned upgrade of the journey planning systems which affected our ability to send alerts. This was communicated to customers in advance via their alerting preferences and by email. The upgrade went ahead as planned: one reason for the upgrade was that it allows us to add more capacity as required so that we could meet the needs of more customers.

Our contact centre team drafted in extra staff to work overtime on Monday to try to the cope with the anticipated increase in the number of customers calling. Our information management team was also bolstered with extra people.

The eye of the storm
 
We saw a marked increase in traffic across all of our channels (website / mobile / app / contact centre) from Sunday evening which continued through the early hours of Monday morning. Despite many more people than ever before using our services on Monday morning and reporting a satisfactory experience, there were problems encountered by some customers.

The problems included some customers being presented with a blank page rather than their journey plan, live departure board or other information - including in some cases our home page. This also had an impact on some customers using our mobile website, our apps and TrainTracker. This was identified by our support team who immediately began to investigate the cause of the issue and rectify it, whilst adding extra servers to cope with the increased demand. This took some time to complete, but the upgrade at the weekend meant that it was possible without reducing service to the majority of customers.

On our telephone lines, although our contact centre had additional staff working overtime and all desks were fully staffed, some customers had to wait quite a while for their call to be answered. Our advisors answered 47% more calls than a normal weekday and in addition our recorded message system answered almost 12,000 calls.

What worked well

Between 6am and 7am we had approximately 40,000 people on the website at any one time - about ten times what we see on a normal weekday morning. In the hour from 06:00 to 07:00 we answered 50% more requests for train times & ticket prices than in our previous busiest hour, which was when there was heavy snow on 18th January this year. The majority of customers were still able to use the website satisfactorily whilst the fixes were put in place.

Although journey planning in the apps was affected by the overall journey planning problems outlined above, live departure boards and other functions worked well. The Social Media team worked at full capacity delivering over 2000 messages to our Twitter accounts - by the end of Monday we had an extra 11,000 followers on our @nationalrailenq account. On the Facebook page we compiled an album of the pictures of the issues being found by Network Rail and the Train Operators.
 
Lessons Learned

We are working with our suppliers to investigate what went wrong and why, so that we are better prepared for the next major disruption.

Kind regards

Chris Scoggins
Chief Executive, National Rail Enquiries

I agree, FTN.  The belief in absolute guarantees, so beloved of journalists trying to trick politicians, business leaders and others into statements they can beat them with later, is endemic in our society.  Weather forecasting is a 'probability' exercise and the TOCs and NR had to react to a high probability.  They acted on the safe side, which means because no-one was hurt, only inconvenienced, it is open to those without responsibility to use hindsight to cry 'over-cautious'.