Great Western Coffee Shop

Live departures report these minutes delays at Reading:

Swansea 22 mins late
Oxford 20 mins
Bristol 18 mins
Plymouth 15 mins

Yet FGW website and journey check don't mention problems!

Looks like a system fault.

Everything's being reported as departing PAD on time, but then seem to become delayed through RDG.  Random checking of the live departures at BRI, NLS and TOT (just to see a few examples) shows ongoing delays being reported.  ::)

My train (19.06 Paddington to Maidenhead (and beyond)) was on the main line and according to our announcement (the first I've heard for a few weeks even tho I've had many delays recently) was because the signals were against us and it looked as if there was a slow train ahead..The driver was good and did promise to let us know what was going on should he find out.. We crawled from Iver to Maidenhead..

However, being as we were in conditions that cattle wouldn't be transported in (again) as the 19.06 was two carriages not 3 and being as the 18.33 (HST) still doesn't run so trains are overcrowded ever day at this time anyway... I will be complaining again to FGW.. ooh I can almost write their reply myself... Maybe I should.. >:(

At least now I have the feeling back in my neck and left foot as I had such restricted movement on this train as it was SO overcrowded, I couldn't actually move and lost a lot of feeling..

Thanks FGW!

There was a bridge bash on a double amber bridge (?) somewhere on the mainline between PAD and SLO
Upstairs as per normal failed to tell us where, and made some excuse about the CCF failing so they couldn't tell us anything.

Vehicle struck a bridge at Burnham - AGAIN!

CCF?

'Tis good they didn't let my train driver know that information then.. And after they'd herded the cattle.. ahem I mean customers (or is it passengers?) into the very very short train... :) ;)

Common cause failure.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cause_failure  ::)

CCF it's a rail tool, that aids train running information, but I can't for the life of me think what it stands for :D

So not Congestive Cardiac Failure then?  ;D

Oh!  Well, it ain't on the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCF  :o ::) ;D

I could probably think of a much better meaning for CCF.. But I won't..  ;D ;)

Meanwhile, apparently, my description of this evening is greater than 1000 letters so won't go to FGW.. But they don't tell me HOW much more.. oh no..  :(

Is it acceptable to just send two emails.. with a half on each? I really don't have time to count how many letters it is and the FGW website obviously knows...

I have been told it is Control Centre of the Future :)

Have you tried cutting out the swear words?    :o ::) ;D

Send the email direct from your email account rather than using the online form. That should get round the 1000 character limit. Possibly....

fgw.feedback@firstgroup.com

Hi Chris.. There were no swear words.. I'm just too polite for that  :)

And bignosemac.. I did think that but I never know their e-mail address when I need it as I know it's ok to send lots and lots of letters and words to them that way.. I was thinking I must look it up but instead I removed a few words and off it went on it's merry way to "standard reply land"... I'm not cynical.. no..  ;)

Well, if it can't cope with a vehicle bumping into a bridge, it doesn't appear to have much of a future ...  ::) :o

Apparently they been having problems with it long before that..Chris, computers go wrong sometimes, it's one of those things..

But I bet computers don't decide how many people they are going to cram onto a train? oh I do hope not... ;)

Aha no..that would be our controller at Swindon

I know, Ollie - but that doesn't particularly inspire one with any confidence in it ...  ;D

It's not like it affected train running, so I wouldn't worry about it.

But it did affect train running? well my train anyway..

I'm on about the failure of CCF - rather than bridge bash.

Ok cool.. well since I think (I think) that is the system that gives us mere mortals (passengers/customers) information and since my train driver tried his hardest then the odd CCF failure is ok..

However I am a bit disappointed that my train driver didn't appear to know the conditions that his cattle/passengers were being transported in.. Or I think he'd have apologised.. Not his fault obviously..  But someone should have told him (CCF maybe? ;))

Again no, as CCF is just something stations can use to see where a train is. Won't have any impact on passengers.

Don't forget the information chain, so any station on the FGW network will be relying on information to come through from Swindon Control.

P2 was working fine. P2 is the older, cheaper, version of CCF.


But at PAD all the info comes from NR upstairs, well supposed to anyway. I suspect they get it all from swindon, goes in one ear and out the other!!!

A perfect example of why splitting the railway doesn't work.

I wonder about this CCF stuff. I've heard previously that there is a live system which can show trains in real time on maps, this is part of Control Centre (of the) Future, but this is apparently very expensive to licence and is generally only used in signalling centres, and TOC control rooms.

However there is also a 'Contact Centre LDB' system. The difference being that unlike the public LDBs it can be used to look back at earlier information, not just the 2 hour window the public sees, and also shows timing points other than stations, train IDs etc.  This is available at most stations AFAIAA.  It requires a login and pasword, but otherwise the URLs are as for the public system with CCLDB replacing LDB, IYSWIM.

Paul

It is expensive to licence in comparison with the other systems, but it's use is a little more widespread than that.  Most of the medium and large sized stations have them in the platform staff offices as well as some messrooms and other places such as booking-on points and AOM's (Area Operation Managers) offices.  There is also a much cheaper option of displaying maps in use at some locations - though the layout and choice of font/graphics means the clarity leaves a lot to be desired.

Just out of idle curiosity: is that the system which is displayed on a screen in the 'lost / found property office', in the underpass at Bristol Temple Meads - perhaps to help with tracking where lost items might be?

That is P2. The Green on Black screen. urrghh.

CCF I think is grey lines on black screen, but with more in depth commands and replay option.