Severe weather forecast - South West Trains pre-cancel services on 18 January

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

I'm guessing 0916 to Shirehampton.

[swrural]

A new SWT^▸ (South West Trains) destination?  Enough of this horseplay and nay-saying.

[TonyK]

...and where is Showjumping in non-predictive text?   

Near Shirehampton. Once you get the hang of predictive text, it's a piece of pass.

Meanwhile, at Showhumping Shirehampton station, one passenger has waited too long for the delayed 13:08 to Temple Meads...

[JayMac]

And no Help Point/CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Shirehampton for Mr Frosty to check on train running.

At times like this you wish FGW^▸ (First Great Western) weren't baulking at the ^12,125 each replacement cost. A figure a little birdie told me some time ago and one which was confirmed by the 2IC at Temple Meads. Severn Beach and Montpelier are also without these (no) Help (whatsoever) Points.

[TonyK]

They were fine until some local low-life took exception to their funtionality, as was the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at Clifton Down. Hopefully, the next generation of help point will have a built-in wide-angle webcam, set to start taking pictures as soon as it is attacked. And spray purple dye over whoever's doing it, followed by 20,000 volts applied by special wires fired at groin level, before a dramatic finale involving Semtex and nuts and bolts. Be just my luck to slip and fall on one.

[John R]

With more and more people having internet enabled phones, I wonder how long it will be before there's considered to be no need to provide such a facility at smaller stations where this sort of problem exists. We're not there yet, but surely it won't be that long.

[TonyK]

With more and more people having internet enabled phones, I wonder how long it will be before there's considered to be no need to provide such a facility at smaller stations where this sort of problem exists. We're not there yet, but surely it won't be that long.

That's true. I found the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) Live Departures Boards on my phone, and it gave me more info than the help line, like where the train actually was. There isn't coverage everywhere, though.

[inspector_blakey]

Dragging this back round on topic, I know we're not out of the woods yet as we're still very much in the evening peak, but I would say SWT^▸ (South West Trains) made a very savvy decision yesterday to implement the snow timetable. Of course the service hasn't been without problems, but for the most part it has been fairly robust in terms of the advertised timetable, and regular.

[Southern Stag]

The only real problems were this morning when there wasn't any snow yet. A lot of severe overcrowding reported in the morning peak because of the reductions to frequency. Off peak the reduced frequencies are offset by longer trains, but at peak times trains are only as long as normal, they are just running less often.

[TonyK]

Dragging this back round on topic, I know we're not out of the woods yet as we're still very much in the evening peak, but I would say SWT^▸ (South West Trains) made a very savvy decision yesterday to implement the snow timetable. Of course the service hasn't been without problems, but for the most part it has been fairly robust in terms of the advertised timetable, and regular.

Yes, back to the topic. And yes, it was a very good call. Or is it no, it wasn't a very good call?

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) made the decision to proceed with the normal timetable, unless things got in the way, which they did. SWT made the decision to go to an emergency timetable, whether things got in the way or not. FGW had a number of delays, and made their usual extensive use of the internet to advertise them. I don't know how SWT did with their emergency timetable, others no doubt will.

So the question to put to the house is which approach works best?

My own experience is with FGW. I was due to work in Shirehampton today, and normally drive. I awoke at 6.15, saw the snow, and decided the car was staying at home. I figured I had time for a shower, shave, and shampoo, plus breakfast, prior to a 30 minute walk to Temple Meads to catch the 8:36. Then I remembered what I get paid, and got back into bed.

I'm glad I did. I made it in time for the 9.16, and was told by a lady who got on that the 8.36 didn't happen. The 4-car train rolled into platform 5 about 15 minutes late, ready to depart as a 2-car in either direction. It wouldn't separate normally, and a maintenance guy with a long spindly pole with a hook on the end eventually had to sit midway, pulling with all his might on the coupling, with another guy with a blow torch on standby. It worked, and we set off about 9.50. I'm not in the sort of job where someone dies if I'm late, and was one of few who actually made it, so I am not bothered by the delay, just pleased that I got there.

By the time I left work for home, services were back to just a few minutes behind schedule. Throughout the entire process, I had up-to-the-minute information at my fingertips, through the medium of Twitter (thank you Paul et al), as well as the Journey check on FGW's website, plus the departure boards on my mobile, courtesy of National Rail Enquiries.

Did SWT's emergency schedule cause less disruption, more, or were both equally effective / ineffective in dealing with the weather?

[JayMac]

Off topic again, but only briefly I promise.

I found it rather amusing to hear that the ski slopes at both Telford and Pontypool were closed today due to snow!

[TonyK]

Off topic again, but only briefly I promise.

I found it rather amusing to hear that the ski slopes at both Telford and Pontypool were closed today due to snow!

I had heard they were going downhill. Was a snowplough of no use to them?

[swrural]

As an aside I heard people were skiing down Park Street in Bristol.  Urban skiing, who'd have thought it although of course this feature of Bristol is that which makes rail transport provision a challenge.

The SWT^▸ (South West Trains) performed reasonably well and even decided to lay on an extra Waterloo to Exeter to cope with the peak at about 1645.  At least that was what the web site said.   I already opined that it was better to start modestly and go reliably.

I must say, looking at the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site, there seemed to a huge number of cancellations, which surely must upset more people than a reduced service that actually works.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From First Great Western JourneyCheck:

Alterations to Ticket Restrictions

Due to the current weather conditions ticket restrictions across the First Great Western network have been altered.

Customers holding tickets valid for travel today will be allowed to travel at any time of the day on First Great Western services. Customers who do not wish to travel today may use tickets dated today (18/01/2013) for travel tomorrow (19/01/2013).
 
Customers who no longer wish to travel and require a refund should contact First Great Western customer services on 0845 7000 125 or attend any staffed First Great Western station. Normal refund rules still apply.

In spite of the disruption, customers are still expected to hold a valid ticket prior to boarding train services.
 
First Great Western tickets are being accepted on South West Trains and CrossCountry on any reasonable route.

Message Received: 18/01/2013 14:03

So, First Great Western do seem to have found their weather problems to be so widespread that they have issued such a blanket 'de-restriction' - but they're apparently still insisting that "customers are still expected to hold a valid ticket prior to boarding train services."

How does that work at Melksham, then? 

[Surrey 455]

Did SWT^▸ (South West Trains)'s emergency schedule cause less disruption, more, or were both equally effective / ineffective in dealing with the weather?

Well for me, I was one of those unfortunates without any SWT service from my station today (Bookham). Nice of them to cancel this mornings trains when the weather was still ok.

Returning home from Waterloo this evening I was hoping to connect with a Southern train to Bookham from Leatherhead but of the 3 or 4 that run each weekday one was cancelled, another disappeared off the live progress screen on my app presumably cut short at Epsom and the other was running 61 mins late having left Victoria 14 mins late but did go to Bookham although I'd already given up at that point and did a bus/long walk combo.

It's annoying that Southern tried to run their services through Bookham today but SWT who are the main provider didn't bother. My SWT journey from Waterloo to Leatherhead was pretty uneventful.