25/08 - Overhead wire problems @ Huntingdon aka How not to do PR

[whole diary]

[Jason]

If you want an example of how to totally mismanage an outage then the total PR^▸ (Public Relations) disaster last night on the East Coast routes is a good start.
My family boarded http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G35209/2014/08/25/advanced which stopped before Stevenage before crawling into the station and then being terminated somewhere around about when they expected to be passing through Wakefield. There then followed 2-3 hours of total lack of information before they managed to get on a coach to Peterborough at ~22:40 which they were still on ~23:35. After multiple false starts backed with a total failure of communication (mainly station staff being fed nothing of use to pass on to passengers) they boarded a train bound to Leeds at 02:00. They got to their destination at 04:40.

There are an awful lot of very angry tweets under #peterborough and some pictures of some astonishing overcrowding both at stations and on trains (not to mention the Kings Cross taxi queue in the middle of the night) through the small hours of this morning.

[SDS]

Looking at the internal log for this incident beggars belief. "Unable to source buses from First Rail Support" and it only took them till 10pm at night to realise!
This seems yet another repeat of what happened sometime last year, again, on a bank holiday where passengers were dumped at kings cross. The ones that were clever still had to wait almost 4 hours for a taxi.

EC really didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing. Their twitter account gave up. I really do hope someone is publicly flogged for this.

[a-driver]

This type of event only happens because it's a bank holiday.  Managers/Directors only work Mon-Fri 9-5. Outside of these hours there is no one within the company of a senior level who has the authority to make decisions.

[brompton rail]

Although the overhead was repaired some time this morning (brought down by Network Rail's New Measurement Train!) early services were started from Peterborough going north.

I travelled on 0810 Doncaster to York (thankfully) which ran to time. However this service is the 0615 Kings Cross to Newcastle. We were told, with apologies by the Guard, that the train had been overnight (or part of the night) at Peterborough, and therefore hadn't been cleaned, there was no catering (staff out of position or at home because of excess hours last night), and there were NO working toilets.

I was pleased it ran, but would have been much less happy to be travelling Peterborough (or East Anglia) to Newcastle on a train for upto two and a half hours without a toilet.

No complaints about information on train running because of Info on my phone, though I heard no station announcements about lack of catering or toilets.

[phile]

This type of event only happens because it's a bank holiday.  Managers/Directors only work Mon-Fri 9-5. Outside of these hours there is no one within the company of a senior level who has the authority to make decisions.

Don't they have an On Call manager at senior level ?

[IndustryInsider]

They would, and the Senior Controller should have the power to do most things.  Just shows that widescale improvements for alternative arrangements and information is not just a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) issue, not that I think any of us thought it was.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Don't they have an On Call manager at senior level ?

They do - and on one occasion in the past, I have been able to contact a Director of First Great Western over a Bank Holiday weekend.

Obviously, I use such accessibility very sparingly. 

[a-driver]

They would, and the Senior Controller should have the power to do most things.  Just shows that widescale improvements for alternative arrangements and information is not just a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) issue, not that I think any of us thought it was.

OK. There may be a Senior Controller but apart from Control staff, it would be a pretty much skeleton staff/management presence compared to the same event happening during a working day.  Many hands make light work!!
I would imagine finding replacement buses at that time is also a challenge.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I would imagine finding replacement buses at that time is also a challenge.

I think that is a very valid point, a-driver: the apparent perception that all Train Operating Companies must have a fleet of coaches on standby, with engines running and drivers at the wheel, just in case there's a problem somewhere on the railway, is rather impractical.

[SDS]

I would imagine finding replacement buses at that time is also a challenge.

I think that is a very valid point, a-driver: the apparent perception that all Train Operating Companies must have a fleet of coaches on standby, with engines running and drivers at the wheel, just in case there's a problem somewhere on the railway, is rather impractical.

According to EC Tyrell (Good old AXC^» (Arriva Cross Country - about)) 50 coaches were ordered in the early evening, and as stated above they had problems sourcing them. HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) were being diverted via Cambridge and Ely subject to route knowledge. HT^▸ (Hull Trains) drivers all sign Cambridge now apparently.
FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) also terminated stuff short at St Neots looking at the history, which I suspect means Peterborough was rammed with stock.
Hull Trains even resorted to telling passengers that onward road transport from London was acceptable on a public feed.
Still the early sleeper managed to make it through 140L, and the later one 46L being terminated at Edinburgh.