What is a good service?

[whole diary]

[81F]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Journeycheck claims there is a "good service" operating on the Hereford-Worcester-Oxford-London line this morning.
As I write at 0720
1P13 0450 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0655, is expected at 0727
1P19 0712 Charlbury-Paddington, is cancelled between Charlbury and Oxford
1P21 0528 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0752, is expected at 0940
2E92 0653 Worcester-Oxford local service is cancelled throughout
1P26 0642 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0851 -- whereabouts unknown
and on the down line
1W12 Paddington-Great Malvern is "delayed"

A good service?

[ellendune]

I cannot count the number of times I have waited a very long time for a train on the London Underground all the while being assured there is a good service on all lines or at least the line I am using.  I say to myself "A good service but no trains" 

[martvw]

Hi 81F welcome to the north Cotswold line ! I do hope that the 0642 Hereford Paddington train was found , a bit of a worry that (whereabouts unknown)!!

[grahame]

Isn't a good service officially defined by the performance monitoring figures and targets against which they are measured?

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/about/performance/

PPM^‡(resolve) (Public Performance Measure) has known shortcomings, such as its measurement of on-time-ness being based on the arrival time at final destination.  So a London to Penzance service can look like it's had a really poor run if it was on time all the way to St Erth, but then got held up there due to seals on the line at Marazion.   And on the other hand, a train can appear to have been on time when it was only on time at the final destination due to a rather generous timing on the last bit of the run.   Again ... I recall that trains from St Erth to Penzance are much slower in the timetable than trains from Penzance to St Erth.

Missing from PPM are measures of how good journeys with connections are (i.e. if connections miss, or if a late running train actually allows people to go forwards early), and whether there's capacity on the trains to meet the demand.

[eightf48544]

I agree the PPM^‡(resolve) does lead to funny outcomes. I also agree with 81F that if that was the service on offer then I wouldn't class it as good under any system of measurement.

1 train partial cancellation
1 train cancelled thoughout
1 Train 32 late
1 train 1 48 late
! train lost!

Sorry I should have done those in BOLD CAPS like SHRUG

[Mookiemoo]

The 48 late running train was due to a combination of three things.......... Only one could be attributed to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

[Btline]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Journeycheck claims there is a "good service" operating on the Hereford-Worcester-Oxford-London line this morning.
As I write at 0720
1P13 0450 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0655, is expected at 0727
1P19 0712 Charlbury-Paddington, is cancelled between Charlbury and Oxford
1P21 0528 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0752, is expected at 0940
2E92 0653 Worcester-Oxford local service is cancelled throughout
1P26 0642 Hereford-Paddington, due to depart Oxford at 0851 -- whereabouts unknown
and on the down line
1W12 Paddington-Great Malvern is "delayed"

A good service?

For the Cotswold line - ha! Yes.

It gets much worse than that!