Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd March 2018 - Severe weather - advice not to travel

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

I know it was on the 1st March but one of the new Class 802 IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) had a good test yesterday....
https://www.dawlishbeach.com/2018/03/gwr-hitachi-iet-802101-through-dawlish-in-the-snow/

[ChrisB]

I know it was on the 1st March but one of the new Class 802 IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) had a good test yesterday....
https://www.dawlishbeach.com/2018/03/gwr-hitachi-iet-802101-through-dawlish-in-the-snow/

Another, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)-ordered 802303 has got all the way to Inverness for training purposes for the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) sets....I have a photo somewhere, I'll try & dig it out of an email

[hassaanhc]

Heathrow Connect cancelled as Heathrow Express have borrowed the Class 360s!
Now the Hayes & Harlington bay services are cancelled too, with the xx12/xx42 from Paddington having additional calls at Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell. Unfortunately no additional call at Southall on that xx27/xx57 from Paddington so Southall drops from the usual 6tph to just 2tph.

[grahame]

What a mess that graphic in the top left corner is!

Click on the mess ... then on a station code on the page you're taken too. Embryonic stuff but I have been having fun.   Only as good as the industry feeds and some of them (tiger especially) are up the swanee today (so I have patched tiger out).

[LiskeardRich]

I'm told Tiverton Parkway has shut due to lack of staff combined with icy conditions, they've deemed it unsafe for passengers.

[ChrisB]

It wasn't accessible by vehicle anyway, according to tweets from staff there. Photo with it showed drifts across the access road feet high. Pedestrian access at a pinch only. No surprise really.

[rogerw]

I have noticed that realtime trains feeds seem to be struggling today with more trains showing than are actually running and no station updates

[devonexpress]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spotlight reporting on the evening bulletin that a early morning train went through a flooded Dawlish station and smashed into a block or fencing, and had to return badly damaged to Exeter!  Network Rail are denying that it happened.

[LiskeardRich]

What was the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) towed to Long Rock by the 57 today? Related?

[grahame]

At 4 O'Clock this morning, I started this thread quoting JourneyCheck

Further Information

An update will follow within the next 6 hours.
Individual train service alterations may not appear on journey check, our advice is not to travel.
Last Updated:02/03/2018 03:24

Sixty seconds ago I rechecked and it still reads exactly the same.   What happened to the update due by 09:24 ... It's now 18:43!  

Yes - the railway have big problems today.  They don't help themselves by failing to update customers, and it's very much an own goal to promise an update in a certain time and still not have posted one 11 hours after that promise has expired!

[stuving]

Yes - the railway have big problems today.  They don't help themselves by failing to update customers, and it's very much an own goal to promise an update in a certain time and still not have posted one 11 hours after that promise has expired!

All contributions of fresh chicken heads gratefully received in the control room.

[LiskeardRich]

Yes - the railway have big problems today.  They don't help themselves by failing to update customers, and it's very much an own goal to promise an update in a certain time and still not have posted one 11 hours after that promise has expired!

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) could learn from First sister company, First Kernow who's facebook coverage in the last 48 hours has been exemplary. Its quite clear the majority of the general public are appreciative from comments left.

[phile]

What was the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) towed to Long Rock by the 57 today? Related?

57604 dragged 1C98 2103 ex Paddington which started Reading (weather related) last night, reason unknown..

[Trowres]

At 4 O'Clock this morning, I started this thread quoting JourneyCheck

Further Information

An update will follow within the next 6 hours.
Individual train service alterations may not appear on journey check, our advice is not to travel.
Last Updated:02/03/2018 03:24

Sixty seconds ago I rechecked and it still reads exactly the same.   What happened to the update due by 09:24 ... It's now 18:43!  

Yes - the railway have big problems today.  They don't help themselves by failing to update customers, and it's very much an own goal to promise an update in a certain time and still not have posted one 11 hours after that promise has expired!

One of the major passenger complaints about disruption is the lack of good information, and I dare say a trawl of the archives would find mutterings about "improvement plans" and similar.

This is one area in which an armchair army (with broadband) could make a difference, even when staff can't get to depots or the points are clogged with the wrong kind of snow.

There was a published list of line closures today (on Journeycheck and National Rail, although the messages were different). TransWilts wasn't included, but no trains ran. It was generally difficult to work out what was actually running - some of the "delayed" services were real, but some were not.

A lot of information was provided on cancellations and alterations to services between Paddington and Devon. Unfortuately, some of the semi-fasts (e.g. to Frome) escaped the cancellation messages. Only one train seems to have run via the Berks & Hants all day, but there was never a specific mention of a decision to divert the other services via Bristol, as far as I could see.

[froome]

Yes information on websites has been extremely poor, and continues to be. I was due to travel to Bournemouth today, and real time info always showed trains as if they were running on time, while Journey Check just listed a number of routes where there were no services but made no mention of the Cardiff to Portsmouth line. I don't have a smartphone, and if it hadn't been for friends whose apps showed all trains cancelled, I wouldn't have known. Meanwhile, the South West Trains website showed info about their services very clearly - that all services to Bournemouth were cancelled.

I still have no idea if traveling tomorrow will be possible and even worth attempting, and don't have much faith in being able to find out in time (I will need to travel early if I travel at all).