It's not the train that's the problem...

[whole diary]

[matth1j]

After a successful 3 commutes last week I got up nice and early again to catch the 06:32 Melksham to Trowbridge service, only to see that it hadn't left Gloucester - 'delayed'. Kept checking it (National Rail, phone (app) & laptop), but no change. So I was resigned to reverting back to the 07:21 Melksham Chippenham service.

And I was checking that the 7:21 was on time just before 6, when I noticed that the 06:32 was showing as on time! The revised timings were now showing it as having left Gloucester 2 mins late, followed by lots of 'Information Unavailable' at subsequent stops, but on time at Swindon and beyond.

I just managed to get out of the door and jog a significant portion of the 1.6 miles to Melksham to catch it, but honestly I'm not sure what's worse - unreliable trains or unreliable train times 

[TaplowGreen]

After a successful 3 commutes last week I got up nice and early again to catch the 06:32 Melksham to Trowbridge service, only to see that it hadn't left Gloucester - 'delayed'. Kept checking it (National Rail, phone (app) & laptop), but no change. So I was resigned to reverting back to the 07:21 Melksham Chippenham service.

And I was checking that the 7:21 was on time just before 6, when I noticed that the 06:32 was showing as on time! The revised timings were now showing it as having left Gloucester 2 mins late, followed by lots of 'Information Unavailable' at subsequent stops, but on time at Swindon and beyond.

I just managed to get out of the door and jog a significant portion of the 1.6 miles to Melksham to catch it, but honestly I'm not sure what's worse - unreliable trains or unreliable train times 

Well, with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) we get plenty of both! 

[grahame]

I - totally - agree with you on reliability of information; I have a smidgin of sympathy with the chaps and chapesses in "Control" who have to do their best in developing situations, but in my view some of the tools they have to help them are very crude and blunt, and there are far to many situations that simply should not develop in the first place.   

I raised these very matters along with nearly two dozen others with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) managers last Tuesday in London - a dozen of them during a round table (OK, it was not really round in physical terms) with our MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) and this week I am distilling and writing up element of that list to stop the key ones being lost in the flood, and to help the ones that can quickly be assigned to get actually followed though by someone else moved on.

[Clan Line]

I - totally - agree with you on reliability of information; ..................

Before I went out on Saturday to photograph the Cl 37 double-headed excursion, I checked on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website). It showed the train as being between Southampton and Romsey - so I drove out to meet it. I checked RTT again when I parked - it now said that "this service was cancelled - due to a problem at the depot (MU^▸ (Multiple Unit))"  but...........further down the page it showed the train as "arriving" at Salisbury !  I started to get really worried until it finally showed up about 5 mins late.

It is still showing as cancelled on RTT ...........so please ignore my photo, I was obviously hallucinating.

[grahame]

And - again - yesterday (evening) - it's not (just) the train - it's the incorrect information that this train will be cancelled but then it runs ...

Four trains were flagged up yesterday as not running using the word WILL rather than the word MIGHT between Westbury and Swindon. Two flagged up early in the day (due to.a shortage of crew) and a further two much later on (due to a train failure earlier in the day).     "They" somehow found crew and re-instated one of the trains that people had been signposted away from all through the day.

Sure, things happen and there will be the occasional changes - problem is these things are NOT occasional, and problems with real and phantom cancellations multiply up and make the perception worse even than the sum of the problems.