Was this even shorter that Stourbridge to Stourbridge?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

17:02 Worcester Foregate Street to Southampton Central due 20:46

This train will be terminated at Worcester Shrub Hill.It will no longer call at: Ashchurch For Tewkesbury, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Stonehouse, Stroud, Kemble, Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.This is due to a train fault. Last Updated: 02/04/2009 17:21

That must have run less that 1% of it's journey!  Should services that run less that 50% of their journeys be counted as "cancelled" as they are, for the most part!

I have noted a move towards restarting trains along their route with another train e.g. "This train will terminate at Exeter. And additional service ...", and that's welcome.  In such circumstances, does the second half wait for the first half?

[inspector_blakey]

From the timing of the update it looks as if that may have been a genuine failure in service. Doesn't appear like an attempt to avoid a cancellation statistic but if it was then it's a bit cynical!

[eightf48544]

From the timing of the update it looks as if that may have been a genuine failure in service. Doesn't appear like an attempt to avoid a cancellation statistic but if it was then it's a bit cynical!

I thought the loophole of turning  trains back short of final destination and missing stops not counting as a cancellation had been closed. I seem to recall it was as he result of SWT^▸ (South West Trains) taking the mick when they sacked all their drivers and couldn't run the timetabled service.

Am open to correction.

[Ollie]

From the timing of the update it looks as if that may have been a genuine failure in service. Doesn't appear like an attempt to avoid a cancellation statistic but if it was then it's a bit cynical!

Yep, total failure. Transmission fault I believe.

[Sion Bretton]

Yes but in my I-phone on the day in question if showed as cancelled then running & then cancelled. How can customer make up thier mind to go for this train when the feed from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) couldn't make up it mind 

[smithy]

i think confusion was caused by info from train crew,at first they said ok to go then decided it was a failiure and as ollie says some kind of transmission fault.i believe it finally moved friday morning after fitters from worcester depot looked at it overnight.

[grahame]

I have great sympathy for staff who have to make the decision whether to declare a train 'cancelled' or not as circumstances change. Leave the decision / notification too late and customers are inconvenienced later than necessary, perhaps increasing the inconvenience they suffer.  But make the decision / notification too early and customers will be driven to use alternatives (which by definition are not their first choice) when the service does or could run.

As a bit of an 'information hound', I would like to be able to follow updates with more information. Example  "we're having trouble with the 17:02 from Worcester to Southampton and at this stage there's a chance of around 40% that it won't run south of Worcester Shrub Hill. We will have a further update at around 17:15". The problem with this is that it's probably too much information for some customers, and it could take the staff who are trying to actually fix the darned train off that job, lowering the chances of it running.