No trains and lack of information at Maidenhead this morning

[whole diary]

[johoare]

Due to signal problems at Didcot Parkway, when I got to the station at 9am today there were no trains and lots of people..

We did get some information, although at the moment the loudspeakers on platform 4 don't seem to be working so all the announcements were happening over the tracks on platform 3 so we had to strain to hear them.

We found out the 9.03 was cancelled.. About quarter past they announced that the next train has just left Reading, would be with us about half past and would stop at most stations..

I decided to cut my losses and come back home to work as I wasn't going to wait 15 minutes to find out I couldn't fit on the train as there had been no trains at all going Eastbound so I imagine it might have left Reading rather full..

When I checked the Paddington arrivals at home it seems that there was also a train before that...It was the delayed 8.11 departure, 73 minutes late.. So that means it left Maidenhead at 8.24... It only stopped at Burnham and was then non stop to Paddington..

Had I known that train was also coming I think I'd have waited.

I'm guessing the staff at Maidenhead hadn't been told about that train.. I can only imagine the bedlam there was when it arrived and whether many people for intermediate stations got on it only to find that after Burnham it was non stop to London when we'd been told the next train stopped everywhere..

[adc82140]

Things had started to fall apart at 8am- the 08:00 fast was displaying "on time" at platform 4, but in fact turned up at 08:08 on platform two. As you mentioned, there is no functioning audible CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) on platforms 4/5 at the moment.

Cue the hoardes of hundreds trying to dash through the subway- heaven help anyone trying to walk the other way.

The 08:04 turned up on platform four (booked platform two) at 08:07, and was absolutely rammed full.

Prior to this, all trains on the CIS screens (and these have been a bit on and off in recent weeks) had been showing as "on time"

[johoare]

Yeah the screens seem to be showing random information at the best of times these days.. I also got the 8.00 last week and everyone did the trek from platform 4 to 2 just before the train came in.. And on Sunday I got the 10.50 to London and it was showing as varying minutes late (from 0 to 15) while I was there... Finally it arrived 8 minutes late and as we were all getting on, the lady was still announcing it would arrive in four minutes time (at this point we knew she was wrong  )..

Whatever is currently wrong with the system most likely added to this morning's confusion and the fact there was a train imminent that no one seemed to know existed (I guess apart from the driver and passengers on the train itself)..

[Oxman]

Not sure why no one has posted this, but there was a complete black out at Didcot this morning for several hours. No trains were able to pass through Didcot. Services to Bristol and South Wales were diverted via the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury). Oxford to London passengers were sent via Banbury to Marylebone, and a fleet of 20+ coaches were procured to run between Didcot and Reading, Oxford and Swindon.

The Reading to Paddington service was severely restricted, with no trains arriving from the Didcot direction, and an improvised service was set up between Reading and Paddington. Small wonder that the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Maidenhead and everywhere else was unable to keep up.

[johoare]

Oxman I agree.. I was wondering the same.. why it wasn't on here.. I made the decision to put my post in "London to Reading" as part of it was about why the information given wasn't correct.. But I did wonder why nothing else was posted elsewhere about it.. Maybe everyone was really busy, or stuck on station platforms somewhere 

It still doesn't quite explain, for my particular journey, why no one knew about a train that was on it's way to us and was only stopping at one stop after that to Paddington... I can't see how a train can just not be known about...

Mind you... I've seen the confusion a not expected train has caused in the past so maybe it happens more than I think 

[devon_metro]

Presumably the staff were busy dealing with the chaos!!

[willc]

I think it was the case, as Devon Metro suggests, people were too busy with trying to keep some sort of service going where they could with whatever trains and crew were available than trying to grapple with the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System). At Oxford they apparently shut down the screens eventually, because much of what was showing was of little help to anyone.

Hopefully, the new system will be rather more useful in a crisis.

[Boppy]

I got caught up in it at Reading.  Had to wait for an hour or so for a fast train to London.

The Reading CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) seemed to hold up pretty well considering local trains to Oxford were arriving from London and being turned around to become "Ealing Broadway" trains.  I have to agree about the system at Maidenhead though.  I was at Maidenhead on Monday during a quiet period and the display screens were showing utter nonsense from a completely different time of day.

[Chris from Nailsea]

More scope for confusion - from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates:

Line incidents

Line problem between Maidenhead and Reading.
Train services between Maidenhead and Reading are being disrupted due to a broken down train. Delays of up to 60 minutes can be expected. Only west-bound train services are affected by this problem.
Last Updated: 10/06/2010 18:18

[Oxman]

Reading station has its own mini CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) control room with a couple of operators who can make any changes that are needed and do all the  manual announcements.

Maidenhead CIS is part of the old Thames Trains system and is run from Swindon, with no local override.

Although Oxford has a new system and can make minor changes locally, the staff there don't have the training or the time to make major changes (such as creating additional trains) during major disruption.

[johoare]

I got caught up in it at Reading.  Had to wait for an hour or so for a fast train to London.

The Reading CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) seemed to hold up pretty well considering local trains to Oxford were arriving from London and being turned around to become "Ealing Broadway" trains.  I have to agree about the system at Maidenhead though.  I was at Maidenhead on Monday during a quiet period and the display screens were showing utter nonsense from a completely different time of day.

Hhm it seems, considering I arrived at what I think was quite late during the disruption, there was no information given to us that they were turning around trains at Reading..Well not during the 20 minutes I was there anyway.. That kind of sounds nearly like an emergency timetable (half hourly service stopping everywhere).. Oh if only someone could tell us what was really going on...

[IndustryInsider]

Although Oxford has a new system and can make minor changes locally, the staff there don't have the training or the time to make major changes (such as creating additional trains) during major disruption.

A real benefit lost was when Oxford (and lots of other medium and some larger stations) lost their dedicated train announcer and CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) operator.  The modern systems, despite improving lots over the last 15 years since Thames Trains and Connex were the first to install them, simply go into meltdown whenever disruption reaches a serious level.  Right at the very time the system should be most useful. 

Instead, the platform staff often have to try and do all announcements, whilst attending to their own duties already stretched due to the additional problems service disruption causes.  End result is that most staff would like the return of a dedicated train announcer and a fully locally controlled system for such a scenario - even if most of the time the latest automated systems do a pretty good job.

What kind of minor changes are they able to make, Oxman?  On my last visit one of the Bicester trains was still showing on the screens despite having departed minutes earlier and with a Banbury train sat in the platform - would they be able to change that, for example?

[johoare]

Just out of interest, despite the fact there were no trains, and the loud speakers on the london bound platform weren't working, not a single member of staff came out to give out information when I was stuck at Maidenhead yesterday..

[Oxman]

Yes, they can get rid of a train out of the system. When the up Jericho through siding was converted to the down Jericho to allow Bicester bound trains to access the branch without crossing the mains, something was missed from the train reporting system. Trains leaving platform 3 on the down Jericho are not detected by the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System), so do not clear automatically from the screens. Staff have to manually clear every Bicester departure from plaform 3 from the system.

The other functions are things like platform changes (fairly rare), adding in delays (either for trains coming off the Cotswold line, where the manual signalling means that delays are not always picked up by the CIS, or for anticipated late starts from Oxford), or adding departure remarks - the information line on the list of departures or the rolling screens. They can also initiate announcements in Welsh - but again, this is fairly rare!

[IndustryInsider]

That's much better than I expected - I thought a phone call to Swindon was required every time an error was detected.  Thanks for the information.