In message
, at
00:17:37 on Mon, 20 Dec 2010, Mizter T remarked:
At least a quick glance suggests Thameslink services make up 113 of
the 116 cancelled trains now showing on FCC Journey Check (the other
three being GN services):
http://www.jcheck.com/firstcapitalconnect

Wires in trouble at St Neots. Lots of cancellations and some trains
shuttling London-Hitchin.
--
Roland Perry

Appeared on web site in only the last 30 mins, it was not there when I
checked at 10:20
:


Major disruption
Monday morning service


Thameslink route

A power cut in the Farringdon area is contributing to significant
disruption caused by the extreme weather conditions and last night's
extreme frost which reached -13 degrees in some places. A separate
power cut has also affected our information systems which are
incorrectly showing our services as cancelled. In fact, we are
operating a revised timetable as follows:

There are no services across central London or between Wimbledon and
Sutton and London.

London Bridge - Brighton we are operating two trains per hour as
follows:
From London Bridge: xx12 and xx42
From Brighton: xx07 and xx37

St Pancras International - Bedford we are operating four trains per
hour as follows:
From Bedford: xx:10 and xx40 all stations; xx00 and xx30 all stations
to St Albans and then fast to West Hampstead and St Pancras
International.
From St Pancras International: xx14 and xx44 all stations to Bedford;
xx09 and xx39 to West Hampstead, St Albans then all stations to
Bedford.

Network Rail is working hard to restore services across central London
which will allow us to resume services on the Wimbledon/Sutton loop.




--
Nick

On Dec 20, 11:00*am, D7666 wrote:

Major disruption
Monday morning service

Thameslink route


further update

''Tomorrow, Tuesday: At the request of Network Rail, because of
further freezing conditions that will affect track, signalling and
other infrastructure, we will be running a revised timetable again
tomorrow. It is expected the Thameslink route will be open across
central London so we will be able to operate a service between London
and Sutton/Wimbledon.

''


--
Nick

On Dec 20, 3:10*pm, D7666 wrote:
On Dec 20, 11:00*am, D7666 wrote:

Major disruption
Monday morning service

Thameslink route

further update

''Tomorrow, Tuesday: At the request of Network Rail, because of
further freezing conditions that will affect track, signalling and
other infrastructure, we will be running a revised timetable again
tomorrow. It is expected the Thameslink route will be open across
central London so we will be able to operate a service between London
and Sutton/Wimbledon.

''

--
Nick

Todays saga was 08:15 - 09:00 at Luton then I gave up. There were a
couple of trains but wedged solid could not get on them.

Tried again after 11:15 going for web site gen 11:10 ex Bedford in
their alleged 4 TPH pattern. When I got to LUT I find it was not 4 TPH
but some half way house as units and crews still in wrong place. 8.377
arrived at about 11:30 and ran all stations & I left it at WHP.

All day they been showing their web site a 4 TPH service. I checked
this at ~14:00 ~15:00 and ~16:20.

Got to SPI 16:35 and found it was 2 TPH.

16:44 ex SPI 8.377 and rammed solid full. The only reason I manged a
seat was I happened to be in pole position for the rearmost door and
went for f.c.

And hey presto I get home an check and now it says 2 TPH.

This morning was just chaos, not helped by info system being down, but
the disruption was driven by the Farringdon power outage.

This evening I don't know. FCC appear to be blaming Networkrail but no
reason given.

I am suspicious as all 4 of the only 4 FCC trains working I saw this
evening were all 8.377 - no 319s seen moving. OK with 4 trains I've
seen only around half the number of trains needed for 2 TPH but I do
wonder if something else is going on they ain;lt telling us yet.


--
Nick

On 20/12/2010 18:25, D7666 wrote:

Todays saga was 08:15 - 09:00 at Luton then I gave up. There were a
couple of trains but wedged solid could not get on them.

At Sutton announcements were saying there were no FCC services, and
passengers should use SWT, Underground and Tramlink instead. Just one
tiny snag with that at Sutton station...

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On Dec 20, 7:08*pm, Arthur Figgis wrote:

passengers should use SWT, Underground and Tramlink instead. Just one
tiny snag with that at Sutton station...

LOL

The perils of long line auto PA.

Perhaps LOL is not appropriate, passengers expect sensible
information, and its dribble like that that causes no-one to pay
attention.

Amid all the shambolic chaos this morning, we still had the routine
droning about Blackfriars closed (largely irrelevant at Luton since
there were no through core trains anyway) AND the routine weekend
engineering works one which on any normal weekend has little value on
a Monday, but completely useless refering to coming weekend works as
Sat+Sun is xmas weekend.

Did we get any PA about what trains were actually running or audio
info that the visual info was screwed ... did we ****.

--
Nick


--
Nick

On 20/12/2010 19:15, D7666 wrote:
On Dec 20, 7:08 pm, Arthur wrote:

passengers should use SWT, Underground and Tramlink instead. Just one
tiny snag with that at Sutton station...

LOL

The perils of long line auto PA.

Perhaps LOL is not appropriate, passengers expect sensible
information, and its dribble like that that causes no-one to pay
attention.

Is that "expect", or "have a slight hope that some of their
grandchildren might live to see the day when we get world peace and"?

I recently overheard someone who was stranded in Sutton, having believed
the journey planner which told her to make a 1 min connection between
FCC trains on platform 1.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On Dec 20, 6:25*pm, D7666 wrote:

Todays saga [...]

Yesterday late evening FCC were promising, well hoping, to provide a
normal Monday service, albeit with the big caveat that freezing fog
was expected (i.e. it could still all go tits up). By the sounds of it
the Farringdon power failure really knackered things up - could that
be put down to freezing fog? - but the separate power failure they
cite that affected live information systems sounds kinda rubbish/lame.

I think the Sutton loop and Sevenoaks services fell apart completely -
someone I know who was travelling up from south of the river found
themselves on what the station PIS had apparently stated was a train
to a Thameslink North destination (Bedford or Luton or something, not
sure), which actually then went on to Victoria - was early and the
recollection a little hazy, but a message on the FCC site seemed to
back up the idea some (peak?) trains may have gone to/from Vic.
Someone else travelling back south from Thameslink North just said it
was a mess (info sounded shabby but got no details). And just heard of
someone else (not on the TL route but on Southeastern) waiting at a
station finding a mystery unannounced train pulling in to another
platform (seemingly something running v late) - such tales are far
from unusual, and of course on parts of the network it's the CIS/PIS
that feeds the LDB system - anyhow point being that those who say
'look at the LDBs to get the true picture' evidently don't appreciate
that the LDBs can be a work of fiction at times like this. Anyway,
apparently one shouldn't "whinge"...

"Mizter T" wrote:

I think the Sutton loop and Sevenoaks services fell apart completely -
someone I know who was travelling up from south of the river found
themselves on what the station PIS had apparently stated was a train
to a Thameslink North destination (Bedford or Luton or something, not
sure), which actually then went on to Victoria - was early and the
recollection a little hazy, but a message on the FCC site seemed to
back up the idea some (peak?) trains may have gone to/from Vic.

As I arrived at Vic circa 08.45*, there were two FCC 319s heading out on the
South Eastern side.

Chris

* Should have arrived at London Bridge at 07.20-ish, but both the 05.45 and
06.30 off Seaford were cancelled due, allegedly, to unit failures - 313s I
presume.

In article
,
(D7666) wrote:

Appeared on web site in only the last 30 mins, it was not there when I
checked at 10:20:


Major disruption
Monday morning service


Thameslink route

[snip]

They've adopted the emergency timetable on the GN. I'm on the 15:06 (2C20)
to Cambridge. Finsbury Park, Potter's Bar, Hatfield, then all stations to
Royston, then Cambridge.

Meanwhile "Live Departures" is a bigger work of fiction than normal,
showing a completely different set of GN trains. As I was leaving the
Cross, it was showing Cambridge departures, all "on time" at 15:15, 15:45,
15:52 and 16:06 and departures from Cambridge at 15:15, 15:26, 15:45 and
15:55.

Passenger Focus are right. Once disruption comes the fragmented railway
becomes completely dysfunctional.

--
Colin Rosenstiel