I'd like to congratulate National Rail, Transport for London, Southern
Trains and the BBC for all failing to provide any kind of up-to-date
travel information on station closures during the storms on Thursday.

The National Rail website (the definitive source for rail service
disruption) completely failed to mention that London Bridge station had
been closed for most of the day. It still had no mention of this at
18:00 so myself and many other thousands of commuters made an
unnecessary journey to the station only to find we had to make
alternative arrangements to get home.

Meanwhile, the only service disruption listed on the TFL journey planner
website under "Trains" was on the line to Stratford. One incident. The
TFL "SMS alerts" service kindly informed me that a reduced escalator
service was in operation at London Bridge until Feb. Thanks for that.

Trumping them all was the BBC London travel website, which listed "no
current problems reports" on the railways!

With the weather taking the Southern website offline, the National Rail
enquiries phoneline ringing engaged, incorrect information on the most
common websites; commuters had woeful travel information on how to plan
their journeys.

I'm amazed that with the technology at our disposal these days not one
of these organisations with billion pound budgets could get it right.

Regards,


Neil


Web hosting, dedicated servers, Exchange & SharePoint
www.purleyhosting.com

"Neil Spellings" wrote in message
.. .
I'd like to congratulate National Rail, Transport for London, Southern
Trains and the BBC for all failing to provide any kind of up-to-date
travel information on station closures during the storms on Thursday.

LARGE SNIP

Trumping them all was the BBC London travel website, which listed "no
current problems reports" on the railways!

With the weather taking the Southern website offline, the National Rail
enquiries phoneline ringing engaged, incorrect information on the most
common websites; commuters had woeful travel information on how to plan
their journeys.

I'm amazed that with the technology at our disposal these days not one of
these organisations with billion pound budgets could get it right.

Slightly unfair on the BBC. They do after all get their info second hand
from the TOC's.
--
Ken Ward

"Society for the production of Maritime Reefs using MerseyRail 142's"
(For membership email... )

Ken Ward wrote:
"Neil Spellings" wrote in message
.. .
I'd like to congratulate National Rail, Transport for London, Southern
Trains and the BBC for all failing to provide any kind of up-to-date
travel information on station closures during the storms on Thursday.

LARGE SNIP
Trumping them all was the BBC London travel website, which listed "no
current problems reports" on the railways!

Slightly unfair on the BBC. They do after all get their info second hand
from the TOC's.


And the travel reports on BBC London 94.9 were extended, comprehensive
and accurate and quite entertaining if reading all the station names
quickly without making errors is a sport.

Agree about nationalrail.co.uk - I checked it closely to find "we have
no information" and "there is a problem with the system" messages
galore. I trudged to the station (Effingham Junction) to find a small
note on the door saying "There are no trains, If you find a way to
complete your journey apply for compensation"

sigh. I guess it was the "wrong kind of storm"

mysteryflyer

The BBC had a special page on it, it's still the
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/..._feature.shtml

Neil Spellings wrote:
I'd like to congratulate National Rail, Transport for London, Southern
Trains and the BBC for all failing to provide any kind of up-to-date
travel information on station closures during the storms on Thursday.

Well I can't comment on TfL or Southern, but I thought NRES and the BBC
did a pretty good job on Thursday. I should think both were getting a
hundred times the normal number of hits, probably even more, and the
NRES system only fell over for about an hour or so. (The "Current
Service Alterations" page kept going but "Live Arrivals and Departures"
froze for a while.)

And, as with any operating difficulty on the railway, the problem is
more about getting the information from the people on the ground than
disseminating it to the passengers. It's no use asking somebody like
Ross how long his train is going to be delayed while he's still
underneath it with his Junior Hacksaw.
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================

"Joyce Whitchurch" wrote in message
...
Neil Spellings wrote:
I'd like to congratulate National Rail, Transport for London, Southern
Trains and the BBC for all failing to provide any kind of up-to-date
travel information on station closures during the storms on Thursday.

Well I can't comment on TfL or Southern, but I thought NRES and the BBC
did a pretty good job on Thursday. I should think both were getting a
hundred times the normal number of hits, probably even more, and the NRES
system only fell over for about an hour or so. (The "Current Service
Alterations" page kept going but "Live Arrivals and Departures" froze for
a while.)

And, as with any operating difficulty on the railway, the problem is more
about getting the information from the people on the ground than
disseminating it to the passengers. It's no use asking somebody like Ross
how long his train is going to be delayed while he's still underneath it
with his Junior Hacksaw.
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================
To which he might have replied, as a driver of my acquaintance did 'A
F****** sight quicker if I didn't have to keep answering the radio'
Brian

Neil Spellings wrote:

The National Rail website (the definitive source for rail service
disruption) completely failed to mention that London Bridge station had
been closed for most of the day.

It was NOT closed for ''most of the day''.

It was open at least until 13:30 - well over half the day - and I know
that because I used it three times in the morning and the 4th time
departing at 13:30.

I'm amazed that with the technology at our disposal these days not one
of these organisations with billion pound budgets could get it right.

Have you considered those people who input data into those systems were
affected by rail travel and had disrupted work journies?

A lot of rail control rooms and CIS/PIS offices and so on work a 24/7
three shift pattern. Most shifts change at 14:00 +/- 1 h. Those coming
on duty for the pm shift were probably caught up in travel problems at
the height of the winds. Thats certainly when I was travelling away
from a meeting in London and when I got cought with a 1 h joourney from
London Bridge to Luton taking instead 3.5 hours via bus via Golders
Green.

No matter how good the technology is, report writing of specific
disruptions is a manual task. The system probably went into overload
and understaff.


--
Nick

The TFL website had difficulties updating due to the volume of hits or
the amount of changes being made, not sure which.

wrote:
The TFL website had difficulties updating due to the volume of hits or
the amount of changes being made, not sure which.

Both of which would have been acceptable in 1994 at the dawn of the
Internet but really arent acceptable excuses in 2007

mysteryflyer

On 20 Jan 2007 04:18:25 -0800, "D7666" wrote:


Neil Spellings wrote:

The National Rail website (the definitive source for rail service
disruption) completely failed to mention that London Bridge station had
been closed for most of the day.

It was NOT closed for ''most of the day''.

It was open at least until 13:30 - well over half the day - and I know
that because I used it three times in the morning and the 4th time
departing at 13:30.

Someone I know arrived from C+ at about 6:30, at which point they were
just in the process of shutting it.