Great Western Coffee Shop

A freight train failed in the Severn Tunnel around lunch time today resulting numerous delays and cancellations.   Whay I am really posting about is the usual thing, lack of or incorrect information.   I was intending to travel from Cardiff to Bristol TM on 13 30 Cardiff to Portsmouth Hbr but I smelt a rat there was something wrong when the 13 00 Cardiff to Exeter turned round in Platform and the announcement of a Down London cancelled.   I decided to travel to Newport by ATW in view of the possibility of the 13 30 running late and turning round at Newport because if it was there would have probably been nothing announced.   
At Newport the 13 30 ex Cardiff was still showing "On time" and was also announced as the next train on Platform 4.    There were also announcements re Down trains ex London and Bristol direction being cancelled.
Several minutes after the 13 30 was due to leave it just disappeared from the screen.    I asked the Info point (ATW managed station)   what had happened and after a few minutes a "voice" announced that it was cancelled.   Passengers were given no advice what to do.  The staff knew nothing about it until people started querying when it didn't turn up. The 14 00 Cardiff to Taunton was eventually shown on the CIS as Cancelled, after 14 00.    A "voice" then announced that buses would leave the front of the station at 14 15 to Bristol Parkway ONLY.   No announcement as to what passengers should use it leaving waiting people in complete limbo.
In spite of all the campaigns and publicity and promises the lack of information still is still as bad as ever in the event of disruptions.
What I would like to know is why the cancellation of the 13 30 and 1400 were not input to TRUST as soon as it was known that the inward workings were not running through to Cardiff.   CIS screens are only effective when things are operating normally, but due to their inflexibility as a result of the programme they can turn out what can be a "load of rubbish" in the case of disruption and not reflecting what is actually happened..   That is when a "human voice" should take over.
Passengers could have perhaps made alternative arrangements if the obvious information had been input to the system.  In an ideal world, people would be told what to do as soon as possible in the event of a cancellation not leaving them to have to run around like headless chickens tring to obtain info but in a fragmented railway this is what happens..    What happened to the old "WARNPASS" Blackboard Notice from BR Days ?   Surely info could be input as text on screens.

Hmm. That's a rather sorry situation you've reported there, phile, and I understand your obvious frustration.

The BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-19150949)'s version of events:

This message was sent to FGW Website, Journeycheck, National Rail and ATW at 12:06. If operators dont action / check then incorrect info is displayed/given on the ground

UPDATED  3  CORE MSG (CSL2 ACTIVATED)-RED: A broken down train Newport South Wales - Bris...  06/08/12 12:06   
 Owing to a broken down train between Newport South Wales and Bristol Parkway some lines are affected.

Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed by up to 45 mins at short notice. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

Customer Advice:
Due to the failed freight train at the English side of Severn Tunnel the following alterations will take place :-
Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour services will not run between Cardiff Central and Bristol Temple Meads.
Cardiff Central to Taunton services will not run between Cardiff Central and Filton Abbey Wood but will divert to Bristol Parkway upon departure from Filton Abbey Wood to start/terminate.
Paddington to Cardiff Central & Swansea HST services will run throughout in both directions.
Limited road transport will operate where possible.
 

The situation decribed by Phile is so typical when things go wrong throughout the FGW area and, I suspect, not confined to FGW ops. It gets much worse if you are waiting at an unstaffed station in such circumstances as we see so often on the Cotswold Line where reliabilty and punctuality has gone steadily downhill in recent months. Those announcements pointed out by Insider just do not seem to get through to the travelling public.

Passengers intending to catch the 13 30 Cardiff to Portsmouth Hbr could have caught the 13 25 departure (ex Swansea) to Paddington to Bristol Parkway for forward connections to Bristol Temple Meads and beyond if theyhad been aware and FGW had done something about it.   In the past, I have known the xx25 departures from Cardiff to be held until XX30 to convey any xx30 pasdsengers especially if it has turned round at Cardiff.   The more I think about it, the more disgusted I am eith FGWs response to the failure and their Customer Service.

You blame FGW, but aren't Cardiff and Newport Stations both managed by ATW?  Who is responsible to advise customers - FGW or ATW?

In my opinion  it is a bit unfair to blame the whole affair on FGW when some fault lies with ATW since Newport station is managed by them and the staff are employee's of ATW.

It could be the case that no information was given to the ATW staff by FGW

The trains involved were FGW services so it was their responsible to manage these and their passengers whoever manages the stations.   The ATW stations would not have been fully aware as to what was going on.    This sounds perhaps like passing the buck.

See below (my underlining):


Do FGW have much staff at Newport Cardiff

No customer facing staff at either. Suspect only a train crew mess room at Cardiff.

The fault for lack of information in this case appears to me to lie with ATW.

The Information WAS sent to ATW who manage Newport as soon as FGW made a decision, if there staff take the attitude( much like yourself) that it is FGW's problem then they are in breach of the station access agreement. ATW are paid to provide customer service and despatch on FGW's behalf. You should complain to ATW (but they will say they didnt know > which is rubbish as they did because the message was sent to them at 12:06 ) 2 previous messages were also sent with basic info on the disruption, and lets not forget that the Netowrk Rail control for the area is in Cardiff Control where the ATW control team are as well!!!!!

This problem seems quite common when there is disruption between Cardiff and Bristol.
As a regular passenger on that route, I know that if my train from Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff is delayed then it is often better for me to get a local service to Bristol Parkway and then a HST from there to Cardiff (and the same in reverse). Most people don't realise that. I will say that at least twice there have been announcements at Bristol Temple Meads advising people to do exactly that. I have never hard any announcements at Cardiff for the reverse.

Funnily enough the other day whilst I was travelling through Cardiff with a Portsmouth service cancelled for whatever reason, the TM on the hst shouted all passangers for Portsmouth to board the service to parkway to change for Temple Meads for connection repeating the information on board the service. No announcements from the ATW staff despite hearing the TM advising passangers of this. Though I can't say I'm surprised as ATW seem to have little knowledge of their own services in many stations let alone others although I have a feeling its not the fault of station staff who more often than not genuinely seem like they do not know suggesting an information problem for them too.

But FGW failed to update the system.

What system?

TRUST.   The CIS showed the train running in Time but it didn't turn up.

Arriva Trains Wales CIS system does not operate using Trust for that type of information.

TOC's dont cancel trains in TRUST that is the train running controllers who work for Network Rail!!!

And as already stated CIS feed not run off TRUST anyway!

Whosr responsibility would it have been to have shewn the cancellation on the CIS screens ?  The 13 30 Cardiff to Portsmouth was the only train that caused problems by people being stranded unnecessarily.

Arriva Trains Wales are responsible for updating them.

As it was a FGW train, how would ATW recieve the information  ?

Via the method already pointed out on the 1st page of this topic.