Great Western Coffee Shop

Fresh thread to cover today's disruption from scheduled timetable right across GWR services.   

Here is Journeycheck statement at 03:24 - just one 'line update' but it's an all-line beauty!

Season Ticket void day for 2nd March declared (https://twitter.com/GWRHelp)

The running map says it all.

Many sidings and loops over the region have train description "-KRS" or "KRS-" in - and these have only appeared in the last few days.  Anyone know what that stands for?  My only guess was "Klosed as a Result of Snow" - so maybe someone in the know can enlighten me?

Line closed between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids due to high tides along the seawall and debris on the track.

Sea looks pretty angry at Teignmouth (http://www.teignmouth-nci.org.uk/live-webcam).

The seawall has now been confirmed to have been damaged at dawlish.

Much natter that the Dawlish sea wall hasn't been breached but may have been severley damaged in places.  The NR inspection is scheduled to start at 1000 (02/03/2018)

https://mobile.twitter.com/DawlishBeach/status/969506342003200001/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.devonlive.com%2Fnews%2Fdevon-news%2Fdawlish-sea-wall-damaged-storm-1285826

https://mobile.twitter.com/DawlishBeach/status/969489650866950145/photo/1

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/q82/p526x296/28577333_10155274314566039_1635769133591583704_n.jpg?oh=a98403eceb9322520a1f1be863fc9d7f&oe=5B0AC3F4

Getting worse...

Update just now on Twitter:

What a mess that graphic in the top left corner is!

Errrrrr....

How DARE you ;D ;D ;D

Oh
- "good reflection of the mess that train services are across the south west"
- it's continuing to function and convey quick and immediate data

Latest news from NR on Dawlish

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/969555040007532545 (https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/969555040007532545)

Text of that

KRS stands for Key Route Strategy. To avoid points failing and reduce the opportunity for problems to arise, any points that don't have to be regularly used will be left set for the main route only. As mentioned, loops will not be used and lines such as the Westbury avoiding line will be closed. Stations on loops with through lines between the platforms will have their points left set for the platform lines.

I know it was on the 1st March but one of the new Class 802 IETs had a good test yesterday....
https://www.dawlishbeach.com/2018/03/gwr-hitachi-iet-802101-through-dawlish-in-the-snow/

Another, GWR-ordered 802303 has got all the way to Inverness for training purposes for the ECML sets....I have a photo somewhere, I'll try & dig it out of an email

Heathrow Connect cancelled as Heathrow Express have borrowed the Class 360s! ::)
Now the Hayes & Harlington bay services are cancelled too, with the xx12/xx42 from Paddington having additional calls at Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell. Unfortunately no additional call at Southall on that xx27/xx57 from Paddington so Southall drops from the usual 6tph to just 2tph.

Click on the mess ... then on a station code on the page you're taken too. Embryonic stuff but I have been having fun.   Only as good as the industry feeds and some of them (tiger especially) are up the swanee today (so I have patched tiger out).

I'm told Tiverton Parkway has shut due to lack of staff combined with icy conditions, they've deemed it unsafe for passengers.

It wasn't accessible by vehicle anyway, according to tweets from staff there. Photo with it showed drifts across the access road feet high. Pedestrian access at a pinch only. No surprise really.

I have noticed that realtime trains feeds seem to be struggling today with more trains showing than are actually running and no station updates

BBC spotlight reporting on the evening bulletin that a early morning train went through a flooded Dawlish station and smashed into a block or fencing, and had to return badly damaged to Exeter!  Network Rail are denying that it happened. ???

What was the HST towed to Long Rock by the 57 today? Related?

At 4 O'Clock this morning, I started this thread quoting JourneyCheck


Sixty seconds ago I rechecked and it still reads exactly the same.   What happened to the update due by 09:24 ... It's now 18:43!  

Yes - the railway have big problems today.  They don't help themselves by failing to update customers, and it's very much an own goal to promise an update in a certain time and still not have posted one 11 hours after that promise has expired!

All contributions of fresh chicken heads gratefully received in the control room.

GWR could learn from First sister company, First Kernow who's facebook coverage in the last 48 hours has been exemplary. Its quite clear the majority of the general public are appreciative from comments left.

57604 dragged 1C98 2103 ex Paddington which started Reading (weather related) last night, reason unknown..

One of the major passenger complaints about disruption is the lack of good information, and I dare say a trawl of the archives would find mutterings about "improvement plans" and similar.

This is one area in which an armchair army (with broadband) could make a difference, even when staff can't get to depots or the points are clogged with the wrong kind of snow.

There was a published list of line closures today (on Journeycheck and National Rail, although the messages were different). TransWilts wasn't included, but no trains ran. It was generally difficult to work out what was actually running - some of the "delayed" services were real, but some were not.

A lot of information was provided on cancellations and alterations to services between Paddington and Devon. Unfortuately, some of the semi-fasts (e.g. to Frome) escaped the cancellation messages. Only one train seems to have run via the Berks & Hants all day, but there was never a specific mention of a decision to divert the other services via Bristol, as far as I could see.

Yes information on websites has been extremely poor, and continues to be. I was due to travel to Bournemouth today, and real time info always showed trains as if they were running on time, while Journey Check just listed a number of routes where there were no services but made no mention of the Cardiff to Portsmouth line. I don't have a smartphone, and if it hadn't been for friends whose apps showed all trains cancelled, I wouldn't have known. Meanwhile, the South West Trains website showed info about their services very clearly - that all services to Bournemouth were cancelled.

I still have no idea if traveling tomorrow will be possible and even worth attempting, and don't have much faith in being able to find out in time (I will need to travel early if I travel at all).

Not alone. You should see Mrs FT, N!

Two thoughts:

1. The TransWilts app is online via http://train.fyi   (won't tell you much tonight, as most trains have finished)

2. Again via browser - http://www.wellho.net/railmaps/clim.php  (links from map at top of page) ... click on station to get the departure board from there.  Under test - will switch to tiger when it's back working properly - tiger has been poorly today so at the vets.

Not sure if I'm making valid suggestions for you, or aiming at a completely different target ...

Now that trains have virtually stopped running for the night the GWR website is up and running again..... ::) :P

I know what you mean - through the problem really was that trains had virtually stopped running for the whole day in many parts!   :D

Unlike a real life queue, users joining a queue for a website that lacks capacity don't have a visual feedback that they thing's got a long queue so join anyway ... rather that being able to say "goodness all those people" and look for an alternative - indeed, they will keep trying if they get dropped and simply make it worse!

One would imagine that GW's web site designers, server providers and admins have robustness testing in place. The lack of too many "oh sh*t" times suggests to me that they do have continuous integration (perhaps with Jenkins) and behaviour and / or test driven development and / or load testing in place - things like unittest, Cucumber, Gherkin, Selenium, Watir Webdrivers and Jmeter.   But I do wonder what the "busiest" scenario that they have tested has as its upper levels, and whether they may lack load sharing with a system of brining more servers into the pool quickly (or even automatically).  Could it really be just a big server that "should have enough umph", or could it be that the load sharer at the 'front desk' of handling the traffic itself has hit its limit?

But there have been issues with industry feeds during the last 24 hours ... and those issues themselves may have somewhat been reflected back at the front end - especially if somewhere within the server system the backroom data gathering function is struggling to get accurate information itself, and when it does get information to be able to assimilate the quantity thats far larger than usual, as well as requiring (like us web site users) to try a number of time because the Network Rail feeds keep failing due to load.

I'm asking questions that I don't expect to be answered. And a risk assessment suggests this is something that doesn't happen terribly often, and when it does the effect is a bit of irritation rather than being a danger or safety risk.  So I don't expect a lot of money to be chucked at fixing it.   I do like the idea of an extra layer of front page that gives a very short and rapid status report without all the fancy graphics and perhaps with some more caching ... but then there IS typically a news flash status on the front page - so perhaps we're already some way down that line - or as far as the graphic artists will let us go without killing the professional and consistent look and feel of GWR.

Updated  ;D ;D ;D ...or rather re-timestamped.  Now reads


I'm not clear if "train services will start later today" still applies to 2nd March (at 22:07 on that day) or to what is now today - 3rd March.   I loo forward to finding out the story when I wake in the morning.   'night all !

It's an interesting question as to how much you scale up for exception circumstances. Its not that difficult to test with modern tools but I guess its how much do you want to spend for those once a year scenarios. We spend a lot on it but its rather a different setup and I don't want to point fingers too much as we had occasional glitches as well. Also from what I understand from all those young people at work its not so much the amount of data as the number of connections so I don't know how much a low res site would help.

Personally it was the lack of information (sound familiar) was frustrating as I didn't know whether to try go into work or not. I know GWR probably didn't have much information themselves but not being able to see the little there was on the website meant I couldn't make an informed (or slightly better informed) decision.

Twitter wasn't much help - "we're really busy right now...." but I know from experience that GWR are one of the poorer TOCs for providing Agency Wire information (that's information from Reuters, AP etc to Broadcasters) so I'm not entirely willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Advice is not to travel again today - Saturday 3rd March 2018.



Thanks to GWR for their update from last night's message within the timeframe they gave, and for updating the message to make it clear which day to applied to.

From Network Rail:

  I loo forward to finding out the story when I wake in the morning.   'night all !
[/quote]

I heartily commend grahame's effort to pass on as much essential information as possible....but do wee really need to know about his night time habits ? ::)

No, you don't.  But 'twas Billy the dog needed to answer the call of nature - I withheld my personal data!

Looking at Opentraintimes maps, it seems single line working has been introduced with all trains using the up line (the one furthest for the sea).   Down trains cross over at Dawlish Warren and back again at Teignmouth.

NR have just tweeted (https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/969873337802469376) that:

GWR services for tomorrow posted as three separate tweets on the GWR Twitter page - LTV, High Speed and West Local services. Check them out if travelling tomorrow.

Lots of trains are going to need to get back to where they belong, fuelled, tanked, examined etc ready to launch a normal service on Monday.

The exam backlog is going to mean even more 'more trains needing repair than normal' than normal.

Still happening. I just (on OpenTrainsTimes) watched 1C92 PAD-PNZ cross over at Dawlish Warren.

I think you need to get outdoors a bit more.  ;) :D ;D

14:00 Penzance to Paddington, only had one working toilet up to Plymouth, which then went out of order, due the train being immediately turned around, and the water tanks not being replenished. Therefore GWR Operations allowed 10 minutes at Exeter & Taunton for toilet breaks  ;D   

Sometimes I fail to understand GWR's logic,  holding the train at two stations for 10 minutes each time, or hold it at Penzance for 20-25 minutes to replenish the water tanks. If GWR are bringing the renaissance of rail, I hardly think reintroducing toilet breaks at stations is a good idea, last time it happened was in the early 1900s  :D

In this weather?!  :D

Beat me to it! Although I have been out today (and yesterday) with only a little difficulty. Coming from where I do, the tricks to help progress either on foot or in a car are learned early. The most important lesson is when not to bother.