Chance of getting a seat at Cheltenham?

[whole diary]

[Louis94]

Any changes in formation after start of service (such as diversions via Camp Hill) are individually emailed out to the relevant TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) control, catering supply centres and train managers along the booked route. Some TOCs are very bad at updating screens for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services (East Coast and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are probably the worst offenders) and some TOCs are very good. For example as soon as a Voyager hits (not literally) an SWT^▸ (South West Trains) station, so either at Basingstoke heading south or Bournemouth / Southampton heading north then the dispatch staff will inform their CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) office of any discrepancies such as the train being reversed or removing coach B from the formation of a four car.

Funny how FGW and East Coast have the same CIS control software for controlling the screens/PA^▸ (Public Address), where as SWT use a different system for telling the screens what to say, says it all about how user friendly the systems are perhaps!

[Brucey]

Virgin Trains are trialling (at their managed stations) a CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) where the information is supplied from the Darwin system.

Darwin is a system that integrates data from the Network Rail timetable, TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS) (current train running information) and Tyrell (the system used by control rooms).  This is also the data that you see in places like National Rail Enquiries online, JourneyCheck and various smartphone apps.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of how the trial has worked or whether it has proved useful.

[grahame]

Grabbed some reservations in the end ... probably a good job as it gave us seats (and at a table ) together. Late into Cheltenham ("problem with lineside equipment") and further delayed there beyond usual station stop time (loading wheelchair which took a few minutes) ... routed via Camp Hill into Birmingham.   Coffee did make it, and got us awake enough to catch our ongoing connection ... that's a story for a later date.  Thanks for all the inputs!