Whats Going On and Why

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

Quite often on this forum we complain that we might have a bit more sympathy with train companies when things go wrong on the network, if a more detailed explanation as to what and why was given.  I thought the following is a good example of that good practice by one train company.....

"What's Going On:

Following an earlier problem with a set of points at Wimbledon all lines are now open.
Train services running through this station are returning to normal but some services may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 23:00 27/03.

What We're Doing About It:
Our control centre received reports from a signaller earlier this morning that a set of points had failed at Wimbledon, meaning that fewer trains than usual could run towards London. This has led to displaced stock and crew.

A set of points is the part of the track that can move, allowing the train to change direction and head to a different section of the network.

Network Rail engineers were on site before start of service and restored the points to normal working by mid-morning. Further work will be undertaken by engineering teams overnight to fully rectify the fault. Due to the disruption this incident has created, our train service is currently in recovery. Trains may be subject to short notice alteration and delays. Some train services are likely to be busier than normal, and some station locations may also be busier.

Service recovery is proceeding well and most routes are now operating at close to normal levels. We will continue to work towards recovering all train services across our network through the afternoon and evening."

[ChrisB]

Maybe FirstGroup will realuse the above is good/better practice & will share it with their other franchises?!!

[TaplowGreen]

That would be a huge step forward for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s communications..............I'd certainly have been very interested to read the version that explained the decimation of services between Paddington and Plymouth last Sunday! 

[stuving]

Now, I did comment on that back in November:

Since SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) took over, their excuse generator seems to have adopted a different style from SWT^▸ (South West Trains)'s. It is set up to explain more, and tells you "what's going on" and then "what we're doing about it", though with some variation (and often not putting things under the right heading). The same words are then used by National Rail Enquiries. Whether NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s contribution is used verbatim, or is being "improved", I can't say.

That earlier set of explanatory words also contained a helpful description of what points are for ... which if nothing else demonstrates how often the things have been going wrong.

There's as interesting question arises from this: how does this style look if the problem is all of SWR's (or GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s) making? All the examples I can find or recall were due to NR's infrastructure falling over, or to the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) strikes. There have been a few staff shortages too, though, so maybe we should keep an eye open for that kind of thing on SWR.

[SandTEngineer]

Hi Stuving.  Apologies but I missed that one....

As you said in that earlier thread things seemed to change once the new franchise started.  Lets hope then that 'Lessons will be Learnt' when the new GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) franchise extension starts.....