Tonight's Fiasco

[whole diary]

[johoare]

I was in Shepherd's bush this evening.. So I headed to Ealing Broadway for the 23.07 (22.59 out of Paddington)... I left early to get that train rather than being on a later one.. silly me..

When I got to Ealing Broadway the indicator board on platform 3 was flipping between the 23.07 (which was running late apparently) and the 23.11 Heathrow Connect..I was there for quite a while and it turns out the the 23.07 always got 15 seconds on the board and the 23.11 got 10 seconds. not sure why that was, but counting seconds each one got passed the time..

Anyway eventually the Heathrow connect came and went a couple of minutes late..

The 23.07 was just getting a minute later every minute that went by as far as the board was concerned.. Eventually someone tried the help point.. Finally, after lots of waiting he was told that our train was cancelled (it was still showing on the indicator board at this point).. He asked about getting to West Drayton as the next service (half hour later) doesn't stop there.. He got cut off...

He tried again.. The next person he got hold of also confirmed the 23.07 was cancelled.. When asked about the next train to West Drayton he was told 23.57... When he asked if the 23.37 from Ealing Broadway might stop there today he was told that there was no 23.37... He asked several times but it was almost like he was talking to a robot..Each time he was told that there was no 23.37.. Then he got cut off...

Anyway..Eventually the 23.37 arrived (a bit late).. It was nice and full as you'd imagine.. And would you believe it, it stopped at lots of extra stops including West Drayton...

We had NO information whatsover at the station or on the train.. We had to stand at Ealing Broadway for half hour with no train and no information...

Brilliant Customer service isn't it?
 

[eightf48544]

Sounds appalling Jo definitely not good customer service, although someone must have had the foresight to put special stops on the 23:37. However it appears they (presumably Swindon Control) forgot to tell anyone.

At that time of night there aren't that many trains about not like at 17:00

Aren't there any FGW^▸ (First Great Western) station staff around at that time? Presumably only LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) ones.

[ChrisB]

I've escalated this through the Customer Panel to suitable FGW^▸ (First Great Western) management.

[devon_metro]

Aren't those help points put through to National Rail Enquires which afaik is a useless Indian call centre?

[insider]

Have Checked regarding this incident and this is what was done regarding the 22:59 Paddington to Reading
At 23:01 Paddington station alerted Swindon Control that there was no driver for the train. (Upon investigation the driver had not been rostered correctly > admit FGW^▸ (First Great Western) own goal)
At 23:03 this information was sent out to all stations and the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) and at the same time the control attempted to step up drivers from the 23:20 departure. However no one at Paddington could locate that driver, they were on a break and their phone was turned off.
At 23:21 the decision was made to run the 22:59 service fast to Reading (thus cancelling the train at Ealing). This information again was sent out to all points, including the FGW Website, Journey Check and NRES^▸ (National Rail Enquiry Service).
At 23:22 the 23:20 Departure from Paddington to Oxford (Fast) was given a stop at Maidenhead (for Marlow Branch). At 23:25 the 23:29 departure to Oxford (Slow) was given stops for Southall, West Drayton, Iver & Langley. This service is also diagrammed to be 2 cars, and as such it was arranged for 4 cars to be in use. Again all this information was sent to all relevant parties.

Unfortunately the main issues here were the station staff at Ealing (yes it is a 24hr staffed station) may not have acknowledged the information > reason unknown. The NRES call centre would have known about the additional stops from approx 23:27, as it does take a few mins for their systems to update.
Finally it appears that the CIS system at Ealing may not have been updating due to ongoing server issues with the old CIS and roll on the new system installation there ASAP.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

yesterday there were problems at around mid day in hampshire with live infomation being displayed could this be linked or would that be a different issue

[johoare]

Have Checked regarding this incident and this is what was done regarding the 22:59 Paddington to Reading
At 23:01 Paddington station alerted Swindon Control that there was no driver for the train. (Upon investigation the driver had not been rostered correctly > admit FGW^▸ (First Great Western) own goal)
At 23:03 this information was sent out to all stations and the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) and at the same time the control attempted to step up drivers from the 23:20 departure. However no one at Paddington could locate that driver, they were on a break and their phone was turned off.
At 23:21 the decision was made to run the 22:59 service fast to Reading (thus cancelling the train at Ealing). This information again was sent out to all points, including the FGW Website, Journey Check and NRES^▸ (National Rail Enquiry Service).
At 23:22 the 23:20 Departure from Paddington to Oxford (Fast) was given a stop at Maidenhead (for Marlow Branch). At 23:25 the 23:29 departure to Oxford (Slow) was given stops for Southall, West Drayton, Iver & Langley. This service is also diagrammed to be 2 cars, and as such it was arranged for 4 cars to be in use. Again all this information was sent to all relevant parties.

Unfortunately the main issues here were the station staff at Ealing (yes it is a 24hr staffed station) may not have acknowledged the information > reason unknown. The NRES call centre would have known about the additional stops from approx 23:27, as it does take a few mins for their systems to update.
Finally it appears that the CIS system at Ealing may not have been updating due to ongoing server issues with the old CIS and roll on the new system installation there ASAP.

Thank you for the information.. At Ealing Broadway we weren't  told anything.. I did go looking for a member of staff but found no one.. So we had to rely on the help point which was just a call centre....And a waste of space it turns out, although entertainment to pass the time too since it was soooo bad..And they definitely weren't giving out any of the info you gave here,

And yes I guessed the 22.59 had run fast as  a train did go throurgh without stopping.. Did the driver suddenly appear by then ;-)

I love the fact that the 23.20 was then stopping additionally at Maidenhead.. They obviously forgot all the poor abandoned people at Ealing Brodway at that point.. I won't make the mistake of going there again in a hurry..

[insider]

The 22:59 didn't actually leave Paddington until around 23:40. By which time it was acyually cancelled as a passenger service and ran as ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) to Reading.

The 23:20 stopped at Maidenhead to serve customers from Paddington for the Marlow Branch. This was to minimise the delay to the Marlow Branch and avoid road transport for customers from Paddington which is where the majority would travel from.

[IndustryInsider]

Anyway..Eventually the 23.37 arrived (a bit late).. It was nice and full as you'd imagine.. And would you believe it, it stopped at lots of extra stops including West Drayton...

Was the 23:37 a 4-car?  Seems to have been lengthened from a 2-car to a 4-car recently, though on all days apart from Friday the back two carriages are locked out of use due to the stop at Appleford.  Rather unfortunate that passengers are usually standing as far as Hayes due to a station stop much later in the journey where it's likely there will be no passengers at all!

[insider]

The 23:29 departure from Pad to Oxford (Stopping service) is diagrammed as 4 cars ( 2x2). Due to the sort platform lengths between Didcot & Oxford only the front 2 coaches are in use.

On Tuesday night all 4 cars were in service between Paddington & Didcot PW^▸ (Permanent Way). This was only with the drivers permission as he was willing to lock the rear 2 at Didcot. Unfortunately some drivers(quite rightly) can and do refuse to do this as when they arrive at Didcot there is no one to assist them and there have been previous incidents of passengers refusing to leave the rear coaches at Didcot.

In some cases the rear two coaches are in use and then locked up at Reading as this station is staffed 24hrs. This has been raised with the diagramming department to see if this could be made permanent but then additional dwell time would be required to allow this activity.

[ChrisB]

Which isn't a problem at that time of night, is it?

[IndustryInsider]

The 23:29 departure from Pad to Oxford (Stopping service) is diagrammed as 4 cars ( 2x2). Due to the sort platform lengths between Didcot & Oxford only the front 2 coaches are in use.

On Tuesday night all 4 cars were in service between Paddington & Didcot PW^▸ (Permanent Way). This was only with the drivers permission as he was willing to lock the rear 2 at Didcot. Unfortunately some drivers(quite rightly) can and do refuse to do this as when they arrive at Didcot there is no one to assist them and there have been previous incidents of passengers refusing to leave the rear coaches at Didcot.

In some cases the rear two coaches are in use and then locked up at Reading as this station is staffed 24hrs. This has been raised with the diagramming department to see if this could be made permanent but then additional dwell time would be required to allow this activity.

It's only Appleford where there's a problem with 4-car trains.  Insider, please press for the few minutes of extra dwell time (as per a Friday night) to be added to this train as this capacity is badly needed.  I took a look at the train tonight, and as a 2-car it was full to bursting leaving Paddington and a few people had to stand all the way to Maidenhead!  This must look so bad given the two carriages carrying fresh air at the back.  Either that or re-jig the diagrams so that it, and it's previous working the 22:15 RDG^‡(resolve)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) are a 3-car 165/166 (formed off the set which arrives at Reading at 21:13 and now goes empty to the depot perhaps?)  At least that way they'd only be a handful of standees and no need to alter the timings.

I know it's summer time, but I really don't know just where all these passengers are coming from this year - every train until the 00:34 seems full to bursting!

[eightf48544]

It will need to be sorted by this time next year.