Cornish mainline and branch line delays - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[old original]

Query - Why is the Falmouth branch at a standstill when the power failure is at Roskear?

The two 150 units are stabled at Penzance overnight.

[Witham Bobby]

Delays to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Following failure of the electricity supply earlier today between Penzance and Truro all lines are now open. Disruption is expected until 12:00 12/12.
Train services between Plymouth and Penzance are returning to normal but some services may still be delayed.
Customer Advice
Due to an earlier power cut affecting the signalling power supply, trains were unable to run this morning.
A generator has been arranged and power has been restored to the signalling system allowing train services to run.

Perhaps a permanent standby generator would be a better option than having to source one during a failure of supply to what appears to be a location of considerable importance to the railway in Cornwall?

[REVUpminster]

I wonder if this power failure was due to renewables, wind and solar, only providing 6% of electricity on the 13th.
Daily Telegraph reporting gas was supplying 72.5%, Nuclear 10%, wood burning 6.6%, wind 5.8%, solar nil and the rest from interconnecter cables..

[ellendune]

I wonder if this power failure was due to renewables, wind and solar, only providing 6% of electricity on the 13th.
Daily Telegraph reporting gas was supplying 72.5%, Nuclear 10%, wood burning 6.6%, wind 5.8%, solar nil and the rest from interconnecter cables..

If it had been there would have been major disruption on the grid not just a small part of Cornwall. 

Perhaps a permanent standby generator would be a better option than having to source one during a failure of supply to what appears to be a location of considerable importance to the railway in Cornwall?

Given modern battery technology perhaps even a large standby battery. Standby generators are notoriously unreliable (as machines don't like standing idle).

[RailCornwall]

National Grid are still fixing issues across Cornwall (and seemingly their whole distribution area) residual from last weekend, around 6,000 properties being cut off today NE of Redruth not being unusual. Unsurprising considering the number of issues they've had to deal with following the storm, I am expecting these to continue up to Christmas as I've heard of many 'make do and get power back on' rather than 'complete the repair and fully test for resilience' repairs being implemented in the days following. This resilience work is being undertaken now. 

[GBM]

Delays to services between Penzance and Plymouth
Due to signalling staff being taken ill at St Erth fewer trains are able to run on all lines. Disruption is expected until 10:00 10/02.
Train services between Penzance and Plymouth may be delayed.
Customer Advice
We apologise for the disruption to your journey today.
Due to Network Rail signalling staff being taken ill at St Erth, trains may be delayed in the St Erth area, as the other local signallers will need to send/receive trains one at a time through the affected area.
Please check your journey.

Cancellations to services between St Erth and St Ives
Due to signalling staff being taken ill between St Erth and St Ives the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 12:00 10/02.

[GBM]

Had to spend quite a while using the search function to find this topic in the forum.
No results found!
Next search found threads from 2020 and earlier, but not this topic.
Had to go into my posts section and scroll through.......

[grahame]

Had to spend quite a while using the search function to find this topic in the forum.
No results found!
Next search found threads from 2020 and earlier, but not this topic.
Had to go into my posts section and scroll through.......

Please let me know the search terms you used and which search function - the one in the top bar after "Home, Help ..." or Deep Search?

[GBM]

Had to spend quite a while using the search function to find this topic in the forum.
No results found!
Next search found threads from 2020 and earlier, but not this topic.
Had to go into my posts section and scroll through.......

Please let me know the search terms you used and which search function - the one in the top bar after "Home, Help ..." or Deep Search?

Two emails with attachments sent.

[GBM]

Delays to services between Penzance and Plymouth
Due to signalling staff being taken ill at St Erth fewer trains are able to run on all lines. Disruption is expected until 20:00 10/02.
Train services between Penzance and Plymouth may be delayed.

BUT
Cancellations to services between St Erth and St Ives
Following signalling staff being taken ill between St Erth and St Ives the line will be reopened shortly.
Train services running to and from these stations are returning to normal but some services have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until 11:30 10/02.

[GBM]

Question please.
If the box is not operative, how do trains run through if all signals are set to danger.
The driver can't call the closed signal box, so who has signalling control/authorisation?

Thank you

[The Tall Controller]

St Erth signal box can be 'switched out' which basically transfers the Penzance-St Erth and St Erth-Roskear sections into a Penzance-Roskear section. In the process of switching out, the signaller at St Erth has to clear all signals to allow a clear route through the station in either direction.

[grahame]

Had to spend quite a while using the search function to find this topic in the forum.
No results found!
Next search found threads from 2020 and earlier, but not this topic.
Had to go into my posts section and scroll through.......

Please let me know the search terms you used and which search function - the one in the top bar after "Home, Help ..." or Deep Search?

Two emails with attachments sent.

Thank you ... and an answer / explanation - doing it in public since this is of general interest.

Our search tools are - if you like - a very basic form of AI and for "intelligence" have a rather low IQ and a frustrating pedanticism ... they search the bodies of public threads, the extractable text from .pdf documents and station names.

1. In the case of "Cornish delays" the words aren't mentioned as a pair anywhere in the thread - just in the subject line - so you drew a blank.  The fact that I have now mentioned them means that this tread and post will be found in the future. clearly a design shortcoming - because at times some of our member don't repeat the words of the subject in their threads - something I have been aware of for a time and I have just applied a patch so it searches both. I hope I have not caused a problem applying the law of unintended consequences.

2. Where a search uses a pseudonym the search is only on the word you put in - so look for "Cornish delays" and our system is not bright enough to look for "Cornwall delays' and will certainly not offer you  "Western Peninsular delays". If you put in a single word which does not match, it WILL offer you close spellings - "did you mean".   Put in "Sinday" and it will suggest Sunday, even if you were searching for a naughty overnight destination with the girlfriend.

3. If you put a space between word in the search we look for the words consequetively.  If you put an "*" between two words it will look for both words in the post / document and in that order, but not necessarily together

Our receptionist server is more powerful than our worker that does all the searching at present, and there is scope for enhancement - the sort of code I enjoy writing.  All sorts of consideration for - well - some point in the future

[GBM]

Delays to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Due to animals on the railway between Bodmin Parkway and Lostwithiel all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 14:30 18/02.
Train services between Plymouth and Penzance may be delayed.
Customer Advice
-
We are sorry for the delay to your journey.
-
We will update this message with more information when we have it.

[GBM]

https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-updates-information/service-updates/birmingham-to-bristol-and-the-west-country
Engineering Work: Between Liskeard and Par
Planned engineering work will take place between Liskeard and Par from 00:01, Sunday 02 March 2025 to 23:59, Sunday 02 March 2025.

All lines will be closed.

All services will be terminating at Plymouth.

Customer Advice:

No CrossCountry trains will run between Plymouth and Penzance.

Passengers should use GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services to complete your journey.

All lines will be closed?
Nothing showing on GWR journeycheck, so GWR running normally, just CrossCountry not running.
Odd?