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HST from Acton Main Line tonight?

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Mojo

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I'm supposed to be travelling from London W3 to Bristol in a few hours. All week I have been planning on catching the 2237 from Paddington to Bristol Parkway. About an hour ago I went on to the Great Western website to book my ticket (a SSR) and the 2237 was missing; it suggested I caught the 2215 to Reading and changed there.

So I went onto the National Rail website and typed in my postcode and destination, and it suggested I walk to Acton Main Line, where there is a 2243 direct to Bristol Parkway. Surely this is some sort of mistake? Acton Main Line is normally shut on Sundays I think, and I have heard that the relief lines are shut today (AML has no platform on the Down Main). Aside from the fact that a HST starting at AML is incredibly strange and bizarre anyway. The Live Departure boards website also shows the train starting at Acton Main Line.

I tweeted Great Western, and the guy there is adament that the train will start at Acton tonight. I even asked him to double check with control or someone, and he said that he was certain, and that I would not be able to board at Paddington.

However, a forum member (not GWR employee) checked on TRUST for me, and he said that TRUST shows it as starting at Paddington, as does Realtime Trains (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C50856/2016/02/21/advanced).

Does anyone have a contact in FGW control who could advise? My only contact is currently away. Does anyone know what I should do? I won't get to Paddington in time for the 2215, and I don't really want to arrive in Bristol any later.
 
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matt

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Not sure if it is any help but RTT is showing the train you have linked to as cancelled.
 

randyrippley

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sorry - misread original post

I read 2237 as 2337 - it wasn't there when I checked. My mistake, sorry
 
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yorkie

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well.....I've just been on the National Rail website and it happily offered to sell me tickets for the 2237 to Temple Meads tonight.
Even has a green tick to say the service is "OK" at present

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/PAD/Bristol/today/2230/dep
They have now deleted it.

They shouldn't be allowed to simply delete trains like this; it should show as 'cancelled'.

Anyone else been in the situation where platform staff claim the train you originally planned never existed? I have and it's not good!
 

Mojo

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My relief came in early and I managed to get to Paddington before the 2215 departed. The 2237 isn't on the board at all (not even shown as cancelled).

Have collected my tickets and I have a seat reservation on the 2317 from Reading which now doesn't exist, so they'll struggle to deny existence of the train.
 

crehld

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They have now deleted it.

They shouldn't be allowed to simply delete trains like this; it should show as 'cancelled'.

Anyone else been in the situation where platform staff claim the train you originally planned never existed? I have and it's not good!

Happened on Saturday to me. Booked for a trip to Hellifield via Lancaster with reservations and even got an email the day before confirming the itinerary. Rocked up to Crewe to find the train didn't exist. Ticket office says no such train ever existed and that I never should have been able to get a ticket for it (from Virgin's own website a couple of days prior). Apparently my ticket is only valid to Preston and I'll have to buy a new ticket from Preston to Hellifield to complete the journey (I chose to ignore this 'advice'). Net result: much frustration and a three hour delay to my journey.
 
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DaiGog

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Anyone else been in the situation where platform staff claim the train you originally planned never existed? I have and it's not good!

Yes, happened to me once at Crewe. I was travelling to Manchester (and thence to York) and noticed that my intended Wales & Borders service was to be followed by a late running IC from the west country. The W&B duly arrived, 2-car 158, stuffed to the gunwhales, so I let it go. Once it had departed, the late running IC disappeared off the screens, and when I enquired what had happened to it, I was informed that it had been terminated at Birmingham and should never have been on the screen in the first place.

To make matters worse, I had to wait for the following W&B service (it was a Sunday evening so I assume there was a gap in the local stopping service, or that it was timed to follow the W&B from Crewe). This was an hour behind, and it dropped time on the way in to Manchester so that I missed my onward connection to York. Over two hours late home as a result!
 
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PHILIPE

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My relief came in early and I managed to get to Paddington before the 2215 departed. The 2237 isn't on the board at all (not even shown as cancelled).

Have collected my tickets and I have a seat reservation on the 2317 from Reading which now doesn't exist, so they'll struggle to deny existence of the train.

As the train should not have appeared in systems in the first place due to an obvious error, there was no train to cancel.
 

87015

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As the train should not have appeared in systems in the first place due to an obvious error, there was no train to cancel.
Yes there was, if it is in the system overnight it is the 'plan for the day' and therefore is live and should be a cancellation and PPM failure.
 

headshot119

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As the train should not have appeared in systems in the first place due to an obvious error, there was no train to cancel.

If it's made it onto the journey planners and RTT then it's a live service that should be cancelled and not just deleted!
 

Mojo

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Yes there was, if it is in the system overnight it is the 'plan for the day' and therefore is live and should be a cancellation and PPM failure.
It was displayed on TRUST (and Realtime Trains) as running from Paddington, but on customer facing systems as from Acton. Which would it come under?

I'd also be interested to know that if their attention had not been drawn to this on Twitter what would have happened. Would someone in control have noticed nearer the time, or would it have appeared at the stations?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
As the train should not have appeared in systems in the first place due to an obvious error, there was no train to cancel.
Depends what bit you consider to be the obvious error. I planned to travel on the 2237 based on open source websites which said the train would be running from Paddington, I don't consider this to be an obvious error.

The obvious error to me was that public facing systems said the train would depart from Acton and not Paddington. When checked with Great Western, they said six times over the course of an hour that this was definitely correct. It was only on the seventh occasion they admitted this was an error and would be deleted from the system.
 

D1009

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The 2237 is in the printed timetable as running to Bristol Parkway via Bristol Temple Meads. I'm sure in recent previous weeks it has been replaced by a bus between TM and Parkway, so what was different last night I have no idea.
 

yorkie

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As the train should not have appeared in systems in the first place due to an obvious error, there was no train to cancel.
What makes you say that? It did appear in systems, both from Paddington and from Acton Main Line, at varying times. Mojo did say earlier he even booked a seat reservation on it!
 

PHILIPE

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What makes you say that? It did appear in systems, both from Paddington and from Acton Main Line, at varying times. Mojo did say earlier he even booked a seat reservation on it!

Matter of how you interpret it. Agreed there was such a train in the systems, although erroneously, it would be cancelling the entry rather than cancelling a train which, in effect, did not exist in practice..
 

PermitToTravel

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But when the entry has been publicised people will have made plans around the train running. To them it's certainly a cancellation.
 

PHILIPE

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But when the entry has been publicised people will have made plans around the train running. To them it's certainly a cancellation.

Agreed. Was just trying to be technically correct, I suppose. However, looking back, it was shown as Cancelled but deleted later although don't know what time. Could it have been a ploy to avoid a cancelled train in the statistics ?
 

D1009

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Looks like it will be a problem next week as well. The 2237 is shown in RTT as running via Swindon even though the route is blocked. Anyone in the GWR or NR train planning offices looking at this thread?
 

yorkie

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Matter of how you interpret it. Agreed there was such a train in the systems, although erroneously, it would be cancelling the entry rather than cancelling a train which, in effect, did not exist in practice..
if a train is ever in the system as booked to run - which it was - and it is decided, for whatever reason, not to run it, then it should not be deleted, but labelled as "cancelled".

To do anything else is misleading and ends up with some front-line staff being put in difficult situations and mistakenly claiming to passengers that the train never existed in the first place.

I know several people involved in train planning who feel passionately about this issue but, of course, they cannot speak out publicly for obvious reasons. They are sometimes told to lie. That isn't right.

This goes on a lot more than you might think!

It happened to me on 27 December; EMT deleted the 1434 Leeds - St Pancras. Station staff initially claimed it didn't exist, but on production of my mandatory reservation coupon and a look on the EMT site, they then said it had been deleted and EMT "should not have done that, as it means we cannot give out accurate information". But is anyone stopping it? No. Is it still happening? Yes.
 

infobleep

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I remember during one snow disruption for the 6.53 Guildford to Waterloo to leave Haslemere and suddenly disappear. Never did know what happened to it.

The alternative I come across is for services to not reach there destination and just kept showing up as delayed. There was one today. It left Gatwick and East Croydon but never searched Clapham Junction. That could be a system fault of course.

I remember a couple of friends had to get a taxi when the PDF engineering works timetable wasn't what was running. Fortunately one of my friends was able to find evidence of this afterwards and claim. They got the info from First Capital Connect but could only find the info after the event on Southern's Web Site so they were the one who ended up refunding the taxi!
 
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bb21

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Agreed. Was just trying to be technically correct, I suppose. However, looking back, it was shown as Cancelled but deleted later although don't know what time. Could it have been a ploy to avoid a cancelled train in the statistics ?

I don't quite understand.

As 87015 pointed out, if the schedule was not amended by 2200 the previous evening, then the schedule stands. If the company then realizes the mistake, it will be put down as a cancellation (the service, not just the schedule, for all the DfT care, and those passengers affected I imagine) and count as a PPM failure.
 
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