Storm Desmond- Weekend 4th December

[misterredmist]

Here is a glimpse of some of the issues...

Work needed for restoration of signalling at Caldew, if all goes well and timescales are met without further problems !

Build 6 new location cabinets & deliver to Carlisle depot.
Test/renew lineside cable/equipment and refurbish 8 existing location cabinets. to be Completed by 1600 Friday 11/12.
Pre-test all 6 new location cabinets at Carlisle depot. Completed by 1800 Saturday 12/12.
Erect the 6 new location cabinets at Caldew. 12 hour possession Sat/Sun.to be Completed by 1800 Sunday 13/12.
Connect up cables to the 6 new location cabinets & test all cabling. Sunday. to be completed by 1800 Sunday 13/12).
Connect & test power supplies throughout 3 x 12 hour TBW daytime working required between Monday 14/12 & Thursday 17/12.
Install & setup transformers.
Through test 90+ circuits.
Fully test 7 track circuits.
Full correspondence test of all points 1 x 6 hour block required on Friday 18/12.
Correspondence & aspects sequence testing & commissioning. 12 hour block Sat/Sun 19/20.
Full signalling functionality returned at Caldew. 1100 Sunday 20/12.

Wow ! All the best with that, and I hope the weather doesn't intervene !

 

[najaB]

This site is "social media". Usenet is social media. IRC is social media.

Agree with the first two, not so sure that IRC is social media, as its focus is instantaneous communication rather than posting and sharing of user-generated content. To keep it (slightly) on topic, think what #RailUK would've been like last weekend! '/me is stuck at Preston, it's chaos'

 

[Bletchleyite]

Agree with the first two, not so sure that IRC is social media, as its focus is instantaneous communication rather than posting and sharing of user-generated content. To keep it (slightly) on topic, think what #RailUK would've been like last weekend! '/me is stuck at Preston, it's chaos'

Hee hee.

FWIW, I had a letter back from VT today, offering a copy-paste apology and precisely £30.10 less in RTVs than I am entitled to. So as I've had to challenge them on that, they have also got a brief run-down of the Preston incompetence on 29th November. Let's see if they read it.

 

[najaB]

FWIW, I had a letter back from VT today, offering a copy-paste apology and precisely £30.10 less in RTVs than I am entitled to. So as I've had to challenge them on that, they have also got a brief run-down of the Preston incompetence on 29th November. Let's see if they read it.

Hopefully they will. If not, then write again (and again if needed).

Edit: Hope you didn't think mention of Preston was a dig at you - it could equally have been any other WCML station.

 

[DarloRich]

While i don't agree with some of the points raised by posters there are clearly several glaring lesson learned to be learnt. I would hope an after action review would pick these up, especially:

communications in the event of widespread power loss,
management of stations, staff and passengers in the event of widespread power loss organising/marshaling of dislocated passengers.
Emergency alternative travel options

 

[DelayRepay]

Doesn't help people who don't book online, and doesn't help people who don't have Internet access when they're out and about (or even those who don't have a mobile). Again, putting people who most need the service at a disadvantage.

Actually it does - if emails/SMS messages are sent to those passengers whose details are held, they may decide not to commence their journey and not go to the station. This means what limited resources (staff, waiting room spaces, catering, replacement transport) will be more likely to be available to those who do turn up.

I don't think emai/SMS should replace other methods of communication but should be used alongside local radio broadcasts (where possible), website messages, twitter/facebook status updates, posters at stations, announcements across the network etc.

 

[Class 170101]

I don't think emai/SMS should replace other methods of communication but should be used alongside local radio broadcasts (where possible), website messages, twitter/facebook status updates, posters at stations, announcements across the network etc.

Local radio has been hit by budget cuts and where I am doesn't seem to offer as good a service as it once did.

 

[bicbasher]

Local radio has been hit by budget cuts and where I am doesn't seem to offer as good a service as it once did.

While BBC local radio has been hit by cuts, BBC Radio Cumbria was live and local throughout the weekend.

BBC Lancashire also had a similar service.

 

[30907]

Quite right.
The lack of power also escaped the notice of those keyboard warriors who were vigorously attacking TOCs for failing to provide rail replacement buses to/from Lancaster on Sunday 6th. Only 8 hours of daylight at this time of year, and no street lights. No phone signal, no switchboards, many domestic phones need power these days or the lines were out. You can't send SMSs to phones with no signal, or emails either, it's not just social media. Nor can people with no usable phone ring NRE.
So people in Lancaster itself would have no way of finding out what service could be offered, other than local radio, if they had a battery radio. If they were on the far side of the river from the city centre both road bridges, the lower level footbridge and the area around the bus station and key road junctions leading to M6 J34 were closed by flooding. The only way across the river was the footway on the WCML railway bridge, a poor safety option in gale force winds and heavy rain especially once it was dark - no lights remember.
People waiting in Penrith or Preston etc to go to Lancaster could have been dropped off somewhere in the upper part of the city centre (accessed from M6 J33), though not at the railway station as the (partially flooded) one way system in the city centre would have trapped the coaches there. How they would have got to wherever in the city they were going, especially after dark with no street lighting, goodness knows. At least Preston and Penrith had power and were not at risk of imminent flooding.

Belated feedback:

A Lancs Uni student who had to be bussed out said there was no access to J33 either, presumably flooded at Galgate; they weren't exactly sure how they got to the M6...

A major incident volunteer in Preston was less than impressed with VT (@NeilWilliams)

 

[185143]

Couple of interesting points-TPE journey check sent me an alert on Sunday warning of no trains north of Preston, little road transport and warning not to attempt travel. Admittedly this is a service which I have signed up to, but that is for two specified weekday trains on a totally different route!

Today I was in Lancaster station and they are still without mains power. Northbound platform waiting room is closed, with only one departure screen active per platform.

 

[yorksrob]

Couple of interesting points-TPE journey check sent me an alert on Sunday warning of no trains north of Preston, little road transport and warning not to attempt travel. Admittedly this is a service which I have signed up to, but that is for two specified weekday trains on a totally different route!

Today I was in Lancaster station and they are still without mains power. Northbound platform waiting room is closed, with only one departure screen active per platform.

Blimey, is it still closed in evenings? Noticed the Morecambe train at Leeds yesterday afternoon and it would've been dark by the time it arrived.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Blimey, is it still closed in evenings? Noticed the Morecambe train at Leeds yesterday afternoon and it would've been dark by the time it arrived.

It was fine yesterday evening.

 

[miami]

While BBC local radio has been hit by cuts, BBC Radio Cumbria was live and local throughout the weekend.

BBC Lancashire also had a similar service.

Lancashire comes from Blackburn, not Lancaster, so even if there were power or comms issues it would still be on air. Even if the building had been knocked out I suspect they could broadcast from Liverpool or Salford.

 

[fairysdad]

Lancashire comes from Blackburn, not Lancaster, so even if there were power or comms issues it would still be on air. Even if the building had been knocked out I suspect they could broadcast from Liverpool or Salford.

Although there is a lack of local BBC radio these days (but still more than offered by the supposedly local Global stations like Heart or Capital), the BBC have a good link between all their stations and studios so that - by and large - any BBC radio station can broadcast from any BBC radio studio, almost like a telephone switchboard. (Actually, most large radio station groups will have the same type of system.) So in such a situation where a studio becomes unusable because of power failure, fire, or flood (or all of the above!) they will be able to broadcast from another studio with relative ease.

(A group of local stations would have an immediate link; however to broadcast say from the BBC Three Counties studios to BBC Cumbria would have to go via London or Manchester. I'm a little vague on these details, but I know that's how it is done!)

(I believe that there is a similar situation with BBC TV as well.)

 

[miami]

Although there is a lack of local BBC radio these days (but still more than offered by the supposedly local Global stations like Heart or Capital), the BBC have a good link between all their stations and studios so that - by and large - any BBC radio station can broadcast from any BBC radio studio, almost like a telephone switchboard. (Actually, most large radio station groups will have the same type of system.) So in such a situation where a studio becomes unusable because of power failure, fire, or flood (or all of the above!) they will be able to broadcast from another studio with relative ease.

(A group of local stations would have an immediate link; however to broadcast say from the BBC Three Counties studios to BBC Cumbria would have to go via London or Manchester. I'm a little vague on these details, but I know that's how it is done!)

(I believe that there is a similar situation with BBC TV as well.)

It used to be that way (broadcasting direct from local sites). Everything goes back to central locations now - certainly TV, and I believe radio - as there are so many outputs (FM, DAB, DTT, Satelite, Internet, etc).

Even the production in radio is being centralised now - http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/virtual-local-radio-stations

To the presenters and production teams the studios will appear much like traditional studios but with the underlying equipment and infrastructure moved to a central, shared, location. Editorial teams will have full control over the play-out system and mixing desks, but the actual audio files will be stored, streamed, mixed and processed in a remote data centre, in real-time. Importantly, the system was designed to ensure that only the back-end equipment is centralised so that editorial and production teams can continue to present from the local community just as they do today.

 

[aylesbury]

Oxford BBC and Three Counties BBC our local stations broadcast the same evening programes as do all local stations within the BBC. Not an improvement on what used to be broadcast, but back to thread.I think that it must have been awful working in the floods and rain trying to keep a service running. The situation was changing so quickly that trying to update passengers was impossible.