Managing Disruption

Hi everyone!
I appreciate this topic is rather vague, as a multitude of things can go wrong when running a timetable, and the crux of SimSig is causing the least disruption following an event such as signal failure etc.

What I am after is some insight into what New Street PSB do in times of disruption. Bearing in mind even clearing a signal a minute late at the platform can have a knock on effect on other trains at New Street, how do signallers manage something like a points failure in the station throat?

How do they avoid things stacking up left right and centre? Do they just start cancelling trains from the outside? I imagine at somewhere like Birmingham International it's more easily managed.

So for those with inside knowledge of the goings on in the PSB your information would be greatly received :)

Thanks

In all honesty, in real life, trains just keeping running and Control will accept the delays and signallers will divert and replatform.

Quote:

maxand wrote:
All this replatforming that others say they need to do bothers me greatly in Lime Street. Here we have 9 platforms, presumably packed with passengers whose last wish is to be told that train xxx will be terminating at a different platform than the one they are waiting at.

BoxBoyKit replied:
As the trains are terminating, it doesn't matter 100% which platform it turns up in? I doubt there would be that many people waiting for the arriving train. As said above for departures, the platform is displayed very near departure time, in my experience 10-15 minutes before (but I can only speak really of Kings Cross) when the train is definitely in the platform and ready to go. I should think it's very similar for arrivals.

when waiting to catch my train from edinburgh waverley (for the record an east coast service from aberdeen to KX) i was told by station staff, its platform would not be decided, let alone displayed until about 20mins before arrival/departure, so certainly things arent always rigid

PS On the platforming question most significant stations in the UK will have departure displays which leave the platform number blank until not long before the due departure. I haven't been on Lime Street since 1996 but I would guess that there wouldn't be a mad stampede from one platform to another if a train is re-platformed. If it runs like most other main terminals, there will be a crowd on the concourse, with the regulars hanging around the gate to the usual platform waiting for the display and Tannoy announcement to give details of their train. If the train is re-platformed the departure display (and announcer) won't advertise things as a re-platforming but will just announce that the 12:34 to Anywhere will depart from Platform wherever. The only people who will notice anything out of the ordinary will be the regulars hanging around the wrong gate. It is a similar situation with arrivals although that will affect far less people on the concourse and it doesn't really affect the people of the incoming train bar causing creatures of habit a twinge or two.

If one has the luxury of two platforms for through trains (e.g., in Brighton sim, Haywards Heath station, 1 & 2 for Down trains and 3 & 4 for Up trains), I don't hesitate to replatform the next train if for example I'm stuck with two trains joining at the other platform. AFAIK there is no penalty for doing this.

So I guess that sums it up for me - one shouldn't be afraid of re-platforming trains if it means speeding up the flow. If one has the luxury of two platforms for through trains (e.g., in Brighton sim, Haywards Heath station, 1 & 2 for Down trains and 3 & 4 for Up trains), I don't hesitate to replatform the next train if for example I'm stuck with two trains joining at the other platform. AFAIK there is no penalty for doing this.

When I replatform, I edit the timetable. I don't know if this is the correct procedure.
( I don't save the amended timetable.) editing the timetable is my equivalent of announcing a platform change. I try and do it in plenty of time. I end up with 100% correct platform usage at the end of the day.

and it's not unusual to hear an automatically triggered platform alteration announcement for a train which isn't due for maybe 30-60 minutes.

Hi,

The other day I was on a Virgin Euston-New St service which came to a stop just past Adderley Park. Turned out there was plastic tangled up in the overhead wires, so we had to wait there for an hour.

Would it be possible to simulate this situation?

Also, the train was a voyager - any idea why it took so long to get permission to move past the obstruction?

Personally, I tend not to worry about editing the timetable to reflect a platform alteration, but I'd agree that it's a sensible representation of the need to advise station staff. Perhaps the 'wrong platform' penalty should be accompanied by an extended dwell time at somewhere like New Street, waiting for a trainload of dischuffed passengers to shuffle over to the new platform .

In my time on the platforms at New Street, all hell could break loose at any time due to the simplest thing, and that added to the chaos if you were a passenger, or the fun from my point of view.

The Cross City route is usually split into two at BHM when chaos happens - services can be turned back early towards BHM at various locations on route on both halves, so a revised service comes into effect at the discretion of the route controllers.

Cross Country will divert trains away from problem areas if they can, although this can cause more problems. I remember one occasion when the Gloucester line was closed due to OHLE damage at Bournville and a VXC Voyager was sitting in platform 10 waiting to go to Bristol, with another unit to the south. VXC asked the traincrew to divert via Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Shrub Hill, but the Train Manager didn't sign that route (her route refresh day had been taken away), the train had to stand until a pilot crew could be found.

On one occasion, we had a class 350 sit down at Stechford, and the assisting unit approached from Birmingham International. It was another 350, and when it coupled up to the failure, it stood foul of the junction. All VWC services at that point were sent via Stafford and up the Trent Valley to Rugby, having just come from Wolverhampton.

It really depends on the nature of the problem as to what the response is, but in the most part, it comes down to making the best of a bad job and running trains as best you can.

Hope this gives you some insight.

Tim