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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 07:33 #38122 | |
Ben86
126 posts |
Most of you will have seen about this weekend's heavy rain and flooding in the South West. As a result, there has been a severe impact on today's rail service- see this link for full details. In summary, buses replace trains on routes from Exeter to Barnstaple, Tiverton Parkway and Yeovil Junction, and also on the Truro/Falmouth and Liskeard/Looe branches. CrossCountry are running an hourly service between Exeter and Plymouth, and their trains from the North are terminating at Taunton. There are landslips near Dawlish and Saltash, so expect delays. Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 08:32 #38123 | |
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Noisynoel
989 posts |
Due to adverse weather conditions in the South West, FGw have now started up a Ferry Service, boats being suplied by Brittany Ferries, commencing at Exeter St Davids, calling at Tiverton Parkway and Taunton, customers for the Barnstable branch should board the dinghy at Pier 5!!!!! (Thanks to John Horton in the thick of it in Exeter)
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 11:27 #38127 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
Had fun listening to announcements on Sheffield Station on Saturday: "The next train on Platform 6 is the 06:50 Cross Country train to BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS calling at [...] and BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS. This train terminates at BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS today, please change at BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS for stations beyond BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS." By the second or third announcement, I was beginning to question whether "BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS" was actually still a real place name... Last edited: 26/11/2012 at 11:28 by Danny252 Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 13:26 #38133 | |
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gricehead
44 posts |
" said:Had fun listening to announcements on Sheffield Station on Saturday:Makes me chuckle a bit, but perhaps the point needed hammering home... I went down to Sheffield at about 5pm on Friday to get a refund on some tickets for travel to Exeter on Saturday. The retail operative, her colleague in the next seat, and their supervisor were all insistent that "trains have been going through to Exeter all day, so why wouldn't they be tomorrow." Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 14:38 #38134 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
" said:"Please change at BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS for stations beyond BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS."I've heard automated announcements like that before. Presumably they're worded that way so that the station names could theoretically be different if necessary? Is there any situation in which the replacement connections for further stations would run from a station other than the one where the train terminates? Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 15:00 #38137 | |
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officer dibble
409 posts |
" said:" said:Last time there was engineering work down Exeter way, FGW terminated the trains at Exeter St. Davids, but replacement road transport for Newton Abbot etc began from Tiverton Parkway due to it being easier to operate a large road operation from than the congested St. Davids station front. Also provided quick and easy access to the M5."Please change at BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS for stations beyond BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS."I've heard automated announcements like that before. Presumably they're worded that way so that the station names could theoretically be different if necessary? Is there any situation in which the replacement connections for further stations would run from a station other than the one where the train terminates? During the current period of severe disruption FGW are operating road transport to & from Taunton. This changed Friday morning to be Tiverton Parkway, before reverting back to Taunton as to allow a more robust train plan when it came to traincrew, and also due to the access to Tiverton being under water at this point & to maintain the status quo of road tranport commencing southbound connection journeys to Exeter St. Davids. This period of disruption has been made worse by the flooding of the Up & Down lines near Athelney crossing resulting in many a diversion for Taunton bound 1Cxx West Country trains, some using the B&H to Hawkeridge or via Chippenham (due to calling patterns) - although 1C84 1218 Paddington-Taunton ran as booked Friday despite the constant information being that the line was closed south of Castle Cary. When in doubt - Contingency plan 2A. Someone didn't buy the milk - 2A. Someone sneezed at Swansea - 2A. A driver complains the cab is too cold - 2A. Unable to operate a HEx service 4 vice 8 - 2A. Points failure at Ipswich - 2A. Landslip at Pitlochry - 2A Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Josie |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 15:17 #38138 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
Exactly the sort of thing I was wondering about - thanks!
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 17:00 #38142 | |
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Lardybiker
771 posts |
" said:" said:No theory about it. Like a lot of systems, I would expect it was designed to take into account its use in different locations so it can be used anywhere. If it didn't, every single station would need its own unique set of recordings which would be time consuming to compile and would need constant updating as trains and timetables change!! This would make it very costly."Please change at BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS for stations beyond BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS."I've heard automated announcements like that before. Presumably they're worded that way so that the station names could theoretically be different if necessary? Is there any situation in which the replacement connections for further stations would run from a station other than the one where the train terminates? If you split the announcements into fragments, you can make one recording of that fragment and re-use it whenever its needed. You can also re-order the fragments as required as well as adding new bits or removing them as when needed. The first announcement mentioned earlier might be made up of the following fragments for example: "The next train on Platform", "6", "is the", "6", "50", "Cross Country train", "to", "BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS" and so on. You'll note that we have already used the fragment "6" twice. It would be very simple in this case to replace the "Bristol Temple Meads" with a different station, change the time, change the trains TOC and change it's platform and it could work for any train, any time at any station. Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 17:19 #38143 | |
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AndyG
1842 posts 
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" said:If you split the announcements into fragments, you can make one recording of that fragment and re-use it whenever its needed. You can also re-order the fragments as required as well as adding new bits or removing them as when needed.Eric Morecambe: "I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order" comes to mind. I can only help one person a day. Today's not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look too good either. Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 18:57 #38160 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
Oh yes, I realise it's a standard modular set of recordings. I meant specifically the (usually repetitive) wording to "change at X for stations beyond X." If I were making the announcement myself I would probably say something along the lines of, "This train terminates at X today, passengers for stations beyond X should change there." But I was wondering about situations in which 'there' is a different place, which is presumably why the sentence was recorded that way to allow for it to say (as in Dibble's example) to change at Tiverton Parkway for stations beyond Exeter.
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 19:02 #38162 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
See also: "The next train is the 1000 East Midlands Trains service calling at Liverpool South Parkway," where the new TOC and new station's names are in a slightly different tone of voice because they were recorded later than the rest of the sentence!
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 19:52 #38164 | |
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Ben86
126 posts |
Call me old-fashioned, but what's wrong with a real member of staff making station announcements locally? Fair enough, automated announcements are useful for quiet or unmanned stations, but intonation has been stripped out of announcements at large stations all across the country now. The 'announcer' on-board TransPennine Express trains is especially fragmented and monotonous!
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 20:27 #38166 | |
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Lardybiker
771 posts |
Josie: Correct. The announcement is automated and is just playing what its told. It doesn't analyze the entire announcement and make adjustments accordingly, it is just playing audio clip X followed by clip Y and so on. That's one of the downsides of an automated system in that it can only follow the rules its provided with by the programmer. You, on the other hand, as a manual announcer, can adjust the rules when it makes sense for to to do so!! Ben86: I imagine the major reason is cost saving as a real member of staff doing it needs to be paid and in the long term, an automated system will likely to work out cheaper, possible considerably so. Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 20:32 #38167 | |
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Ben86
126 posts |
" said:I imagine the major reason is cost saving.I've absolutely no doubt! Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 22:46 #38170 | |
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Josie
310 posts |
Yep, I understand all of that too  I wasn't really asking about the announcement itself, I know how it works; I was specifically wondering about operational situations in which onward connections would be provided at a station different from the one where the train terminates. The fact that the recorded announcements are set up in that order to allow for it would sort of suggest that such a situation might exist, but I didn't know of one until Dibble's example.
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| Flooding in the South West 26/11/2012 at 23:22 #38171 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
In the few places they do still do manual announcements, the quality is fairly bad a lot of the time - long pauses, stopping halfway through an announcement, and so on. When someone on the ball is doing it, it's usually much quicker than the automated ones (which tend to have a huge pause between certain fragments). Stockport and Doncaster are the two where I recall hearing manual announcements often.
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| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 06:06 #38177 | |
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Underwood
748 posts |
Some of the stitching up is left to be desired too. The new announcment round here says '..Avoncliff, FreshfordBath Spa' as if Freshford and Bath Spa was one station when in fact they are a fair distance away to have one station for both! On the subject of flooding, I assume the B&H has re-opened? There was a few Taunton to Paddington services calling at Bristol TM and Reading only last week, and all beds were cancelled too which must have been a pain! Don't know if it's running tonight Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 09:11 #38181 | |
jc92
3685 posts
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" said:In the few places they do still do manual announcements, the quality is fairly bad a lot of the time - long pauses, stopping halfway through an announcement, and so on. When someone on the ball is doing it, it's usually much quicker than the automated ones (which tend to have a huge pause between certain fragments). Stockport and Doncaster are the two where I recall hearing manual announcements often.the announcer(s) at york are also very much on the ball. I recall being at derby one evening, and the announcer was trying to announce a XC service to york, and in the background you could clearly hear a strong blue conversation between two of the guys in the PSB, which of course, was repeated over the P.A! "We don't stop camborne wednesdays" Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 10:17 #38185 | |
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officer dibble
409 posts |
Quote:Call me old-fashioned, but what's wrong with a real member of staff making station announcements locally?Not a thing Ben, for it is a noble profession
When in doubt - Contingency plan 2A. Someone didn't buy the milk - 2A. Someone sneezed at Swansea - 2A. A driver complains the cab is too cold - 2A. Unable to operate a HEx service 4 vice 8 - 2A. Points failure at Ipswich - 2A. Landslip at Pitlochry - 2A Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 11:12 #38192 | |
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officer dibble
409 posts |
" said:On the subject of flooding, I assume the B&H has re-opened? There was a few Taunton to Paddington services calling at Bristol TM and Reading only last week, and all beds were cancelled too which must have been a pain! Don't know if it's running tonightJames, Current situation on the FGW network is thus; Exeter (Cowley Bridge) = Lines towards Taunton & Crediton still shut (Boats for hire!!) Liskeard to Looe = Line(s) blocked Taunton to Castle Cary = Lines open with speed restriction - first UP train 1A76 0819 Taunton-Paddington Swindon to Bristol Parkway = Up line open - first train 1L34, Down line still shut whilst S+T attend to axle counters Oxford = Flooding at Hinksey (only a matter of time!), TCFs resaulting is reduction of trains, 5 mph on UP line from OX27 to OX29. Down line re-opened. When in doubt - Contingency plan 2A. Someone didn't buy the milk - 2A. Someone sneezed at Swansea - 2A. A driver complains the cab is too cold - 2A. Unable to operate a HEx service 4 vice 8 - 2A. Points failure at Ipswich - 2A. Landslip at Pitlochry - 2A Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 11:54 #38194 | |
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Sacro
1171 posts |
" said:Quote:The way you shouted "PAR" almost made me lose my tea!Call me old-fashioned, but what's wrong with a real member of staff making station announcements locally?Not a thing Ben, for it is a noble profession :) Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 16:35 #38200 | |
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Sam Tugwell
494 posts |
There has been another landslide between Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren which has seen Single Line Working implemented, so all those who havent cleared the crossovers at Teignmouth and the Warren have the opportunity to do so. Sam "Signalman Exeter" Log in to reply |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 18:37 #38205 | |
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AH1983
8 posts |
(Slightly OTT) Oxford area raill alternatives:- http://railwayeye.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/floodballs-rail-freight-to-rescue.html Log in to reply The following user said thank you: Ben86 |
| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 19:47 #38206 | |
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Ben86
126 posts |
" said:There has been another landslide between Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren which has seen Single Line Working implemented, so all those who havent cleared the crossovers at Teignmouth and the Warren have the opportunity to do so.If only there was a scenario in SimSig to simulate that... Oh, there is!
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| Flooding in the South West 27/11/2012 at 22:48 #38216 | |
Simdmuk
155 posts |
For interest the SLW is on the down,not the up (the up main being blocked) ,so a double reversal is required .
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