I can't comment on the wider aspect of this, because i don't have the knowledge to do so.
However, I can comment on what actually happened to me and others, so here goes:
Possibly, I don't know - but he definitely wasn't local.
Thanks. It's always interesting to hear from someone on the spot and directly affected.
I always thought that whilst local staff would arrange onward transport for individual stranded passengers a major incident like this would be managed by Control in Swindon (or wherever they're located).
Whilst it might have been the responsibility of Control, he was definitely trying to help, but couldn't do so because there were no resources that he could call upon.
Blame the fragmentation brought about by privatisation. In BR days there would be one person totally in overall charge
Yes, I remember reading the memoirs of a retired Area Manager at Exeter. In his day his Plymouth colleague would have taken control of the incident, I'm sure.
That's as might be, but you always have to have "boots on the ground" to liaise with the people wanting to be transported. In this case, it was the chap at Totnes, and he did what he could.
Every experience I have had of the GWR helpline has confirmed that it is worse than useless. Such helplines must be staffed by people who know the area and are authorised to make decisions - not just parrot “corporate speak script”
Agreed.
He wouldn’t have been doing this. Station staff have to go through control at Swindon.
There is. That person happens to be at a Control centre not near the incident. Why would you have trained senior colleagues all over the place when you never know where the next severe incident is going to take place? There are still local teams at all locations (with a local Control team at the biggest hubs like Exeter for instance). Local teams will still try and arrange publci transport where they can, but a Control centre will also have the direct line to the replacement transport hub - in this case First Travel Solutions - to make strategic & operational decisions. Unfortunately when you're told availability is severely limited (and indeed the poster who was stuck at Totnes has confirmed it) you cannot magic up replacement vehicles.
He might have been. At this point it was basically trying anyone local to source anything.
Well, I can assure you that he was doing his best to help but, as I say, there wasn't much that he could do for a number of reasons. What would you have had him do ... what he did, or to say "Nothing I can do, mate, it's the responsibility of XXX in Control" ... and when the question "Where is he?" was asked (as it would have been) say "In Swindon"? That would only have made things much worse.
Depends how one looks at it. You still have large numbers of essential workers to get to/from work. Without rail you could get them there by road, but this would become unviable if everyone else was trying to get places as well - which wasn’t happening at times like the March 2020 lockdown. In turn the lockdown was only possible with billions worth of government subsidy in the form of furlough and business grants.
In short I’m not sure things could tick over without the railway, especially in the London area.
Well, even though I was on holiday yesterday, I had to get back to work this morning. This is because I'm now off for another couple of days (pre-arranged), and I had to make sure that everything was up to date before I left at lunch time. Had I had to stay in Totnes last night, goodness knows what time I'd have got home this morning, as I couldn't forecast what the situation would be today.
He might have been doing taxis. Definitely not doing coaches.
No definitely not, taxis is what I meant.
He could have been, he probably had instructions to do what he could, and if his uncle John has a PCV then get on with it mate.
Well, all I can say is what he told me that he was doing - and had been doing since 4.00pm. For what it's worth, he was right.
They don’t have authority even at the worst times. I was on standby for a branch line the day the IETs were completely pulled (April?). No trains for 6 hours yet he didn’t have authority to use me on the main line as I was hired for the branch. I didn’t move an inch for the entire 12 hour standby shift
I can't comment on this.
No it doesn't - the space for coaches at Totnes is extremely limited and it's not much better at Exeter St Davids. Exeter is also harder to manage for rail replacement because it is so much busier.
Tiverton is a much better proposition as it's immediately next to the M5 and provides the best overall journey time - having to battle your way through the Exeter traffic can add up to an hour in journey time and adding journey time reduces the number of coaches available and thus capacity.
Yes, even as a non-driver (but someone who's had quite a bit of experience in moving coaches round in car parks), I can see that it's rather difficult to do that in either of the two car parks at Totnes.
But he did - and was right to do so
