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Delays
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RailUK Forums
185143
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Do you mean specific train services or overall?
harry42
Member
"National rail live departures" into google OR first capital connect mobile phone app is great!
No, there was a link posted to a site where you could look up a service either by headcode or time from any date from the past year or so and it said whether it was on time or how many minutes delayed it was. There were all sorts of stats aswell.
It was sort of similar to real train times, but it wasnt that site.
It was sort of similar to real train times, but it wasnt that site.
ryan125hst
Established Member
I think you mean this one: http://raildar.co.uk/radar
What an interesting site. Is there any way to see the history of services that aren't currently running?
Could be www.opentraintimes.com not sure if that goes back a whole year though.
Just found it. Does a grey box mean no info rather than train cancelled?
Bingo!
Thank you. Just wanted to track how much of my time has been wasted in delays on the WCML this week.
DarloRich
Veteran Member
because that will make things better! :roll: Just concentrate on the delay repay!
Searle
Established Member
I can fully understand what he's talking about, I'd like to know as well!
DarloRich
Veteran Member
I cant - it doesn't get you the wasted time back. I spent nearly an hour sat at MK on a train on Tuesday night due to a trespasser on the line.
How does it help to know the exact time spent in delays on a train? Those minutes have gone and wont come back!
Surely more importantly is to know WHY you were delayed and what has been done to prevent a similar delay happening again.
87015
Established Member
Lets hope nobody trying to use the NLL tonight asks why its gone Pete Tong, 1S25 and 6O36 involved in a mexican stand off blocking each others path. Both been at a stand for the best part of an hour blocking all lines...
(1S25 is diverted Inverness sleeper trying to get down the Kings X incline, 6O36 has come off said incline trying to get onto the westbound NLL)
(1S25 is diverted Inverness sleeper trying to get down the Kings X incline, 6O36 has come off said incline trying to get onto the westbound NLL)
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Searle
Established Member
Because things like statistics fascinate me, and playing around with them. Which is why I'm doing a maths degree
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Because things like statistics fascinate me, and playing around with them. Which is why I'm doing a maths degree
fair enough - i cant count so look at causes rather than numbers
Not fair. You don't know the OP is asking for Delay Repay (and if the Train Company is giving someone such an entitlement then that's their choice and we shouldn't make anyone feel bad about it!). In fact I very much doubt he is asking for delay compensation.
If you use the "search for trains" section of the raildar site, you can go back to 1st January
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Sorry - my poorly expressed point was that compiling a list of wasted time on a train will simply drive you to impotent frustrated distraction. I have done it and you quickly get upset at the days of your life lost that you cant get back.
I found the easiest thing to do is to look at tomorrow as another day, let it wash over you, make your delay claim and not let it frustrate you. Use the delay compensation to have a nice day out somewhere on the company that caused your delay. That and always carry a book!
I'm with you on the book point. It would be lovely if they provided more comfortable seating on which to enjoy said book, but that's a discussion for another thread!
As a commuter, I tend to let delays wash over me. I tend to check the departures before I leave work for home, that way I know whether to stay for a bit and get work done. I still claim for my delay repay though - whether I'm at work or at the station, I'm still not leaving on time...
/edit ooh an idea - a useful reason to know the exact delay. You could tot it up, and then have a delay replay scheme that works on the amount of minutes late you were over the course of the season ticket. At the moment you don't get anything for being 29 minutes late, but I'd rather be 2 hours late one time in a week than 29 minutes late for 5 consecutive days.
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Markdvdman
Member
Talking about delays, todays were special in West Wales. It appears there were points failures, resulting in 40 min delays.
I of course, got caught up in it.
Are we getting to the stage where our technology is so crap that extreme heat is hurting us?
I of course, got caught up in it.
Are we getting to the stage where our technology is so crap that extreme heat is hurting us?
ryan125hst
Established Member
It looks like it. Foreign countries must laugh at us. The UK grinds to a halt when it's cold and it snows, and grinds to a halt when it's too hot! :roll:
DarloRich
Veteran Member
these are two very silly comments. I would imagine that the laws of physics apply to all countries who use steel rails.
ryan125hst
Established Member
I don't think my comment was silly at all. I should point out that my comment wasn't just aimed at the railways, but at the country as a whole. Take the roads as a second example: In winter, a bit of snow causes chaos on the roads, yet other countries appear to manage fine. Yes, it takes a large investment which is probably why nothing has been done as we don't get enough snow to make it worthwhile, but that is why other countries can cope. In the hot whether, what is happening? The roads are melting.
I don't know what anyone else thinks, but it looks like we can't cope with extreme temperatures to me!
Lets now look at Paphos, Cyprus. I was there on holiday this time last year with the temperature reaching 40 degrees on occasions. I didn't notice the roads melting and the cars and buses were running fine.
IanD
Established Member
High thirties is normal there so they build the infrastructure to cope. What happens when Paphos, Cyprus experiences temperatures 6 degrees above normal for 2 weeks running. That would be extreme to them and maybe all their roads would melt. And I suspect as they're not used to snow they would also grind to a halt if six inches fell in a couple of hours.
You build the infrastructure needed to cope with your climate - building for Saharan or Siberian (or even Cypriot) climate in the UK would be a big waste of public finances.
(Note that climate is a long term thing, what we are experiencing at the moment is weather.)
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If you want to see the impact of rail buckling check out this video at about 30:00. The train section starts at 27:00.
http://youtu.be/JIeLrcUGIK4
Now that is proper scary!
http://youtu.be/JIeLrcUGIK4
Now that is proper scary!
The UK doesn't "grind to a halt", what happens is that there are a handful of localized delays which have knock-on effects because there is very little slack in our transport systems.
The laws of physics dictate that you can't run vehicles at the same speed and the same density in icy conditions as you can in ice free conditions, due to higher stopping distances. Thus when you get ice and snow, in order to maintain safety vehicles have to travel slower (i.e. increased journey times, delays) and/or because the journey times are longer but the day length isn't, services have to be removed to compensate (i.e. cancellations). If we had the winters that Scandinavia had then the winter timetable would be optimized for icy and snowy conditions (i.e. a lot fewer services than at present) rather than the predominantly ice free conditions we have as our default climate.
As for coping with extremes, well one potential issue is that our systems are optimized for a particular range of ambient conditions, and modifying them to deal with infrequent events may well result in a loss of efficiency during normal conditions.
One thing to bear in mind is when the media report on disruption, they are reporting from a particular location, it does not follow that everywhere is receiving the same disruption. This is why I get a bit tired whenever we get the "one flake of snow and the SE grinds to a halt" comments, as I am getting out and about in a snow covered landscape with traffic flowing pretty much normally, shops open, people going about their business etc.
Excellent.
Appearances can be deceptive.
On roads, in Sweden, it's law to have winter tyres. These make a tremendous difference - if we had them here, half the problems on the roads would go away.
As has been mentioned, on the railway, if you get snow and ice, you need to slow things down - and that means instant chaos in the peaks even if the trains you can run are running fine.
FWIW, on the first few days of snow in Sweden, it's carnage as people get caught out - even with their winter tyres.
What's more, they have cold weather that stays cold. So when it snows, it's all nice and fluffy, easy to scoop up and leave at the side of the roads/railway and stay there for some considerable time.
Here, we have snow and usually the temperature is hovering around such that it begins to melt, re-freeze and cause all sorts of problems. Ice and lots of water from melted snow causes a lot of the problems and the really cold countries don't have to deal with it. They're more likely to use snow ploughs to move the snow than try and melt it.
I've been to Sweden so many times, it's more a case of them being prepared for it and adjusting timetables to suit.. something that is happening here and no doubt causing even more moans; 'Why are we having to slow down our trains when other countries can cope fine?'. It's not true.
That said, their trains are usually designed to cope with low temperatures and heavy snow, with dual redundancy to cope with faults and keep trains going. We could do that here, but it would mean a different design and a lot more cost - which I guess we've decided not to bother with.
Maybe as the climate changes, and we get more snow every year, it will be considered or modern designs will help avoid problems with snow getting into electrical systems and motors.. but there are certain things that are the same the world over.
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