Lost train?

[highpeakman]

See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5775501/CrossCountry-train-Newcastle-Reading-gets-lost-South-Yorkshire.html

 

Even when making due allowance for this paper's reporting this looks a bit surprising.

 

Will await explanations with interest.

[Colin_McLeod]

Surely someone was in the cab who knew the road and would have reailised the mistaken route right away. It will indeed be interesting to hear the explanation in due course.

[jonny777]

Sheffield to Reading, via New Street, is hardly an unheard of route. I can't see the reason for cancelling the service, except for operational convenience. 

[highpeakman]

Sheffield to Reading, via New Street, is hardly an unheard of route. I can't see the reason for cancelling the service, except for operational convenience. 

 

I don't know but perhaps an issue of a driver signing that particular route on this type of train?

[Andy Y]

The dangers of letting unknowledgeable  'journalists' web space fillers report on the twitterings of the ill-informed populace.

[jonny777]

I don't know but perhaps an issue of a driver signing that particular route on this type of train?

 

 

Possibly, but I was thinking of the route that a Newcastle to Reading service would normally take, if not via Sheffield. 

[Fat Controller]

Possibly, but I was thinking of the route that a Newcastle to Reading service would normally take, if not via Sheffield. 

'Old Road' from Rotherham, then Erewash Valley line, and finally via Sheet Stores Jcr? 

p.s. The 'comments' posted make those of the 'Kent On-line' web pages seem like sane and rational beings.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Fat Controller

[Andy Y]

Possibly, but I was thinking of the route that a Newcastle to Reading service would normally take, if not via Sheffield. 

 

That service is normally York-Doncaster-Sheffield. Obviously wrong-routed at Ferrybridge which would take it Pontefract-Rotherham missing out Doncaster (earlier diversion referenced). If that driver on that service didn't sign the route then a solution had to be found. The article is somewhat light on specifics with respect to what the cumulative delay by Sheffield was. Nobody died and I wouldn't think anyone was in any form of danger or even substantial convenience but it only takes one stupid person and a smartphone and several idiots in the bottom half of the internet "My worst nightmare, i rarely use the train and when i have done my anxiety go's through the roof" and there's a small mountain out of a molehill.

 

I really despair at the level of average intelligence out there some days although some people do their very best to bring that average down on an ongoing basis.

[Zomboid]

I really hate those "news stories" which are little more than some ill informed tweets embedded in some adverts. Cheap space filler that requires no journalism whatsoever.

There is absolutely nothing useful or interesting in that "story".

[Mallard60022]

What a complete load of b######s. It would have come through Donny and then to Sheffield so I'm sure so a bit of a 'diversion' for what ever reason was just no problem other than getting certain passengers back to Donny or getting the driver assisted..

This paper's so called stories never fail ro amaze me from what I am told is in it and it isn't alone. Social media is also cobblers a lot of the time due to ignorance. A decent Journo would have done a bit of digging to find out what really happened.

P.E. Dant

Edited May 27, 2018 by Mallard60022

[highpeakman]

I really hate those "news stories" which are little more than some ill informed tweets embedded in some adverts. Cheap space filler that requires no journalism whatsoever.

There is absolutely nothing useful or interesting in that "story".

I am sorry I raised the subject now and won't post this sort of stuff again.

 

I did try to qualify the "reporting" of the so called newspaper but it was not the article I was commenting on so much as I was just interested to know what really happened. I had just wondered if anyone could explain, nothing more.

[Andy Y]

Maybe because the topic title uses the same sloppy phrase that the Mail did?

 

However "Slightly bemused passengers and a frothing bint face minor inconvenience after train gets unscheduled diversion in West Yorkshire necessitating a change of train at Sheffield" wouldn't have attracted much attention - there or here.

[Zomboid]

It's not the reporting of a train getting stuck when a driver takes a route he/she doesn't sign that bothers me, it's when a news story is nothing more than some embedded tweets from people who don't know what's happening.

 

And it's nothing to do with the source either - that kind of rubbish is widespread, I've previously been wound up by it on the BBC news and NFL.com websites...

[Ian Hargrave]

Newcastle to Reading XC Voyager 220 operated services are routed from York to Sheffield via Doncaster,Mexborough and Swinton Junction .The Pontefract (Old S&K route) line is not normally used by XC.It may have been that an incident on the ECML caused this diversion ....which begs the obvious question of XC driver route knowledge,does it not ?

 

Bizarre incidents like this are not unknown.In my own experience as a frequent user of XC services on the York-Burton section of this route,the one that springs to mind was a late evening service from Sheffield which sailed through its scheduled Chesterfield stop,halted eventually about a mile down the line and had to reverse wrong line to the platform.Possible explanation for this was that the normal Newcastle-Birmingham via Doncaster interval services do not stop at Chesterfield and that the XC driver didn't remember that this was one that did.

 

Edit: Sorry Andy to duplicate the earlier info.on your post

Edited May 27, 2018 by Ian Hargrave

[highpeakman]

Maybe because the topic title uses the same sloppy phrase that the Mail did?

 

However "Slightly bemused passengers and a frothing bint face minor inconvenience after train gets unscheduled diversion in West Yorkshire necessitating a change of train at Sheffield" wouldn't have attracted much attention - there or here.

 

I'm duly chastised.

[jonny777]

Newcastle to Reading XC Voyager 220 operated services are routed from York to Sheffield via Doncaster,Mexborough and Swinton Junction .The Pontefract (Old S&K route) line is not normally used by XC.It may have been that an incident on the ECML caused this diversion ....which begs the obvious question of XC driver route knowledge,does it not ?

 

Bizarre incidents like this are not unknown.In my own experience as a frequent user of XC services on the York-Burton section of this route,the one that springs to mind was a late evening service from Sheffield which sailed through its scheduled Chesterfield stop,halted eventually about a mile down the line and had to reverse wrong line to the platform.Possible explanation for this was that the normal Newcastle-Birmingham via Doncaster interval services do not stop at Chesterfield and that the XC driver didn't remember that this was one that did.

 

Edit: Sorry Andy to duplicate the earlier info.on your post

 

 

 

I have had that happen to me, at Wigan NW; where the Glasgow train I was on raced through the station followed by what appeared to be an emergency application of the brakes.  After a five minute wait the train reversed the mile or so back into the platform. 

 

However, back to the driver not having signed the route; I can understand the ignorant public having a field day just as they did when my train from Cardiff to Bristol Parkway stopped for ages at Newport and the train manager announced that because of an incident we would be routed via Gloucester which would add an hour onto the journey time. A few minutes later we were told to get off the train which was now terminating there because the driver "didn't know the route via Gloucester". 

 

Of course, to the layman it would just be a case of follow where the rails go; and so there were all manner of sarcastic and ill-informed comments as we trudged onto the platform to wait for another service. The required route knowledge of drivers is not something mr & mrs average seem able to understand. 

[Derekl]

It seems to have been 1V91 from Open train times. Passes Colton Junction 13 late then disappears from the record to reappear at Swinton, now 78 late. Cancelled at Sheffield after arriving 84 late. Some XCs do go via Leeds, thus leaving the ECML at Colton Junction, although it seems to have taken a while before the driver realised he was not on the correct route (or maybe he did, and the efforts to sort it out are unreported).

[kevinlms]

I have had that happen to me, at Wigan NW; where the Glasgow train I was on raced through the station followed by what appeared to be an emergency application of the brakes.  After a five minute wait the train reversed the mile or so back into the platform. 

 

However, back to the driver not having signed the route; I can understand the ignorant public having a field day just as they did when my train from Cardiff to Bristol Parkway stopped for ages at Newport and the train manager announced that because of an incident we would be routed via Gloucester which would add an hour onto the journey time. A few minutes later we were told to get off the train which was now terminating there because the driver "didn't know the route via Gloucester". 

 

Of course, to the layman it would just be a case of follow where the rails go; and so there were all manner of sarcastic and ill-informed comments as we trudged onto the platform to wait for another service. The required route knowledge of drivers is not something mr & mrs average seem able to understand. 

But maybe the 'steering wheel' had broken (AKA the Hand Brake)!

 

[wombatofludham]

I really despair at the level of average intelligence out there some days although some people do their very best to bring that average down on an ongoing basis.

 

Welcome to the shallow end of the gene puddle. Everyone is a "citizen journalist" nowadays. Apparently.

[Ian Hargrave]

Newcastle to Reading XC Voyager 220 operated services are routed from York to Sheffield via Doncaster,Mexborough and Swinton Junction .The Pontefract (Old S&K route) line is not normally used by XC.It may have been that an incident on the ECML caused this diversion ....which begs the obvious question of XC driver route knowledge,does it not ?

Bizarre incidents like this are not unknown.In my own experience as a frequent user of XC services on the York-Burton section of this route,the one that springs to mind was a late evening service from Sheffield which sailed through its scheduled Chesterfield stop,halted eventually about a mile down the line and had to reverse wrong line to the platform.Possible explanation for this was that the normal Newcastle-Birmingham via Doncaster interval services do not stop at Chesterfield and that the XC driver didn't remember that this was one that did.

Edit: Sorry Andy to duplicate the earlier info.on your post

s

 

 

A little further "digging" reveals that 1V91 was not following the S&K route to Swinton but halted near Knottingley and appears to have been following the standard diversionary route off the ECML in the Doncaster direction.Apparently,XC drivers are signed for the Pontefract-Swinton Junction route but not for that particular one via Knottingley to regain the ECML thus catering for Doncaster passengers.Appears to have been the result of inadequate information/communication given to the XC driver.Or so it would seem on the face of it.There had apparently been an incident earlier which accounts for it being 13 down at York

[The Johnster]

Back in the day (the 70s, when I was a guard at Canton), we used to run Mystery Excursions.  The destination of these was a closely guarded secret, and a typical job would be to work ecs to, say, Rhymney, pick up all stations to Newport, and work to a destination signed for at Canton for relief.  So, we really didn't know where we were going; the only people on the train who did were the clerical staff on overtime acting as tour reps and in no way enjoying themselves on a paid for day out to Great Yarnouth, or Brighton, or wherever.

 

But that didn't stop the passengers asking, and offering all sorts of bribes and inducements.  'No, honestly', I'd say, 'I really don't know where we are going' (not mentioning that I was booked to Gloucester or wherever).  They would accept that, as only a guard, I did not need to know where the train was or where it was going, but surely the driver did?  Can you find out from him at the next stop; we'll give you a can of beer for your trouble, come on, play fair.  So I'd come back after the next stop, and claim that the driver didn't know either, which was of course not exactly lying, and enjoy the look of dawning realisation that they were on a train running at about 75mph whose driver didn't have a clue where he was going...

 

The knowledgeable would watch what happened at the junctions; a left turn at Maindee meant oop north somewhere, the Gloucester road at Severn Tunnel Jc meant the East Coast, straight on at Patchway meant the South Coast or West Country, decided at Dr Day's.  Swindon meant the South East or East Anglia.  Not until the final section, when most would have guessed anyway, did the reps hand out the leaflets and truth emerge.

 

I loved working these trains; they were useful overtime on which you didn't get dirty, and enormous fun; everybody joined in the spirit of the adventure and, with no catering on the train, were well stocked with sarnies and beer for a long day out.  The return leg would often not arrive at the Valleys originating point until midnight or later, and there was a lovely feeling of contentment on a train of happy, sleeping, trippers!

 

But the driver really didn't know where the train was going....

Edited May 27, 2018 by The Johnster

[Huw Griffiths]

See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5775501/CrossCountry-train-Newcastle-Reading-gets-lost-South-Yorkshire.html

 

Even when making due allowance for this paper's reporting this looks a bit surprising.

 

Will await explanations with interest.

 

Who knows? There might have been "leaves on the line" somewhere - albeit about 6 months ago.

 

I'm afraid this does nothing to change my opinion of the standard of "journalism" in a certain "snoozepaper" (and various other ones, for that matter).

 

 

The dangers of letting unknowledgeable  'journalists' web space fillers report on the twitterings of the ill-informed populace.

 

Nobody died and I wouldn't think anyone was in any form of danger or even substantial convenience but it only takes one stupid person and a smartphone and several idiots in the bottom half of the internet "My worst nightmare, i rarely use the train and when i have done my anxiety go's through the roof" and there's a small mountain out of a molehill.

 

I really despair at the level of average intelligence out there some days although some people do their very best to bring that average down on an ongoing basis.

 

I really hate those "news stories" which are little more than some ill informed tweets embedded in some adverts. Cheap space filler that requires no journalism whatsoever.

There is absolutely nothing useful or interesting in that "story".

 

However "Slightly bemused passengers and a frothing bint face minor inconvenience after train gets unscheduled diversion in West Yorkshire necessitating a change of train at Sheffield" wouldn't have attracted much attention - there or here.

 

This reminds me of when, as an electrical engineering student, I visited a nuclear power station. One of the guys who was showing us around commented about the general standard of tabloid journalism - with the suggestion that, if there were to be a chip pan fire in the catering block (which got sorted out by chucking a fire blanket over the pan), certain elements of the press would probably have enormous front page headlines, along the lines of: "Blaze at nuke plant!"

 

I reckon he probably had a point - one which reminds me of one comment sometimes attributed to some understandably cynical Russians:

 

"There is no truth in the News - and no news in the Truth."

 

Well, "there's many a true word spoken in jest" - and it would certainly sound like fair comment here.

 

 

I have had that happen to me, at Wigan NW; where the Glasgow train I was on raced through the station followed by what appeared to be an emergency application of the brakes.  After a five minute wait the train reversed the mile or so back into the platform. 

 

However, back to the driver not having signed the route; I can understand the ignorant public having a field day just as they did when my train from Cardiff to Bristol Parkway stopped for ages at Newport and the train manager announced that because of an incident we would be routed via Gloucester which would add an hour onto the journey time. A few minutes later we were told to get off the train which was now terminating there because the driver "didn't know the route via Gloucester". 

 

Of course, to the layman it would just be a case of follow where the rails go; and so there were all manner of sarcastic and ill-informed comments as we trudged onto the platform to wait for another service. The required route knowledge of drivers is not something mr & mrs average seem able to understand. 

 

I had similar experiences when I commuted to and from my last job - although the train I remember "pulling up sharply" had been diverted via Dr. Days Junction and Bristol Temple Meads.

 

As for a South Wales - London train being diverted via Gloucester (before rejoining the Badminton line at Bristol Parkway), I often encountered that, too.

 

I could, however, imagine the route via Chepstow, Lydney, Gloucester, Yate and Westerleigh Junction being a scary proposition for any train driver not used to it. Let's face it - by Lydney, there's an enormous yard full of old buses - some for component recovery - some for further use. They might be worried that one of said old buses might end up being used to convey all the train passengers - standing all the way to Swindon - just in time to see an onward connection disappear as they approach the station. :jester:

 

Seriously though, the railways aren't in the habit of sending loaded trains over routes their drivers don't have current knowledge of - and I've got no issue with this, however inconvenient it might be for already delayed passengers.

 

However, I do wish the rail industry would take steps to improve their contingency planning - to reduce the impact of stuff like this on their long-suffering cash machines "customers".

 

Incidentally, I personally encountered the sort of nonsense I've described with rail replacement buses - so I think I'm qualified to make comments like this - and I also think it's fair comment.

 

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[Mallard60022]

Oh dear, I've just wasted half an hour reading the shite, well mostly shite comments following the article, except those from what appears to be rail workers. What a load of tosse#s these people are and to think they actually probably drive and make decisions and maybe even look after our money or, God forbid, vote. Do people really think that trains are driven like cars?

Already gone.

Phil

Edited May 27, 2018 by Mallard60022

[russ p]

What happened was the driver was wrong routed at ferrybridge went a little bit further than they should have done then for some reason wouldn't go back.

The driver used to sign the route they had been wrong routed onto but the guard didn't

[Mallard60022]

It would appear that there may have been a fatality at Donny and that is always a really difficult thing to deal with including the diversion or otherwise of services. I suspect this sort of glitch of not having route knowledge does not happen very often? It will be interesting (or not) to see if anyone bothers to correct the stupid article's message. Does the Mail (spit) have a letters page as do some other acceptable newspapers where, despite the political leaning, they actually have mostly decent and educated Journalists writing their stuff?

P

Edited May 27, 2018 by Mallard60022