We’d hoped that even if Thameslink could not sort out their trains this week at least they could sort out their information. Sadly that hasn’t happened. Today’s online information about the Bat & Ball line has been inadequate to the point of dishonesty.
Some trains such as the 1722 from Sevenoaks were shown well in advance as ‘Cancelled’, but others such as the 1652 were shown as being ‘On time’. However, at the last minute the 1652’s departure time was revised to 1655, 1656 etc, and then became the meaningless ‘Delayed’ right through until when the cancelled 1722 had been supposed to depart, only for it suddenly to disappear without any explanation. The National Rail Journey Planner was even worse, falsely claiming that the 1652 had been ‘On time’ until it finally admitted around 1820 that it had actually been cancelled.
All this fake information means that people expecting to catch the 1652 will have wasted at least an hour when they could have made alternative arrangements, and it will also have confused those who were checking when people they were meeting were likely to arrive. It must surely have been known in advance that these trains would not run (and it was obviously known that they hadn’t departed on time), so why was fake information given out for so long?
Years of watching the PIS (sic) – Passenger Information System – have led me to the conclusion that what you’re observing is exactly how the automated system works.
The root problem, to my mind, is that there is no human intervention – in fact, it may not even be possible. Once, at Dartford, an incorrect destination was displayed. Whoever the platform staff contacted told them that they had no idea how to correct it.
Having said all that, it’s doubtful that anyone could have kept up with what’s been going on the last week.