poor service and lack of information

First of all, as I was one of the controllers on duty, I resent the "lack of judgement at control" remark. When the original decision to divert this train was made (at around 1430 this afternoon I hasten to add) everybody (staff) was informed, together with the other train involved, which would be diverted to Watford. At no point would the Watford service be stopping at Wembley Park.

The reason these diversions were taking place was to enable one of our drivers to be "signed off" driving the new S-stock on the Uxbridge branch.

I will admit that for some unknown reason, confusion with the diversions seemed to reign, and indeed caused some of the service delays we experienced this evening.

Once the confusion revealed itself, I did ask both drivers to make clear announcements to ensure everyone was on the correct train, and did arrange a connection for Uxbridge customers at Harrow with a preceding service (rather than people waiting for the train behind). Regrettably, the confusion bug spread northwards to our signaller at Harrow, and rather than connecting the 2 trains we wanted connected, a different pair were lined up together - the 2 Watford services. One of the Watford services did need to overtake the other (as the 2nd train was to reverse at Northwood due to late-running.)

So unfortunately you had to wait for the original train from the city. Had you been directed to the "correct" Uxbridge train in the city, you would have been on this same train throughout. However, what transpired is that you had a faster than usual trip as far as Harrow, and then had to wait longer than we originally planned for your train onward to Uxbridge.

For the confusion and lack of/confusing information I apologise for on behalf of my colleagues. However, in real terms, confusion and train changes aside, your journey wasn't actually significantly delayed, but there was a perceived delay owing to the train change (that is if you were even heading to Uxbridge - you boarded a "Watford" in the city, or was that simply "taking the first train?)

All that said, there was never at any point a lack of judgement from my seat. Lack of judgement would have been to cancel a service to Uxbridge (maybe your train home) later this week as there would be no qualified driver.

Ultimately, the driver is the guy with the train, the brakes and the accelerator, so is the guy who controls where/whether the train stops. Why do platform staff not recognise that simple truth, and if the driver says its fast, (or not), that's more important than what platform staff decide. So, surely there ought to be a "chain of command" system where in the event of any uncertainty, platform staff communicate with the driver of said train?

To give conflicting information is the worst possible scenario, and LU have had long enough to get this right.

Thanks met control for your feeback, always intersting and I appreciate that it was done to have a driver signed up for a route. While I don't know the full facts, why did they have to do this during the peak and travelling away from the cty?

Regarding lack of judgement, It was more aimed at why a service started as a watford fast, then uxbridge service, then back to watford.

Finally you keep saying that its best to wait for the correct train at the origin, however I find its worth getting any met train and change at harrow as there is a chance to overtake a uxbridge train.

Thanks once again!

The operational difficulties outlined by MC are, no doubt, unavoidable. However I feel there are two areas here where Simon's frustrations could have been alleviated.
1. He started by taking a Watford train which meant a change was inevitable. However Harrow on the Hill (and indeed many open air stations) can be miserable and soulless places to hang about. Better to wait for a direct train in a warm underground station; in this instance, as MC pointed out, Simon's journey time would not have been lengthened.
2. Despite the official policy on connecting trains at HotH, which has been clearly spelled out on this board, it is nevertheless very irritating when one trains departs just as the other is arriving and I cannot believe that, when the trains are this close, a few seconds wait to enable the connection will screw up the timetable. I say this specifically because the increasing frequency of T/Op announcement that "we are held because the service is running early" imply that the schedules have slack built in. If this had happened (as has happened to me) then Simon would have been home unexpectedly ten minutes early and would have posted a note of praise instead of a complaint.

When I read posts on here about poor communication and showing a lack of judgement I am set to thinking about how many people and their goodwill it takes to actually get a train out of the depot and in service.

You can only really appreciate this if you have experienced the railway working in good times and bad.

Give the lads and lasses a chance, with a very few exceptions they are doing their best.

There are rare instances where staff announce something contradictory to the driver. Do you seriously propose that to prevent this, we increase dwell times at platforms to allow the (limited) station staff time to discuss the correct stopping pattern with each and every driver? Thus increasing all journey times and eventually leading to a cut in services operated.

As I did say, it was never the "plan" to have the service chop and change destinations. The "plan" was to have both trains described correctly from the start.

Thank you, that hits the nail very fairly and squarely on the head ;D ;D

The platform 5 & 6 run around at Harrow OTH has happened all the time I have traveled by the Met into London (since 1985). I personally don't do it, if I am on a train, then I stay on it as luckily a few minutes saved / extra is not usually a problem. But how to educate the passenger who in this madly rushing world always wants to get to their destination as fast as they can? I think the phrase "fast" implies a much speedier train which means people will dash for that service. I note the comments about there being no description for the particular train I was on (0741 ex Amersham), so confusion can happen. It should not be forgotten that a number of people get off at Wembley (I know from December this issue will go away) so the confusion between driver and station staff giving what appears to be conflicting information does cause people to have to jump on and off quickly, so the runaround is not just people wanting a fast train, some want a slow one! Tell my wife not to worry, she is anxious every day about whether her train will stop at Wembley and the confusing announcements really annoy her!