What does this mean?

[Mickey H]

THIS IS THE ENTIRE TEXT OF A TRAVEL ALERT FOUND ON THE IE WEBSITE AT 2310 10-12-07


disruption northern services by Press Office

due to a serious incident no services are operating

[Mark Gleeson]

Thats normally code for train vs person

This is all too typical of the useless notices you see on the IE site, doesn't provided you with any details of any use

I'm fairly sure services are not suspended over all 50 miles of the route

[CSL]

tis a giant step forward from no notice. prob. someone who doesn't know how to update the website trying their best.

[Mark]

Soon these notices will probably start to read like this: :D

PO: dsruptn nrthn svcs

due 2serius incdt no svcs r opratin

Tks

[Mark Gleeson]

I've said this numerous times before, its all about the w's

What has happened
What does it mean
Why?
Who to blame
When will it be fixed
What do we do till then

Simple template fill in blanks as required

[Mark Gleeson]

For last night it should have said

Due to an incident on the line between a train and a person, the line between a and b is closed. The cause of this incident in under investigation by Irish Rail and the Gardai

The line is expected to reopen at X

Passengers for stations beyond A should use Dublin Bus/Bus Eireann services, valid rail tickets will be accepted, list details of services etc

To borrow Irish Rail's own line, how easy is that?;)

[dowlingm]

In fairness a lot of transit systems use "code" for these sorts of things, presumably to discourage copycats.

"A power-off situation at track level" usually means some selfish git threw himself in front of a Toronto subway train.

[Mark Gleeson]

While it may be understandable to blur the reason in some cases not giving any functional information in terms of how a passenger can continue their journey is inexcusable

[Mickey H]

To give two examples the Swiss railways and National Rail (GB) websites are good at reporting using the formula Mark suggests and which I agree is essential.

Translink are quick to inform of disruption to services on their website (not necessarily giving the real reason-two much use of the phrase "operational difficulties"-but frequently very poor at informing passengers how long the problem will last and what alternative travel is available. One of their favourites is to state "an update will follow shortly" only for it never to appear, or as in the case of bus disruption today, TWO HOURS later