18/01/10 Record numbers of people use JourneyCheck and sign up for JourneyCheck Alerts
JourneyCheck and JourneyCheck Alerts Performance during the January 2010 Snowfall
We are pleased to confirm that JourneyCheck and JourneyCheck Alerts were used by more people than ever before during the recent wintry conditions.
Along with many others we were all personally affected by the weather and transport disruption (though rather more by the problems with cars and buses, than railways). We hope that our systems contributed to keeping you informed during the very severe disruption.
The train service being operated across the country was, at times, an ever-changing picture, with the industry "fighting" to provide as many services as possible. It's sometimes easy to forget that train drivers often drive to work by car. And if the car is stuck in the drive...
Broadcast Messages
Many of our clients used the broadcast facility on JourneyCheck Alerts to keep customers informed about timetable changes, and to refer them to further details on their own websites.
An email sent by East Coast to its registered customers on the evening of 11th January 2010
Some More Facts
We experienced an approximate 10-fold average increase in demand during the busier days, with this peaking at 30-fold during the extreme snow fall.
The disruption information on JourneyCheck was available at all times throughout the disruption, though it was necessary to suspend departure boards on several occasions. We apologise for not being able able to provide these throughout the period.
Whilst it may have taken longer than usual for pages to appear, appear they did. This was due to the investment we'd put in since the last heavy snowfall in 2009. We continue to make further improvements to efficiency and to scale up our services so that we don't let you down when you need information the most.