Delay / Cancelled reason from Darwin

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chirag shah

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Nov 11, 2025, 6:05:26 AMNov 11
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Hi All, 
I wondered if there is any change made to the text layout of how Delay / Cancelled reasons were presented. 
I ask as now we have seen the format received in feed as ' This service has been cancelled because of a broken down train' instead of as received in past  'This train has been cancelled because of a broken down train'. 

As I understand the word Train has been replaced by  service but just wanted to confirm if this is the case if anyone knows about it. 

Evelyn Snow

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Nov 11, 2025, 6:31:16 AMNov 11
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Hi Chirag,

Yep, I've had a look at an old list I had saved and you're right, quite a few of
them have been changed to "service" instead of "train".

Evelyn
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chirag shah

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Nov 11, 2025, 6:54:47 AMNov 11
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Hi Evelyn, 

Thanks for the information. 

Would you be knowing if this is the case across the estate? 
Is the new layout from now onwards or is this a temporary change?

Just asking if you know anything about it. 

Thanks

Evelyn Snow

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Nov 11, 2025, 7:08:17 AMNov 11
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Hi Chirag,

I'm not aware of when this happened or what the rationale for it is, it does mean that some of
these delay/cancel messages can be applied to vehicles other than trains, though a lot of them
still reference trains, so I'm not entirely sure.

Evelyn

Empty Hand

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Nov 11, 2025, 7:53:59 AMNov 11
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Hello All,

I've also noticed that for at least some of the delay/cancellation reasons the start of the messages has changed from "This train..." to "This service...". The wikipedia page doesn't show any of these changes. Do any of you know where we might be able to get an up to date list of the delay and cancellation reasons as they appear in the feed today?


Thanks

Rail Delivery Group

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Nov 11, 2025, 9:14:39 AMNov 11
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The latest reason code descriptions should be obtained from the Darwin push port reference data or from the LDBSV API GetReasonCodeList. One of those should be your primary source as whilst changes to the codes are infrequent, they do occur as observed here

Peter Hicks

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Nov 11, 2025, 12:29:23 PMNov 11
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On Tuesday, 11 November 2025 at 12:54, Empty Hand <marlon...@synkrony.com> wrote:

I've also noticed that for at least some of the delay/cancellation reasons the start of the messages has changed from "This train..." to "This service...". The wikipedia page doesn't show any of these changes. Do any of you know where we might be able to get an up to date list of the delay and cancellation reasons as they appear in the feed today?


Trying to strike the balance between "It's a community resource, do what you think is fit" and "That's a really bad idea because people will treat it as gospel" is difficult, and I should probably stamp down harder on second-hand copies of data that has a finite lifetime.  But I am doing this all for no financial benefit, so...

I've been doing some digging about the train -> service transition, and I'm told it changed earlier this year as Darwin has the capability to track bus services and ships, and "This train has cancelled due to high winds" would look a bit silly on a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin.


Peter

Empty Hand

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Nov 13, 2025, 7:05:31 AM (13 days ago) Nov 13
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Yes, that all makes sense and the use of the word "service" certainly provides more flexibility. I note from the reference notes in yesterday's Push Port that the vast majority of the standard message strings now start with "This service..." instead of "This train...". Do any of you know whether the rest of the reason messages will eventually be changed to start with "This service..."? For context and why it's useful for me to know is because in my system we have some translations into other languages which are static and we will want to bring these in line with the new wording. Thanks in advance.

Peter Hicks

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Nov 13, 2025, 7:37:21 AM (13 days ago) Nov 13
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Hello

On Thursday, 13 November 2025 at 12:05, Empty Hand <marlon...@synkrony.com> wrote:

Yes, that all makes sense and the use of the word "service" certainly provides more flexibility. I note from the reference notes in yesterday's Push Port that the vast majority of the standard message strings now start with "This service..." instead of "This train...". Do any of you know whether the rest of the reason messages will eventually be changed to start with "This service..."? For context and why it's useful for me to know is because in my system we have some translations into other languages which are static and we will want to bring these in line with the new wording. Thanks in advance.

This isn't official advice, but if you're translating the reasons in to other languages, I'd just go and change the translations from "This train" to "This service" now, rather than waiting for them to change in the reference data.  As long as you keep the rest of the text in-line with the reference data, you're still going to be putting out the same consistent message.

It's also made me ponder on Darwin's lack of support for other languages, especially Welsh as TfW services are very hot on bilingual announcements.


Peter

Empty Hand

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Nov 13, 2025, 8:32:29 AM (13 days ago) Nov 13
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Thanks Peter. As it happens it is Welsh that we do this for, for TfW. It would be so much better if Darwin served the Welsh language out of the box. Hopefully one for the near future.

Best regards

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