Plat elements completely missing in Darwin from Paddington - CIS disconnected?

[Brandon Randle]

Hey all,

I realise this comes up every year or so but it seems like the <plat> elements have been entirely missing (not just suppressed, but just not there at all) for Paddington for the past week or so, for every train.

In previous occurrences there was discussion about the local CIS becoming disconnected from Darwin, but in those cases it was thought that the platforms would be empty & suppressed, not entirely missing

As it's been ongoing for more than a week, it seems unlikely that this'll fix itself. What's the right course of action? e.g. if the CIS has become disconnected accidentally, who is responsible for nagging them to fix it?

Appreciate we're entirely powerless as consumers of open data, but it it's a deliberate management decision at the station that does seem a little ridiculous to be honest

Brandon

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Brandon

On Saturday, 17 May 2025 at 17:51, Brandon Randle <bra...@gmail.com> wrote:

I realise this comes up every year or so but it seems like the <plat> elements have been entirely missing (not just suppressed, but just not there at all) for Paddington for the past week or so, for every train.

In previous occurrences there was discussion about the local CIS becoming disconnected from Darwin, but in those cases it was thought that the platforms would be empty & suppressed, not entirely missing

As it's been ongoing for more than a week, it seems unlikely that this'll fix itself. What's the right course of action? e.g. if the CIS has become disconnected accidentally, who is responsible for nagging them to fix it?

It looks like the LICC at Paddington has a few problems at the moment.  I can see that since at least 15th May, it's been connecting and disconnecting every few minutes.

Your best immediate course of action is to call the NR Helpline on 03457 11 41 41 - they will take some details and likely pass your message over to the team at Paddington, hopefully getting a response back to you.  Paddington is a Network Rail managed station and they have a member of GWR staff in the control room along with a number of NR staff.  From a recent visit there, I think the GWR member of staff is responsible for train crew, and the NR staff are responsible for releasing platform data and operating the CIS.

Peter

[Brandon Randle]

Thanks Peter, I'll give them a bell

You'd think they'd have some kind of alerting in place for such things! Or perhaps they do but it's lost in a sea of other alerts...

Either way, thanks for your help!

Brandon

[David Mountain]

This issue remains live.  I logged it via phone call with Network Rail customer helpline on 13th Jun and two weeks later... 

> Thank you for getting in touch, though I am sorry to hear about the issues you are having with Paddington station.
> Whilst I understand that the information would be useful for customers, unfortunately we are unable to work with third parties to update on live information.
> I can only apologise that I am unable to offer more assistance on the matter.

Not clear which "third parties" they are referring to and definitely not moving towards a solution. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/developers/darwin-data-feeds/ points back to this site. I'd appreciate suggestions of the best front-door to knock on to chase this up!

Best wishes

Dave

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Dave

On Monday, 30 June 2025 at 14:42, David Mountain <dmmou...@gmail.com> wrote:

This issue remains live. I logged it via phone call with Network Rail customer helpline on 13th Jun and two weeks later...

> Thank you for getting in touch, though I am sorry to hear about the issues you are having with Paddington station.
> Whilst I understand that the information would be useful for customers, unfortunately we are unable to work with third parties to update on live information.
> I can only apologise that I am unable to offer more assistance on the matter.

Not clear which "third parties" they are referring to and definitely not moving towards a solution. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/developers/darwin-data-feeds/ points back to this site. I'd appreciate suggestions of the best front-door to knock on to chase this up!

Let me have a chat with a couple of people who may be able to help fix this problem.  I can't guarantee I'll be able to let you know what the issue is, but I anticipate you'd rather have a resolution than a diagnosis.

Peter

[Peter Hicks]

All,

An update to the Paddington issue, as I've just seen a response to an FOI request (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/disconnections_between_local_sta) by David Wheatley.

My reading of it is that:

1. GWR and NR station management are aware there is an issue
2. It appears to be a genuine fault rather than a deliberate decision
3. Worldline have been working with the NRE Helpdesk to try to fix it, but so far unsuccessful

I know RDG read this forum, so this may be a polite catalyst for them to do some internal investigation to find out what's going on, since it's affecting all online platforms.

Peter

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[Adam Williams]

I've been told this has now been resolved.

[Peter Hicks]

On Tuesday, 29 July 2025 at 15:56, 'Adam Williams' via A gathering place for the Open Rail Data community <openrail...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I've been told this has now been resolved.

You're correct there!  Looks like Paddington has been fully online from the small hours of of 24th July.

I'd like to think the polite discussions here, the crafty FOI request and a general "wanting to do the right thing" helped get this problem solved.  But I'm also willing to bet it may have just been solved anyway(!)

Either way, success.

Peter