Handle Exceptions, don't block the Event Thread

I remember that after the severe winter weather which battered the central belt of Scotland last year Scotrail claimed not to have expected such conditions and would be better prepared in future.

Fair enough.

12 months on and I was reading the "customer service bulletin" talking about how much had been invested and which promised

Emergency timetable response measures, special train de-icing tunnels, that staff would be issued with smartphones for Real Time On Site Updates and have special training on Customer Information Management

Uh huh...

For the last 3 weeks I've been forced to find alternate ways to work 5 days out of 12 because "Emergency Timetable Response Measures" means "Cancellation without replacement or refund", passengers have missed stops because doors have frozen closed (and then been charged returns) and some of my favourite announcements (all carefully scrutinised & targeted to inform passengers):

• Sorry I can't tell you where this train is going because ma phones crashed
• Yeah we never get a signal with these things
• Ladies and Gentlemen, we're sorry about the delay but the train in front is... in the way
• Ladies and Gentlemen, we're sorry to announce there's been... a problem

Today was my favourite:

• Passengers should be aware there are currently no impact on services due to the weather. Also note that all services to terminal station will terminate early because of the snow.