Web hosting provider lambasts UK national rail site

WEB HOSTING PROVIDER, Hostway UK, has lashed out at Britain's National Rail website for failing to cope with the barrage of hits it received this morning as anxious commuters checked to see whether trains were up and running despite the snow.

As Britain shut up shop and its office workers used the paralysed transport system as an excuse to take the day off, build snowmen and giggle like silly teenagers as they shovelled snow down each others' necks, Thomas Herbert, Product Manager at Hostway delivered a scathing attack on some of the UK's transport sites.

"It is unsurprising that the national transport network has once again ground to a halt after a few inches of snow. However, what is surprising is that transport sites such as nationalrail.co.uk are still failing to build in the capacity to cope with the extra visitors to the site during these weather conditions" said Herbert.

Herbert noted that although some sites, like the Transport for London web site, were operating normally, many others proved "slow, unresponsive or completely unavailable".

With a reminder that bad weather was an unfortunate constant in Britain, Herbert ranted that "in this day and age, it is unacceptable that the rail websites go down when travellers need them the most".

Doubtless looking to drum up some business and promote his own firm, Herbert noted pressure on a web site was not at all hard to predict and reiterated it was "simply unacceptable that companies do not build in the capacity to cope with these surges in usage." µ