"Jon Passenger" wrote:

On May 26, 1:10 pm, Fat richard wrote:

90% ADVANCE TICKET SALE EXTENDED TO MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY 29th MAY 2011

Whilst we have sold many Advance tickets at 90% discount today, due to
unprecedented levels of demand on the site, we appreciate that a few
customers will have experienced problems booking the tickets they were
after. As a result we have extended the end of the sale to midnight on
Sunday 29th May 2011, so if the site is busy then please come back and
visit it over the weekend when demand will be lower. There are 750,000
Advance tickets available at the discounted price, so there should be
plenty for everyone.

I tried a few times this morning - you have to wait several minutes
for it to come up with "An error has occurred!"

Offering a 90% discount is just one way to stress-test a website - it
may not be the most sensible.

I had wondered how insulated the Southern site was from the other WebTIS
sites (I understand they're all hosted by ATOS Origin), though a very quick
check suggests they're working fine whilst the Southern one remains on a go
slow. I don't recall this happening a couple of years ago but then I don't
think it had been trailed in the MSE mailshot either (which goes out to
millions).