Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm commuting by train this week - from Melksham to Farnborough, Hants at the start of the week and from Melksham to London at the end of the week.  And thank goodness I know roughly what I'm doing, for the information provided by the railways to help the traveller always contains a lot of inaccuracies.

It's Tuesday morning, and so early I haven't started yet - but just one day in and I can report:

* Advise to buy a season ticket, Melksham to London, at 243 pound plus a Melksham to Farnborough ticket at 172.50.  The Farnborough ticket is totall unnecessary, as Farnborough is on one of the valid Melksham to London Routes, and following National Rail Advise I would have overpaid by 172 pounds.

* "Passengers must not cross the line" ... sign at a station (Farnborough North) with no way from platform to platform except by the level crossing. Oh - and the sign is at the level crossing!

* "Please have all tickets and passes ready for inspection" says the ontrain announcement as we approach Reading from Farnborough.   Why?  Most people on the train are connecting on elsewhere, and can go straight to their next train without any barriers or checks. 

* "For Chippenham, Bath and Bristol change here and remain on platform 4" says the ontrain announcement on the "Red Dragon" as we approach Swindon. And passengers who take that advise will miss the connection to Chippenham that leaves from Platform 2 nearly 20 minutes earlier than the next Chippenham train from platform 4 ...

There will always be occasional error in any system - but they seem to be rife in the rail industry at times. An announcement of the wrong information, the giving of an incorrect fare, is worse than no announcement at all, or an honest "I don't know" where you're talking to someone in person. To provide incorrect information this often shows a disrespect for the passengers. And if the advisers can't get it right, what chance have the passengers got?

Grahame,

Having worked in the railway industry for over 44 years now I can confirm to you that your frustration is nothing new ::)  Although I have never been in the 'customer facing' part of the business I have on occasions helped out when things go wrong.  My last such occasion was after Ladbroke Grove accident when I was caught up at Reading and volunteered my services to the station manager.  It is really difficult when things go wrong and for some reason the railway industry always seems to struggle with keeping its customers well informed.  I think its a railway culture thing and its hard to explain, but these days I think that with so many companies involved its very difficult to get any ownership when things fall apart.

Anyway, I don't think you should get too depressed as this great website goes a long way to helping that situation.  I think there is an extensive depth of insider and outsider knowledge on here that goes a long way to assisting in finding our way (and yes I include myself in that) around the 'modern railway'.

Keep up the good work ;) ;D

I think you are being a bit harsh on that sign. Safety instructions have to be short and clear, and that usually precludes being legally or logically rigorous.

For this standard sign I would prefer "Danger! Do not cross the line here" as meeting that criterion better. True, at Farnborough North the place they want you not to cross (by going down the platform slope) is the same as where they want you to cross (going round by the crossing gate, so passing the lights and a barrage of notices), so it does look odd. The obvious answer there is to add a sign underneath with an arrow to the right and "Use the crossing". 

I ... err ... didn't mean to come across as depressed.   But thanks for the encouragement anyway.   To a very great extent, this site should be quiet and unnecessary if everything is hunky dory - the fact that we're still going, and indeed have show some significant increase in activity in the last few months, confirms that there are ongoing issues.

We remain - I think - still in the embryonic stages of the information age.   There are so many holes, gaps, misinformations that we have plenty to improve upon.  And I would far rather give constructive critical review or help to sort these things out in some way that I can (hard as "just a passenger" on the railways, though!) that be just negative.

I don't travel as much as most members.  And I don't have a regular route.   So the information systems are things I use, the signage and announcements things I notice.  Perhaps I'm quite well placed, as a result, to see things as the new traveller or overseas visitor sees them.  I took a look at the new Reading yesterday for the first time and - yes - "Where do I find the departure boards" was an early thought, and I had to have quite a scan for the next train to Swindon.  Goodness only knows if I had wanted to find out the best way to get to Trowbridge.  I guess there probably was a help desk, but I didn't happen upon it.

Of course the greatest piece of misinformation occurred at Melksham this morning, costing at least the equivalent of my daily train fare in petrol.

Little did I realise when I wrote those words ... http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12367.msg132076#msg132076

A misfortune with a freight train turned into a fiasco by customer information that should have been right (or simply said "don't know yet")

Looks like we're in for a day of fun and misinformation on FGW today:

- While waiting for the 06:38 TransWilts, the information at Melksham displays 'arrived Chippenham 16:26.'
- When arriving into Trowbridge on the above service at 6:46, it is displaying as expected 6:54. It is then changed to 6:56, and then delayed, even though the train has already called at the station.