|
Title: Keeping onward passenger information current - Eurostar Post by: grahame on December 04, 2022, 08:22:19 There are two flavours of Farringdon Station: Farringdon, code ZFD (which is the Thameslink one), and Farringdon (Elizabeth Line), code FDX. The GWR planner works with the first and refuses the second. NRE's planner won't even let you enter FDX. Not very clever, these journey planners, are they? Following up on a tangent. 10 days or so ago (23rd November 2022), checked in and in the lounge at Brussels Midi awaiting Eurostar boarding, I glanced at the Information desk that was there providing London information for visitors. Sparse, but there were London Underground maps to help (one presumes) people plan and follow onward journeys in our capital. Except The maps are dated June 2017! No Nine Elms; no Battersea Power Station. No Barking Riverside No Elizabeth line! I noted (it may have been St Pancras a couple of weeks earlier) a similarly out of date tube map on the wall for people to look at, but somewhat discounted that as being akin to a piece of artwork; in the fabric, and are people interested in reading an underground map as they leave? Arriving into St Pancras, the waymarking to other public transport services did not look brilliant to put it mildly - having said which, I shot through as I had a close (or supposed to be close) connection at Paddington onto a last connection of the day I WOULD thank Eurostar for honouring my booking when I arrived 2.5 hours late in Brussels due to a DB cancellation (the 2 hourly Frankfurt to Brussels express), but the general flavour of the organisation is one where maximising revenue and minimising the cost of handing them is prioritised over actually providing a good experience. Title: Re: Keeping onward passenger information current - Eurostar Post by: Electric train on December 04, 2022, 10:32:40 Following up on a tangent. 10 days or so ago (23rd November 2022), checked in and in the lounge at Brussels Midi awaiting Eurostar boarding, I glanced at the Information desk that was there providing London information for visitors. Sparse, but there were London Underground maps to help (one presumes) people plan and follow onward journeys in our capital. Except The maps are dated June 2017! No Nine Elms; no Battersea Power Station. No Barking Riverside No Elizabeth line! I noted (it may have been St Pancras a couple of weeks earlier) a similarly out of date tube map on the wall for people to look at, but somewhat discounted that as being akin to a piece of artwork; in the fabric, and are people interested in reading an underground map as they leave? Arriving into St Pancras, the waymarking to other public transport services did not look brilliant to put it mildly - having said which, I shot through as I had a close (or supposed to be close) connection at Paddington onto a last connection of the day I WOULD thank Eurostar for honouring my booking when I arrived 2.5 hours late in Brussels due to a DB cancellation (the 2 hourly Frankfurt to Brussels express), but the general flavour of the organisation is one where maximising revenue and minimising the cost of handing them is prioritised over actually providing a good experience. Eurostar less than a year ago was in financial dire straits, very close to ceasing trading due to the loss of revenue due to the pandemic with the impact of new border controls due to Brexit. During the pandemic Eurostar received very little support from the UK or EU governments other than furlough. This year doing a refresh of the station facilities was perhaps low on their priority list. I believe there is a Eurostar brand re-launch in 2023 where the Eurostar (UK - Europ) becomes Eurostar Yellow and Thalys Eurostar Red I suspect the station facilites will be part of that rebranding. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |