Great Western Coffee Shop

Quite frankly, after decades of watching the general public on railway platforms I have to conclude that "people [making] a decision using their own brain" is all too often quite a lot too much to even hope for.

The vast majority in my experience completely ignore any and all available notices, displays, overheads and announcements and instead make a beeline for the nearest train employee and demand to be told what it is they want to know.

Usually rudely.

I despair, I really really do.

And, very much in this spirit of politeness: "Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, Toiletdriver!"

Chris  ;) :D ;D

I'm a driver forced into FGW via TUPE, and I driver rubbish trains listening to moaning commuters.

Was at Paddington today and noticed that slow trains to Oxford show either "Radley" or "Didcot Parkway" on the boards, depending on whether the last stop before Oxford is one of those.  No indication that it carried onto Oxford, however.  It's also worth noting that all the boards bar the newer screens were down today.

Quite frankly, after decades of watching the general public on railway platforms I have to conclude that "people [making] a decision using their own brain" is all too often quite a lot too much to even hope for.

The vast majority in my experience completely ignore any and all available notices, displays, overheads and announcements and instead make a beeline for the nearest train employee and demand to be told what it is they want to know.

Usually rudely.

I despair, I really really do.

There are a significant number of people who mix up the arrivals board with the departures board, too. Suggestions by myself to list the arrivals in a different colour, red for example, fell on deaf ears unfortunately.

Trust me I have stood in front of the arrival/departure screens and when customers ask for a depature when looking at the arrivals, i'll point it out they're looking at the arrivals.  Of course I then get a:  "Are you sure, surely you must be lying to me?" expression while they look again at the Arrivals.   ::) ;D

If they are too idle/stupid enough not to read it they deserve to end up in penzance when heading to perth

This is the same thing as advertising the stoppers to Reading as "Twyford" at London Paddington as they have been doing for ages (used to really confuse me!)

When they started the Ealing Broadway thing they did have posters up at Reading station explaining what they were going to do.

Personally I don't see why they dont just advertise them as "LP - express" & "LP - local"...... be a lot less confusing!

There are a significant number of people who mix up the arrivals board with the departures board, too. Suggestions by myself to list the arrivals in a different colour, red for example, fell on deaf ears unfortunately.

DB do of course publish their arrival and departure posters in different colours, yellow and white as standard.

Also all trains are numbered either indivdually or as a service.

ICEs and IC usually have individual numbers.   REs (Regional Expresses) and RBs also have train numbers but can also be grouped with a route number eg RE1, especially around the Ruhr. S Bahn are route numbered eg S1 in Dresden is all stations Meissin to Schona. There is even a leaflet for S1 which gives all the points of interest along the line.
 
On ICEs and ICs you also get a printed  "Ihr Reiseplan" on your seat for that train which gives all the stops, including showing changes of direction, plus the connecting trains from each stop.
 
These train numbers are printed on your travel plan which in some cases you can get from a machines. The machines  print you an itinery with a bar code on it which you take to the ticket machine for scanning, issuing and paying for the tickets.

On the VDU summary screen at Twyford this morning I noticed that the stopping services to Paddington had "Local Stopping Service" added in white text below. I've never seen that before - I wonder if someone at FGW has read this thread! (I tried to see from the train if the same thing had been done at Maidenhead but it looked like none of the information displays there were working.)

On the VDU summary screen at Twyford this morning I noticed that the stopping services to Paddington had "Local Stopping Service" added in white text below. I've never seen that before - I wonder if someone at FGW has read this thread! (I tried to see from the train if the same thing had been done at Maidenhead but it looked like none of the information displays there were working.)

"Local Stopping Service"  has now appeared on the summary screen at Taplow under the Paddington trains. So must be Thames Valley wide.

And how many trains a day from Taplow to London would be considered expresses?  :-\

ZERO. We did use to have a non stop in each direction up to the 70s.

I assumme as it's on the summary screen that it has been added to the train description for all stations so just happens to come out at Taplow as well as Twyford.

From memory Ealing Broadway services that don't stop at Acton Main Line say non stop to Paddington.