Great Western Coffee Shop

Is it just me or is it rubbish?

Paignton has timetable books B1 ( penzance - London)

None of the local Devon books or book D over the berks and hants. Bizarrly I was able to pick up E for the bristol area. I managed to pick up the local Devon and Cornwall books in Somerset.

Have you asked in the ticket office.  But I guess FGW will argue that time tables are down loadable, which is no use when traveling about unless you have a raspberry  :o :o I mean blackberry or some other such fruit

I've just heard the the Melksham Tourist Informastion Centre have been sent only timetables A1, E7 and E8 .... and they have asked me "what do we need to order for the Melksham trains?"

HELP! Can anyone tell me - or should I email customer support?

Indeed. If there was a free wi-fi signal i'd be able to access timetables, but it's inconvenient. Also the fact that my journey is likely to cost a few pence extra since January the least i'd expect is a timetable! "D" seems to be quote illustrious down west, don't think Taunton had it!

I got timetable D from Newton Abbot.

Before you spend hours researching this, folks, I think I have the answer - and it only took three phone calls.

On the first call, I chose the "fares and timetables" option and asked the guy which printed timetable I should consult for trains to and from Melksham.  He told me that he didn't know as he used a computer, that he had no way of finding out himself, and that I should go to my nearest station and ask in person.   I chose NOT to go to my nearest station, as I had no realistic expectation of finding anyone there who could answer my question and I pity anyone who was given the poor advise and made a wasted journey to:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/asdf31.jpg)

The second call, I ignored what had sounded like the approriate option and went for 'other enquiries' and the lady was much more helpful ... she put me on hold and went away to look, but came back a couple of minutes later to say that she couldn't find Melksham in the printed timetables either and shw would call me back.

The third call was hers to me (good on her - FGW customer service is hugely improved) and she told me that the status is as follows ... here's my report to the Tourist Information:



It doesn't half seem complicated for "Joe Public" who really wants to be able to pick up a sheet of paper showing what trains are available for him to travel from Melksham to Swindon, from London to Melksham, or from Melksham to Bath and Bristol - the most popular journeys

Interesting you should bring this up D/M.

I popped into Bath Spa station the other week to see that they only had 1 XC timetable being displayed on the TT racks - (Yellow) Southwest to Manchester/North East and Scotland. Pre the December 14 TT change, Bath Spa always had four XC timetables on the racks. Big deal I hear you say but a few days later passing through Bristol TM popped into the travel centre only to find they were only displaying the same XC TT as at Bath and the (Purple) Cardiff/Bristol to Derby & Nottingham.

Is this Arriva cutting back on only displaying timetables that pertain to the station/area they serve? Another hint that this maybe the case was BTM travel centre always had a selection of ATW timetables available on display. This was not the case when I was there the other week.

You can pick up all six XC timetables at Birmingham New Street though  :)

I do wonder if we are beginning to see the start of the end of pocket timetables as we are being constantly hounded by the TOCs to 'print your own timetable' or 'use the journey planner' which I think is sad even though some would say thats progress for you.

Its now very rare at times of engineering work that you will find either a printed timetable or one you can download online. This was the first Christmas in many years that FGW did not even print a Christmas/New Year timetable though to be fair there wasn't much engineering work taking place on the Western Region over the holiday period.

The end of the pocket timetable is bad news.

Why should we have to go online? If I am at home and decide/ suddenly need to take a train, I can pick up the timetable(s) sit in an armchair, and plan. No screen, no power used. I can then put them in my pocket to take out to check times at a moment's notice, whenever I want. No strawberry used, none of my priner ink & paper wasted. During the journey, I can see if I am on time etc.....

And most importantly - if my plan changes/ there are cancellations, I can re-plan etc. without the need for WiFi/Gooseberries.

We must launch a campaign... :D

Phasing out printed timetables doesn't even make business sense. They might save a few bob but they will lose passengers -- if someone is planning a journey and pops into the station, finds no relevant leaflets and a long queue at the counter, they might well decide to drive instead, and it's another incident that contributes to the railway's bad reputation. I bet you don't get theatres that refuse to print a programme, and insist that potential customers access the information online.

I don't find the "Print your own" timetables particularly useful or easy to read, and it never seems to be less than three pages for a return journey. Then there are all the people who don't have access to a computer, or have trouble filling in online forms, or whose computer or printer isn't working......

If the problem is the frequent alterations for engineering works, the solution is not to withdraw printed timetables -- two wrongs don't make a right.

It is possible that the proportion of space given over to XC timetables has been adjusted when the new franchise started.  The amount of racking space given to each TOC is roughly in proportion to the number of tickets for each TOCs trains sold at the station - I say roughly, I don't know the details and I expect that it is hughly complicated and that guesswork also plays a part.  The proportions are presumably reviewed from time to time.  On the other hand XC might just have not bothered to have sent any/anough out

The same amount of rack space is being used as pre-December 08 TT change but only one timetable is on display.

On a related note, Virgin are givng away Chiltern Railways' Birmingham timetables in prominent displays alongside the Euston booking office (link below.)
http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2009/01/meanwhile-on-real-railway.html

The format of the main XC timetables (the 'proper' cross country routes) changed this year, and the basis is that the four quadrants each give all the journeys to the two opposite ends of the country, the big assumption probably being no-one will go from Bournemouth to Plymouth via New St, or NW to NE (and vice versa). So from the south coast (green) you get all through trains and connections to the NW and NE, which the old green book already did, but from the SW you now only need the one, whereas previously you needed to have a separate NW 'blue' and NE 'orange'.  Similarly for those in the NW and NE.

I did pick up an orange book in Newcastle over Christmas, but it didn't provide any info I needed, so I think for most normal users based in one place, it's possibly an improvement.

Never used the ex-Central bits though, so can't comment there...

Paul