Great Western Coffee Shop

I know the policy for boarding at a request stop, is to indicate to the driver you wish to board.

On friday, I was travelling to a request stop, there had been a full ticket check on board, before my stop.
Am I allowed to assume in this instance the train should stop at my request stop?

The train in this case did go past my request stop, so I then contacted the conductor to arrange it to stop at the next station, as on the return journey the train was fast with no intermediate stops.

From the way I read your post, you are kind of assuming the guard/conductor looked carefully at the destination printed on the ticket. They don't always! Rather than relying on an assumption you should always inform the guard/conductor, in plenty of time, if you wish to alight at a request stop.

A whole different story if you did inform him/her and he/she forgot.....

There was more than one passenger for this stop on board the train.

The policy is to "inform the guard".  At least one passenger needs to speak - you can't assume he will pick up your request to stop from what is printed on your ticket. Sure many will but it is a bit unreasonable to blame the guard if you haven't spoken to him (they are not superhuman). 

It makes sense to speak to him anyway as in my experience (mostly Scotrail) they will often ask you to use a certain door to disembark (usually the rear public or rear "cab" door) to save the delay in operating the central door locking.

It's a bit hit and miss with request stops, on the Cotswold Line the two trains a day that serve the halts always stop and so there's no real need to. The Conductor might well have done a ticket check, but always I'd ask him to make sure. Ticket destinations are not always where a passenger wishes to get off - for example quite often passengers who've bought a Kingham to London ticket that morning and catch the last train home, actually get off at the request stop at Shipton.

I have travelled along this route over 100 times this year, and it depends which conductor you have, but I have never had to request specifically for the train to stop. Sometimes you get asked where do you want to get off, as I travel on a season ticket but my season ticket is to this request stop.
The conductor was distracted while checking tickets.

Ahhh. Complacency then. Past performance is no guarantee of future success. The clue is there: Request Stop. Relying on others, be it the conductor or fellow passengers was not a recipe for success in this instance.

Let's say you get on a train at Avoncliff in the morning and buy a return ticket to Westbury.   You spend a happy day in Westbury and get an evening train back, but you get off at Trowbridge to meet up with your girlfriend. If the conductor (who had checked your ticket between Westbury and Trowbridge) had registered "must stop at Avoncliff" with the driver, he would then have looke a right twat.

I can think of other circumstances too ... always advisable to tell the conductor explicitly, I think.

I suspect the challenge for many travelers is when stops are sometimes request and sometimes not especially where occasional travelers are involved rather than regulars or those who read the timetable more throughly.

On a recent Gunnislake train to Plymouth, several passengers watched in horror as the train proceeded through Calstock station without stopping and were then faced with sitting on Bere Alston or similar for a couple of hours or traveling into Plymouth.

On some of these rural routes where stops are sometimes request and sometimes not an announcement should be made or the guard should take responsibility for ensuring passengers know that they must request a stop.

isn't Calstock always a request stop?

Yes, likewise Dockyard, Keyham and Bere Ferres.  These are marked in the timetable and would have also been on the boards at the stations and announcements at Plymouth.

So it is!!! Just looked at the timetable -  thats the problem I guess.

As a reasonably regular traveler from Gunnislake to Plymouth and normally a fairly savvy traveler (probably doing about 200-300 miles on FGW per week at least) -  I hadn't twigged it was a request (or the others for that fact - Has it changed in the last couple of years ???). I hadn't actually looked at the small print and made the big assumption because trains stopped there some were request and some were not.

I've actually used Calstock and never had to flag down a train and I guess I have been lucky that on days I got off there someone else had requested the stop.

Just doing a quick check of Rail Enquiries, National Rail Enquiries seems to clearly state a request stop.

But FGW's site seems happy for me to request train times to Calstock via the Train Times and Tickets function and didn't seem to mention that Calstock is a request stop anywhere (though I must admit I didn't actually buy the ticket but got to the summary without a mention).

I can't argue with your statement, I guess I was getting complacent, especially as the train was running late.

Yeah but I can do the same for Lymphstone Commando and so on.

So effectively If I buy my ticket (as I always do) from FGW to  Lymphstone Commando or any request stop I will have no idea its a request stop and probably not ask for the train to stop unless I am told.

I travel the route Gunnislake to Plymouth fairly regularly and didn't know (some may call it complacent). At the very least I would expect the website to tell me if I but a ticket to a request shop (like Rail Enquiries) or announcements on the train.

I only have a couple of reqest stops but I'd always make sure that I put out an announcement immediately after leaving the preceding station to let people know and then inform the driver accordingly.

The Cotswold Line request stops stopped being marked as such in the timetable a couple of years back, after, I think, the Saturday calls at the halts (except Shipton) were scrapped. In my experience, Saturday was the only time of the week that trains didn't stop as a matter of course. The morning and evening peak weekday halts services always stopped everywhere, at least as far back as 2001 when I started commuting on the route, whatever the published timetable said.

How much time is put into the diagram for request stops?  If a train stops at all request stops does it end up being late? (which would look bad for the stats), or is it a question of there being enough time in the diagram to stop at all the request stops if need be and the train making up slack at the next scheduled stop if the request stops aren't used?  Or is it that request stops are dealt with more quickly because not all door are opened?

The policy on FGW 'West' as far as I am aware is that if the conductor is unable to carry out a full check of tickets of passengers boarding at station's previous to the request stop(s) then the train will always stop at the request stop(s). This might be the case on a heavily loaded train.

There is a tendency at places like Bath for passengers to ask the driver for the request stop at Avoncliff, if I am the driver of the train involved then the passengers are always directed to inform the conductor as well. Bath is several miles and quite a few signals back from Avoncliff.

The 'West' trains are timed to allow them to stop at all request stops. There is therefore a neccessity for the driver to regulate the speed of the train to ensure it does not approach a request stop before the advertised time.

On 'West' services, all the doors on the unit are released at request stops except at stations where the train is 'over length' for the platform. The sole exception being Newton St Cyres (Barnstaple branch). Selective Door Release is not fitted to any vehicles in the FGW 'West' fleet.

Thanks for the info.  If there is time to stop at all request stops why not just stop the train everytime?  Is it just a case of saving fuel and break-blocks?

it also allows recovery time when running a little late.

Not strictly on topic of 'request stops', but the last time I travelled on a train to Melksham, the guard did a full ticket check from Chippenham.  He made a point of telling all those with Melksham tickets: "You'll have to be up at the front of the train, if you want to get off at Melksham - that's the only door I'll be opening!"  ;D

Need to get off at Bere Ferrers tomorrow and without this topic wouldn't have bothered to advise the train manager assuming the train would stop - so grateful for the info. Many Thanks.

On the Barnstaple line, the services with many requests cannot infact stop at them all and keep time.
The Sprinter Meister only goes there once in a blue moon on a fast service ;) but it is true that you have to tiddle along if no requests mean you are in danger of running early

What do you do if you want to get ON at a request stop?

From FGW timetables: '....passenger must give an appropriate hand signal to the driver'.

I'll leave you to decide what an 'appropriate hand signal' is. ;D

Well, we have a whole previous topic devoted to this subject, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4744.0

C.  ;)

Works for buses but a train tends to be a tad faster and heavier than a bus... it seems that if it is close enough for a stop request to be seen, it's likely that it's already too late to stop unless it's going so slow as it might as well make a scheduled stop anyway.

How about equipping the platform with a big "Stop Request" button that links to a signal up the line?

There should be no need for that, Cruithne3753, as the requirement is for train drivers to approach 'request stop' stations at such a speed that they can stop if required - so not much faster than a bus, actually?

Boys on the job again........ ;D ;D

Even the first up Barnstaple (all shacks) is a doddle to keep time on, provided of course the booked unit with full sand hoppers is on the diagram, bearing in mind the time of year.

Judging by recent experiences, if the booked unit is not on that service it invariably runs late thereby missing the usual connections at St Davids.

If the first up Barnstaple train is Pacer or class 153 operated, the drivers will obviously exercise extreme care in terms of stopping it at the request stops and the passing loop / TEP at Eggesford. Much much easier to explain a small loss of time than a station overrun, which will in any case generate a far greater loss of time. I have already spoken to someone this week regarding the location of the TGA's at each end of Eggesford Loop.

TGA's? Not on this list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGA) as far as I can see ;D

TEP - TriEthyl Phosphate.
TGA - Tandy Graphics Adaptor.

Chemical spillage and old computers at Eggesford?   I think not - can someone enlighten. please?

TEP => Train Exxxxx Points I suspect - sprung points

Train Entry Points I suspect, probably something to do with the key operated signalling on the platform, will dig out a photo of the internals next time I switch the old computer on.

A quick Google suggests Traction Gel Application equipment:

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:sdOFA82tD1MJ:www.portecrail.com/pdf/Misc/Trees%2520vs%2520Trains%2520%2520IRJ%25201-09.pdf+tga+railway&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjQ3Sa8M3BwGht-LikCfPZAwHjrbBLHCzZUy54-oWSLhqvIvWf914VznjJVAJw7vPnxs-ju4v_Br3ph2yYYUWTJTPGV6vlTSCumHrvZE5gRs2c5pcOCQfc2xVf7pwwgXBHfaH1T&sig=AFQjCNFoUUjFVpZ_Cl7ZItFrnU9nO_M6kA (http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:sdOFA82tD1MJ:www.portecrail.com/pdf/Misc/Trees%2520vs%2520Trains%2520%2520IRJ%25201-09.pdf+tga+railway&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjQ3Sa8M3BwGht-LikCfPZAwHjrbBLHCzZUy54-oWSLhqvIvWf914VznjJVAJw7vPnxs-ju4v_Br3ph2yYYUWTJTPGV6vlTSCumHrvZE5gRs2c5pcOCQfc2xVf7pwwgXBHfaH1T&sig=AFQjCNFoUUjFVpZ_Cl7ZItFrnU9nO_M6kA)

Ah, yes: 'winterisation' equipment!  ;) :D ;D

I like the idea of TGA at Eggesford referring to 'Transient Global Amnesia'

"A person in a state of TGA exhibits no other signs of impaired cognitive functioning but recalls only the last few moments of consciousness plus deeply-encoded facts of the individual^s past, such as his or her own name"

Have felt like once or twice when stuck on a train going nowhere fast..... ;D

TEP in my neck of the woods means Token Exchange Point, though not my neck of the woods for much longer, moving lock, stock and smoking barrels to Bournemouth this afternoon!

Which is the correct answer!  ;D

Was in a bit of a hurry when I typed that out the other day...

Barny line is missing signals of the colour variety... and also how many little darlings/sh*ts would mess around pressing the request stop button then run off?

Get them installed at Teignnouth/Torre/Torquay immediately  ;D