Great Western Coffee Shop

Just discovered that the NRE website (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/) has had a makeover. Looks quite nice; a bit 'cleaner' and more 'user-friendly' than the old site.

Presently the front page has yet to change but all the subpages have been updated, or are in the process of updating.

One small point though. Wouldn't it be better to have a digital 24 hour clock in the top right rather than an analogue one with roman numerals?

Er, yuck. I think it's much too cluttered. The online departure board is a confusing mish-mash of fonts, some of which are very old fashioned. The home page has been done now, and it's not clear how you navigate to several places, such as the OLDB.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

That must have happened this afternoon - it was the old version around lunchtime.

Mid afternoon - I was having a quick check of Axminster performance today.  Unfortunately live departure boards doesn't seem to work yet. About the only thing I regularly use... :(

Paul

What an UNTESTED application.

Yeah, the departures board is one of the few things I use regularly and if you try and get to it at the moment it just takes you back to the screen you were already on.. The live departure/arrivals still work on FGW website though should you need them..

Was running fairly well at 1500, the last ever departure to Plymouth was only 2/3 mins late

They appear to have reverted to the old live Arrivals/Departures board for now.

For a site that is operated by ATOC which is paid for by Train Operating Companies the amount of Ads is mental, it shouldn't have any ads at all.

I agree. It's supposed to be a public service, but in the latest incarnation the ads swamp the information.

I can't say i've noticed any ads, however upon reflection Firefox blocks them!

Usually at least 3 on the page at any time.

i've never used NRE live departures - I hate the format - always used FGW format and subbed the station code for the one I was interested in!

http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/fgw/summary.aspx?T=WOS&x=19&y=6

Replace WOS with whatever station you want! Even if out of FGW area.

However I just went to look what train I need to get the 1357 W&S fro shrews tomorrow and the new interface is horrid!

It also does not render properly in Safari 4.0.4 - bad NRE ignoring mac users

And - you specify stations, tomorrows date, firt train but do not remove the default time and it cant find a train

Apparently there are no first trains of the day from ludlow to shrewsbury

And, if your session times out, even if you kill the browswer and open up again, it tells you that your session has expired

There is no way now for me to look for train times.

Your browser is a lifestyle choice. If you want to use that, it's your choice, and your problem. Not...

Sorry, got a bit carried away there.:P  Anyway, your problem is easily solved: http://www.getfirefox.net/ (http://www.getfirefox.net/)

FallenAngel - do you really think it's necessary to make four consecutive posts and quote yourself on all four occasions? Talk about filling up the thread unnecessarily!

The quotes are probably unecesarry however it was an ongoing journey of discovery - in terms of what is now broken

I think what II is getting at is as nobody had posted after you, you could have just edited your original post.

I could yes- but I'm lazy - so much easier to hit quote!

Point taken though - won't do it again

OK, thank you.

Safari is the best browser, I don't want to switch to Firefox!

Can we get back somewhere near the original topic please ladies and gentlemen - I'm sure there are a million other places on the interweb to argue over the relative merits of Firefox/Safari/Opera/whatever else.

Consider yourselves moderated  :)

Oh, and Btline, how did I just know that you were a Mac user...  ;)

Don't like the messy fonts. As I mostly use NRE site to find about Service Disruptions it isn't  too difficult (maybe 'cause currently there aren't any, other than replacement buses). Engineering work list seems easier to navigate though. With only a quick look Safari seemed to work just as well as Firefox (not stating preferences here, only comment!!)
Glad they haven't altered the much more useful iPhone App that provides departure (and arrival) boards and is much more handy when you are on the journey (though rather slow without 3G).

Or a clock that showed the same time in different browsers!

(http://ndrailusers.wikispaces.com/file/view/nres_clock.png/109184143/nres_clock.png)

There are other problems:

• Pop-up explanations get in the way of the button one is trying to click
• The reformatting of the fares information makes it harder to see what is available
• You have to beware that it doesn't show off-peak outward fares if you happen to be looking at a selection of return times that are all peak
• It still doesn't differentiate between off-peak and super-off-peak
• If (say when viewing single fares) you ask for more fares, it will display return fares also - but it doesn't tell you that they are return fares
• Under certain circumstances, it will let you select a day return fare, even though you have specified a return train the following day. Sometimes, it will not let you do this, but comes up with the error message "An outward and return journey must be selected from the same line" which doesn't seem to reflect the layout of the page.(To try this, do GMV to BRI, outward 10:45 and return try different search starts such as 17:00 onwards)

Hope I've not made any booboos in the above. ???

Well...for what it's worth, I like it...love the St Pancras sweep hand clock...and it's a faster site... 8)

And I am nothing to do with NR nor the software co, in case you wonder...retired bod

Re first tains for fallen angels I'vve just looked up trins from Ludlow to Shrewsbury for next Sunday by putting in 05:00 as start time.

First train 10:08.

Train to connect with W&S Ludlow 12:09 Shrewsbury 12:43

You could try the 13:27 but that gets to Shrewsbury at 13:47 which I would have thought is a bit tight, given the Severn Bridge signalmen give precedent to "proper trains"  .

^9.60 anytime single and ^11.90 Off peak (is off peak always a return fare?)

I've had to start checking the Maidenhead departures board again before heading out to work this week (after one very late arrival at work and one day where I didn't make it to work at all) like I used to have to do in the dark days when FGW first took over..

So I've noticed that every morning the 9.06 to Oxford is showing as 2 minutes late even now (before 8am) when it doesn't leave Paddington until 8.27..

Does anyone know why? I can only think that either there is a bug in the departure board system, or in fact it's very clever and knows that the train is late more often than not and therefore assumes it will be.. I'm assuming it's a bug though.. ;D

It happens quite a lot.  Not sure if it's something to do with silly discrepancies between 'working' times and 'public' times.  Chiltern's trains seem particularly bad for it.

marvellous.. Either the system hasn't been tested very well or they've decided they like to show potentially incorrect information  >:(

As Industry Insider says its WTT (working time table [essentially the staff timetable which is followed]) and PTT (public timetable [the one that appears in timetable literature]) and they are different on this train.

As NRE runs off TRUST (a railway computer system) it uses the WTT times for its expected times, however the displayed times (not expected) are the Public ones.

Very odd indeed!

Chiltern have had a very large notice on their website homepage for the past couple of days blaming database errors (altered today to "Network Rail system problem") and telling people to check their alterations page for correct times.