The nightmare of current information

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Despite the title, I'm going to start by saying that in general First have done an excellent join in my part of the network in providing copious signage to alert and inform people about changes during the Bath engineering works.

But

1. Why are the full timetable sheets (A to Z, line schedules, etc) still in place and in prominent places listing "May to December 2015" departures and without a sufficiently bold alert to double-check / look elsewhere from 18th July to 31st August?

I was struck at Swindon, at Chippenham, and at Melksham yesterday by people apparently checking their current or soon journey on these sheets.  At Melksham, I took it upon myself to approach the couple and alert them to look at the times on one of the boards on the platform, but I was told in no uncertain terms that the changes didn't effect this line / station.   

2. Trowbridge has it much better / staffed at present just about all the time, and with really helpful folks. However, when a customer arrived (off the train from Swindon) headed for Gloucester [Assumed the train in the bay was the Stroud Valley train] it transpired that the industry staff on duty (First Bus and Network Rail) has no access to data beyond timetable sheets and were left guessing and using network knowledge to suggest the best way back - bus to Bath, train to Bristol, train to Gloucester. OR back via Swindon (and then via Parkway or Direct?).  Solution reached was to help customer use own mobile phone.

3. If I wanted (which I did) to get from Chippenham back to Melksham having dropped off the Wizard, what information was to hand?   See (1.) above for the first piece of mis-advise available.  Then there's the Town onward transport information board that has a 234 timetable on it.  No start date that I can recall seeing, but certainly nothing to say "this service will not run after 1st August".  The posters list (for 7 days a week) the departures to Westbury, and there's a Monday to Friday poster too - that latter with a footnote "m" for trains that call at the intermediate station at Melksham.   But it was Saturday ... and nothing easy for yesterday or today (Sunday) to tell me when trains depart for the next station along the line ... (I did find a notice in the ticket hall that was 7 days and had the footnote!)


I'm conscious that my post above is critical without offering suggestions - and I'm aware that the rail industry may be 100% aware of these problems and have it as a calculated decision to have it this way.  But I'm also a aware of posts / questions / suggestions from yesterday about constructive dialogue from passenger groups (such as TransWilts) and with that hat on, my constructive suggestion might be:

a) could a transparent overlay be applied to suspended / amended timetables - "please check other boards - these times are currently amended due to engineering works". Careful wording may save the need for lots of (nightmare) special print runs - and indeed the overlay could be standard issue and even (?) more general for emergency use where a major network outage such as Dawlish or The Levels happens?

b) could an Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) be held by railway staff at key disruption points for them to help when redirecting customers, even if they're not able to sell tickets.   A printed "here is your journey" would be so much more professional than helping the customer use their (the customer's) phone.

c) out of date timetables - a nightmare for all of us; this is one form TransWilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) to take up with the team who looks after the "information about Chippenham" board.

No easy suggestion on getting the information about times to Melksham at hand at Chippenham, except saying "please do everything as 7 day not 5 day".   Turn out that the best way for me home was via Trowbridge having just missed a southbound stopper and the next stopper being northbound - and fortunately my ticketing arrangement yesterday allowed that without the need for an easement which I don't think exists.

[JayMac]

The additional staff at Bristol TM^‡(resolve) are currently handing out 'Bath 2015 - phase 2' timetables that have no weekend services listed at all. The timetable says weekend times are still to be finalised.

We are already well into phase 2 of the work east of Bath, yet, as far as I'm aware, there have been no hard copies of Saturday and Sunday timetables published. Passengers are told to refer to online sources. That's not good enough as far as I'm concerned. If the times are available to upload to industry and public online systems they are available for a print run.

[grahame]

The additional staff at Bristol TM^‡(resolve) are currently handing out 'Bath 2015 - phase 2' timetables that have no weekend services listed at all. ...

We are already well into phase 2 of the work east of Bath, yet, as far as I'm aware, there have been no hard copies of Saturday and Sunday timetables published.

I haven't seen any hard copy timetables for August weekends either.

[bobm]

In addition there is a late change in the weekday printed timetable.

The 06:36 from Swindon to Chippenham departs at 06:22 until Friday 14th August.

[Timmer]

The additional staff at Bristol TM^‡(resolve) are currently handing out 'Bath 2015 - phase 2' timetables that have no weekend services listed at all. The timetable says weekend times are still to be finalised.

Weekend times were available on Real Time Trains back in May so I took 'times still to be finalised' as saying 'we can't be bothered to produce a weekend timetable.' However, I would defend FGW^▸ (First Great Western) that there are variations to each weekend's timetables which would make a weekend timetable a little complicated. BUT they used to produce weekend timetables every weekend for quite a number of years.

Credit that FGW did produce printed timetables for both phases of the work.

[The Tall Controller]

Although I wasn't directly involved in producing timetables for the Bath blockades, I would say that it's certainly not a case of us 'not being bothered' to do a timetable for weekends. It's quite often the case that weekends are subject to late alterations and if we don't have any finalised data to hand at time of going to print, it is better to produce no information at all than information that is incorrect. If we can direct customers to where they can find reliable information then that is the next best solution.

Regarding A-Z timetables, I will feed that information back. As I said earlier, it is important we are displaying the right information or telling people where to find it.

[grahame]

Following on from the thread title ... a further example of where a moment's thought will tell you that there's an inconsistency in information being supplied - presentation of two obviously mutually excluding statements which - surely - a quick software check  (if a == b then it's wrong) could flag up!

[bobm]

It is the same with the automatic announcements.

Last Saturday I was catching the delayed 19:30 from Swindon to Taunton.  It was 19:34 and the auto announcement announced the delay to the Taunton service and suggested that those for Chippenham could instead catch the 19:36 to Westbury via Melksham.

In theory correct.  The TransWilts unit was sitting on Platform 3.

However a look at the signals showed the Taunton had the road and would be going before the TW - as indeed it did, with the TW being held over 10 minutes and then following it.