Help Points - not much of a help, apparently?

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Emergency help points at 22 unstaffed railway stations in West and South Yorkshire are not working, a BBC investigation has found. 
The help points are designed to connect people to the police if they are in trouble but 22 out of the 36 tested by Look North did not work.
A similar number of points failed to work 12 months ago, when Northern Rail pledged to fix the problem.
The company apologised and said there had been a problem with its suppliers.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7889483.stm

We don't have help points at Nailsea.  However, I wonder if the experience of those using FGW^▸ (First Great Western) stations where they are installed reflects this rather alarming experience in the North?

[Btline]

At least the stations in the VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchises) have them

Hartlebury station, in Worcestershire (unstaffed, derelict etc.) has a LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) Information Poster which clearly states that "Customer Help Points are located on both platforms."

However, no such systems have ever been in place.

IMO^▸ (in my opinion) that is worse than having a broken system....

[Ollie]

I personally am not aware of any issues with the help points across the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Excellent, Ollie - that's what I rather hoped would be the answer! 

It's difficult for me to form a view, though, as I don't have personal experience of relying on them - but I know they do at Parson Street, Bedminster - and Melksham - just for example!

[grahame]

Excellent, Ollie - that's what I rather hoped would be the answer! 

It's difficult for me to form a view, though, as I don't have personal experience of relying on them - but I know they do at Parson Street, Bedminster - and Melksham - just for example!

Regulars no longer rely on the help point at Melksham. 

It feels like it's been broken more often than it's been in service since First took over; last time I was at the station (last Sunday) the help point was dead - I was on my way to Milton Keynes (went by car - rail journey to MK^▸ (Milton Keynes) will be impractical until East - West reopens  ) and haven't been back to look again since.   I will be there (press / photo shoot this afternoon with some VIPs) and it'll be interesting to see whether it's working or not ... I'll add an update here.

For anyone reading this thread, new to the forum.  Melksham is a Wiltshire town with a population of some 22,000, and that's set to grow to around 30,000 in the next 15 years.   Rail traffic grew (from a very low base) dramatically from 2001 to 2006 - when First took over the operation of the train service and withdrew all peak hour and daytime trains, leaving just round trips from Swindon to Westbury at 06:18 (now 06:15 !) and 18:45.   Although there are requirements for stations to have public phones, a dispensation has been given for Melksham; regulars check on line before setting off from home, carry mobile phones, and have backup plans in case the train lets them down - numbers of other regular users to call for information on whether the train is actually coming, car pooling plans if they have to drive or get a lift ...

I understood that it was a franchise committment that the help points were to be replaced by someting more reliable / more flexible than a recorded message.  Ours are NOT yet the model that's talked about in Yorkshire on which you can do high-tech things like hold a two way conversation.  Was there any time scale on that or is it just "some time in the 10 years if it can't be quietly brushed aside"?

[eightf48544]

I personally am not aware of any issues with the help points across the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area.

Taplow's have not worked properly for years. Unless they have been repaired in teh last week.

Ours appeared in Private Eye so we're one up on the rest.

Apparently they are only for train information, and that's from someone "Up North", not FGW so it's second hand inforatmion from what FGW tell them.

More importantly they cannot put you through easily to the emergency services if there is a serious incident on the station. Unlike the TFL^▸ (Transport for London) one which have two buttons one for information and a red one for emergency.

[bemmy]

The help point at Parson St has always worked when I've tried it, it's been very useful to me. One time it didn't explain what had happened to a train that disappeared (turned out it was missing us out to regain lost time) but at least it started correctly telling me the next train wasn't for an hour. Last time I tried the one at Stapleton Rd it was broken for months but i think that was a couple of years ago now.

They get broken easily, but they're still a vast improvement on no information at all, which is what we had previously at small stations throughout my lifetime.

[inspector_blakey]

Last time I travelled up the Cotswold line (admittedly some months ago) all the help points had stickers across them declaring them out of use. At least the majority of those stations have an automated PA^▸ (Public Address) though which give you some idea of when trains are going to turn up.

The only time I actually used one of the "press button and talk to someone" help points was at Newbury Racecourse. It worked fine, except that the person answering the call said that there were no trains for the next 45 minutes. As she was telling me this an up-Exeter HST^▸ (High Speed Train) pulled in and picked us all up, which was a nice surprise given that I was expecting an all-stations Turbo to Reading.

[grahame]

I will be there (press / photo shoot this afternoon with some VIPs) and it'll be interesting to see whether it's working or not ... I'll add an update here.

Nope ... it wasn't working at half past three this afternoon 

[Ollie]

Help Points are meant to be gradually being re done anyway, so where some are still running the old system they are prone to failure, and just seem very temperamental, which is obviously annoying.

[grahame]

.... Ours are NOT yet the model that's talked about in Yorkshire on which you can do high-tech things like hold a two way conversation.  Was there any time scale on that ..... ?

Answering my own question .... from November 2007 ...

http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4661.0

Q) When will the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) unstaffed stations including ones in the Bristol area receive information screens & two-way communication (which do not depend on traveller's mobile phones)?

AG) All stations will get a 'Help and Information Point', with push-button contact to a human operator, within the next year or so.  Severn Beach line sooner than that, of course.   

[tramway]

Filton's have always been a bit hit or miss, if not working then they are general about 12 hours adrift.

When pressed at 5pm you will get 'the next train to arrive at platform X will be be the 07xx' etc etc.

[thetrout]

The one on the car park side in Bruton works normally. but that only tells you when the Trains are due and if they are delayed. The help point on the Down Line to Castle Cary is a little tempermental