Hayes & Harlington - poor CIS due to Crossrail

[whole diary]

[Surrey 455]

Interesting. I don't plan to create a departure board myself, I was just curious about some of the specs. Sorry if the wording of my last post suggested otherwise.

[stuving]

The services look real ... lots of buses rather than trains this evening ;-)

Of course they are - just not usable if you are looking for SWT^▸ (South West Trains) services! I thought the long magic string in the URL was a way of restricting it to that example. But no - that URL is usable with (I think) any station's CRS code in it.

Oddly, while it looks very like one of the Tiger screens, there are differences. The order of trains is one (either nominal or expected departure); and I saw a cancelled train held on the NRE^‡(resolve) one for several minutes after its due time, but deleted at that time on Tiger.
... no, hold on, that's partly because Tiger is showing arrivals too, despite being headed departures.

[BBM]

I've found this link which lists only GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) stations:

http://iris2.rail.co.uk/tiger/gwr.html

(and then I noticed the 'Train Operators' drop-down menu which also allows you to select individual operators)

[stuving]

Interesting. I don't plan to create a departure board myself, I was just curious about some of the specs. Sorry if the wording of my last post suggested otherwise.

But these are all formatted boards viewable on a browser (Darwin Webservice would be a cook-it-yourself alternative). I'm sure I've seen the service station calls text on a staion screen somewhere - though I can't remember where.

What I did imagine,though was that the question was specifically about SWT^▸ (South West Trains) stations. My apologies far any confusion that led to. Though given the limited choice on Tiger, it is a valid question.

[grahame]

CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) for any national rail station is available at National Rail (!) ... for example http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/ldbboard/dep/SAL for Salisbury.    The format isn't exactly artistic, the information supplied is fairly basic (though you can click through for details).

Note that they claim copyright for ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) (of train departure times?) (but ATOC doesn't exist any more?) to the extent that I'm not allowed to even capture a screen and show you. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/46381.aspx

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[Surrey 455]

I was at Hayes and Harlington Station a few hours ago to get the 2151 to Paddington. Wandering on to Platform 4 from Station Approach I looked around to see how I was doing for time. The only screen I could see was to the left, about 30-60 seconds walk away, totally illegible from where I was. Remembering CJB666's original post I backtracked the way I came in to see if I had missed a screen anywhere. I had not. Going back onto the platform I became aware of shouting from the opposite platform. The friends of a woman near me were yelling at her to get over the footbridge because the train was pulling in on platform 2 instead. We both had to run over the footbridge to catch this train.

I think the entrance to platform 4 from the road bridge is still open so there would be departure screens upstairs showing the correct platforms but there are no screens from the Station approach entrance. I was lucky to catch that train tonight.



Edited the train time from 2251 to the correct time of 2151

[CJB666]

I was at Hayes and Harlington Station a few hours ago to get the 2251 to Paddington. Wandering on to Platform 4 from Station Approach I looked around to see how I was doing for time. The only screen I could see was to the left, about 30-60 seconds walk away, totally illegible from where I was. Remembering CJB666's original post I backtracked the way I came in to see if I had missed a screen anywhere. I had not. Going back onto the platform I became aware of shouting from the opposite platform. The friends of a woman near me were yelling at her to get over the footbridge because the train was pulling in on platform 2 instead. We both had to run over the footbridge to catch this train.

I think the entrance to platform 4 from the road bridge is still open so there would be departure screens upstairs showing the correct platforms but there are no screens from the Station approach entrance. I was lucky to catch that train tonight.

Your situation is PRECISELY why GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - are you listening GM Mark Hopwood? - needs to have working and reliable CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) systems at the station.

Over this weekend trains have been using both platform 2 and 4 for Paddington - YET THERE HAS BEEN NO SIGN NOR SYSTEMS AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO PLATFORM 4 TELLING PASSENGERS THAT.

You would also have seen the large permanent NR^» (Network Rail - home page) / GWR signs clearly stating that London trains depart from platform 4 and Reading / Oxfords from platform 3 - and as you found out these signs can be wrong. This weekend 1, 2, 4 were in use and 3 was not. Why were these signs not covered up?

And as you also found out there are no staff on duty at that time of night. Actually you are damned lucky that the driver waited for you to run over the bridge. Many drivers do not wait especially on the Connects. Perhaps you also found out that it is quicker to run across the tracks than to use the bridge; especially to get to platform 1 where there is no direct bridge anyway.

The situation about unreliable CIS and misleading notices has actually been the norm for over a year - ever since they demolished the main buildings; but actually even before that.

I have tried to raise the present situation as a case with Network Rail - they closed it saying 'not our issue.'
 
I have tried to raise a case with Crossrail - many times - they responded by saying that they would pass the issue on to GWR - nothing more was heard.

I have tried - many, many times - to raise the case with GWR including emails to GM Mark Hopwood. Nothing was ever heard back.

However I am now alerting the national and international railway press and on social media as to Great Western Railway's total lack of professionalism in creating a situation when intending passengers might have to run across live tracks in order to catch their trains.

[Surrey 455]

You would also have seen the large permanent NR^» (Network Rail - home page) / GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) signs clearly stating that London trains depart from platform 4 and Reading / Oxfords from platform 3 - and as you found out these signs can be wrong. This weekend 1, 2, 4 were in use and 3 was not. Why were these signs not covered up?

No I didn't see them, I used to use Hayes station a lot a few years ago so I knew which platform to go to (or so I thought).

Actually you are damned lucky that the driver waited for you to run over the bridge. Many drivers do not wait especially on the Connects.

Fortunately the train was still on its approach, pulling in as I came off the bridge.

[John R]

However I am now alerting the national and international railway press and on social media as to Great Western Railway's total lack of professionalism in creating a situation when intending passengers might have to run across live tracks in order to catch their trains.

Good luck with attracting their interest then. Are you seriously suggesting that people might resort to running across the tracks?

[rogerw]

Perhaps this matter should be drawn to the attention of London TravelWatch as it is within the area they cover

[ChrisB]

Yup, they may well be interested, I reckon

[CJB666]

Perhaps this matter should be drawn to the attention of London TravelWatch as it is within the area they cover

Has been done.

[ChrisB]

and their response?

[CJB666]

Excellent CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) over the weekend - not. ALL 5 platforms had signs stating "No services from this platform."

Station staff - were there any on duty? - failed to make announcements as to which platforms were being used. There were no notices displayed anywhere. Pax assumed rightly during the day that these were 3 and 4.

However in the late evenings services usually switch to platforms 1 and 2. But failing notices and the presence of staff no-one knew this.

Chaos and a complete disregard towards passengers - all weekend.