December 11-May 12 Timetables available online

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

In the case of SWT^▸ (South West Trains) through to the following December. They are not the only TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) producing timetables for the whole year which makes sense where it is possible to do this.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=5333

SWT http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/pocket-timetablesOY.aspx

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/Tickets_and_timetables/Train_timetables.aspx

[phile]

Just picked an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) at random and shown until 12 May 2012 not December 2012

[Timmer]

Just picked an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) at random and shown until 12 May 2012 not December 2012

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) timetables run through to December 2012. FGW until May.

[paul7575]

Odd that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have gone back to only two timetables for the long distance services again, it means for instance that for Reading to Brum services you need both booklets?   

Paul

[SandTEngineer]

I think they need to get a new proof reader or else there is a new service from St.Erth via Penryn to Plymouth not calling at Truro

[JayMac]

Not unusually, it appears that proof reading has been non-existent. Same thing twice a year. 

The Severn Beach Line timetable Sundays has the stations the wrong way round for the times out of Bristol.

[Brucey]

So if the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) timetables are valid for a year, are the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) and SN times shown within the SWT timetables also valid for the whole year?

[paul7575]

So if the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) timetables are valid for a year, are the GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) and SN times shown within the SWT timetables also valid for the whole year?

I'm fairly sure the original Network Rail announcement was that all 2012 timetables would run for 12 months - it was about the time they announced that special games advance fares would be available a year in advance.  Perhaps someone in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) has just accidentally carried on the normal printing routine - the theoretical change date will have been known for some years as normal...

OTOH^▸ ('on the other hand') it may just be that something more subtle is going on, such as nothing can actually be changed, but summer only services that are  already confirmed now can be left out of the winter version, and added in May?

Paul

[Timmer]

OTOH^▸ ('on the other hand') it may just be that something more subtle is going on, such as nothing can actually be changed, but summer only services that are  already confirmed now can be left out of the winter version, and added in May?

Paul

Interesting one this as May 13th is a Sunday not a Saturday when the timetable usually finishes. You have Southeastern saying their timetables run until May 19th which is in line with the schedule posted on the Network Rail website saying the summer timetable starts on May 20th but then goes onto to state that on this occasion the printed version of the 'summer' timetable will show this as Monday May 14th!
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=30064778309

Either it starts on Monday May 14th or Sunday May 20th. Make up your mind Network Rail. Which is it to be?

And just to throw this in for good measure...East Coast has their timetable running until June 24th. So we have different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) appearing to end their timetables at different times throughout the year but the actual content probably changing very little from the start of this December's timetable. I very much suspect Barry Doe with have a good rant about this in the coming days. Only on the railways could something like this happen.

PS Just discovered Southern show on their timetables running until May 18th! Crazy.

[SandTEngineer]

!

[Timmer]

The timetable timetable can be found here : http://www.networkrail.co.uk/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=30064778309

Yeah it was a shame that once again Network Rail have failed to post the new complete timetable onto their website one month out. I believe this happened last year or the year before. All the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) websites that I have checked all have their timetables posted on their websites apart from ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) which when I last checked had some timetables missing hence me not posting a link for them at the start of this thread. So if they can manage it why can't the publishers of the railway timetable?

[TheLastMinute]

Not unusually, it appears that proof reading has been non-existent. Same thing twice a year. 

The Severn Beach Line timetable Sundays has the stations the wrong way round for the times out of Bristol.

Worse on the Cardiff/Bristol to Weston-s-Mare/Exeter timetable, all stations in the Bristol to Exeter direction are the wrong way, i.e. they are listed from Exeter to Bristol throughout the whole timetable. Either that or FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are starting services at Patchway and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are running a service non-stop from Patchway to Yatton and then Bridgewater then on to Edinburgh.

Not good that they could release something that wrong!

TLM

[Timmer]

Worse on the Cardiff/Bristol to Weston-s-Mare/Exeter timetable, all stations in the Bristol to Exeter direction are the wrong way, i.e. they are listed from Exeter to Bristol throughout the whole timetable. Either that or FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are starting services at Patchway and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are running a service non-stop from Patchway to Yatton and then Bridgewater then on to Edinburgh.

Not good that they could release something that wrong!

TLM

If FGW reads the above observations, I would like to think that someone there would take some time over the next few days to go through the list of timetables to check for errors like those that have been highlighted. Because they are now publishing on the website the versions that became available back in May for those with smartphones rather than pdfs of the printed versions, they should be fairly easy to fix.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hopefully, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will read these observations and comments: I've drawn the attention of certain senior people there to them. 

[rogerpatenall]

I've just spent 15 minutes comparing the post December service at Castle cary in the three timetables, and I have a long list of anomalies. In my ignorance I thought the timetable 'books' were compiled from the same data base, so that an obvious mistake or omission would appear throughout, but that is obviously not the situation.