Great Western Coffee Shop

Traveled to / from Waterloo yesterday.  Noticed some minor changes in procedures at stations. Now the guards release the doors to open immediately upon arrival. Previously guards would detrain, look up and down the station platform, admire the scenery, have a chat, then release the doors.

And for departures platform dispatch staff - in their new shiny pinny-tabards - flag away trains a good minute early, sometimes 90 seconds. This is highly irritating for pax trying to board thinking that they still have at least a minute left to get on; but then get whistles blown at them. I can see trapped clothing - like for GWR - becoming an issue.

Some things remain the same. No attempt to make announcements as to destinations. No attempts to make announcements as to scum who put their feet on the seats. No announcements as to where the guard actually is on the train. No visibility - aka train walk-throughs. No ticket checks. Etc., etc.

And delays, delays, delays - what else.

Those who travel on FGW will recognise the culture - welcome to SWR.

Very interesting first view - thank you for sharing.

Early days - how big is your sample?   Did you notice the prompter door openings just on the train you were catching in, or did you watch a series of trains?   Similarly, was everything headed out 90 seconds early, or just your train?   The data is valuable "qualitative" in any case - just wonder if it's single incidents or systemic.

Because of the Waterloo works, the formal SWR launch isn't happening until Monday - it was described as a "soft" start; we may see announcements / comment made from a new director level at that launch, perhaps reports here.  The operational staff and managers have been TUPEd (transferred) over - "just" the top level changes, but of course directors direct, and changes will percolate through to operations.   I would expect to see a possible change in sentiment from the team running the trains quickly (depending on how happy they are with the new versus the old), and a more gradual change on things like procedures / ticket check policy, etc.

Trains leaving 90 seconds early? Normally 90 seconds late or more in my experience.
There's normally an automated announcement as the train leaves as to where the train is going and where it calls. The guard will often repeat this and say he is located in coach X and on the platform at each station.

Agree about delays due to signal problems though. That has got worse over the last few months.

GWR always say the doors will close 40 seconds (?) before departure in order that the train can leave on time.  What do SWR say?

I've said it before (but not in this thread!) that published public transport times should be the time at which final boarding gate is closed, and not some internal operational time like when the thing actually starts to move.  For train, the "boarding gate" is barriers closing or train joining at an open station.

I suspect I might be taking a minority view here!

Going off on a slight tangent, we've all met people in life who are routinely late. I have never fathomed the reason. Maybe they are bad at estimating how much time to leave, maybe they just don't care, maybe they are disorganised... who knows?

I like the way public transport is less forgiving than people (i.e. it will leave them behind, then they can waste their time waiting for the next service instead of someone else's due to their tardiness).

I used to visit a dentist who nearly always saw me approximately 20 minutes after my appointment time and would prefix the conversation with "sorry I am running late today". I'd do the British thing and say "don't worry about it", really what I should have said was "why are you running late", but perhaps that is seen as not being polite. I now go to another dentist who is punctual.

...not to mention that person's ability to inflict acute pain thereafter :)

Not actually a "new" procedure.   Guards were given this option of opening the doors without an external check - if they were already sure of the train's position - nearly two years ago, shortly after the ASDO system was fully rolled out on the 458, 444, and 450 fleets.

Paul

Normally start the close procedure at 30 secs - that is on the posters at most stations.   However at Waterloo they changed to 45 secs a few months back.   Nothing to do with the new franchise either.

Paul

As Reggie Perrin wrote:


After the following series of events

Trip out to Salisbury via Basingstoke. Announcement that doors will be shut 30 seconds before departure, I thought it used to be 40 seconds (or am I brain-washed by GWR). Punctuality not wonderful, more late than early.
On the leg from Romsey to Salisbury (I had cycled from Andover to Romsey) I thought the information display on Romsey station said it was a GWR train, when the stopping service to Salisbury is actually SWR (maybe the eyesight is going as well!).

The PIS display wording on SWT stations was apparently changed  overnight on 20th August from "South West Trains" written in full to the abbreviation "SWR".  Perhaps that's what you saw, but of course Romsey is operated by GWR anyway, so they might not have done the change on the exact same day.

Paul

Oh dear; do SWR services call at any stations with the text-to-speech version of the passenger information displays? I ask because I've heard at one station that the text-to-speech doesn't (or didn't) handle GWR well. At stations where the announcments are a recorded person, they say 'the xx:xx Great Western Railway service to B, but the text-to-speech said "this service is operated by GWR service". Notice that the word 'service' appears twice in that sentence in a way which implies that the Train Operating Company is called 'GWR service'.

Try boarding a plane at time of departure.....

Rightly in a minority, too. Passengers are an inconvenient necessity who essentially just get in the way of running trains. Any conception they may have of 'common sense' should be treated with disdain if it in any way conflicts with the smooth operation of the railway. Ideally, passengers should take compulsory training and only be allowed to travel once they have been examined and proven themselves suitable.

Try telling late boarding BUS passengers that!
They generally say "That's lucky I managed to catch you".  "No, you were late boarding, I should have departed earlier. Oh look, another later passenger running for this (even later now) bus"  ::)

...and that person is the first step to achieving 3* buses in a row and making every other person on the bus later and every subsequent intending passenger later as the effect snowballs.

*service frequency dependent, could be more, could be less, but the principle has been proven.

The "rule" for buses - at least as done at Swindon and Bath bus stations - seems to be that provided you're on / in the queue by the published time, you'll get on (capacity allowing).  Not a bad way to provide a public service - telling the public the time they need to be there.    I've no objection to "typically the bus will pull away a minute or two later, once departure procedures are completed".

And why not extend that to trains - the 18:03 PAD -> PNZ moving to an advertised time of 18:00 but pulling away once everyone had gotten on - and perhaps fewer people jumping on at the barrier end and walking through.   "typically the train will pull away a couple of minutes later".