Great Western Coffee Shop

Pinching from Graham's collection (top right hand corner)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tr_117.jpg)

This suggests 7% of people are unhappy with being ontime! You just can't win with some people

Have you ever arrived slightly late at a station (perhaps on a slightly delayed incoming service) and seen your connection pulling out on time?  :-\

Very sore point after last Sunday's debacle at Westbury - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20086.0 (Frequent Poster board - available only to logged in members over a certain posting threshold).  Around 30 people dumped without another train to Weymouth scheduled for a number of hours.

Last Sunday I was glad of seeing a late runner at Exeter St David’s. Turned my 45 minute connection into a 2 minute connection. The service I ended up on was timetabled a  22 minutes before my incoming service from Axminster was due to arrive.

The day after Graham's missed connection I made an unadvertised one at Westbury thanks to late running.  Made for an hour earlier arrival at my destination.  (Also meant I had a three car train instead of a two.)

In response to Grahame-

"Have you ever arrived slightly late at a station (perhaps on a slightly delayed incoming service) and seen your connection pulling out on time? "

My answer is - yes - often more two or three times a week! See my first post on timetables. Matters are made worse by the "we will lock doors 40 seconds before departure" policy. Even at my  advanced age, I can cover quite a bit of platform/overbridge/stair length at Reading in 40 seconds. If however I am delayed by a late incoming train, and arrive beside a departing train with doors already closed, or moving off the end of the platform and it's till 10 seconds before the advertised departure time, it does not add anything to my regard for those who run our railways.

Surely the advertised departure time should be the doors closed time, so that passengers who arrive on the dot can catch rather than miss a train?  The policy seems to be applied inconsistently in any event, and I am just as likely to rush to a train, sit on it as the clock ticks past the advertised time and wait until it finally pulls out 2 or 3 minutes later. At least let's get rid of the earlier door locking time, please - it cannot make any material difference to  the TOC's ability to run trains on time, and is a "poke in the eye" for the passenger who misses their connection because an incoming train run by the same TOC is late.

This seems a sensible suggestion. After all, from the passenger's viewpoint, what matters is when they can get on the train and when it is due to arrive at where they want to go. If it actually then leaves 40 seconds after the advertised leaving time, it isn't going to be a great concern.

And to add to what others have said, at my local station (Oldfield Park) for many years I just got into the mindset of assuming all trains arrived late, because for the journeys I made, they all did. So when one actually does arrive on time and it is the one occasion you are a few seconds late, yes, you can be annoyed!

It is a hugely sensible suggestion.  But one that has not curried favour when I have advocated it here in the past.

I still fail to see why an internal operational time (when the wheels start to turn) is the thing that's in the public timetable. The public - including those who are making a very occasional or first journey - are required to factor in an extra allowance that they might not know about.   Mind you, the exactly the same thing happens with boats and  planes - and to a far greater extent.

There's a human psyche, I suppose, that's re-assured by the first movement away from the platform / dock / gate as the second hand moves past the minute. An on-time departure against a published datum makes us feel comfortable.

I still find it astonishing that anyone would attempt to defend anything quite so absurd. The first time most people get to know about the '40 second' policy is when they get caught out by it. Of course there may be people who study every rule and nuance before engaging with the rail industry, but for the rest of us we expect it to broadly follow the same rules as a reasonable organisation might.

Of course, before the advent of central door locking, quite a few passengers boarded a train several seconds after it had actually departed.  In a few cases it was the last thing they ever did.

A fair few also got injured on the platform when doors were opened on incoming trains by those wanting to gain a few extra seconds.

I've heard it said that in the days of slam-door stock, the morning peak arrivals into Waterloo were always empty by the time the wheels stopped turning.

That was certainly the case at Holborn Viaduct platforms 1 and 4 where the 8 coach trains had to creep up to the buffers to clear the points and track to let the other platform be used!    Ah - such memories!

..and it almost happened to me again this morning! As I hastened towards Platform 5 at Reading for my Guildford train, a whistle was blown with 42 seconds to go. Fortunately a sympathetic guard ushered me in via the door on the end driving compartment - a courtesy that is sometimes shown on this platform, never it seems in the evening on returning Thames Valley trains.

As a result of comments above, I did check the pocket timetables for both legs of my route and the GWR website - nothing in any of them about the 40 second rule! I have also checked the National Rail Conditions of Carriage -which provide-

 "The key responsibilities of Train Companies (‘we’) are:
• Prior to departure and during your journey, we will make available information that will
help you to plan and successfully complete your journey on the National Rail Network. This
will wherever possible be done in a way in which people with sight and/or hearing
difficulties can understand."

Do a few badly sited scruffy posters discharge this responsibility?

There's nothing about any departures before the advertised time.

How' this ...


On the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) reported by  Ian visits (https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/07/23/private-tourist-trains-coming-to-the-dlr/)