Great Western Coffee Shop

This evening on my way back home I noticed another example of a pitfall for passengers unfamiliar with the way things are.

The first leg of my journey got me to Reading at 19-14, with (for a change) enough time to enable me to catch the onward 19-19 stopping service to Oxford. Recently these have been conveniently (for those of us arriving at Platforms 4 - 6 on the North Downs line) departing from Platform 3. Tonight though it was 12B, so up onto the overbridge I went.

Now I am aware that there are two trains leaving Reading for Oxford at 19-19, the one I was hoping to catch, and another non-stop. Walking along the overbridge to Platform 12 I glanced up at the small dot matrix sign above me. It is one of those that shows a limited number of trains, typically 6 at a time at most, and moves slowly through a sequence of 2 or 3 "screens" showing trains by destination in time order, alternating with 2 or 3 showing a selection of destinations in alphabetical order. Who has time to wait for the screens to go through the sequence until they find the information they need?

The last line of this screen read - "19-19 - Oxford - Cancelled"

I imagine that most people going for my train would have assumed that it had just been cancelled and given up! I happen to know as a "regular" that there are two trains, and mine would have been additionally described as a local stopping service.

The point of this anecdote is that the train information at Reading is dreadful in most of the areas used by passengers in the "new" part of the station. There are some decent information signs - such as the display above the information desk at Brunel Plaza, and the screens inside the platform waiting rooms. Most however are too small, so often only display about 5 minutes worth of trains at times. Many are poorly sited such as those on platforms 4, 5 and 6 which are smaller and more widely spaced than the ones they replaced and the ones at the western end part hidden by beams. The (poor) display behind the new information booth on the overbridge hides another screen behind - and there are others behind the retail units between the lift shafts. All this at one of the busiest stations on the network, especially for passengers changing trains.

It is not only Reading. On a recent trip to Bristol, the platform departure signs at Temple Meads did not indicate which service was next, and I struggled to find a sign on the platform with decent information about trains on other platforms.

Is this a particular problem on Network Rail stations? If so, what are the channels of complaint/consultation to get them to do something about it?   

I had a slightly different problem at Reading in that I couldn't work out which trains were the stopping service. I was trying to get to Twyford and all the screens I could find only had the final destination. There is the short hand code of stopping services generally being listed as Ealing Broadway and fast as London Paddington but there are some of the latter that stop at Twyford. It may have been because I was on the upper concourse. There are screens on the individual platforms but as I was running late and carrying luggage it was a bit of a hassle to get to them and I then had to chose as only had time to get to one platform.

I'm sure now someone will point out the giant screen I missed but I didn't seem to alone in struggling to find the Twyford train. The Ealing shorthand is useful but it did take me a while to become aware of it and I'd imagine passengers passing through wouldn't know of it.

I suspect ir relates to bigger stations in general, which will correlate to Network Rail stations.

There are far more trains running in most places than at any time in the past, and in places screen / dynamic display real estate has shrunk.  Result - too much data to display easily in a single go. Further, with so much connectional traffic and the connections often being quite quick, siting becomes none-obvious.

Some interesting posts on how railways handle things but (Health Warning; thread drift coming):

Yesterday I was stood at one of the bus stops in Plymouth city centre that has one of the new LCD 'next services' displays.  It correctly informed me that my next bus was at xx time and duly counted that down to scheduled departure time.  Following services, to different but close destinations to mine, started to correctly appear behind mine.  Departure time reached, then suddenly my service disappears from the display and following services step up in its place.  Oh, whats happened to my bus?  Never mind, I'll catch the next service due in one or two minutes and walk part way home.  Guess what happend next........

There are at least two 'next service to ...' display s at Reading - if you can find them. The issue as I see it are that the screens are too small and placed too high up in general.

....and in places out of the sightline of passengers, especially in the circulation areas inside the gatelines. The one inside the main town-side gateline was clearly positioned by someone who used to enjoy going to the pantomime and shouting out "it's behind you"!

Yet there (as I mentioned) much better ones in the waiting rooms on the platform.

Once at Reading I was asked about what the next train was to somewhere by someone with a Dutch accent when he was right underneath the next train indicator on the transfer deck.