Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday I was seeing an elderly relative off at Hayes & Harlington Station. She categorically refused to catch the appalling Crassrail trains (hard seats and no toilets), and so we waited for the proper GWR train service to Reading. She wanted to know when this would arrive. Yet NONE of the CIS displays at Hayes & Harlington station showed this information.

The printed timetable in the upper foyer did not have this info. The yellow LED displays did not have this timing. The T4L ticket machines displayed all timings but NOT for arrivals at Reading. The CRT arrivals / departures screen(s) did not have this information either. There were no staff on platform 3 to ask, but their iPads also do not display this information - I have asked in the past.

Since Crossrail prides itself on running to/from London and Reading why is this critical information missing from the displays? Reading is a major hub for interchange between local trains and Intercity / Cross Country services. It is vital to know when local trains arrive there. Why is this information kept so secret, or is it incompetence by Network Rail / T4L / MTR et al. I would opine the latter.

Does this situation pertain at other Thames Valley stations?

Have you asked NR/TfL why it's a "secret"?

Can't say that there have been any problems along these lines at Taplow, and personally I don't find the seats any harder than those on GWR's newer trains.

Where do you think you've seen it shown? The current (and previous) platform displays show station calls in the running text in line 2, and in most cases without times. I'm sure I've seen some places where times are shown, and that would be "just software" - mostly in assembling the data from wherever it's kept. However, showing scheduled times would raise issues with delayed trains, and showing predicted times would raise further issues (e.g. how good are they and how do you indicate what they mean). So I can understand if leaving this off is preferred.

Concourse displays rarely show station calls, except on the bank of one-per-train ones in a big terminus. I think I've seen those with times, but I've no idea where or when. The ones in London terminals now don't have times, I'm sure.

As to printed timetables, I wonder what you mean. GWR's full line booklet (T10) shows all trains going to Reading, but may not be on offer at TfL's stations (and not necessarily put out in GWR's ones, of course). TfL rail's one does, I think, show all theirs plus GWR's stoppers and a couple of semifasts (only if they stop at Slough). However, I've never tried to get one - I'm not even sure they print them, though the PDF looks like it's designed to.

Did you ask the passenger assistant on the platform at Hayes?  Although they are TfL they are able to give you the information you were after