From Rail User Express, 9th February 2014 ..


Reproduced under the following terms: As always, feel free to forward RUEx to a colleague, or to reproduce items in your own newsletter (quoting sources). If you want further details of any of the stories mentioned, look on the relevant website or, failing that, get back to me so I can send you the full text.

Rail User Express is an email magazine of Railfuture - http://www.railfuture.org.uk/Welcome+to+Railfuture

Others have provided far better pictures than mine - but here you go, a few more.  Commentary later today

Press coverage ...

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/10996085.Transport_Minister_on_board_with_Transwilts_service_launch/

Alas, John ... the media only has limited space and current rail interest seems to be centred on an 80m gap in the tracks somewhere south of Exeter ...

Yes, there will be a ticket machine for Melksham  and a series of other improvements there and at other stations along the TransWilts.  And there's also the announcement of the Melksham Rail Link bus service - connecting the residential areas to the south and the east of the town with the station, timed to arrive at the station a few minutes before the peak hour trains to Swindon in the morning, and to leave the station in the evening a few minutes after the return trains arrive.

This can make a huge difference in home to work commutes - here's what the ConnectingWiltshire site currently recommends from the East Melksham development (Thyme Road) to an office block 5 minutes from Swindon Station:


You'll note options at 82 and 92 minutes, and if you look into the options in more detail you'll find significant sections of walking, and indeed 2 of the three journeys involve taking the bus to Chippenham then the train. Fares will be around 13 to 14 pounds for peak day return.

From Monday, the bus will leave Thyme Road at 06:56 and at 07:26, connect to the train at Melksham Station, and you'll arrive in that same office block at 07:53 or 08:23 - that's a saving of 25 minutes on the quickest of journeys, a guaranteed connection if the evening train is late, and a saving of about 5 pounds on the daily return fare.

There's a preliminary document on the new service at http://atrebatia.info/melkshamraillink.pdf - there should be a full map and integration under Connecting Wiltshire in due course, but for the moment we're using this "stop gap"

Posting as one of let night's headless chickens ...   ... perhaps, having slept on this it's a good time to reflect, analyse, and perhaps we can even make a couple of cheeky suggestions to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) as to little changes.

Arriving via the Hammersmith and City, I got a hint of things amiss in that the "Next Departure to" boards at the taxi ranks were only showing local stations, and a further hint in that the bridge across to the middle of the platforms was solid rather than free flowing. And getting across to the main bridge, everything showed up as "delayed" ... with little clue as to why.

Suggestion (1):  A one line 'ticker tape' status banner on each of these - even if it says as little as "We have just [18:37] received reports of a problem on the main lines. All services are held while we learn more. Next update by 18:52 at the latest"

On the main concourse, I spoke with a very helpful staff member ((who told me his role wasn't normally 'front of house')) who filled me in pretty well.   And I congratulate him for saying "don't know" rather than guessing to certain questions. He did, however, have to direct me to some l-o-n-g queues for further specific information, some of which I think could be included in a general set of guidelines rather than overloading the normal front of house team.

Suggestion (2): I've seen FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) do it - a "what alternatives are there in the event of disruption?", together with, perhaps, a paragraph on the steps that FGW go though ... "Please bear with us in the early stages of disruption.   When something goes wrong, it takes us a little time to find out what's happened, and some more time to know how long it's going to take to fix and what the options are.  But we WILL promise to update you at least once every 15 minutes, even if the answer is "don't know yet"."    Alternative options listed may include use of Greenford Trains, South West Trains from Waterloo, Chiltern from Marylebone, Heathrow services, etc.   Most commuters have common sense - so explain that it's better to hold services at Paddington than to dispatch in hope and leave people crammed into trains near the wilds of Slough for indeterminate periods.

Suggestion (3): "Off Peak restrictions lifted" was announced ... and that was contradicted by the departure board for the 18:15 to Swansea when in flashed up.  But what exactly does 'lifted' mean.  Would my off peak return half to Melksham have been accepted on the first connection in the morning?   If so, I would probably have found myself a cheap hotel near Paddington and travelled out on the 07:30; unlikely to have been a "sardine" service, but I wasn't going to risk a hotel bill plus a peak single, nor did I really want to queue and ask. So - clarification and perhaps standard practise.

Well - they called the 18:15 and - scrum down. It was the only possible chance to catch my last connection from Swindon, and it's unclear to me whether "person hit by train" is considered to be a rail industry fault, so whether compensation (not really interested) and / or getting e to destination come what may (very interested) would click in.  And we boarded and waited and waited.   Comment was made in the coach vestibule that there's only just time to board most of the time at Paddington, so why is it when we were sardined it took so long?   Information had dried up, and I noted that most of my travelling companions knew even less about what was going on that I did.   A strange sense of camaraderie in discomfort clicked in ...

Suggestion (4): back to that FAQ^▸ (Frequently Asked Questions) again ... have information in there about how and when information might be expected, how it's best to keep people in stations not between, why there can't be announcements on trains while they're waiting (!) and a promise of a time limited update come what may.   And if even one or two people have that FAQ, they'll share it with others; keep people in the dark and they'll complain - help explain (better yet get them to explain to each other) and the whole atmosphere becomes easier.

Once we were going, information WAS pretty good.  Changing points, what was happening with connections, an offer to come through once the train got less crowded to help the West Wales contingent.

Suggestion (5):  remember all the connections ... including the TransWilts one ;-) ... I didn't have a clue whether anyone hade even thought of Swindon to Westbury, though they were full of Swindon to Cheltenham

Arriving into Swindon, off train, asked I First chap "where for Melksham" ... "Platform 2" he says with confidence. "That's under the subway".  Ah - nice that the connection was making.   Dash upper, up, forward to an ... empty ... bay platform. Oh :-( ...
back to ask another First chap.  "Oh - it's gone.  Go back to platform 4 and get that Bristol train that's just pulling in ... I'll contact Chippenham to have them get a taxi for you ..."

puff puff puff ... I had heavy luggage on this trip

Suggestion (6): don't let staff guess answers just to move customers on.  I really didn't want to do 4 sets of stairs with heavy bags, and nearly be delayed a further hour, because of a guess!

Chippenham - dispatcher sends of west and east trains, writes out a taxi chit and finds me a taxi.  Quite a relief - didn't really want to fork out nearly 30 quid of my own or wait 90 minutes for the late bus.  THANK YOU.   But I really wish I knew the precise rules.

Hey - it could have been a LOT lot worse, and there were others a lot more delayed, let alone the family of the person hit, driver, etc.   But it's worth a quick look back a day later and wondering "are there reasons why some of these apparently simple information items can't be done?".  Perhaps there are, but it looks to me like a little could have gone a long way - and that little could be planned for and seeded so it doesn't drain resources at that peak busyness time!

Tube strikes - a useful map showing what will probably be running ....

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/ianvisits/12285044544/

Good work there by IanVisits

And home at 21:30 - about half an hour late;  surprisingly good in the circa.  Good to see both a well known member of the online team and a senior manager helping to provide customer support / information in Paddington; I would agree with NickB that more (some?) updates on-train would have been welcome, as it seems like we got on the train some 25 to 30 minutes before it left and heard nothing about when we would be setting off.

... There WAS a gap in info once we were loaded onto trains, I will agree ... standing there for perhaps 20 minutes wondering when we were leaving ...

They told us overcrowding.  Also that facility was non-suspicious and happened around ("20 mins ago" which was about 6 / line to be cleared in 90 minutes.   I left on a sardined 18:15 to Swansea at around 19:20 ... now just past Reading.

Staff were on concourse and doing their best to help, including those not normally direct passenger facing ...

Edit to correct typo

I got that too - wondered if I had done something silly in the last 48 hours as I'm in London and using underground and DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) - but I suspect it's a circular to all oyster card users.

Ah yes ... and here it is just after arrival ... http://www.donegalrailway.com/images/CDR/Stations/cdrjcbuild11.jpg

That wasn't Donegal, it was Fastnet Rock 

Fixed - never had trains terminating at Dawlish Warren before!

Very very sadly, public transport information in general is both embryonic at some times, and out of date at others; I would actually suggest though that rail information is far better than what you find on the buses - don't get me started on the bus stops between my home and the town centre - one has a broken timetable frame, another a 2008 vintage timetable, and the third has not even got a frame.     Across the road it's a bit better - there's a 2013 timetable.   Except that the bus now does a circular route and doesn't call there.   None of the bus stop contains fares data, and there's no online information that I've been able to find to tell me what it will cost before I get on, even if I am sometimes extolled to "have the correct money ready".

I have reported the issues ... and again I find that responses to rail questions are better than responses to bus questions.  Buses can be like walking through treacle, although the treacle has been getting slightly thinner of late - progress in the right direction, but a long way to go!

Ah ... do you know if the help point (which often says "we're having communication issues and are working to fix them") will become more reliable at that time too?

Thanks, C-f-N and Bobm for posting in the moderator's area ... I hadn't noticed this but rather I think it's a good idea to expose these issues to Rail and Local Government members who are in the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) area.

I note that the Looe branch in closed due to flooding and that is the ONLY other set of cancellations anywhere in the South West this evening.  I do hope that the final transWilts round trip of the day isn't going to be first on the "Kill List" ...