27361
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Journey by Journey / TransWilts line / Re: Public timetable requirements to reflect an amended service
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on: September 15, 2013, 20:40:52
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I've had a look at it, but it's not clear to me exactly where I would need to change trains and at what times the first train arrives and the second departs.
On the inbound I would probably put the Melksham arrival time on the top
There are rather a lot of destinations. Depending on the purpose I wonder whether it would be better to focus on a smaller number? Or have two blocks, one for local destinations, and one for further afield. I'm sure in a printed format it would be much more readable than as currently shown.
As an aside, I bumped into a colleague walking to Swindon station last week, who when asked told me he commuted from Trowbridge, and came via Melksham but dog-legged back. He was absolutely thrilled when I told him that from December he probably wouldn't have to leave so early and would have a direct train back.
I've tweaked it a tiny bit and put a printable (.pdf) at http://www.wellho.net/downloads/dec13_mkm_x2.pdfInterestingly, rather than "unreadable" I got the reaction - "WOW ... all those trains?" The 17:36 back from Swindon will be very useful Now ... connection data is NOT shown - either how many changes, where etc. This sort of format strikes me as useful for showing the 'marketing' data (and clearly it has helped sell the improvement to my guinea pig!) but it needs a reference back to the ticket booking sites (which is where I scraped the data from) in order to give journey details. So as such it does not provide what people need at the station. * "Local", "Regional" and "Long Distance" blocks. Maybe ... although you'll then be tempting me to add a couple of others such as Birmingham and Manchester. * Melksham at the top on the return side? ... Maybe, or even both top and bottom - but once it's regionally split that becomes less of an issue. * Sorting into some other order? Perhaps. * Bold font for through services? What would be useful too is to highlight direct services with the times in bold, a bit like the current FGW▸ timetables.
You posted after I wrote .. yes, agreed ... great minds, etc One thought re my comment above is to perhaps have a hyper link or pop up against each time displayed so in the example I've circled the arrival time at Heathrow. By hovering the mouse or clicking on this would bring up:
Departs melksham 06:38 Arrives station a 07:00
Depart station a 07:30 Arrive station b 08:20
Depart station b 08:45 Arrive heathrow 09:10
I know nothing about programming, design or presentation though. you've probably already guessed that.
That could be a good online approach - click on a time to come up with a popup / details. There would need to be a way to print it out, and you can't have popups on posters at the station when you point at a time yet. As noted, thought needed here .. marketing approach looks (and I'm slightly surprised, so THANK YOU John R) good.
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27363
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Journey by Journey / TransWilts line / Re: Public timetable requirements to reflect an amended service
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on: September 15, 2013, 17:46:49
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At the very least, come December, I think there is a need for a new line of route timetable for Swindon<Melksham>Westbury.
One that shows connections east and west at both ends.
Yes, there doesv- although there will be a very high proportion of people making journeys that involve changes. 4 out of 5 stations are interchanges, and both termini are major junctions. So the connections may be long-winded to show. I've had a play - for our business visitors - with what a Monday to Friday major destination sheet might look like - at http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4174_.html?pwidth=wide and I've added "trains coming back" as the bottom. This sort of thing will probably form the basis of what we sent to hotel guests and course delegates, and I hope we'll be up from 5% to 50% arriving in the town by train in 2014. Edit to add ... I will not be using the major destination sheet as drawn up - having sought local opinion it's described as "unreadable" and I need to look for alternative ways to present the information. I comfort myself with the knowledge that this was a piece of research into possible formats, and an outcome of "it is not readable" is a valuable outcome and lesson. Perhaps we're back to bignosemac's line of route?
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27365
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Journey by Journey / Heart of Wessex / Re: Avoncliff station, still a request stop?
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on: September 15, 2013, 15:29:16
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An aside issue ... I know that some forums have rules about not linking to other forums, nor even mentioning them. We don't. There are different twitter feeds, facebook groups, and forums out there and I hope that our members feel as free to discuss what's on Railforum or Wnxx as they do to discuss what The Daily Mirror is saying about rail travel or what they see for themselves at Readng or Avoncliff.
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27367
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Was I overcharged by Virgin Trains?
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on: September 14, 2013, 16:29:16
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Please see the continuation of this saga in the Frequent Posters Club.
For the benefit of guests and newcomers to The Coffee Shop ... "Frequent Posters Club" is an area which can only be read (and contributed to) by members once they have passed a certain threshold of contributions. The area is used for discussions of things like meet ups, and members can be a little more open there with things like their movements, real names, phone numbers etc as they're writing amongst friends / contacts who they're had a chance to read and get to know. Frequent Posters account for less that 4% of posts on this forum. For those with access, you can read on at: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12925.msg139607For those who can't yet read on - keep posting. Once you cross the threshold, you'll be able to see Frequent Posters right back to when it started!
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27368
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Journey by Journey / TransWilts line / Re: What about trips to Weymouth this summer (2013)?
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on: September 14, 2013, 16:14:53
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A sort-of close to this story of the summer of 2013 On Bank Holiday Monday (27th May), the morning southbound train was retimed to give a good day trip opportunity to Weymouth. Notices were displayed at Melksham and Chippenham Station (but NOT at Swindon as we feared overcrowding) and we ended up with a packed but not uncomfortable train, and good loadings on the connection to Weymouth and back, and with a packed train again from Westbury in the late afternoon. On Bank Holiday Monday (26th August), the morning southbound train was retimed to give a day trip opportunity to Weymouth. Not quite so ideal, as engineering works at Swindon / Kemble meant it running a bit earlier than ideal and left a longish wait at Westbury. Publicity was via trifold brochures covering the whole of the service this autumn distributed in the Melksham Independent News. Again, limited due to our fear of overcrowding, and once again we got packed but not uncomfortable trains. I went on both and particularly noted that we had different customers, and those were yet different customer groups from the 2011 crowd. I conclude that - if we have a strong "day trip to Weymouth" product in 2014 - we will have three different markets to sell it to. Early indications are that an off peak day trip will be possible, all year, on Mondays to Fridays - a little longer change than I would like at Westbury, but never mind. On Saturdays, the 19:32 Westbury to Swindon isn't expected to run (even come across a Sunday to Friday train before?), but in any case the Heart of Wessex overloads already on a Saturday and it's doubtful if we'll be thanked if we throw hundreds more people down there on their busiest day Sundays ... the train back is good. I've not yet seen summer 2014 proposals under LSTF▸ for the morning train, but the case that supported the bid, and was in option 1 of the aborted franchise, included an extra Sunday morning TransWilts service with an explicit requirement for it to connect to Weymouth. I was speaking to the incoming manager of the Melksham TIC▸ yesterday ... "if I had a pound for everyone who's asked me about trains to Weymouth this summer, I could retire" ...
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27369
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Journey by Journey / TransWilts line / Re: Improving Wiltshire's Rail Offering.
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on: September 14, 2013, 15:48:40
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An update 'brief' ... as written to a new correspondent today asking about Chippenham to Trowbridge links.
From London and the Thames Valley all across the South West and into South Wales, the current franchise extension expires on 16th October and it hasn't yet been announced as to whom will be running the trains thereafter. In all probability it will be First group, as the only bidder for the management contract to run trains for the following 30 month period, but there is an outside chance it would be Directly Operated Rail - run by the Department for Transport. Part of the service level requested in either case is to continue to run services as they are at present more or less, but adapting and adopting as engineering works, electrification, modernisation etc continue, where those items are already in the pipeline.
One such issue in the pipeline is Wiltshire Council's successful LSTF▸ bid for improving Wiltshire's Rail Offering, and a very great deal of work has been done between First, Wiltshire Council and many other components of the rail industry to have things in place for an improved services north to south across Wiltshire. But nothing in that can irrevocably be signed off until after the government decides who's operating trains, and under what terms. across the whole south west. Even then fallout from those negotiations needs to be considered, not least how a three year plan can be signed up to be a company that may only be around for two and a half. One thing we do know is that an additional train running on otherwise-unoccupied paths between Swindon and Westbury is feasible by the end of the year, but a recast involving other services too (such as would be needed south of Westbury) is not - that's something that probably best for the next franchise holder.
I believe that all parties concerned want this to work and do not see talks / contracts breaking down or failing to materialise, and on that basis I would expect to see 6 extra trains from Westbury to Swindon on Monday to Friday between the 07:04 and 19:32, which are currently the only trains that serve the Chippenham - Trowbridge line, and six services in the opposite direction. Also six extra trains each way on Saturday, and 4 each way on Sunday.
South of Westbury, there's at least one train per hour for passengers who with to continue their journey to and from Salisbury - some of the proposed services connect well and other don't, largely as a result of working out a robust timetable for the additional trains without altering anything else.
The links [elsewhere in my letter] lead to provision timings, and the trains have now appeared on the First Great Western ticket booking pages too - take a look at a journey starting on 8th or 9th December; that strikes me as a vote of confidence that the improvement will go ahead and a lot of us are very busy behind the scenes helping make sure we'll have a joined up service and not something which just appears as if by magic, which no-ne knows about, and could disappear just as quickly. But it's about 2 months too early to start circulating timetables as "definite".
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27370
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Journey by Journey / Heart of Wessex / Re: Dorchester has moved
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on: September 14, 2013, 14:39:52
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Yeah ... I spotted that too and have moved Dorchester from the Irish sea off Rosslare to the Dorset countryside inland from Weymouth. There are 145 possible terminating stations in our database ... and the first time a train turns bak somewhere new, I'm reactive.
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27371
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Expansion of mobile ticketing
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on: September 14, 2013, 13:26:13
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...If an Electronic Ticket cannot be displayed, you will be treated as if you were unable to hand a valid ticket over for inspection. They seem to have covered themselves for this problem from the start... So does that mean a possible penalty fare or even prosecution for having a flat battery?
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27373
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Heathrow to Great Malvern (Saturday)
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on: September 13, 2013, 12:17:43
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Mention of the Oxford Airbus got me thinking: National Express - 11:00 or 15:45 from Heathrow, into Great Malvern at 16:35 or 19:55. One change on the way - Cheltenham or Birmingham. Cost - 20.40 or 33.10 (adult)
What does FGW▸ site offer at around the same time: Heathrow Connect 10:57, Change Hayes and Harlington and Slough, arrive 14:00. Cost - 50.00 Heathrow Express 11:03, Change Paddington, Euston and New Street, arrive 15:44. Cost - 85.60
And I'll bet I can buy a National Express ticket at Heathrow all the way to Great Malvern.
The story would/will be so different with a West-facing train service from Heathrow to an interchange for longer distance journeys (Reading!)
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27374
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Journey by Journey / TransWilts line / Re: Public timetable requirements to reflect an amended service
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on: September 13, 2013, 11:46:22
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I met up with the Station Manager based in Westbury yesterday, who is very helpful indeed, to go through a whole lot of matters - many are just confirming how we're going along and planning for potential changes which in terms of passenger number at stations will proportionately change most at Melksham.
The line-of-route timetables are usually provided [all that is provided] at smaller stations; destination sheets at bigger ones. On many branch lines, that seems the natural approach to me as people want to go up to the junction and perhaps beyond to other major points. At random, I called up the Exmouth line timetable and it shows the line itself and Paddington, Paignton, Plymouth and Barnstaple beyond. Seems sensible.
Specifically for Melksham, the line-of-route sheet - Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff - has a natural bias toward the trains on the main route and doesn't clearly show some of the most common journeys such as Melksham to Bristol Temple Meads; you CAN work out the "Change at Trowbridge" options by reading two different panels, but "Change at Chippenham" options are impossible to learn about at the station without pressing the "information" button and asking! Perhaps the reason that line-of-route fails at Melksham is that it's not a traditional branch line station offering services to a single junction - passengers will be travelling not only to the four major places that every departing train serves, but also connecting in significant numbers from each and every one of those places to other destinations.
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