Westbury Station - a review of changes on Station Approach

[whole diary]

[grahame]

An 11 a.m. meeting in Westbury on Friday (24.1.2020) and a too-thin train service from Melksham (we need it hourly!) left me with 100 minutes to take a look around and get some current pictures outside the station.  I have updated the thread on the Penleigh Park level foot crossing over the avoider line - ((here)) which I walked the "long way" around to.

Immediately outside Westbury station entrance, the view across that used to be of the old staff association building is now to the new car park, and the end-on 20 minute waiting spaces are no more; no bad thing that they've been moved, as they were (or at least felt) both tight and dangerous to use, having to reverse of them onto the box junction directly in front of the station entrance.



The station bus stop continues to offer a dire service - 3 buses a day to Devizes, with an extra service just as far as Market Lavington. I have never seen these services appear on the public transport departure boards in the station, useful links though they are.  A note on the timetable directs you up the Station Approach to the stop served by the (now) hourly Bath to Warminster service calls, but there is no clue as to where to catch the Westbury town bus that services the town centre and some of the residential areas.



There's now a series of "Blue Badge" car parking spaces along station approach - good to see though distinctly underused on Friday; I would suspect that they'll be much busier at weekends and outside the winter period.



Out beyond the wheelchair spaces are the new short term / 20 minute pickup places. Sensible place for them to be, again not much in use mid-morning, Friday, winter.



It struck me that these spaces are covered in sticky, slippy leaf mould and I would question when they were last cleaned, which leads me on to ask "who cleans them".  The same applies to the foot slope up to the road bridge headed north - quite steep and although it has a none-slip surface applied, this is ineffective due to leaf mould which I would venture to suggest has been there from last year, and not blown in by high winds (that we have not had!) in the last 24 hours.

Later in the day when I walked back up to the station after my meeting, volunteers from "Friends of Westbury Station" - an element of the Heart of Wessex CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) - were working inside the railway fence on the garden and making it look really smart for the spring; excellent, but I do wonder whether their activities (or someone else's) could be expanded to include the short term parking and footpaths that are well used every day.

Multiple road crossings to get to them, but the D3 bus stops are at least clear and easy to find at the exit of Station Approach.  The northbound stop has a shelter but no real time information (there IS a timetable, at least for the D3). The southbound stop has a real time display, but no shelter!



Also hereabouts is the new access road to the housing development between the original line through Westbury and the avoider line.

With the lake, and with the easy access to Westbury station, I'm sure that these homes will attract buyers easily - not a bad place to live.





Moving on (around to the Penleigh Park crossing covered in that other thread), I came across a bus stop for the Westbury Town bus.  I don't know if this is the nearest town bus stop to the station - but it's about as much use for rail passengers as a chocolate teapot.  But then it's not advertised / promoted as being of any use to rail passengers, so perhaps I should not be critical or make any "could do better" comments.



And so back to the lunch meeting ...



The "Railway Inn" works well for meetings where people are coming in from far and wide to the Westbury "hub". Typically, people who are travelling a distance (and some were on Friday) want a meal too so the pub with its function room / skittles alley is ideal.  Our extraordinary first Coffee Shop meeting was there, it's used by the West Wilts Rail User Group for their Westbury meetings, and others such as the Wessex Wanderers use it too.   Greetings to the new landlady and her team - I expect I'll be back for a couple more meetings that I know are coming up during the year.

For completeness, here is a map of the area photographed and discussed in this thread - marking on it relate to the Avoider line flat pedestrian crossing thread

[froome]

That's a very helpful review of the changes Graham. I sometimes find myself having to wait a while at Westbury station, and never look forward to it, as the in-station facilities are poor - I actually quite like the cafe there though it is pretty minimal, but the space to wait in, whether drinking there or not, is very small and cramped. I've sometimes wandered out to see if there is a bus into the town, but as you have noted, there is no information in the station about any town service, which is extraordinary, and the bus stop offers no protection from the elements. So unless I have my Brompton with me for the bike ride, I haven't attempted to walk there or search for a bus elsewhere. The lack of joined-up thinking about public transport at Westbury station really does defy belief.

[SandTEngineer]

Grahame. I was interested in your comment about 'real time' bus displays. In my experience they seem to count down to departure time but if they are late they then disappear off the display......

[grahame]

Grahame. I was interested in your comment about 'real time' bus displays. In my experience they seem to count down to departure time but if they are late they then disappear off the display......

As I understand it:

A) Where a real time bus display tells you the time that a service is expected, that's the timetable not the bus being tracked, and it will disappear off the display at the time the bus should be there, even if it's late.

B) Where a real time bus display tells you the number of minutes until a service arrives, that's from a real tie tracker on the vehicle.   Far from perfect, especially in places like Bath where the bus can get stuck in traffic, but better than the dynamic timetable of A).

Town and city buses and sections of route tend to tell you "minutes" and out in the sticks or where the local government doesn't really think too much about buses, you get just the schedule - if you're lucky.  A printed timetable for you to work out in many cases.  Sometimes nothing at all.  And if you're really unlucky, the bus times as they were last year before a significant change took place!


"And if you're really unlucky, the bus times as they were last year before a significant change took place!" ... the sign pictured of the station timetable in my original post is dated 1st July 2018.  But actually that timetable was revised on 30th September 2019, and the 17:38 bus will now take you to Devizes - not just to Market Lavington as it says on the notice, with an explicit warning that it does NOT go to Devizes.

[froome]

Grahame. I was interested in your comment about 'real time' bus displays. In my experience they seem to count down to departure time but if they are late they then disappear off the display......

As I understand it:

A) Where a real time bus display tells you the time that a service is expected, that's the timetable not the bus being tracked, and it will disappear off the display at the time the bus should be there, even if it's late.

B) Where a real time bus display tells you the number of minutes until a service arrives, that's from a real tie tracker on the vehicle.   Far from perfect, especially in places like Bath where the bus can get stuck in traffic, but better than the dynamic timetable of A).

This is, of course, getting off topic already, but A is correct and B ought to be. However, from my experience in Bath, B cannot always be correct, as otherwise many buses are going backwards for parts of their journey. The displayed time will often go from, for example, 2 minutes to 3 or 5, then back to 2, then Due, then back to 2, and on like this for several minutes, until:

a) Either the bus arrives (probably with the displayed time not saying Due).
b) Or the bus disappears off the display altogether, and then never arrives, or sometimes does...

[SandTEngineer]

Thanks Grahame, I'll try that all next time I'm out.

[grahame]

This is, of course, getting off topic already, but A is correct and B ought to be. However, from my experience in Bath, B cannot always be correct, as otherwise many buses are going backwards for parts of their journey. The displayed time will often go from, for example, 2 minutes to 3 or 5, then back to 2, then Due, then back to 2, and on like this for several minutes, until:

a) Either the bus arrives (probably with the displayed time not saying Due).
b) Or the bus disappears off the display altogether, and then never arrives, or sometimes does...

I can split topic if need be.

The problem with the "numbers of minutes" display is that it relies on data from the onboard tracker on the bus, and forecasting software that works out the expected time to where it's displayed.   Bath is notorious for traffic jams and the variation in those is staggering.   

Example: a mile out, a bus has been doing fine and usually manages 20 m.p.h. from there.  It will reasonably forecast 3 minutes,   Then it gets stuck behind some temporary lights and in the following minute, it's only covered a sixth of a mile not a third.  So - up goes the forecast to 5 minutes, but with no degree of certainty since the bus may be just coming up to those lights and will soon get a clear run, or it might be queueing all the way in to the bus station. So what's the next forecast?

Then a chap in a wheelchair needs to get off in Manvers Street, and for reasons totally disjoint from the traffic the bus doesn't move for a couple of minutes.   What does the forecasting software do now?

[Timmer]

Interesting you raise the 20 minute waiting area Graham which indeed has moved to the approach road and yes the spaces really could do with cleaning up. Very muddy area which isn’t helpful when loading luggage into the boot in the Autumn/Winter period.

One thing I have noticed, as shown by the grey car in picture 1, is people are parking here to pick passengers up yet I haven’t seen any signs to say this is also a 20 minute waiting zone. I’m not sure how this works bearing in mind the in/out ANPR cameras guarding the entrance and exit right by the station entrance.

I’m not sure if the 20 minute parking spaces on the approach road are covered by the ANPR cameras but wouldn’t suggest anyone parking there go over the 20 minute limit just in case.

[grahame]

One thing I have noticed, as shown by the grey car in picture 1, is people are parking here to pick passengers up yet I haven’t seen any signs to say this is also a 20 minute waiting zone. I’m not sure how this works bearing in mind the in/out ANPR cameras guarding the entrance and exit right by the station entrance.

I’m not sure if the 20 minute parking spaces on the approach road are covered by the ANPR cameras but wouldn’t suggest anyone parking there go over the 20 minute limit just in case.

From Friday - signage looks VERY new, on the railings behind those spaces

[Bmblbzzz]

Grahame. I was interested in your comment about 'real time' bus displays. In my experience they seem to count down to departure time but if they are late they then disappear off the display......

As I understand it:

A) Where a real time bus display tells you the time that a service is expected, that's the timetable not the bus being tracked, and it will disappear off the display at the time the bus should be there, even if it's late.

B) Where a real time bus display tells you the number of minutes until a service arrives, that's from a real tie tracker on the vehicle.   Far from perfect, especially in places like Bath where the bus can get stuck in traffic, but better than the dynamic timetable of A).

This is, of course, getting off topic already, but A is correct and B ought to be. However, from my experience in Bath, B cannot always be correct, as otherwise many buses are going backwards for parts of their journey. The displayed time will often go from, for example, 2 minutes to 3 or 5, then back to 2, then Due, then back to 2, and on like this for several minutes, until:

a) Either the bus arrives (probably with the displayed time not saying Due).
b) Or the bus disappears off the display altogether, and then never arrives, or sometimes does...

I'd compare this to "Microsoft seconds". When you download a large file, the time till completion goes up as well as down as your internet connection speed varies.

[Reginald25]

Multiple road crossings to get to them, but the D3 bus stops are at least clear and easy to find at the exit of Station Approach.  The northbound stop has a shelter but no real time information (there IS a timetable, at least for the D3). The southbound stop has a real time display, but no shelter!

D3 at Westbury?

[grahame]

D3 at Westbury?

Sorry - rampant inflation - D1.

[ChrisB]

THe CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) should be dealing with onward publicf transport signage, but not sure about cleaning car park spaces. The TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) makes money from these, and is the rsponsible party....