New Time Table B1 London-Devon & Cornwall

[whole diary]

[smokey]

According to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), time table B that covers services from and to London and Devon & Cornwall including all D & C branch lines up to 13 December 08, has due to customer feed back been split into three time tables

B1 London - Devon & Cornwall

B2 Devon including Branches

B3 Cornwall including Branches

Whilst B2 and B3 seem ok for local travel, bit of a pain that for Cornwall to Devon journeys you need 2 time tables if Not going from or to Major stations, however table B1 is a NON starter, from London Padd listed stations are Reading, BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)), Taunton, Tivvy, Exeter SD, Newton Abbot, Torquay, Paignton, Totnes, Plymouth and in Cornwall SALTASH, Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Par, St Austell, Truro, St Erth and Penzance.

What happened to Hayle, Camborne, Redruth, Lostwithiel, Menheniot, St Germans, Ivybridge, Teignmouth Dawlish etc, for those not in the Know, looking at table B1 many would concur that there is NO station at these places.
Also Time table B1 DOESN'T list ALL the Local Services from Penzance to Plymouth or Exeter, Table B1 lists 18 trains from Penzance where as Table B3 lists 25 on weekdays. 

The Stupid thing is there is plenty of room to have listed the MISSING stations on the time table pages.
But then FGW don't seem to realised that stupid things like this WILL cost them money.

Once again I reckon FGW have failed to do their homework.

[devon_metro]

Yuck! How on earth do I find out connection times to Westbury from Paignton, I can't seem to see a timetable which has both Paignton and Westbury on it. Seems I need timetable book D which covers the Thames Valley, a place I have no intention of visiting. Wiltshire-Devon being a more common journey i'd like to hope!

Also notice the removal of catering provision on services, I find that by looking at the top of the columns for 1+] I can tell that a train is either an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or Voyager, more desirable to travel on that a pacer.

On a positive note - good to see an hourly service to Barnstaple and addition of Axminster to the timetable.

[smokey]

Yuck! How on earth do I find out connection times to Westbury from Paignton, I can't seem to see a timetable which has both Paignton and Westbury on it. Seems I need timetable book D which covers the Thames Valley, a place I have no intention of visiting. Wiltshire-Devon being a more common journey i'd like to hope!

Also notice the removal of caterial provision on services, I find that by looking at the top of the columns for 1+] I can tell that a train is either an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or Voyager, more desirable to travel on that a pacer.

That's something else, at the top of the columns there is an H for train formed of High Speed Stock, and a V for service operated by VOYAGER train.

EXCUSE ME, but IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) the term VOYAGER only applies to Virgin Trains fomed of class 221 or 222 stock.

Arriva XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) don't use the term Voyager at ALL, another case FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HDTH^▸ (haven't done their homework). (Haven't Done Their Homework).

Also note that Ivybridge is listed on page 101 of Table B1 and page 78 of table B3 as having FULL length platforms for the trains that serve the station. So is Network Rail going to be busy extending the platforms of has FGW fail to do their homework? (again)

I wonder if Arriva XC and Virgin Trains could force FGW to withdraw these Timetable books?

[Super Guard]

Most people who get on XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) think it's still Virgin anyway (i've heard many people moaning to the poor customer hosts about prices of drinks that are lining Bransons' pockets  ), so I doubt the customers will complain anyway (apart from you  )

[Chris from Nailsea]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HDTH^▸ (haven't done their homework). (Haven't Done Their Homework).

Thanks for that one, smokey: I'll see if I can persuade grahame to add it to our list of acronyms! 

[grahame]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HDTH^▸ (haven't done their homework). (Haven't Done Their Homework).

Thanks for that one, smokey: I'll see if I can persuade grahame to add it to our list of acronyms! 

Done.

[Btline]

Oh dear, it is bad.

And when are they going to sort out the mess that is Book E, with Bath listed several times on the page, making it twice as diffiult to plan a journey!

And Ivybridge with long platforms.....?

And you can no longer tell which trains have a buffet.

[Timmer]

And when are they going to sort out the mess that is Book E, with Bath listed several times on the page, making it twice as diffiult to plan a journey!

I am glad im not the only one who thinks Book E needs an overhaul Btline but judging from how the new Book B now B1, B2 and B3 is being received by posters to this forum some fresh thinking needs to be had before changes are made.

I wonder, do train companies ever ask their customers for feedback on timetables? If they dont they should consider it. I would be more than happy to offer my thoughts and I know plenty of you would as well.

[devon_metro]

I like E, it shows all connections nice and easily. Less can be said for the disaster that is B!

[Timmer]

I like E, it shows all connections nice and easily. Less can be said for the disaster that is B!

I just wish FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would do a full Cardiff-Portsmouth timetable without everything else in between as it currently is in E. The crazy thing is that they do as they are displayed as posters at stations, just not published either on their website or in timetable book form.

[paul7575]

That's something else, at the top of the columns there is an H for train formed of High Speed Stock, and a V for service operated by VOYAGER train.

EXCUSE ME, but IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) the term VOYAGER only applies to Virgin Trains fomed of class 221 or 222 stock.

Arriva XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) don't use the term Voyager at ALL...

A railway myth I'm afraid, I emailed AXC^» (Arriva Cross Country - about) on this very point a year or so ago. They replied:

"Voyager is the name of the class of train so consequently we have made reference to it as such. However we don't plan to refer to the trains as Voyagers in our onboard and information screen announcements."

Voyager is not a registered trademark either, but obviously Virgin is, I suspect in due course the term Virgin Pendolino will also be replaced by plain Pendolino.  A look through the Crosscountry website yesterday shows a number of occurences of 'Voyager', eg:

http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/AboutCrossCountry/PressAndMedia/PressReleaseXC2008009DE.aspx
"CrossCountry customers can look forward to extra seats and up to 25 percent more luggage space following the award of a contract to redesign and refresh the interiors of the company^s Voyager train fleet.
"Starting in September, train builder Bombardier will add an extra 16 seats and 20 percent more luggage space to each of the 22 five-car Voyagers and...
"CrossCountry Managing Director Andy Cooper said: ^Interior redesign of our Voyager trains will make a significant contribution to ....

Paul

[vacman]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) still refer to 220's and 221's as voyagers.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hello, paul7755, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!

It is interesting that the expression 'Virgin Voyager' has obviously become so accepted that it has taken on a 'brand name' status all on its own!

[Zoe]

I got timetables B1, B2, B3 and E from Newton Abbot today, could not find D anywhere.