Some quotes by Industry Insider (plus brief comment by me) from the Save The Train forum :
2) Information at Bicester Town - I noted today that the (unstaffed) station at Bicester Town had its train times poster up with the heading Bicester-Oxford Train Times. It then goes on to print the timetable for the Cotswold Line with not a mention of the Oxford-Islip-Bicester service anywhere to be seen. Surely, even if those who produced the poster made a cock-up and printed the wrong service by mistake, the person sent out to stick it up in the poster board might have spotted that the layout looked a little suspicious (about 25 stations listed rather than 3).
Henrietta Leyser of Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group informs me that this error has now been corrected.
On my latest visit to Bicester Town, I note that the timetable poster has indeed been changed.
Though I noticed this little 'gaggle' of signs at the platform entrance...
It struck me that all three of them have certain issues concerned with them that mean they perhaps shouldn't be there at all? :
1)
The facilities are checked on a regular basis. Hmmm, are they really? I somewhat doubt it judging by the documented farce with the help phone at Melksham, though I suppose it is at least useful to have a phone number listed you can call to report faults.
2)
Nearest station with access for mobility impaired customers is Oxford. What does this actually mean? Bicester Town is an unstaffed station, but it only has one platform which has level open access from the small station forecourt. The step up from the platform to the train is probably typical of most stations (around 6 inches), so unless you are 'Mobility Impaired' to an extent you are confined to a wheelchair then there are no problems. If that is the case why not use the phrase Confined to a Wheelchair or is that not PC? In any event the nearest station is Bicester North which also has level access to all platforms and is staffed throughout the majority of the operating day.
The 'Station Facilities' poster on the platform also states Oxford is the nearest station to purchase advance tickets, railcards etc., when of course Bicester North is much closer. Sceptics would say that Oxford is quoted deliberately so Chiltern Railways (who operate Bicester North station) miss out on some potential sales commission. Or perhaps it's just an innocent mistake with the person who produces the poster being unaware of the other station?
3)
It's against the law to smoke. An interesting one this. As a non-smoker the fewer places people can smoke the better as far as I'm concerned, but I can clearly see that it seems silly to prevent smoking on the station platform, which is as open and windswept as the station forecourt and road. It doesn't actually say where the non-smoking area starts and ends either of course, and as it's an unstaffed station who on earth is going to enforce such a ban?
I guess the wider issue I am raising is that the number of useless/contradictory/vague signage at our stations is increasing incrementally as the years go by, and is yet another way that money is being wasted.
