IET Quiet Coach Signage

[whole diary]

[Jamsdad]

The old IC125 had very clear signage in Coach A that it was the Quiet Coach, and consequently it was easy to point out to any noisy phone user that they could not use their phone.
The signage in the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) Quiet Coach is very poor- one notice at one vestibule end. This makes it hard for the innocent phone user to know they should be quiet but also near impossible to point out to any phone user that they cant use their phone!
I have raised this point with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customer services but would be interested to know if I am the only traveller that finds the IET signage insufficient.

[phile]

The old IC125 had very clear signage in Coach A that it was the Quiet Coach, and consequently it was easy to point out to any noisy phone user that they could not use their phone.
The signage in the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) Quiet Coach is very poor- one notice at one vestibule end. This makes it hard for the innocent phone user to know they should be quiet but also near impossible to point out to any phone user that they cant use their phone!
I have raised this point with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customer services but would be interested to know if I am the only traveller that finds the IET signage insufficient.

Complaints via Twitter by the dozen, the standard reply being that the signage is being made clearer.     GWR have been saying this for the last 18 months ever since the IETs were first introduced but they have to rely on Hitachi to carry out the work as GWR have very limited control over the fleet

[IndustryInsider]

Signage in the quiet carriage on IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is now being progressively changed and there are a lot more signs in the quiet carriage, as well as other additional signs for other things on the trains.  However they are not in a contrasting colour as the HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) carriages were, so still not as easy to spot.  

As phile says, the time and effort involved to get simple sign changes approved and installed with Hitachi exposed a negative aspect of the contract with these new trains.

[4064ReadingAbbey]

I understood, from an internal source within the railways, that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) had to approve the addition of the signs as the internal fit of the trains is defined in the DfT/Agility Trains contracts and the addition of the signs was a contract variation.

Nuff said... 

[Jamsdad]

That is very interesting! I shall get on to MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) and contacts in the House of Lords to sweat the DoT.

[phile]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) claim some have been done

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, some have been done.  A label on the saloon doors as you enter from the vestibules and green stickers every so often below the long green strip above the seats. 

Still easy to miss though.  Perhaps automatic announcements could be made in the carriage every minute to advise people? 

[broadgage]

Any such announcements would have to made at a higher than normal volume, otherwise people on the phone might not hear them.

[Umberleigh]

There was no Quiet Coach information whatsoever provided at Exeter St Davids and I still don’t know which coach of the 9 coach set it is.

Also the platform zones are a pretty weak idea, why not just stick with “First Class at the rear, quiet coach at the front” announcements?

[phile]

Yes, some have been done.  A label on the saloon doors as you enter from the vestibules and green stickers every so often below the long green strip above the seats. 

Still easy to miss though.  Perhaps automatic announcements could be made in the carriage every minute to advise people? 

But that would make it noisy

[grahame]

There was no Quiet Coach information whatsoever provided at Exeter St Davids and I still don’t know which coach of the 9 coach set it is.

Also the platform zones are a pretty weak idea, why not just stick with “First Class at the rear, quiet coach at the front” announcements?

1. Coach "A" in the 9 car sets

2. Actually really helpful when travelling with a wheelchair/equivalent.  Assuming that you aren't given data for a 9 car ('zone 4') and it draws in as a 4 car so you have to load in zone 6.  Could also do with correction at Chippenham for the Westbury train ... "first class in zone 5 and standard class in zone 6". Yeah - it's over 50 years since scheduled first class services ran on the line.   Back, I fear to "no information is better than the wrong information".

[The Tall Controller]

For passengers who don't know which way the train travels, having zone information is much more useful.

Also in the event of a 10-car, an announcement saying First class in the front and middle doesn't really help if you're looking for a coach somewhere in between!