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SWT new website live

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Mojo

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South West Trains? Can't spot any difference.
 

Nicks

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Maybe not rolled out to all users yet?

It's caught the material design disease and no links work at all, also the live journeycheck pages have been done.
 

James H

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From the Island Line section:

"The Island Line, is a train service, using our unique electrical trains"
 

Helvellyn

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The existing website is still up and running, plus the use of "pilot" in the posted links suggests it is just that - a pilot for a new site rather than the finished product?
 

7031

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I'm just getting an error on the new website. Tis a shame, was really hoping to see what wonderful invention they'd come up with.
 

maniacmartin

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The new site appears to have been designed primarily with smartphone users in mind, which is good when you're on the move. I don't like the way it renders on a computer though.
 

embers25

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The engineering work section is next to useless and no longer has any printed timetables which was the one thing SWT did very well. Hopefully that's just a glitch.
 

7031

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Seems fine to me. Only thing I don't like is how the navigation dropdowns appear the moment you hover on them.

In my opinion, you should have to click first. Otherwise it's quite frankly confusing and disorienting.
 

bb21

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I don't think this is the finished article yet. Anyone with suggestions please make sure you get in touch.
 

higthomas

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I'm actually not as horrified with this as I thought I would be. It's definitely not finished (the timetables section is just empty, and there are nice empty photo slots on the transport links section) but seems to have most of the information, and it should have it on a phone as well, something the GWR mobile website certainly doesn't do well
 

Helvellyn

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Seems easy to use. There are no buttons to search earlier or later trains, which I found annoying because I had to start a search again to find a later train. I do like the way it is easy to see what the cheapest fare is, but with only five results that is where the lack of the earlier or later buttons is annoying (in my view anyway).

Anyone know when it is going to replace the current website? It looks close to being finished from what I can tell.
 

infobleep

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The new site appears to have been designed primarily with smartphone users in mind, which is good when you're on the move. I don't like the way it renders on a computer though.
I was told recently that they were working on a new site. I'm surprised given that a ITT document is due soon and the franchise is up for renewal.

The cynic in me wouldn't expect such a thing at this time.

However the fact they have done it shows South West Trains are interested in the franchise. They clearly want to keep it. I hope DfT are allowed to take into account things such as this.

Finally, all being well, South West Trains will be able to post a link on Twitter and not have users come back and say it doesn't work. Invariably users would be using a smartphone rather than desktop PC. I certainly know that is how I access their site mostly
.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 
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Nicks

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I don't think SWT paid for the new website themselves!

There is a SWT press release of 25 March last year outlining a £50m DfT funded enhancement package which includes provision of a new website.

SWT are complete experts in getting improvements paid for by someone else!
 

infobleep

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I don't think SWT paid for the new website themselves!

There is a SWT press release of 25 March last year outlining a £50m DfT funded enhancement package which includes provision of a new website.

SWT are complete experts in getting improvements paid for by someone else!

OK. I stand corrected. Wonder how they manages to wangle that out of the DfT. Didn't think they would want to spend money on anything much.

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Helvellyn

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There is a SWT press release of 25 March last year outlining a £50m DfT funded enhancement package which includes provision of a new website.
Sounds like the Deed of Amendment that was signed with the DfT. I don't think it is DfT paying for this, rather SWT did it as part of a franchise change. I remember when it happened we were briefed that talks were continuing to extend the franchise to 2019. That hasn't happened, but it could explain why a new website is going to be launched now.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It went live today by the looks of it. There is also an iOS app because it was downloaded to my work phone when I signed on for work this afternoon. Don't know if there is an Android App too?
 

theironroad

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Sounds like the Deed of Amendment that was signed with the DfT. I don't think it is DfT paying for this, rather SWT did it as part of a franchise change. I remember when it happened we were briefed that talks were continuing to extend the franchise to 2019. That hasn't happened, but it could explain why a new website is going to be launched now.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It went live today by the looks of it. There is also an iOS app because it was downloaded to my work phone when I signed on for work this afternoon. Don't know if there is an Android App too?

The android app comes later in the week, but some time away for windows live according to the platform.
 

jon0844

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Windows Phone is now down to 1% market share so I can't see anyone rushing.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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The android app comes later in the week, but some time away for windows live according to the platform.

That must be why I can not get into all parts of the website from my mobile and get an error/spam message too. It seems ok from my laptop though.
 

dgl

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Windows Phone is now down to 1% market share so I can't see anyone rushing.

That doesn't help us windows phone users, although, we didn't get an app in the first place even though some of the other TOC's have managed it and as all the apps seem to be based on the same platform it should have been easy for SWT to get one made.

Also remember that whilst world usage of WP is down to 1% I bet the percentage in Britain is a far bit higher.
 

jon0844

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That doesn't help us windows phone users, although, we didn't get an app in the first place even though some of the other TOC's have managed it and as all the apps seem to be based on the same platform it should have been easy for SWT to get one made.

Also remember that whilst world usage of WP is down to 1% I bet the percentage in Britain is a far bit higher.

1.1%?

I've done a lot of work for Microsoft UK (and Nokia early on) over Windows Phone and even here the OS never got going.

What did happen is that Nokia/MS sold a shed load of lower end models (the 5XX models) because of price and the fact the UI itself is very easy to use and nimble (fast for low-spec hardware). That, unfortunately, probably did even more harm because developers weren't really wanting to port powerful apps and games to a user base of entry-level hardware.

I don't think there's many people that don't consider Windows Phone and now Windows 10 for Mobile dead. MS is concentrating on corporates from now on, which further seals the fate for it ever being big for consumers.

Sadly with more and more apps actually going, all that's going to happen is people leave to another platform. I believe Spotify, BBM and PayPal are all going (apologies - I am not that up to speed on the most recent developments) so that will just speed things up.

It's a shame. I worked very hard on a series of initiatives to promote Windows Phone. We did magazines highlighting all the new apps early on (stopped because, well, there were no new apps and it was embarrassing to have issue 6 still featuring Angry Birds), a website for shop staff to use to see what equivalent apps there were as substitutes for the (missing) official apps, and events for developers.

All for nothing really.

Anyway, back on topic....!
 
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That must be why I can not get into all parts of the website from my mobile and get an error/spam message too. It seems ok from my laptop though.

Is it to do with security certificates? I get that when going into the live travel updates. It seems they have not set up the certificates correctly. You can bypass the warning and go to the site anyway.

It works fine on a PC.

They need to have valid signed certificates for the new site. The phone checks to see if the certificate supplied by the site is valid and registered (which guarantees that the page really comes from SWT and is not being spoofed.)
 

STEVIEBOY1

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Is it to do with security certificates? I get that when going into the live travel updates. It seems they have not set up the certificates correctly. You can bypass the warning and go to the site anyway.

It works fine on a PC.

They need to have valid signed certificates for the new site. The phone checks to see if the certificate supplied by the site is valid and registered (which guarantees that the page really comes from SWT and is not being spoofed.)

Yes it is exactly that problem that I am getting and it's still like it today. I can not though seem to be able to bypass beyond the warning though. I just get a link "back to Safety" or something that say "Advanced", is that what you mean. ? Then a tick box also shows, saying something about reporting the problem to google. Hopefully they will sort this out asap. It was a pain yesterday when I was travelling with them and there were some disruptions, although to be fair this did not cause too much of a problem.
 

infobleep

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I wonder if there will now be a fall in the number of people using journey check.

Previously if you went to South West Trains on your mobile you went straight to journey check. Now you go to their home page and have to click on a link to reach it.

This will of course mean SWT the see an increase in visitor numbers to their main Web Site as a result, which in this modern age is a good thing, as that is where one would expect to go first.

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backontrack

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Timetables are now up. They're not listed in numerical order - it seems quite random, with the first 4 being:

Basingstoke to London Waterloo (fast)
Basingstoke, Alton and Aldershot to London Waterloo (stopping service)
Brockenhurst to Lymington
Dorking and Chessington to London Waterloo

Respectively, these are numbers 60, 10, 27 and 5.

As ever, there's a preamble - but no 'create your own timetable' link.
 
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