Are paper timetable booklets pointless these days?

[yorksrob]

I'd rather be out of touch with 'reality' if it means keeping an easy, reliable way to accessible way of getting information, even when you're a long way in the countryside, than be on the side of the cyber-geeks who are in denial about just how unreliable and poorly made and designed most modern technology is, and who would have us all plunged into some sort of a "Tomorrow's World" gone wrong type of dystopia.

 

[NSEFAN]

I'd rather be out of touch with 'reality' if it means keeping an easy, reliable way to accessible way of getting information, even when you're a long way in the countryside, than be on the side of the cyber-geeks who are in denial about just how unreliable and poorly made and designed most modern technology is, and who would have us all plunged into some sort of a "Tomorrow's World" gone wrong type of dystopia.

At the end of the day, people will use the most convenient option for them. Given the majority of passengers have smartphones now, more and more people will use these to check journey information rather than a paper timetable. Nobody is stopping you from using paper for storing train information if that works for you. The reality is that some TOCs (especially those who serve urban areas) are now only printing limited numbers of paper timetables because the majority of their customers simply don't need them. Eventually there will be almost no need for paper timetables, at which point they may stop being printed. No geekiness required, just the reality of how we work with information these days.

 

[berneyarms]

I am firmly with DarloRich on this one. What would you all do if they stopped printing paper timetables, you would all remember your phone. This forum is out of touch with reality sometimes... If you got to a ticket gate and explained that you left your ticket at home you'd most likely get a penalty.

Maybe you could accept that not everyone shares your view of what is reality.

Again, some tolerance for alternative viewpoints and needs goes a long way.

 

[EM2]

I am firmly with DarloRich on this one. What would you all do if they stopped printing paper timetables, you would all remember your phone. This forum is out of touch with reality sometimes... If you got to a ticket gate and explained that you left your ticket at home you'd most likely get a penalty.

Reality is that people, and technology, are fallible. People forget things and technology fails.
You can have a full battery, gigabytes of data left on your plan, in a strong signal location, but if your carrier has a major outage, then what?
Here's an example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sho.../O2-signal-failure-hits-mobile-customers.html

Customers from Manchester, Leicester, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, London, Belfast, Kent, Scotland, Wales, and many other areas said they were unable to use their phones for several hours.
O2's "live status checker" website issues with phone masts were blamed for problems in a number of cases.
A search for the Leeds area, for example, said: "Sorry we're currently working on a phone mast in this area. Your service might come and go until we've finished."
A spokesman for O2 said: "We are aware of isolated instances across the UK where some O2 customers are currently experiencing intermittent service. We are investigating the situation and will update as soon as possible."
The spokesman later added: "Further to our previous message where some O2 customers were experiencing intermittent network service, we have taken steps to minimise the impact and some customers have seen their service return. We apologise for any inconvenience and continue to do all we can to restore service for customers who remain impacted."

 

[Llanigraham]

I am firmly with DarloRich on this one. What would you all do if they stopped printing paper timetables, you would all remember your phone. This forum is out of touch with reality sometimes... If you got to a ticket gate and explained that you left your ticket at home you'd most likely get a penalty.

As has been said numerous times, not everyone has a "smartphone" and not everywhere in the country has adequate phone signals to get the internet whilst mobile. Therefore this forum is not "out of touch with reality".
The sooner some people realise that the better!

 

[Butts]

I prefer a Paper Timetable that I can take with me and refer to if I want to change my mind or deviate from my original route.

However my initial planning is done online and this is backed up by timetables on the road (or rail )

I do like a proper ticket as well !!

My guess is that Darlorich prefers online guides to wherever he is going rather than a proper Guidebook or Leaflet. I prefer something tangible

Horses for courses really !!!

 

[graham11]

I hate to ask what may , to some people seem a simple question but what on earth is a PDF ,that some think we should all use .

I can just about manage to use my laptop , don`t have a printer and my mobile phone probably belongs in the British museum.

To me printed timetables are very usefull.

Pity poor old George Bradshaw is no longer with us to sort it out.


Graham

 

[urbophile]

A PDF (portable document format?) is effectively a photocopy of a printed document that will appear on your screen or can be printed out exactly as it was designed. It avoids the problem of a document, say in Word, that appears quite differently in another program and quite often messes up with the layout (line breaks, fonts etc)

 

[Minilad]

That is simply not true & seems vastly time and labour intensive.

Why is a journey planner useless? If i want to go from MK to Birmingham I can find that information immediately. I know the time of journey, TOC options and price. I don't care about service patterns and I don't care if it the train stops at Canley or Berkswell. Neither do most real people.

I do. Berkswell is my local station!

 

[yorksrob]

The reality is that some TOCs (especially those who serve urban areas) are now only printing limited numbers of paper timetables because the majority of their customers simply don't need them.

I don't mind fewer timetables being printed to mirror demand - the problem is when they give up altogether, as with the W Yorks one. If they were just reducing the numbers, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I hate to ask what may , to some people seem a simple question but what on earth is a PDF ,that some think we should all use .

I can just about manage to use my laptop , don`t have a printer and my mobile phone probably belongs in the British museum.

To me printed timetables are very usefull.

Pity poor old George Bradshaw is no longer with us to sort it out.


Graham

PDF's are very useful for printing stuff out on laptops or pc's, but rubbish for mobile phones in my experience, as they often don't finish loading, and where they do, suck up your data allowance.

 

[GodAtum]

My smart phone doesn't grind to a halt after a month through spending all it's energy downloading crap from google/microsoft/apple or have a crappy battery which never works properly in the first place and apart from in the real wilds I tend to have enough data signal strength to run basic applications.

I honestly cant recall the last time I looked at a paper timetable booklet.

You must not take Southern. I'm forever printing out strike timetables :roll:

 

[berneyarms]

I don't mind fewer timetables being printed to mirror demand - the problem is when they give up altogether, as with the W Yorks one. If they were just reducing the numbers, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

But all of the W Yorks timetables are still provided (albeit in a different form) in print and PDF by Northern, which show other operators too?

 

[yorksrob]

But all of the W Yorks timetables are still provided (albeit in a different form) in print and PDF by Northern, which show other operators too?

It's a worse form which involves a bag full of timetables.

The WY booklet is an excellent handy little book which contains all services on all lines radiating from WYorks. It's usefulness far exceeds the boundaries of W Yorks and its size and shape is highly convenient. It's an excellent design.

 

[berneyarms]

It's a worse form which involves a bag full of timetables.

The WY booklet is an excellent handy little book which contains all services on all lines radiating from WYorks. It's usefulness far exceeds the boundaries of W Yorks and its size and shape is highly convenient. It's an excellent design.

Fair enough. But would most people need the full book rather than one leaflet on a regular basis?

 

[theblackwatch]

Fair enough. But would most people need the full book rather than one leaflet on a regular basis?

Well I would have thought that a lot of people change trains at Leeds so yes. If people only travelled on one route, then I would have expected the Day Rover ticket to have been withdrawn by now. And it's much easier to have one booklet to pick up at home that a multitude of leaflets.

While DarloRich might argue that he hasn't looked at a printed timetable for a long time, someone else will argue they haven't travelled by train for a long time (or ever). That doesn't mean there's no need for rail services....

 

[yorksrob]

Fair enough. But would most people need the full book rather than one leaflet on a regular basis?

I'm sure those that don't would pick up an individual timetable for their route. FGW used that argument for discontinuing the all Cornwall timetable a few years ago, making a holiday by rail a lot less convenient. Fortunately they saw sense a couple of years later.

 

[berneyarms]

I'm not arguing against the book per se as I'm in favour of printed timetables - just making the point that they are still available - albeit in a different format.

I accept the point - I was just curious as to how many people would use a full timetable book in th greater scheme of things.

Did they charge for it?

 

[EM2]

While DarloRich might argue that he hasn't looked at a printed timetable for a long time, someone else will argue they haven't travelled by train for a long time (or ever). That doesn't mean there's no need for rail services....

As it happens, I had a customer today who is travelling on Sunday and wanted to check out what he needed to do, and he said that he had never travelled on a train before, in his sixty-two years on this planet.

 

[yorksrob]

he said that he had never travelled on a train before, in his sixty-two years on this planet.

Poor bloke

 

[Master29]

Personally I like the old paper timetables. Nothing like a good old parouse through the new ones every May and December. Having said that I can understand why there is a view to losing them as downloading them is a piece of wee nowadays.

 

[takno]

I don't personally use printed timetables, but I know plenty of people who do, and I don't really see why they should learn a complex new technique and a range of technologies.

On a related note, if you have issues with the journey planner not including enough context have a look at https://traksy.uk. Put in a start and end station to get a up to date list of trains with all stop info. It's a work in progress, but any feedback is appreciated.

 

[gray1404]

If the TOCs were too stop printing the timetables and pass the cost savings onto the customer, I would be in favor of it.

 

[lyndhurst25]

If the TOCs were too stop printing the timetables and pass the cost savings onto the customer, I would be in favor of it.

I think that it would be shareholders, not the customers, to whom the savings would be passed on to.

 

[NSEFAN]

I think that it would be shareholders, not the customers, to whom the savings would be passed on to.

More likely the treasury, but the point is pretty much the same.

 

[scarby]

When I was a kid, I plundered loads of pocket timetables from Scarborough station's information office (they were quite happy for me to take a few of each, as long as I didn't clear the lot out). As it was in the BR days, there was quite a wide variety.

I then set up an "information office" in my bedroom and encouraged relatives to come and enquire about journeys.

Not only was this fun, it also helped me learn quite a lot - about local geography, timetabling, organisation, etc.

Somehow I just don't see timetables on a phone offering the same scope, but staring at a phone does seem to be the primary leisure activity these days.

 

[miami]

Yeah kids together staring at phones, they should be staring at timetables instead.


(As a note the 3 kids standing on the roof of nantwich platform 2 don't appear to have any phones)

 

[jamesr]

It's worth remembering that visitors to the UK often don't have data roaming, which makes paper timetables pretty useful. That's why I use them in the UK anyway.

 

[sheff1]

At the end of the day, people will use the most convenient option for them.

Well they would if it hadn't been withdrawn (W Yorks timetable booklet).

 

[D1009]

It's worth remembering that visitors to the UK often don't have data roaming, which makes paper timetables pretty useful. That's why I use them in the UK anyway.

So how do we get on when we go to other countries then?

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

So how do we get on when we go to other countries then?

Unless "we" happen to be enthusiasts then aside from urban metros "we" are likely not travelling by train but by hire car.