Exactly that. A paper display won't help in times of disruption.
Quite a lot of departure list posters don't even bother to list Saturdays and Sundays anyway due to Engineering Works regularly rendering them inaccurate.
Exactly that. A paper display won't help in times of disruption.
"But what about my Nan travelling from Ulverston to Brundall Gardens with heavy luggage, three kids and a pushchair, with no smartphone at 10 o' clock at night in February in the rain?!"
Is Ulverston not staffed? It strikes me as the sort of place that would be?Ulverston might be a good example, as it had a knackered PIS for a very long period of time last year, it may well still be broken. If printed timetable posters are to be removed then we really do need to consider the PIS to be an essential and not something to do when you get round to it*, and for the railway to have e.g. portable temporary units which can be put in place (padlocked to something so they don't get nicked) very quickly.
Most people indeed do have mobile phones, but there has to be provision of some sort for those who don't.
* The departure list screen by the lift on Bletchley P4 has a broken line and has had for about 5 years now despite me reporting it repeatedly.
Exactly that!Ulverston might be a good example, as it had a knackered PIS for a very long period of time last year, it may well still be broken. If printed timetable posters are to be removed then we really do need to consider the PIS to be an essential and not something to do when you get round to it*, and for the railway to have e.g. portable temporary units which can be put in place
And electronic displays won't help when they're just displaying "Welcome to Xxxxxx", which seems to happen quite regularly on my line.Exactly that. A paper display won't help in times of disruption.
Is Ulverston not staffed? It strikes me as the sort of place that would be?
And electronic displays won't help when they're just displaying "Welcome to Xxxxxx", which seems to happen quite regularly on my line.
That's a fair point and is something that should be addressed.And electronic displays won't help when they're just displaying "Welcome to Xxxxxx", which seems to happen quite regularly on my line.
The PIS only tells you the times for the next hour or so, what if you want to look for times 6 hours or so later. Like a train back home after your day out.
Look before you go? I tend to look at the times of the last train back before I go out for the day!The PIS only tells you the times for the next hour or so, what if you want to look for times 6 hours or so later. Like a train back home after your day out.
If I arrive at Oxford station at 10am then the PIS isn't going to tell me about my return train c. 5pm....then you can look at that once you arrive at your destination.
That's nice. I think what this thread is telling us is that (shock horror) people have different use cases and behaviours.Look before you go? I tend to look at the times of the last train back before I go out for the day!
As per the article, only 1% use them. So, no need at all of waste £2m on it.If I arrive at Oxford station at 10am then the PIS isn't going to tell me about my return train c. 5pm.
That's nice. I think what this thread is telling us is that (shock horror) people have different use cases and behaviours.
If I arrive at Oxford station at 10am then the PIS isn't going to tell me about my return train c. 5pm.
Sadly, I'm one of the 1% I manage quite well without a smart phone.good idea. make it happen asap. Lets join the 20th century rather than living in the 19th
I bet almost all of the 1% referred to are on this board!
I know several people who regularly travel by train and do not own a mobile phone or computer so they use a printed timetable.
Perhaps a journey planner should be available in TVMs with the option to print the summary timetable results in the same way you can get a bank statement from the bank ATM.
For me, studying poster-sized printed timetables at stations is the only way I can fully understand the service pattern, and this knowledge has proven useful to get me back on track after a delay. There isn't enough space on a phone or even a desktop computer screen to see all trains at once.
Most European stations still show a printed full timetable poster of departures from that station, which also include detail such as platform number and the length/formation of the train so you plan in advance which section of the platform you will need. The electronic displays also show the carriage formation. Much better information than is available in Britain.I wonder how the 1% equivalent get on abroad in counties like France, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands where printed timetables are a thing of the past!?
Most European stations still show a printed full timetable poster of departures from that station, which also include detail such as platform number and the length/formation of the train so you plan in advance which section of the platform you will need. The electronic displays also show the carriage formation. Much better information than is available in Britain.
Don’t think anyone was suggesting they should - but when you arrive at station b, the pis may well tell you when the next train back to a is, but not when the ones “at teatime” will be. Nor will it help you to find the options which require a change en route.What you want is a tablet with a high resolution screen where you can view timetable information in detail, e.g. an iPad.
But as I was saying above, most major stations don't show you that kind of timetable, just a list of departures. Nowhere in Euston will you, for example, find a timetable showing the times of trains from Manchester back to Euston. (There are "full" timetables for the LNR routes but you really have to go and look for them).
Let's also not forget that even pre-Covid, printed timetables (in racks) weren't always easy to find - usually only stocked at major stations anyway.
Only suggests that the most determined of passengers actually use them (and many of those could use other methods and choose not to)
QR codes are great, but
1) they're not secure - so wherever they're printed they need to be tamper proof
I agree with this. If there is a big gap between services in a place where you are stopping off, the posters help to be able to spot this.For me, studying poster-sized printed timetables at stations is the only way I can fully understand the service pattern, and this knowledge has proven useful to get me back on track after a delay. There isn't enough space on a phone or even a desktop computer screen to see all trains at once. However I accept the point that very few people do this and the cost-benefit ratio may not justify continuing to print posters.
In Germany, I frequently use the printed large poster that shows every train departing that station (and also the large posters that show precisely where every IC/ICE train stops on each platform), because it's often hard to gather the information I need quickly from the electronic screens which only show a summary.
I recall seeing printed timetables in Belgian stations, and French local stations, on my trips in 2019. These were useful because the websites are rubbish (I normally use bahn.de but it only shows information in hourly chunks).
I think we've got crossed wires here - my (frequent) use case for printed timetables is when I travel in from Charlbury to Oxford; I look on the live departures from Charlbury to find when the next train is and catch that; but then I need to figure out what time the trains are home. So I use the departure list at Oxford for that. I can't use the PIS at Oxford because (fairly obviously) it only shows the next screen's worth of departures.And nor I think do the posters at that station! Larger stations tend to have the "departure list" type, not the "full timetable" type where you can find that out.
For instance nowhere at Euston will you find any poster stating when the trains back from Manchester are.