Are paper timetable booklets pointless these days?

[yorksrob]

When I visited the travel centre last Sunday, the staff said that they had had a lot of complaints about the withdrawal of the WY pocket timetable. Indeed, one chap was standing there complaining right then, which reminds me, I must compose my email.

 

[PeterC]

It used to be said the timetable was your advertising brochure, but technology has made it virtually redundant for the average traveller.

Print is still a powerful medium for promoting any business.

A timetable leaflet/booklet isn't targetted at the average traveller it is targetted at the prospective traveller who wouldn't otherwise think of even looking up the service on an electronic device.

 

[Deerfold]

When I visited the travel centre last Sunday, the staff said that they had had a lot of complaints about the withdrawal of the WY pocket timetable. Indeed, one chap was standing there complaining right then, which reminds me, I must compose my email.

I was at Keighley rail station yesterday. The only timetable on display was an out of date XC one. As there was a queue at the ticket office I didn't ask if they had any in. The displays have marked spaces for all the West Yorkshire timetable.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

There's a hand written list in Leeds bus station regarding the rail timetables in the unstaffed booth thing. It'll take a fair while to get use to the new set up.

 

[yorksrob]

I was at Keighley rail station yesterday. The only timetable on display was an out of date XC one. As there was a queue at the ticket office I didn't ask if they had any in. The displays have marked spaces for all the West Yorkshire timetable.

Ah well, that says it all, in terms of our customer services !

I shall write tomorrow.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

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.

West Yorkshire is now covered with twenty one timetables which is effectively a mountain of paper, a stark contrast from a single handy book six months previous. If enough people complain then it may return, as I've said in previous threads how long it'll be before the WY bus timetables go the same way.

Its as if WYCA are slowly but surely offloading printing costs to the operators and eventually the passenger, by going in the same direction as SYPTE but with a different approach such as slowly phasing out of certain printed information.

I'm giving it 'til 2020 and I wouldn't be too suprised to see all printed timetable information supplied soley by the operators themselves, the West Yorkshire bus and rail guide produced in conjuntion with the local councils (which would mean Calderdale having nowt), the ticket guide becomes a double sided A4 document, the West Yorkshire rail map becomes a thing of the past and is replaced with the full Northern network map instead and ultimatley WYCA is scrapped completley or merged with the Northern Powerfailure that is Rail North. Harsh but you may never know, it could be true.

 

[yorksrob]

West Yorkshire is now covered with twenty one timetables which is effectively a mountain of paper, a stark contrast from a single handy book six months previous. If enough people complain then it may return, as I've said in previous threads how long it'll be before the WY bus timetables go the same way.

Its as if WYCA are slowly but surely offloading printing costs to the operators and eventually the passenger, by going in the same direction as SYPTE but with a different approach such as slowly phasing out of certain printed information.

I'm giving it 'til 2020 and I wouldn't be too suprised to see all printed timetable information supplied soley by the operators themselves, the West Yorkshire bus and rail guide produced in conjuntion with the local councils (which would mean Calderdale having nowt), the ticket guide becomes a double sided A4 document, the West Yorkshire rail map becomes a thing of the past and is replaced with the full Northern network map instead and ultimatley WYCA is scrapped completley or merged with the Northern Powerfailure that is Rail North. Harsh but you may never know, it could be true.

I wasn't aware that there was a West Yorkshire bus timetable.

Good though this is, it seems astonishing that it takes precedence over the rail timetable.

In truth, I wouldn't mind if a TOC was charged with producing the Metro timetable as long as we have one.

 

[Andyh82]

I was at Keighley rail station yesterday. The only timetable on display was an out of date XC one. As there was a queue at the ticket office I didn't ask if they had any in. The displays have marked spaces for all the West Yorkshire timetable.

There was a story in the Examiner about the withdrawal of the composite book, I expect the enthusiasts featured are on here.

Seems to be some dodgy availability of the new guides which seems to be two fold, one that Northern should now be distributing to non rail locations, such as all the Metro Travel Centres and bus station travel shops, not sure if they are, and secondly, all the leaflet racks are set up to fit the A6 size not the 1/3 A5 size so they are being shoved in or not shoved in as the case may be.

Metro did withdraw bus maps a number of years ago, and due to complaints, reinstated them and now refresh them more often than ever before.

Regarding the scaremongering, I'm sure Metro didn't produce the timetables out of the goodness of their heart, I imagine there was some sort of payment from the operators, and presumably that payment isn't there any more as the operators are expected to do them in house. The MetroTrain brand has progressively been downgraded from liveries, signage etc over the various franchise periods.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I wasn't aware that there was a West Yorkshire bus timetable.

Well the individual bus timetables that Metro print on behalf of the operators, but if its happened with rail timetables bus ones could well be next.

I woundn't mind paying 50p for the West Yorkshire rail timetable, so longs we have one which has all of the information there in an ideal sized format which is the main thing.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Metro did withdraw bus maps a number of years ago, and due to complaints, reinstated them and now refresh them more often than ever before.

Regarding the scaremongering, I'm sure Metro didn't produce the timetables out of the goodness of their heart, I imagine there was some sort of payment from the operators, and presumably that payment isn't there any more as the operators are expected to do them in house. The MetroTrain brand has progressively been downgraded from liveries, signage etc over the various franchise periods.

I was one of those who complained when the bus and rail map was axed and have done so again with the timetable book being scrapped. Although its not only West Yorkshire where the book has gone as Derbyshire also produced one too.

Its not only the MetroTrain brand that has gone, MetroRural and to some extent the MetroConnect brand has as well it only appears on the town and city circulars.

Going by what I was told by Metro, each operator pays them to print and produce their timetables in a generic format (something that has been lost in South Yorkshire), I do think that the overall payment has dried up over the years as I've noticed that certain information is either online only, has been merged with another to create a single leaflet or has been scrapped completely e.g. the Changing Times book and now the WY rail times.

 

[lyndhurst25]

Last Friday I visited Skipton station to get updated timetables. Previously, despite being outside West Yorkshire, they had the full range of WYPTE timetables, including the combined book, on display in a rack. On this visit the only local timetables available were the Northern ones for the Leeds to Morecambe / Settle & Carlisle lines (7) and the Airedale line (40). The old WYPTE Airedale line timetable used to include through trains to Morecambe and Carlisle, whereas the new Northern one does not. Getting rid of the WYPTE book is a big retrograde decision in my opinion and I'll be complaning too.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I have noticed over the past couple of timetable changes that the new timetables are very rarely on display until literally one or two days before they take effect, in the past they used to be out for a good couple of weeks beforehand. It might just be my own experience but I do wonder if, particularly with large changes, punters ended up reading the wrong ones and were disrupted accordingly, hence it's now done as late as possible?

 

[181]

This thread may be an appropriate place to mention, for the benefit of those who are interested and don't know already, that Middleton Press are now producing, in limited numbers, a comprehensive printed timetable as well as the summary version. The downside is that it costs £26 plus postage, and in order to give them time to check it (which will hopefully mean that it will be better than what NR provide on their website), it won't be available until January. I'm not sure whether I'll buy one twice every year, but I've ordered the current one.

 

[Andyh82]

I wonder if Northern should have tried to smooth it over a bit better by keeping the line names and colours in their new timetables, rather than introducing this complicated set of timetables, half being existing ones, half being new ones, so the Airedale Line would have still had a red book just in Northern style, rather than timetable 7 and timetable 40odd as it is now.

On a seperate note are VTEC the only operator that still does their timetables in the old British Rail/Intercity size that hasn't changed since before privatisation. I think everyone else including VTWC moved to the 1/3 A4 size, or have folded pocket ones only.