Cross Country Trains produce a useful PRINTED Timetable booklet again.

[Gaelan]

What would be handy, rather than paper, would be a version of bustimes.org for rail which allows any route timetable to be called up based on data as it stands for a selected date.

brtimes.com serves this purpose reasonably well for me at least. The only time I find myself reaching for PDF timetables on UK rail is when I specifically want to see the “standard” schedule and not the STP alterations.

 

[Sly Old Fox]

I much prefer a paper timetable, just as I prefer buying a ticket from the ticket office. I’ve never had a job that uses technology, and I went to school before it existed like it does now so I feel somewhat excluded if I have to use the internet for things.

 

[43066]

I’ve never had a job that uses technology

I thought you said you were a train driver?

It’s certainly one of the less tech heavy jobs out there but as a train driver I use a mobile to communicate with work, a WhatsApp group to share daily sheets/depot updates. We also do safety briefs presented on IT, and were expected to do them at home on our own equipment during covid.

We all use GSMR radios and driving most traction running around the network these days involves interfacing with a touchscreen TMS.

so I feel somewhat excluded if I have to use the internet for things.

Yet you’ve just posted that on an internet chat forum!

 

[Msq71423]

I have to say, I'm asked several times on every shift at my station in the north west, where the printed timetable leaflets are. When I refer them to online, the response is always one of disappointment, there's something about having an instantly available, printed timetable leaflet to thumb through that passengers seem to really like.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

where the printed timetable leaflets are. When I refer them to online, the response is always one of disappointment, there's something about having an instantly available, printed timetable leaflet to thumb through that passengers seem to really like.

The few people who go out of their way to ask for a paper timetable are the ones you'd expect to be disappointed when there isn't one.

 

[Sly Old Fox]

I thought you said you were a train driver?

It’s certainly one of the less tech heavy jobs out there but as a train driver I use a mobile to communicate with work, a WhatsApp group to share daily sheets/depot updates. We also do safety briefs presented on IT, and were expected to do them at home on our own equipment during covid.

We all use GSMR radios and driving most traction running around the network these days involves interfacing with a touchscreen TMS.



Yet you’ve just posted that on an internet chat forum!

Yes, I’m a train driver, not an IT guru. I can use an internet forum. We don’t do most of the things you listed above for work.

If I need to buy a ticket I go to the ticket office. To plan a trip I find it much easier to look at paper rather than a journey planner. In fact I never use a journey planner, they give stupid answers.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Not specific to paper but the main advantage for me of using a properly laid out timetable is that I can plan connections below whatever an online planner might suggest.

 

[J-2739]

I'd imagine most libraries have a computer to look it up, but these days who goes in a library?

Have you been to a library recently?

 

[Scott1]

Have you been to a library recently?

Not in about 20 years, and my local one closed about 5 yeas ago. Apprantly I'm one of many who hasn't bothered since the Internet became pretty much universal.

I'm a keen reader, but I can pick up a second hand book for 50 pence to a pound, and not worry about when I need to have it back by, so that really finished off needing a library for me.

 

[fandroid]

I used to avidly collect all the pocket timetables relevant to my local station, but found I was just not using them! Journey planners contain realtime information and that has saved me several pointless trips to the station during disruption that timetables would never warn me of.

Doing research for my colleagues I did find one set of timetables that were especially useful. (In downloadable PDF form). Those were for the East Midlands main line, in that the timetable identified not just train times but which trains out of St Pancras attracted Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak fares.

The PDF form was essential as I don't live in London and am on the wrong side for easy access to that TOC's stations.

 

[Techniquest]

I haven't used a paper timetable in a good while, save for a local Stagecoach South Wales one a good number of weeks ago. However, I have to say when I saw the XC timetables in Cheltenham today, I got a copy of both the ones they had in. It's stupid, I know, but I felt weirdly pleased at having a paper timetable again!

There's something oddly satisfying about planning potential journeys with a paper timetable, and I'm looking forward to doing just that soon!

 

[Master29]

I have a smartphone, and a tablet which I take on longer journeys, which I use both for planning trips and during journeys, however I also find paper timetables useful for seeing overall service levels, for example. If people do not wish to use paper timetables, fine, but do not denigrate those who for whatever reason do.

This exactly. I used both online timetables in combination with using a booklet when they were available. It might be a railway romantic type of thing but it's not an issue. Why all the finger pointing and gnashing of teeth over something like this is beyond me. If it costs more what does it matter to them if they aren't footing the bill.

Absolutly.

It is 2023 not 1953. Get a decent modern phone. Use an on line planner. It isnt hard.

If my partners mother who is of an age that one does not ask about can use on line bus and train timetbales AND twitter to lambast arriva for poor performance so can you!

There are no excuses.

Your opinion.

 

[Sealink]

Your Pocket Timetables - National Rail Enquiries

Create your own personalised printable PDF timetable. Up to 3 separate departure or arrival stations, selected days, dates and travel times to suite - and more

ojp.nationalrail.co.uk

Found it, it also kinda works as a mini-journey planner.
I'd accidentally stumbled across this a while ago and managed to re-find it.
I think this might be an amazing tool for assisting family and friends travelling.

My only issue with the Pocket Timetable is that you can only specify certain time scales, if they could do the whole day it would be better.
(Printing the "official" timetable of any route takes up reams of paper.)
Better still, all the TOCs should publish timetables again. It's easier to understand, apps are all well and good but sometimes you are out of data, there's no signal/Wifi etc. and I find it easier to absorb information from the printed page.

 

[Master29]

Decided to pick one up today. I so miss that new timetable smell.

 

[Techniquest]

Decided to pick one up today. I so miss that new timetable smell.

I just went and smelt my timetables, oh the nostalgia! Thanks for putting a smile on my face there, that smell brings back memories!

 

[Master29]

I just went and smelt my timetables, oh the nostalgia! Thanks for putting a smile on my face there, that smell brings back memories!

Absolutely it does. Might be considered sad by many but who cares. I just wish I kept the old NR timetables you could buy. I know you can still download them for free which is excellent but for someone brought up with paper. I always waited with baited breath for May and December.

 

[Techniquest]

Absolutely it does. Might be considered sad by many but who cares. I just wish I kept the old NR timetables you could buy. I know you can still download them for free which is excellent but for someone brought up with paper. I always waited with baited breath for May and December.

Ah well, let them think what they will. One has to feel sorry for them if they don't understand the joy a new timetable brings!

I know what you mean, I wish I'd kept one of my old NRTs. Waiting for them to come out and buy one in WHSmith at a station was always a highlight of the time period.

One of my ALRs, I think the 2011 one, was primarily carried out using paper timetables. The amount of them I picked up during the trip was nuts, I did have to use my primitive smartphone to check NRE a few times though. I don't remember if RTT existed back then, I assume not as I'd have no doubt used it otherwise.

You just can't beat flicking through a paper timetable, planning journeys online is the way to do it when it comes to booking, but for some pure old fashioned journey planning and wanderlust, it just can't beat a paper timetable!

 

[Brush 4]

Poster timetables would also help. Cardiff had neither posters or leaflets in 2021. If there has to be only one of these two options, Posters would be fine, in every station. Printing a few hundred posters distributed around every stop in a TOC's area, must be a lot cheaper than printing thousands of leaflets. So much easier and convenient though to have a leaflet in your pocket. It's there waiting, rather than a tiny screen where it has to be found, again and it is impossible to see everything at once and if you can, it is far too small to read so you have to zoom in and out all the time. Too much faffing to be worth anyone's time.... It is a classic case of 'if it's new, it must be better' syndrome. Blinded by science and long techy words that sound impressive but of course, are absolutely not.

 

[railfan99]

I agree with that but, at a point where we are looking for quick wins in terms of cost saving and supposedly can’t afford to give the staff a pay rise(!), what’s the point in wasting money on timetables that virtually nobody will use?

From overseas, I carry a printed European Rail Timetable with me because it's so much quicker and easier to use than a smartphone. Especially useful if there are disruptions, as it has good line maps as well that are easy to read, and importantly, comprehend to those of us unfamiliar with every intricacy of an alternative route.

Granted, not typical, but printed timetables have their place, especially for regular users who bring in guaranteed revenue but want to plan a journey at a slightly different time to the usual. Prined timetables allow a very quick scan of available options.

My local rural operator V/Line in Australia always has full poster timetables on display at every station. From memory, this (surprisingly) didn't appear to be true of British stations on my September 2022 visit.

 

[Clayton]

I’m on my phone or iPad the whole time but I like a printed timetable for getting an overview of the service. And I have a kindle but frequently go to the library!

 

[WAB]

My only issue with the Pocket Timetable is that you can only specify certain time scales, if they could do the whole day it would be better.

Yes, I really wish they would update it to make it user friendly. You used to be able to use the relics of the East Mids Trains to personalise the time periods, but that no longer works. It also throws up random error messages if you use it in a way it doesn't like. Having a traditional timetable layout, but filtered down to relevant trains, is very helpful when planning journeys.

 

[Sealink]

Yes, I really wish they would update it to make it user friendly. You used to be able to use the relics of the East Mids Trains to personalise the time periods, but that no longer works. It also throws up random error messages if you use it in a way it doesn't like. Having a traditional timetable layout, but filtered down to relevant trains, is very helpful when planning journeys.

They also throw up weird connections, like Weymouth - Bristol shows direct trains but also Weymouth - Southampton - Bristol for which the "normal" fares aren't valid.

 

[Master29]

Ah well, let them think what they will. One has to feel sorry for them if they don't understand the joy a new timetable brings!

I know what you mean, I wish I'd kept one of my old NRTs. Waiting for them to come out and buy one in WHSmith at a station was always a highlight of the time period.

One of my ALRs, I think the 2011 one, was primarily carried out using paper timetables. The amount of them I picked up during the trip was nuts, I did have to use my primitive smartphone to check NRE a few times though. I don't remember if RTT existed back then, I assume not as I'd have no doubt used it otherwise.

You just can't beat flicking through a paper timetable, planning journeys online is the way to do it when it comes to booking, but for some pure old fashioned journey planning and wanderlust, it just can't beat a paper timetable!

Hear hear.

 

[andythebrave]

Forgetting, for the moment, the cackhanded time restrictions on the all line rover the reason that I haven't had one for aeons is the lack of a printed timetable.

I have to admit that it also prevents proper examination of viable itineraries for my more regular journeys too.

 

[David Goddard]

Was delighted to see a rack full of XC timetables at Reading the other day.
Very useful for planning trips with multiple legs and assessing options, you can have half a dozen timetables spread out on the kitchen table ad work it all out very easily. Much better than "journey planners" which only do "point a to point b".
Have used a printed timetable on may an occasion to work out where to take a break of journey- "oh look that train calls at xxx just after 12- theres a nice pub there we can have lunch at" - and the next train to continue our journey is just after 2 perfect!

 

[MikeWM]

Nice to see the Stansted/Birmingham/Nottingham/Cardiff one at Ely and Cambridge today.

And actually turned out to be rather useful, as I picked one up at Ely, and then later I was leaving it rather tight to catch the XC, and only by looking at the timetable did I notice that for some reason they leave Cambridge one minute earlier on Sundays than the rest of the week. So I upped my pace and just caught it, else I'd have missed it. +1 for printed timetables

 

[RGM654]

Way up thread there was a link to the PDF version. I clicked it by accident but then had a look. Can someone with the paper one tell me whether it has the same as the PDF: on page 8, red blob B says "The ‘Features’ line will have specific details relating to each service, like if seat reservations are ecommended. See pages 10 and 11 for an explanation of the symbols used in this timetable."
But pages 10 and 11 are the second and third of the main timetable pages, with no such explanation.
There are some notes near the end on pages 59 and 60, but they don't seem to relate to the "Features".

 

[nw1]

I have a smartphone, and a tablet which I take on longer journeys, which I use both for planning trips and during journeys, however I also find paper timetables useful for seeing overall service levels, for example. If people do not wish to use paper timetables, fine, but do not denigrate those who for whatever reason do.

This. Paper/PDF timetables (and I'm bracketing the two together, as they present the same information) are a good way to get an overall idea of service patterns and stopping patterns.

For example the PDF timetable of XC referred to upthread gave me a very quick insight into the current service pattern.

I don't see what the objection to having them is. If you don't find them useful, don't use them - but don't try and close off the option to other people that do.

 

[43055]

Way up thread there was a link to the PDF version. I clicked it by accident but then had a look. Can someone with the paper one tell me whether it has the same as the PDF: on page 8, red blob B says "The ‘Features’ line will have specific details relating to each service, like if seat reservations are ecommended. See pages 10 and 11 for an explanation of the symbols used in this timetable."
But pages 10 and 11 are the second and third of the main timetable pages, with no such explanation.
There are some notes near the end on pages 59 and 60, but they don't seem to relate to the "Features".

Yes the PDF and printed timetables are the same.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I said we’re getting to the point where using the basics of technology is as important.

Unless you’re suggesting that someone who cannot use a computer, the internet, or even a basic mobile phone could have any kind of functional lifestyle in 2023? You would simply be excluded from many aspects of modern life; good luck getting any kind of job, for one thing.

Yes, how terrible to miss out on all the wonders of technology such as online abuse, viruses, scams, short attention spans, z-list celebrities and "influencers" and the general dumbing down of every aspect of society.

To get back on topic though, printed timetables are definitely far easier to use than online journey planners and probably quicker too. Getting rid of them was a false economy and now Cross Country have taken the lead, hopefully more TOCs will follow suit.