Seen around

Thursday 3rd August 2023

It’s time for another round up of items I’ve come across over the last month which haven’t merited a full blown blog.

No pride in trains in Brighton

There’s been much comment locally about GTR’s decision to run no trains at all into Brighton this Saturday when the annual Pride festivities are taking place. GTR are between the proverbial rock and a hard place on this. With the ASLEF overtime ban there would be less trains than normal (that’s been happening throughout the dispute) leading to potentially dangerous overcrowding and leaving passengers stranded overnight in Brighton which would inevitably lead to the company being heavily criticised and potentially liable for risk assessment failings. GTR estimates a “capacity shortfall” of 85,000 passengers across the whole day with 20,000 of these occurring at the busiest travel period after 21:00. I can appreciate the company’s dilemma.

But what I find hard to justify is the lack of trains on both Coastway East and West as well as only operating as far south as Three Bridges on the Brighton Main Line.

It means journeys such as Ashford to Rye, Worthing to Chichester, Hastings to Eastbourne and Haywards Heath to Gatwick Airport are all off limits. I’m surprised trains couldn’t run to at least Worthing, Haywards Heath and Eastbourne from the west, north and east.

Travelcards to end by January

TfL has announced the result of its consultation about its planned abolition of the Day Travelcard. I can’t imagine anyone wrote in supporting the proposal, but in any event the decision is to go ahead with the plan to scrap the ticket which will be implemented by 21st January 2024. This despite objections from the Rail Delivery Group which pointed out in its submission to TfL 14.2 million Day Travelcards were issued from over 600 stations outside the Travelcard zone in the 12 months to February 2023. Of these 20% were Anytime Day Travelcards and 80% were Off-peak Day Travelcards.

Can you imagine a retailer ceasing to sell a product with 14.2 million annual sales – and one which is clearly serving a growing off-peak leisure market. This must rank as the number one crass decision in the transport world for 2023, and even of all time.

Ticket Offices consultation extended

Vying for that crass decision of the year top spot is, of course, the DfT and RDG’s “let’s close almost all ticket offices at National Rail stations” proposal for which Transport Focus and London Travelwatch have been inundated with responses leading to the consultation period being extended until 1st September with more than 170,000 submissions received. Imagine if your job is to read through and summarise that lot.

It’s interesting to see the RDG telling TfL in its response to the Travelcard consultation “withdrawing Day Travelcards could cause some potential users to question whether the alternatives represent value for money, in some cases they may simply not travel, leading to a reduction in revenue for both the Train Companies and TfL. In addition to the direct impact on these bodies, consideration should be given to the wider impact on the London economy. If passengers are deterred from coming to London, they will not patronise London shops or restaurants; they will not visit London theatres or cinemas.”

I’m thinking TfL could use the same very valid points back to the RDG regarding the Ticket Offices closure proposals.

Great work Karl

Now for some good news, a shout out to Karl Nutting who often emails me with news and updates and recently sent me a link to a great website he’s developed over the last couple of months with the help of his dad as an “unofficial one stop online bus timetable resource for viewing and downloading all bus timetables for the West Midlands”.

Karl’s doing a great job providing a nice clear listing of routes with easy access to pdf timetables as well as links to service changes and disruptions and to official websites for local operators. I’m always keen to encourage enthusiastic young people with an interest in the bus and rail industry to use their skills and talents, so well done Karl on the work you’ve done on this. A brilliant effort.

DalesBus delight

And some more good news from the hard working dedicated team behind DalesBus who have kept up their annual tradition of printing and distributing high quality promotional leaflets and timetables extolling the virtues of the fantastic network of buses they make available giving their time on a voluntary basis. I hope this summer, despite the weather so far, is another successful season for them. My thanks to Paul Kirby for sending through details.

GWR’s delay repay delay

Now, not so good news. I keep having problems with GWR’s delay repay people. It’s the worst rail company for customer service – certainly in my experience. My beef this month is with GWR’s delay in settling three outstanding delay repay claims for my trips to Didcot Parkway to ride the autonomous bus and to Exeter to visit the new Marsh Barton station some weeks ago. All three claims (Didcot was delayed both out and back) were deemed unsuccessful and I was instructed to provide additional information to customer relations so the claims could be reassessed.

But when I contacted customer relations they didn’t know what additional information the delay repay team wanted – passengers are not allowed to talk directly to GWR’s delay repay people. Two phone calls and an unanswered email for two weeks later, I was told I needed to provide details of my outward journeys in all three cases.

It turns out they can’t believe I travelled down to Exeter and was only there for less than an hour (to visit Marsh Barton) before returning. I’ve advised them to read this blog where they can see what I get up to and also see I’m referencing their incompetence at dealing with this matter, and will continue to do so until it’s resolved.

The latest twist was an email from Aqeel on Monday advising me I had to appeal the decisions despite there being no facility on the appeal to provide the additional information required – ie the outward journey. And when I tried to appeal the Didcot delays the software told me I was out of time. So I rang yet again and Finlay promised to escalate the matter – when I asked what that meant he said it meant I should hear back in 28 days. If that’s escalation I’d hate to think what normal service is.

I often wonder if long serving GWR managing director Mark Hopwood is aware of the incompetence he presides over.

I’ll provide a further update next month.

Southern Fail

Meanwhile I’m still waiting to receive a refund from Southern for the extra £14.80 I was forced to pay on 4th July when I couldn’t buy a ticket from Hassocks to the newly opened Marsh Barton and had to pay extra by splitting my ticket in London and Exeter. I emailed all the tickets to Southern and was promised a National Travel Voucher on 17th July but still nothing has arrived.

Southern’s Customer Relations Advisor Iain wrote: “I’m sorry to hear you weren’t able to purchase the ticket you wanted at the station or ticket machine. I have looked into your request and as the additional tickets have been used it is not possible for me to offer you a refund for these tickets, however i would like to offer you £14.80 in the form of non-cashable rail travel vouchers.”

Well, of course the tickets had been used as I bought them for that purpose I just wanted refunding of the extra costs of having to split my tickets in London. Hopefully the vouchers will arrive in the next 28 days. I’ll let you know next month.

What other retailer would overcharge you and then reimburse you with a non-cashable voucher? The rail industry just doesn’t get customer service at all.

Late update: Just as I was finishing off this blog for publication came an email from Customer Relations Advisor Andrew advising “I’m happy to confirm that we’ve used the address you’ve given us to get your £14.80 worth of vouchers sent out to you, these will be sent through our selected mail courier and you should expect to receive them in 5-7 working days.” And now he’s noticed I live in the Southern Rail area has explained the voucher can be cashed or added to a debit card but “the station where you wish to complete your transaction must be staffed”. Hurrah, case closed (assuming the voucher arrives).

Reading West upgrade latest

I was in Reading on Saturday and passed by the work to construct a new entrance building on Oxford Road to Reading West station. It’s a rather large structure for what has been until now an ungated minor station. The new building includes ticket gates and a retail unit but I assume not a ticket office – as if it does, it will be closed before it opens under current DfT/RDG thinking.

Reading Borough Council reckons the new building will “drastically change the nature of the area in terms of safety and security”. We’re also promised “a high quality bus interchange facility and improved cycle parking”. The scheme is being funded through £3.1 million of Local Growth Fund secured from the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP as well as £200,000 Section 106 contributions.

Southampton’s toilet convenience

It’s not that I’ve got an obsession with public conveniences and toilets on trains and in stations (see previous Seen Around blogs) but they are an important part of travel and I notice a huge difference in facilties as I travel all over the country.

These refurbished gender neutral facilities on Platform 4 at Southampton Central really impressed me.

Each self contained cubicle with toilet and washing/drying facilities is signposted on a helpful wall mounted diagram and have red and green lights above the door indicating availability.

I just hope they’re not subjected to vandalism or anti-social actions.

Meanwhile over in Bristol bus and coach station I was relieved that First Bus has now done away with expecting passengers to have a 20p coin to use the toilets, but I wonder if plans are in hand to remove the unsightly barriers/turnstile and the awful hazard tape.

Reservations about GWR’s seat reservations

I’ve made a few journeys with GWR this month and each time there’s been a problem with seat reservations not downloading. On one occasion the Train Manager was on to it straight away as passengers boarded at each station advising everyone to sit in any vacant seat, but on the other occasions nothing was said with the inevitable arguments from passengers about “your sitting in my seat”. It’s highly off putting when this happens and I wish all Train Managers would be like the first example. Better still, seat reservation indicators should always work.

Windows are for looking out of

Thankfully most bus and train companies have outlawed the use of ‘contravision’ from windows. It’s an awful practice and only reaffirms those that design and approve liveries which incorporate covering over windows never travel by bus.

Try sitting in this seat for an hour and a half from Brighton to Heathfield with this off-putting view to the sides.

Clock this

Clocks in bus and railway stations should always be accurate to the minute. This one in Preston bus station couldn’t even agree with itself what the correct time was.

Shutters come down in Bristol

I was sorry to see First Bus has closed it’s Travel Hub in Bristol bus and coach station.

But on the positive side at least it’s been replaced with a manned window for enquiries. However, it was so much nicer to have face to face contact without a glass screen barrier, and in the ‘good old days’ pre Covid, enjoy browsing and helping yourself to the display of printed paper timetables and a network map for encouragement to travel around the bus network.

Sparks fly in Bristol

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I popped into a shop called Sparks in central Bristol and saw the front end of a First Bus single deck bus.

Sparks is a former department store which has been converted into an Arts and Sustainability Hub with independent outlets offering retail and advice across a whole range of issues from fashion and energy to travel and food and drink.

It’s a fascinating venue to wander around. The transport section included the bus as well as information about the sustainability of buses, trains and active travel.

A great initiative.

Worcestershire Parkway success

In the week that sees both Thanet Parkway and Portway Park & Ride stations open it was interesting to see how well Worcestershire Parkway is doing from the number of cars in the car park when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

It seems such a shame the ticket office in the extensive station building looks already unloved and forgotten.

Let’s hope the extended period of consultation over the DfT’s and RDG’s ridiculous plans to close almost all ticket offices sees a more rational outcome that assesses each office individually rather than the sledgehammer approach of the original proposal.

Chepstow’s Community Initiative

And on ticket offices, it was interesting to see the facility at Chepstow station is run by the local community and although closed at the time of my visit is perhaps a model for others to follow.

Stansted stands out

Meanwhile at Stansted airport I was very impressed to see that alongside the bank of six or so TVMs was a four window ticket office (with two manned) and noticeably a distinct preference by passengers to use the facility. I know Gatwick is a much busier airport but it was a huge contrast to what you regularly find there (see below) – even though contactless and Oyster cards are valid to touch in and touch out for London bound journeys.

And before leaving the subject of ticket offices I was intending to give the Airport Bus Express from Stansted Airport to Stratford a try out, particularly seeing a coach pull in ready for departure as I arrived. It’s owned by the Italian company Autostradale Group (founded in Milan in 1924).

I popped into the shared booking office with National Express …

… and while the latter had someone behind the counter, Airport Bus Express only had a QR code which I couldn’t be bothered with as it led to its booking website which looked too complex for me and my smartphone in the short time before departure.

So I caught the train – which, with my Railcard, turned out to be cheaper anyway, (£14.45 instead of £15).

New departure screens for STP at last

After many weeks of waiting the new departure screens at St Pancras International station have at last been fitted and turned on. As with the previous signs, they’re split according to which of the four areas (International, Thameslink, Southeastern and EMR) of the station trains depart from but the colouring and clarity are a great improvement and for me are much better and easier to read than the new signs at Euston. There’s also a sign showing which way to walk to catch the train and how long the walking time is.

Shelter spot

This month’s bus shelter spot is the rather ornate ironwork which graced this shelter in Black Bull Lane Preston.

Sorry the photos aren’t very good, it took me by surprise but Google gives a beter image of the whole thing.

Meanwhile it’s nice to see some decent seats being incorporated into modern day bus shelters in a number of places these days, but it does make it awkward if you want to consult the timetable information in the cases behind where people are sitting, as here in Boscombe.

Over in Barnes, south west London, helpful information is now available advising passengers about rail replacement buses from the station….

… with much more on the bus shelter outside. Good to see SWR maintaining its high standards of presentation.

Colourful assistance buggies

It makes a change to see these colourful mobility buggies at Euston.

Much better than the boring Network Rail liveried ones.

How do they do that?

And finally for this month a non transport poser. I passed by the old Gillette factory on the Great West Road heading towards Osterley recently and noticed this suspended scaffolding around the top of the clock tower.

How on earth do they put that up …. and take it down?

More miscellany next month.

Roger French

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