Seen Around

Saturday 31st August 2024

(Non subscribing readers using smartphones to land on this webpage may have missed yesterday’s unscheduled extra blog. If so, here’s a link.)

And here’s another month’s round up of items spotted on my travels but not blogged about.

New Travel Information Centre opens

And first up this month it’s good news from Aylesbury with the “Red Group” of bus companies (Red Rose, Red Eagle and Redline) working together to open a new Travel Information Centre alongside the town’s dismal and dingy bus station.

But at least the Information office is nice and light if devoid of any literature for passengers to pick up. Well done to the Red Group for this very welcome initiative but now, how about printing some timetable leaflets and even a map of your combined network so it actually gets promoted. And, it will give Neil something to hand out.

One opens and another closes

Meanwhile over in Bluewater I was disappointed to see the Shopping Centre has closed its “Transit Centre” where in the good old days of bus companies wanting to encourage passengers there was always a display of timetable leaflets as well as real time departure signs inside the waiting area.

And, importantly, staff were on hand to help and advise which bay bus routes depart from. Since the “Transit Centre” come waiting room has closed there’s no display telling you this so you just have to walk all around the 12 departure bays (on both sides of the bus station) to find the one you want.

And there were also toilets available in the “Transit Centre” with the nearest now being on the first floor of M&S, which is at least a six or seven minute walk away.

GAIL’s ousts EMR’s ticket office

Confused train passengers wondering which of the two adjacent “National Rail ticket offices” at St Pancras need be dumbfounded no longer. Network Rail has closed the one on the right run by EMR so there’s room for an all important GAIL’s bakery – the new trend sweeping the well heeled middle classes in the Home Counties.

Obviously it means the GTR Thameslink run “National Rail Ticket Office” is much busier now, with still only a maximum of two of the four windows ever open, as most passengers won’t think to wander up to the first floor where they’ll find the replacement “National Rail Ticket Office” next to EMR’s platforms 1-4.

Except it’s now an EMT (rather than ‘National Rail’) Ticket Office and quite well hidden beyond Gregg’s…

… and with only one desk open for business; albeit it’s nice to see there are no glass screens to separate staff from passengers.

Greater Anglia seat puzzle

Travelling from Great Yarmouth to Norwich last week I was puzzled why the seats at the end of the coach next to the driver’s cab had each got an “i” symbol above them. Despite spending the whole journey wondering what it could mean I couldn’t come up with anything.

Ticket Inspectors make a come back

In all the hundreds and hundreds of bus journeys I’ve made since retiring over 11 years ago I’ve never had my bus ticket checked by a bus inspector. I suspect it’s because most bus companies got rid of them as a cost cutting measure years ago. But now I see First Bus in Norfolk and Suffolk (but not Essex?) are bringing back “officers” to reinstate ticket checks. What a novelty.

New look assistance buggy at MYB

As I passed through Marylebone the other day my eye was caught by this swish new Assistance Buggy doing its business – it certainly looked lest utilitarian than the usual golf cart type vehicles you see at other mainline stations.

Platform 7 at Inverness

Do trains ever use platform 7 at Inverness railway station? It’s located a long way from the station building and you have to walk through the car park to get to it. It’s also well outside the ticket barriers. Perhaps it’s for charter trains?

Scottish station toilet news

This month’s station toilet news comes from Scotland’s main termini including Aberdeen where the refurbished station has seen a rather dismal set up by the turnstile to gain entry with a change machine on the right hand side out of use…

… and a rather tatty notice instructing visitors to “PLEASE PAY HERE THANK YOU” but bizarrely no information about how much it is. I saw many people faced with this walk away, which is a shame, as the turnstile just turns round freely and despite the notice, the toilets were free to use.

As they also are at Oban station, if you know where to find them, hidden away at the back of the ticket office area …

… and I’m not sure they can restrict them to use by “ScotRail customers only” as, if challenged, anyone would say they’re waiting for a train. Still, at least they’re free to use, which is unusual for Scotland…

… as in Fort Williams they’re 50p to use…

… as they are in Inverness. Which I think is outrageous.

An app for a free bus

As I mentioned in last weekend’s blog, trials of an autonomous pod and bus are due to start next month to ferry passengers between Inverness Airport and the new Inverness Airport railway station. But in the meantime I spotted this notice in Inverness station advising passengers to download the Go-Hi app “and present your train ticket” to “enjoy a FREE bus connection”. Firstly you’ll be lucky if the half hourly bus times coincide with your arrival by train or plane and secondly why not just present your train ticket to the bus driver? Why bother with the faff of an app?

It’s not clear how passengers present a train ticket when travelling from the airport terminal to the railway station though. Just let them travel free for that short journey – if they’ve been bothered enough to wait for the bus.

Never mind travel by train – buy a car instead

Good to see Network Rail doing its bit again to encourage rail travel (sarcasm overdrive alert) over at St Pancras station earlier this month by allocating space to Renault to persuade all those hundreds of rail passengers passing by to switch mode and buy a car instead.

And on the same theme up in Aberdeen’s Union Square between the railway station and the bus station the area outside the shops had become a car showroom to promote motoring.

And I also noticed the retail units created when the station was refurbished remain distinctly empty.

Perhaps footfall is too small as too many former passengers have now bought a car.

Carmont Memorial

In that corridor devoid of active retail there is a commemorative plaque for the three people who tragically lost their lives in the Carmont derailment four years ago, which pertinently had been marked, when I passed through on the exact anniversary four years on, with flowers added in tribute.

Where’ve the headrests gone?

Travelling from Aberdeen to Kings Cross this month I noticed all the headrests in first class Coach L had disappeared. On previoous journeys some had lost their velcro and fallen away, but now it looks as though it’s a policy decision to get rid of them.

Northern’s delayed Delay Repay continues

An update on last months mention in “Seen Around” that Northern had failed to respond to my delay repay claim for a delayed journey home from Blackpool North on 26th June, to advise that the very day of that blog being uploaded I received an email from Sandra at Northern’s Customer Services confirming my claim had been approved and my Rail Travel Vouchers would be sent out.

As they’d not arrived by 16th August I wrote asking for an update and Sandra kindly replied to explain “there was an issue with the printing of the vouchers and this delayed getting them out to customers”. Next thing was instead of vouchers arriving I received the following email….

As still no vouchers had been received by 28th August I asked Sandra for an update and she kindly replied by return to say the vouchers had been dispatched on 19th August but she would resend some more, but knowing how poor Royal Mail is these days I emailed back suggesting holding off for a few more days only to receive another email yesterday from Joseph to say “we’ve found the vouchers … these will be issued today through first class tracked post”. No doubt I’ll be receiving another feedback request form by email on Monday.

Meanwhile LNER sent me my £145 worth of vouchers for the delayed journey to Aberdeen on 12th August which were received by me on 22nd August, so well done and thanks to them. I should also add that GTR companies are now excellent at sending out compensation – the quickest I’ve ever experienced – sometimes within two or three days of the delay being claimed.

You must reserve a seat on Thameslink

I was surprised to book an advance ticket with GWR for a journey from Hassocks to Bristol Temple Meads the other day and be told “you must reserve a seat for this part of the journey” from Hassocks to Farringdon. Err, no I don’t think so GWR.

A day out in Harthill

I was intrigued to see FlixBus promoting a day out from Glasgow to Harthill for just £3.99 on social media recently and wondered if the team know what they’re doing. Harthill is a service area between junctions 4A and 5 on the M8. Not particularly ideal for a day out although I’m not sure if FlixBus are aware you won’t be able to visit Harthill’s westbound servcies next month as CityLInk advised its passengers the same day as FlixBus were promoting the delights of a day out there. You could be stranded there for up to nine days.

Back in time with a hand written receipt

I was surprised when paying with a contactless credit card for a coffee on a journey back from Norwich with Greater Anglia last week that on asking for a receipt was told it wasn’t possible from the swish i-pad style tablet the refreshment trolley contained but then the host remembered she had a pad of paper receipts so she kindly wrote one out for me. A real memory jerker of times gone by.

Seat back tables are still missing

Back in May 2018 the DfT announced it had approved the retro-fitting of seat back tables on Thameslink’s Class 700 trains, admitting the original internal specification had been on the spartan side of comfort and convenience. It was gratifying to see action followed and most trains have now been fitted.

But you’d think over six years later the project would now be complete. But it’s not, as I sometimes still experience a journey on a train without any tables being fitted – and no Wi-Fi either – another promised retro-fitment. Either that or it’s just the one rogue train that’s slipped through the net and I don’t realise I keep catching it. I’ll have to spot the number next time.

Panel beating

I spent a half hour in Chatham’s Waterfront bus station on Tuesday and it didn’t take long to see the following….

… maybe the answer is for Arriva to have all buses in plain aquamarine blue with no lettering.

And do away with the white stripe thing too.

Maybe it’s even time for a livery change. Stagecoach and First Bus seem to be doing that very thing once again.

Useless station announcements

I got caught up in more chaos on the Brighton Main Line on Thursday when returning from Guildford via Gatwick Airport to Hassocks. A “safety inspection of the track” between Purley and Gatwick meant all trains were using the Redhill line so inevitably were significantly delayed. As I’ve reported previously at times of disruption, once again the auto announcements on the platforms were completely useless. On Gatwick Airport’s Platform 7, where I was waiting for a train to Hassocks, the announcement told us the “14:06 departure was delayed and the next fastest train would be the 14:22 Southern train to Littlehamton from Platform 6” (which I knew was well behind the 14:06 in the queue of late running trains through Redhill so was absolute rubbish) and all the more so as across the tracks over on Platform 6 I heard the announcement telling passengers the “14:22 departure was delayed and the next fastest train would be the 14:06 Thameslink train to Brighton from Platform 7”. Unwary passengers could have spent the whole time with their suitcases making the switch from one platform to the other. What makes it worse is since the refurbishment and expansion of the station the announcements detect if there’s interfering noise from another announcement on the next door platform as they play out and automatiucally increase the sound level, which in turn increases the sound level of the other one and so on… until they are both blasting out completely rubbish information on maximum volume.

I spoke to a dispatcher about it, asking if this didn’t drive her mad hearing such rubbish being spouted out all the time and now at full volume, and she said she and colleagues had told managers about it but they didn’t want to know. What a state our railways are in. Truly appalling.

DRT Update

I’m limiting my DRT obsession to one blog a month these days, so as that was taken up with the Village Connect launch in Aylesbury last week (and ignoring yesterday’s unscheduled blog extra from Surrey) I thought I’d squeeze in a few DRT oddments here. First, comes news of another expansion in Worcestershire with its Bromsgrove based scheme expanded from 12th August to cover a wider area including Wythall, Alvechurch, Stoke Pound and Stoke Prior.

Secondly, news that East Sussex’s FlexiBus has done away with its original ten, then seven zonal arrangement to instead have just one zone covering the whole county (minus journeys within Eastbourne and Hastings) and with a new 14 mile journey limit.

From this….

… to this.

That sounds good in that it removes the complication of having to know where the boundaries are which meant a change of bus but the problem is you now need to know the length of your journey and if not just try your luck until it accepts a destination that’s within 14 miles of your origin.

And thirdly, Greater Bristol’s WESTlink is changing from tomorrow. The Bristol north zone (“which is funded separately from the main part of WESTlink”) will have its 12 seater minibuses replaced by smaller seven seater vehicles “to see if the service can be run more cost effectively with smaller vehicles” and the Sunday service will be withdrawn (to come into line with the rest of WESTlink). Changes to boundaries are also being introduced to the Yate rural zone and a new shared zone for Wotton-under-Edge.

What were they thinking 1?

What on earth was someone in the social media team at National Express West Midlands doing posting this photo to encourage readers to take a bus trip on one of the company’s buses last weekend?

What were they thinking 2?

It’s good to see TfL promoting its excellent value daily bus fare cap but what a shame it decided to block the window for passengers sitting in seats towards the front of the top deck.

And even sadder, those that devise these marketing campaigns fail to pay the all important attention to detail….

…. when it comes to designing the messages for posting on to the buses themselves. It just looks so amateurish and slapdash, confirming the little thought went into it.

Fill up with a bus trip

More positive was this photo sent to me by Neville who spotted petrol pump advertising by Reading Buses for its Londonline and Flighline routes at an Esso petrol station on the Great West Road.

Catch me on Catch the Bus Month

BusUsers UK are celebrating Catch The Bus Month from tomorrow and while I’m more of a Catch The Bus All Year Round kind of guy I did take up the invitation from BUUK CEO Claire Waters to join her on part of her ride around TfL’s Superloop – in particular showing her where the loop falls into the River Thames in Woolwich. Watch out for Claire’s video coming next month on social media.

Britain’s Buses At Their Best

Also, watch out for a new documentary by renowned YouTuber Geoff Marshall launching very soon featuring Britain’s Buses At Their Best. One not to be missed. (You’ll have to be extra alert to spot yours truly in it.)

And there’ll be more Seen Around at the end of next month.

Roger French.

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras including the last for this summer tomorrow after which we revert back to the winter blogging timetable.

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