I rode the line westbound on Wednesday and made a few observations (some have already been stated).
Firstly the positives:
- when I visited everything was running like clockwork. It felt like a clean, safe, modern railway fit for the future. Appreciate that I was travelling off peak and loadings were probably lighter than normal due to the cancelled strike.
- Usage was very good already, even in the off peak. People seem to have figured out what’s going on and it’s clearly providing a very convenient service for many.
Now the less positives:
- I know this has been discussed to death on here, but we were at a stand for 4 minutes at Westbourne Park and then a further 4 minutes in Paddington itself. I know this is timetabled and is ‘temporary’, however this doesn’t stop it being frustrating. Despite the drivers announcement, I could see lots of people sighing/looking at watches. I think it will give the impression to many average commuters that the line is slow/not reliable (even though we on here know that isn’t the case)
- The above isn’t helped by the long dwell at every central station. At Stratford for example, after we arrived, an adjacent central line service pulled in, opened doors, closed doors, and departed all a good minute before our train left.
Does anyone know if the dwells will be shortened in May? I appreciate they won’t want to sacrifice reliability but when compared to tube services it does feel sluggish.
- Between Acton and Paddington, the screens all went blank and passenger information stopped. I presume this is a bug which will be fixed. They didn’t come on again until about a minute after arrival at Paddington. This meant no announcement that we were arriving at Paddington. Due to the slightly dark lighting levels, one couple almost missed the stop because the didn’t realise we were at Paddington until they walked to the doors and peered out.
- I agree with all the comments on here that the display screens in carriage should show a list of all calling points, rather than just the first 2/3. Or alternatively they could just have a message at the bottom saying ‘not stopping at X, Y, Z’ which would probably do the trick fine.
- I agree as well that the red strikethrough is not a clear way of indicating the stopping pattern on the platform edge doors. In fact, the red lines are faint enough that from a short distance you actually can’t see them at all, and thus it looks like the train IS stopping at Acton Main Line, Hanwell etc.
Rebranding some services as All Stations/ Semi Fast could be a good way to solve this if the timetable was consistent enough.
- the in-carriage maps really are too small. It doesn’t feel well designed - above the doors is a very wide space but only around 60% of it is used by the map - if the map extended the full length of the doors it could be much bigger and clearer. It doesn’t help that they are also trying to squeeze a central London tube map on the same panel, which is really tiny! I would suggest moving the central London tube map to another advert panel, and leaving the full width above the door for a larger crossrail map. I also agree that the notes about some services leaving from Paddington or Liverpool Street main line is unnecessary clutter on the in carriage map - this would be better conveyed by announcements/signage at stations.
If the messages must stay, I would suggest removing the dashed lines to Paddington/LST high level as these are the biggest source of clutter for a ‘normal’ user.
Overall I think these are minor points which I’m sure will be sorted out, and overall it’s a great railway (and will be even greater in May)
