My train arrived at platform 1, I jumped off and looked around for the departure screen. There isn't one! In order to see a list of services and where they will go from you have to go all the way down to the ridiculous golf ball thing at the end of the platform.
Oh, there
is one on P1, as others have alluded to. It's a 14" TFT though, strapped quite high to one of the canopy posts. Depending where you're walking down the platform, it's very easy to miss. I think they've opted not to bother putting too many signs up on P1, as it doesn't seem to be used very much under normal operation. I know a few years ago a 175 was timetabled to stop on P1 for 12-15 minutes whilst overtaken by a HST, but I think even that disappeared in recent years.
2 gets used by almost all westbound trains, 3 for most eastbounds except Bristol (and beyond) which mostly seem scheduled for P4.
I then noticed that half of the platform was marked as 'No access to passengers beyond this point'. When my connection, the Carmarthen bound HST pulled in, it went a long way past the signs prohibiting passengers to use that part of the problem, but everyone just ignored it anyway. Is the sign just to deter photographers?
This annoyed me last weekend. I was forced to change at Newport as a RRB service was running from Bristol Parkway, presumably due to work in the tunnel. HSTs were running from London to Swansea via the Great Way Round (Gloucester)*, and were coming in on P1. Annoyingly, despite the fact that before the station was redone (I have similar negative opinions as others!) buses would pull up to the front, they now seem to drive straight past the front entrance, turn right at the second roundabout, then pull into the rear car park, choosing to stop about as far away from the rear entrance as they can.
Arriving on P1 (which I'd been bussed past several minutes earlier) I was one of the daft people who decided to listen to the advice on the sign (such advice doesn't appear on 2/3/4) and wait right by the edge of it. When the HST pulled in, I had to leg it down the platform to reach First Class before the guard locked the doors.
When I used to travel from Derby to Swansea regularly, I much preferred to change at Newport.
I used to be a regular Nottingham to Swansea traveller, bar a couple of years where I was doing Sheffield to Swansea.
Standard Class is normally at the front and I found that a substantial number of people would alight from the HST at Newport meaning that if you moved down the platform (before rebuilding) there were usually seats available.
Before the rebuild, Newport was great for that. However, since the rebuild, coaches B/C are right by the stairs, so despite the number of people who alight, you're immediately fighting for space/seats with lots of people who are only going to Cardiff.
That's why these days I prefer to change at Cardiff. It's ever-so-slightly less easy there - rather than being same platform, it can be a mix of 3 or 4. Though as they're on the same island, it's not really much of a hardship. At Cardiff, you still find that people tend to hover around the top of the stairs, so tend to all get on around C/D/E (/F, or whatever they all are since the relettering started). Not many people tend to wander down to the westernmost end, so all those from Newport get off, and plenty of seats to choose from in A/B.
That said, I have noticed in recent years an increase in the number of people who will walk to the appropriate ends of the platforms at Cardiff to get a seat. It's still not many on 3/4 for the HSTs, but has become very noticeable on the XC 170s on Platform 1. I (used to, when I did it more often) know exactly where to stand in relation to the 2/4 car stop to be at the very front set of doors, and would be the only person up that end. Nowadays, there's often 20 or so people hovering around that end.
* EDIT - That annoyed me a couple of months ago heading south on a XC. The two-car 170 we were on was heaving leaving Derby, crush-loaded leaving Brum. I knew that the HSTs were running via Gloucester that weekend, and knew in previous years they'd stopped them there to provide a service to the locals. However, under the current timetable they seem to be non-stop through the station - much to my annoyance as I had to stay on this 170 in some quite horrible conditions as far as Newport/Cardiff.
The fact I had a HST off P1 last weekend (and hence something to moan about too!) sort of proves your point.