Yes, I've had that problem at several Southern stations from well before Covid - for last 3+ years etc. Really annoying. I suspected it was part of an effort by the TOC to do much reduced print runs or the phasing out of paper TT's. Platform racks at East Croydon used to be a good source in the past.
Well, personally I haven't got a printer, and of course there will be many people (several of them no further away than my own direct relatives) who would not even be able to find them on the internet etc. And I don't have the sort of mobile phone that allows them to be read or looked up on the move. But of course I accept that for many people they are redundant (a bit like railways themselves perhaps...)
And I trust you have little sympathy for any other sorts of skills deficiencies too? There's lots of reasons why you have to provide info in a range of way for a range of users if you are running a public service, funded by taxpayers some of whom may not be able to access certain methods of information but are not permitted to 'opt out' of the taxation that funds the service. This is different from say, the budget airline model where you can, if you wish, move to say a web only model of information / booking on the basis that you do not want the business from the potential customers who are unable to engage with the way you have chosen to offer your product.
A timetable gives you am immediate view of issues like frequency while a journey planner requires you to search deeper to see what happens if you miss your connection. Are you sitting in the middle of knowhere having missed the one connection of the day or is there another coming along in 10 minutes?
well, that's putting it to good use IMHO - lots of posts on here that ask for times from various past eras after all (a query ref 1924 services from Liverpool to York has recently been responded to on another thread). If no one keeps such things it will be harder in 80+ plus years to answer such a question.
Indeed. I haven't actually used my collection for anything yet though, and it's hardly complete! Unfortunately (to return to the original topic) I haven't seen any since March on my (infrequent!) travels.
It is ridiculously easy except when the technology fails, which, alas, is all too often, or is presented online in such a way that it takes a ridiculous amount of research to get correct and up-to-date information. TOCs are well aware of this, of course, and cynically exploit it with the most complicated fares structure in the world, one in which they of course hold the whip hand. The situation is even worse in the bus world, where finding both times and fares for any given bus route outside the major urban areas could take you all day with, even then, a good chance you don't have up-to-date info. Any decent, honest, responsible public transport operator will continue to offer information by paper print, whether it is provided at no cost to the customer or not.
I recall Barry Doe, (post above reminded me), complaining about Scotrail's policy not to have printed ones sometime before covid / lock down. Maybe last year IIRC.
Sadly not even Transport for London bother with printed timetables. For example, if you wanted to see a printed timetable for the TfL Rail services between Reading and Paddington you had to pick up a GWR T10 timetable booklet.