Printed Timetable availability

[route:oxford]

It's time to end the "Think of the old & disabled!" nonsense when it comes to tech - it's a nasty and abusive stereotype.

My colleague is stone deaf in one ear. He's just had a bluetooth transmitter fitted to his left ear than transmits to his right - he no longer sits in the corner seat facing a wall as that was the only way he could hear the rest of the office banter.
My elderly neighbour is registered blind. He's got a 65" telly on his wall - he can finally enjoy tv *and* browse things like rail timetables with his limited vision - as well as scanning letters from the Council and have them displayed as a PDF.
A good friend bought his 99 year old Grandmother an Echo Dot for Christmas last year, her arthritic hands couldn't quite manage the knobs on the radio or mobile phone screen anymore - her voice could still ask Alexa to play Radio 4 or call her favourite Grandson though.

The truth is that tech has delivered far greater benefits to people who have reduced senses, faculties, abilities or mobilities than anything else over the last 25 years.

As to job centres, they should be downsized to the bare minimum to only cover people who are dangerous, the advisors should be going out to the homes of job seekers and doing the interviews there.

 

[Darandio]

As to job centres, they should be downsized to the bare minimum to only cover people who are dangerous, the advisors should be going out to the homes of job seekers and doing the interviews there.

It's very different to the old days where you actually had a fortnightly interview of half an hour or so, were assisted with jobsearch and presented with tailored vacancies. Caseloads are now so large that appointments are down to 5 or 10 minutes, there is no way advisors could do house calls.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Struggling to break through the distractions of job centres...

As a lifelong lover and collector (and specifier) of printed timetables I really must encourage those still hestitating to embrace mobile technology (to which I was a late convert).

Three times this week I have made long and complex rail trips via multiple operators, carefully planned in advance from 'GBTT print format' pdfs and with fistfulls of printed derivative timetables on my person (still easily picked up from overflowing racks at many stations along the way in my personal experience).

In all three cases my journeys were disrupted by late running and missed connections early in the day. Attempts to re-plan on the hoof with printed timetables were then checked against emerging reality via RTT* on my iPhone* with the realisation that even 'Plans B' wouldn't work. Frankly there is so much random disruption on todays capacity-stretched railway (quite apart from emergency timetables, engineering works, strikes, special events and whatnot that never make it into the printed versions) that unless one is making a very straightforward point-to-point journey you may as well just use an electronic device. (*Alternative similar products are available.)

And BTW, I live in a remote rural area with a very patchy mobile phone signal. However, once you are out and about on the network this problem rarely seems to persist for long when you actually need it, e.g. approaching Birmingham, Reading, York or wherever.

 

[geoffk]

Been out on my twice-yearly collection of timetable leaflets, in my case principally Manchester and Leeds. Neither the XC nor TPE leaflets were in the racks at Piccadilly today. I was directed to the ticket office but, seeing the queue, I decided it was quicker to jump on a train to Stockport (free for TfGM passholders) and get them there, which I did. The same situation there, empty racks, so I enquired at the ticket office (no queue), where they were promptly produced. The ticket clerk told me they had been "instructed" by TPE not to put leaflets in the racks! (Yes I do have a computer and internet, a printer and a supply of paper but I would get through a lot of paper and ink cartridges, and probably sellotape to stick the lot together.)

 

[Techniquest]

Well while I'm enjoying some beers on a day off, I stumbled across this thread. It's interesting because I had a rare need to use RTT earlier, and upon arrival in Gloucester I picked up the GWR timetable for their Cheltenham to London services.

As much as 'tech' is useful in this day and age, I still found it far easier to use a paper timetable. Now I know it's an hourly service, I intend to use the route, with connecting bus service, next time I head to London. I must remember to pick up the Hereford to London timetable tonight...

Paper timetable pick-ups are common for me too!

 

[duffield]

Er, and a computer.
...

You don't need a computer to have a printer any more. 'Cloud' printers let you print from your phone.

 

[duffield]

Yes - many printers can be bought cheaply - but the operating costs (inks, etc.) can be horrendously expensive.

But printing a timetable for one or two routes a twice year isn't going to cost much.

 

[geoffk]

I realise now that the lack of TPE leaflets on racks is probably that they have put in a temporary timetable with many of the Liverpool trains cancelled.

 

[Geswedey]

When I worked in a Railway Control office I couldn't have done my job without a printed timetable in front of me, and my TOC was one of the few that still had PDF engineering work timetables on the web although we didn't often print them out they were a darn site easier to use than relying on journey planners.

printed timetables are also better for comparing different journey opportunities than journey planners.

 

[Butts]

The latest Scotrail ones seem to be printed on lower quality paper. They are no longer glossy but more of a matt finish.

 

[route101]

The latest Scotrail ones seem to be printed on lower quality paper. They are no longer glossy but more of a matt finish.

Noticed that too , do find it funny Glasgow Queen St has the bigger selection of timetables than central.

 

[SAPhil]

What annoys me is not the absence of printed timetables (I miss them but I understand the reasons) but the absence of pdf versions of the complete timetable. On the Thameslink line there used to be a single pdf for all services available. now there are only pdfs of the pocket timetables for the different routes. Usually timetable 02 (Bedford, Luton and St Albans to London) is sufficient for me so I keep the latest copy on my phone/tablet, however sometimes I want to go/return from somewhere else on the Thameslink network and don't have the relevant timetable to hand. I think I would need 4 separate timetables to cover all bases rather than one for everything. I'm guessing it wouldn't be too difficult to produce one (it's basically what gets pasted on the station walls) so why don't they?