TOC Websites - The Good, The Bad, And The Upgraded (FGW)

[fgwrich]

Firstly, sorry if this isn't in the correct section - feel free to move it if it isnt!

Down to the point, spending several minutes trying to navigate my way around First Great Westerns awful new website got me thinking, in your opinion - Which TOC has the best website? (And this covers anything from easy to navigate to the design and layout to the the information on it - the whole site really!)

As for my opinion - FGW did have one of the best around, but sadly this 'upgrade' really seems to have become more of a downgrade...

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/

 

[moonrakerz]

Usual thing - "change" is a sign of "thrusting" management, not old fashioned stuck in the mud people :roll::roll:

If it works - "improve it". If it doesn't work, don't touch it, it may well blow up in your face and you will get the blame.

The "new" home page:-

"Leave after at" - very impressive and professional !!!! English as she is spoked.............

 

[fgwrich]

Usual thing - "change" is a sign of "thrusting" management, not old fashioned stuck in the mud people :roll::roll:

If it works - "improve it". If it doesn't work, don't touch it, it may well blow up in your face and you will get the blame.

The "new" home page:-

"Leave after at" - very impressive and professional !!!! English as she is spoked.............

Nice one! I hadn't noticed that in the blandness earlier!

 

[causton]

Surely it is "Leave after 09/12/2011 at 0930"?

 

[wintonian]

Surely it is "Leave after 09/12/2011 at 0930"?

In which case the earliest this person wants to travel is the 10th.

 

[brillopad]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I still can't find live updates - only station updates.

 

[BigVince76]

I just tried to book Exeter to Slough tickets on it, it said it was an invalid search, I got my tickets elsewhere.

 

[wintonian]

All the useful information about rovers and associated leaflets have disappeared.

As such the restrictions for the Thames rover seem to no longer be available on the website and NRE doesn't list them so does that mean it is now unrestricted in the evening peak as the information is no longer in the public domain?

 

[Aictos]

FCC's website is vastly improved compared to the old one.

 

[wintonian]

FCC's website is vastly improved compared to the old one.

Really?

So what do you see as the improvements?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

The current (new-ish) Hull Trains website is an infinate % better than the old one!

 

[imagination]

As for my opinion - FGW did have one of the best around, but sadly this 'upgrade' really seems to have become more of a downgrade...

I would have to agree with this. On the old site the current significant issues affecting the network (which in my view is one of the four most important things to have, along with buying tickets, live departure boards from individual stations and timetables) was prominently featured on the main page. Now it doesnt seem to even exist. And now the ONLY thing visible when you enter the page is to book tickets. The big pictures that take up the entirety of the rest of the screen are simply wastes of space as far as the typical user is concerned.

 

[moonrakerz]

I didn't know that a new website was being prepared. This may also account for problems I have noticed over the past few days where it was telling me that perfectly correct entries that I had entered were invalid station names !

 

[Schnellzug]

I must admit, I rarely ever look at TOC's individual websites, I usually use NRE, so i couldn't really compare it with what it was like before.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I still can't find live updates - only station updates.

"JourneyChecK" takes you to live updates, it appears. For instance, currently we have

1 Line Update

Line problem: between Didcot Parkway and Swindon.




1 Train Cancellation


14:55 Cardiff Central to London Paddington due 17:09

*frown*


--

While worryingly, it also says
"12:21 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 15:11



Toilets are not available at both ends.
This is due to a train fault. "

 

[jon0844]

FCC's website is vastly improved compared to the old one.

And when they first launched the new site, a lot of pages disappeared that did return later. However, the online forum became a lot more hidden and they don't seem to give much notice of the next one (I guess they will one day claim there's barely any usage besides me and Peter Skuce and stop it completely).

I do wonder if FCC forgets that it has a much more simplified website for mobile users though? Often during disruption, they advise people to check the website - but then you only get the simplified page that has very limited info on problems.

You can click through to the full desktop site, but obviously that can be rather hard to navigate on some phones - and slow AND cost a fortune in data charges. I guess FGW will probably have the same setup here (will try later).

It's fine to offer a simplified layout, using CSS, for a mobile but it's silly if you actually just cut all the content to make it easier to read!

 

[387star]

Looking at the Hull Trains site I wasn't aware the 180s are nor fitted with leather seats in First Class like FGW

 

[louis97]

The new FGW website has loads of holes in it, lots of information is missing such as information on Rangers and Rover tickets, new timetables are also missing, and the engineering works page is showing information from the beginning of November! Inaddition to this I found that when I tried to find ticket information, it never sent the information about the railcard I had selected.

 

[Greenback]

The new FGW website has loads of holes in it, lots of information is missing such as information on Rangers and Rover tickets, new timetables are also missing, and the engineering works page is showing information from the beginning of November! Inaddition to this I found that when I tried to find ticket information, it never sent the information about the railcard I had selected.

This appears to be fairly normal when websites are upgraded or improved to be more easily visible on mobile devices.

I have no objection to this sort of improvement, as long as it's done competently but it's irritating that it seems not to be done right so often.

 

[SS4]

This appears to be fairly normal when websites are upgraded or improved to be more easily visible on mobile devices.

I have no objection to this sort of improvement, as long as it's done competently but it's irritating that it seems not to be done right so often.

London Midland managed it so it can be done. As for mobile websites there should always be a button to take you to the full site IMO

 

[Greenback]

London Midland managed it so it can be done. As for mobile websites there should always be a button to take you to the full site IMO

Indeed it can, and I'm full of admiration for those that do manage it! I also agree about the button!

 

[wintonian]

And a button for the mobile site for those devices that don't automaticaly go there.

Sent from my HTC Desire S

 

[All Line Rover]

I agree that the new FGW website is awful - people don't want to see pretty pictures that take up most of the screen when trying to find out information about their journey! The way to you are forced to scroll down the entire screen is a very poor design.

I don't have experience of using all TOC websites, but the ones I do use are in this order - from best to worst:

1. Virgin Trains. Good points: Simple, appealing layout and colours and a great design by having information layered on top of a nice pretty picture. Bad points: The website lacks a lot of information compared to the old one, and who on earth would think that Timetables can be found under "Travel Updates"?)
2. Arriva Trains Wales. Good points: Lovely, appealing layout and colours (if you have AdBlock and use it to customize it slightly), easy to navigate, enough detail. Bad points: The advert at the top of the page is horrendous (if you don't have AdBlock, that is ).
3. East Midlands Trains. Good points: Easy to navigate, lots of information, simple and functional. Bad points: A bit boring?
4. London Midland. Good points: Lots of information, fairly easy to navigate. Bad points: It can be difficult to find specific pieces of information.
5. CrossCountry. Good points: Quite detailed, lots of information, not too difficult to navigate. Bad points: Looks cheap. has some design flaws and has a terrible booking engine.
6. Southern / Southeastern. Good points: None (that I can think of). Bad points: Really, really confusing to navigate, difficult to find the information you are looking for and terrible Network Maps.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Surely London Midland's and Southern's are almost identical (not SE's, I'll give you that)?!

I don't like EMT's website, but I am quite fond of Northern's.

 

[All Line Rover]

Surely London Midland's and Southern's are almost identical (not SE's, I'll give you that)?!

I don't know why, but I've always found LM's website to be more "logical." Southern's is just confusing! Perhaps that's because they run a more complex TOC, but it's still confusing.

 

[SS4]

Unfortunately none of them seem to recognise that people have monitors wider than 1024 pixels so there are two vast white bars on the sides which makes the middle look cramped. RailUK manages to use all 1440 pixels of width

 

[moonrakerz]

I have just tried to actually use the new FGW site - what a load of "horse manure" !!

On the old site if you typed in the 3 letter code for a station it immediately came up with the full name - you just hit "return" to enter that as your required station.
On the new site if you enter (for example) " WAT" (London Waterloo), the first choice you get offered is Blackwater (BAW) - London Waterloo is the TWENTIETH choice on the drop down menu that also appears - AND this is when you enter the correct code ! 4 places above this is Canada Water (ZCW)............!!!!!!

Anyone recommend a good TOC site ?

 

[Greenback]

I'm not impressed with the new site at all. I think the best thing we can hope for is that it will improve with time.

I think it comes from the National Rail school of web design.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

In fairness, FGW have taken the quite good choice of structuring the search engine as every other is, and is searching for any stations containing the letters WAT. That is best for the majority of passengers who have no idea what the 3 letter codes are.

 

[87015]

In fairness, FGW have taken the quite good choice of structuring the search engine as every other is, and is searching for any stations containing the letters WAT. That is best for the majority of passengers who have no idea what the 3 letter codes are.

So the vast majority of passengers are going to put in WAT when they are looking for Blackwater or Bridgwater? Err, OK.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

So the vast majority of passengers are going to put in WAT when they are looking for Blackwater or Bridgwater? Err, OK.

The vast majority of passengers will just type in Waterloo, which it will bring up, rather than using the 3 letter codes :roll: