West Midlands Railway - Poor communication and information

[blakey1152]

I had the fortune to visit Bournville for a visit round a certain chocolate factory on Friday and I left there to attempt to catch a train from Bournville to Sandwell and Dudley (Changing at New Street).

Arriving there, the first thing I noticed is the train time information board only displays the destination of the the train (and it's calling stations) and how long before it arrives - it oddly doesn't show the time the service is actually meant to arrive.
Knowing that some offpeak tickets restrict people from using trains timed to depart before 0930 - in theory if a train arrives at 0933 but it's actually the one due at 0922 then any intending passengers may have issues if a ticket check is performed!
The next train was showing at being 12 minutes away (at this point, knowing no different I assumed I had just missed one)
About ten minutes later, the screen was helpfully saying there were now 2 trains both still 12 minutes away and just an announcement telling passengers that the 1508 train was delayed by 18 minutes due to trespassers.
This was the first time I knew what time the train was actually due!
Usually I would have been on my phone looking up real train times but not today as Bournville seems to be a no signal area for o2.

A few minutes later still and the standard announcement of sorry, this train is now cancelled plays.

Having no phone signal I had to resort to using help point for some information as I know that had this been in London that as soon as a trespasser incident or anything else with a potential long delay that the TOC organises ticket acceptance on local bus routes, so I kind of assumed that this would be the case here as well.

Wrong, first guy I spoke to misunderstood what I was asking only to tell me that local buses are running fine and then that the trains were also running fine - he then hung up.
So pressed the button again and was this time told no ticket acceptance on local buses and no information as to when trains would run again. I made the fatal mistake of enquiring about delay repay - to be told that I needed to go to the station I bought the ticket from and get a form.
I said that would be lovely, but there aren't any trains right now. Then he says he has a phone number I can call - so I told him I have no phone signal and then it went round in circles til I gave up.

Eventually a train did actually arrive but it was a good 45 minutes wait with zero information on exactly what was happening!
It was disappointing to see that as an outsider from London that simple information such as actual train arrival times and ticket acceptance in extreme circumstances doesn't exist in Birmingham on West Midlands Railway at least.

 

[trainophile]

They are just as poor with delay repay. You fill in their online form, answering all the questions, upload a photo of your ticket duly cut in half, and submit. An hour later you get an email saying you haven't given all the information required, and a link returns you to your claim form, which now includes extra fields that need completing (to be fair I would have expected these on the original but they definitely weren't there). You add the extra information, re-upload your ticket photo as requested, and the final page gives you the option of back to the form to finish filling it in, or "search". I pressed search as there wasn't a "submit" despite the verbage telling you to submit, and it did go somewhere. Another reply email saying my claim will be looked at in due course.

I tweeted them yesterday about this mishmash of a system but needless to say haven't had any sort of response.

 

[blakey1152]

I've not even got round to filling in the delay repay yet!
It sounds like another case of making it as difficult for the customer by making them go through hoops to get what they are entitled to!

 

[duncanp]

I think one issue is that the Help Point routes you through to National Rail Enquiries, who may not be based locally, or even in the UK.

So the person answering your call knows no more than they can see on their computer screen.

They do not have access to the control room at West Midlands Trains or National Express West Midlands buses, so they are not in a position to find out what is going on, or to try and organise ticket acceptance.

Very poor state of affairs, but this is not confined to the West Midlands.

In London, services run on behalf of Transport for London, can be co-ordinated more easily. A central control room can issue instructions to tube station staff or bus drivers via the radio regarding ticket acceptance, and many people have Oyster cards or are using contactless cards subject to a daily cap based on zones.

The Delay Repay red tape is quite obviously designed to put you off claiming.