Why Do Web Sites Get Redesigned?
I’ve used the East Midland Trains web site, many times in the last few years and have found it excellent.
But now it has had a makeover and I had to have a couple of attempts to get my tickets for the Ipswich match at Derby.
I always book a return in First Class, with the outrun being timed to get to the destination by something like 14:00 and then a fetch after 17:00 to get back to London. Usually, this is because, I won’t find anything to eat in the destination and so go straight to the ground. As Pride Park is close to Derby station, this would definitely be the case at Derby.
But the site kept telling me, I’d put in the wrong times, as I suspect someone had got his checking wrong. It was only, when the site handed me over to the ticketing engine behind the booking site, did I get some sense.
In the end, I’m travelling from London to Derby and back for the extortionate price of £29. And that’s in First Class with tea and drinks! If there are any snacks, I’ll forgo them, as they won’t be gluten free.
Buying A Transport Ticket In Lisbon
I tried to buy a ticket after a coffee in Black Horse Square, where tram route 28 passes through. But there was no information, although someone tried to sell me a ticket for one of the bus tours.
So in the end I got one of the new trams to one of the Metro stations. I bought the ticket for this tram on-board using a few euro coins.
At the Metro station, I found a machine, that after some co-operation with an Austrian lady, I cajoled into giving me a 24 hour ticket. lonely Planet says there are kiosks for these tickets, but I didn’t find one.
A Great British Compromise
This is the title of an article in Modern Railways which discusses how you measure how late trains are.
The trouble is that what is late to passengers is very different to what is late for the train companies.
Take these scenarios.
1. You are wanting to catch a particular train at 10:00 and you get there at that time, just as the train is moving off. You’ll be annoyed and ask why couldn’t the train wait. But then to the train company, every time they’re late away means they’ll have to catch up somewhere to avoid their punctuality figures being ruined.
2. If train timetables had contingencies, they’d all wait regularly, so they left and arrived on time. Do we want more time to sit and twiddle our thumbs?
3. What passengers like too, is being early and how many times, have you waited outside a terminal station for a platform, before arriving dead-on the correct time?
4. You’re catching a connection at somewhere like Ipswich and you have two minutes to get the other train. But you’ve got a heavy case and you’ve got to get across the overbridge, which has got lifts. The lifts however are busy with someone in a wheelchair and you miss the train you need to catch. Who’s fault is that?
You can probably think of many other scenarios.
You get annoyed because of the lost time, but rail companies get their statistics mucked up. You might not travel that way again and the train company is out of pocket.
So we have two possible solutions.
1, We either build enough slack into the timetables, as they do in some other countries, so that the trains always arrive and leave as the timetable says. But this means a lot more thumb-twiddling.
2. We adopt a good British compromise, with give and take on both sides.
If we go for the second option, passengers must accept that occasionally they will be late, but sometimes they will be early. So you win some and lose some.
There are also a few responsibilities, that the second option places on both parties.
1. The first is a variation of the mirror-in-the-lift solution. I can’t find a full reference, but there is this post on Yahoo Answers. Basically giving people something to do, makes the waiting shorter. So perhaps a cafe and a toilet would help pass the time. Even good informational posters will help!
2. Train companies must also provide information in a timely manner. I was on a train recently and as it approached a stop, an announcement told passengers wanting the train to Somewhere, that it was on Platform 3 over the bridge or whatever.
3. Some station signage is also pretty poor. If you get the Overground from Stratford, you walk up the stairs and there are often two trains at the top. So do you go left or right? A simple next train out sign, like several Underground stations have, would solve the problem.
4. Passengers should be prepared and if they don’t know what to do, then they should leave themselves more time.
So it’s all give and take and if we get it right everybody wins.
Crazy Ticket Prices
Yesterday, I went to the football at Ipswich. I’ve always found evening matches difficult and expensive, as I’ve never really found a sensible gluten-free restaurant or cafe in the town and usually I have to pay through the nose, to come out of London in the rush hour. Yesterday though, I decided to come early on the four o’clock train and then go to Woodbridge to have a curry in the Royal Bengal by the station, before getting a train back to Ipswich for the match.
I’d expected to have to buy two return tickets, one for Liverpool Street to Ipswich and return and another for the short journey between Ipswich and Woodbridge. But I was sold a return from the Zone 6 Bounday to Woodbridge for just £20.95. This compares with the two tickets I bought on Saturday to get to Ipswich for a total of £18.25. So the extra journey to Woodbridge cost me £2.70. An Off Peak Senior Day Return would appear to cost £2.80 bought on the Internet.
So it would appear I got a bargain. There was also no problem using the effectively one ticket to do two journeys.
I also saved twenty pounds by not travelling in the rush hour, which was enough to pay for the meal.
It would be nice to have a decent gluten-free restaurant somewhere between Ipswich station and Portman Road.
Ridiculous Ticketing
I went to the football at Ipswich today. at least the trains were running normally and after a late breakfast or was it an early lunch, I caught the 13:30 from Liverpool Street station. Before I’d left home I’d tried to buy the ticket I’d wanted which is an Off Peak Return from Harold Wood to Ipswich, but for some unknown reason the computer wouldn’t let me choose this ticket. Why Harold Wood incidentally, you may ask? The reason is that my Freedom Pass takes me that far and so I just need to buy the extra.
So I had to buy the ticket in the booking office at Liverpool Street station. Usually, they sell me an Off Peak Return from Harold Wood to Ipswich, but this time, they sold me back-to-back Off Peak Returns from the Zone 6 Boundary to Manningtree and from Manningtree to Ipswich. The cost was £18.25. Two weeks ago, I was sold one ticket for the journey from Harold Wood to Ipswich at £20.95. I questioned this with the clerk and he said this was the best deal.
On the train, just like I usually do, I upgraded to First Class at a cost of £7 each way. But this did give me pretty good free wi-fi and a soft drink or coffee if I wanted one.
My reason for calling it ridiculous is that if I want a First Class Off Peak Return ticket, why can’t I buy one in one go on the Internet? I know that my Freedom Pass only gives me Standard Class to the Zone 6 Boundary, but surely they could have two Senior First Class tickets, one for those with Senior Railcards and Freedom Passes and one for those without the Freedom Pass. Properly priced and thought through, it might actually be a big seller, as quite a few of those in their later years spend money on the better tickets.
As it is I bought the First Class Upgrade on the train and got yet another orange ticket. I was also issued with a Penalty Warning on the way up to Ipswich. According to the Inspector, this was Department of Transport rules, but I’ve never had one before.
Ridiculous Ticketing
I do wonder how much all this paperwork costs GreaterAnglia and their passengers in extra charges. But at least all of the staff I met, were extremely curteous and had my needs uppermost in their mind. And the clerk saved me £2.70.
The system would probably be easy to implement as everything is computerised.
If you are buying a ticket on the web, it would just be necessary to check a box to say you had a Freedom Pass.
If you’re buying at a Ticket Office, the clerk needs to see your Freedom Pass anyway to give you the right ticket. He would do the equivalent of checking the box.
The orange ticket would instead of having SNR have another code of perhaps SNR* to indicate it was only valid with a Senior Railcard and a Freedom Pass.
Not The Best Automated Text!
When I booked my ticket on Virgin Trains yesterday, I got them to text me the details.
It was a two stage process, which as they had my mobile phone number seemed a bit pointless, unless they were harvesting it to make sure, they’d got the right one to send me marketing spam.
But on the phone I use, it was useless as you can’t read the stupid eight digit reference number from the message and type it into the machine at the same time, as it’s not the first line of the message, which is where it should be. You’re of course half-way through typing it in and the display of the phone switches itself off too.
It would be so much better, if you could say which reference number you wanted, when you booked. That way, you wouldn’t need to write it down. But I suppose they wouldn’t get your mobile phone number.
In the end, I did send the phone a message of my own from my computer with the reference number. But this new phone, unlike my superb Nokia 6310i, only shows messages in the Inbox, by who sent them and not by the first line, if it doesn’t recognise the number.
Such is Nokia’s ten years of product improvement!
I suppose I could write the number down, but I haven’t for years, as I could always handle it with the Nokia 6310i!
To be fair to Virgin Trains, they’re probably no better or worse than all the other companies.
It’s Not Just The Dutch That Get Rail Ticketing Wrong
We always think of the Swiss as being clever and efficient, but according to this report on the BBC web site, they seem to have trumped the Dutch by bringing in a ticketing system, that is even worse, than the one I described here.
One thing that never seems to work with these systems, but does usually work well in the UK, is how the system deals with the occasional problem or a traveller, like the man I met, who was using a London bus for the first time in his sixties, despite living there for years. In his case, the probably very friendly bus driver was able to help him out.
I’ve had a case on the train from London to Ipswich, where I had got on the train with the wrong ticket. I can’t remember exactly why, but it may have been that I’d punched the wrong button on the machine, when I bought the ticket. In Switzerland, now, that would now mean a fine of £133, but the inspector sold me the appropriate upgrade and even took into account my Freedom Pass and Railcard. Ticket inspectors are the first line in both protecting the revenue and making the customers happy.
Let’s hope British train companies don’t do any of these.
1. Bring in swingeing fines for genuine mistakes.
2. Abandon the simple orange tickets that everyone understands.
3. Insist that everybody has a smart phone.
Point two has so many simple advantages other than the obvious one of familiarity. Imagine your ninety-year-old mother lives in Edinburgh and you want her to come to you by train. You just post her the ticket and seat reservation and tell her to get to Waverley at the appropriate time. It usually works well, as the tickets are of a size and type, that don’t get lost and are easily understood. They can also be easily shown to staff, which can’t always be said for a display on a smart phone.
Dutch Train Tickets
I think it is true to say, that Dutch train tickets and how you purchase them will be rather strange to many British travellers.
The use of credit cards is actively discouraged and for example, you’ll pay a surcharge if you can find a machine that accepts cash or credit cards.
No machine seems to accept notes.
At least at a few stations, like Den Haag Central and Schipol, there will be a ticket office, but I never found it at Den Haag HS.
I don’t know what you do there, if you haven’t got a debit card!
I did buy a ticket at Den Haag Central ticket office, but I was in a queue for twenty minutes. Just imagine, the flak a UK train company would get if you had to wait that length of time for a ticket. And we’re supposed to like queues!
I’ve used machines extensively in Italy and the Dutch system is certainly inferior. It’s also very foreigner friendly with several languages being shown. The Dutch use just two; Dutch and English.
On my way out at Schipol, I met a student from Delft University, who was researching the ticketing on Dutch trains. He was effectively being a ticketing advisor to all of the foreigners coming into the airport and wanting to take a train from the airport. When I last came into Gatwick, there were three Transport for London employees to make sure travellers got the right ticket advice.
Is it rather arrogant to expect visitors to your country to immediately know how buy tickets in a language they’ve never seen before, from a strange machine, which won’t accept cash or credit cards? A New Yorker wouldn’t be able to pop back to get his debit card!
This afternoon I was in Walthamstow Central station and gave the ticket machine a good once-over. The first thing you notice is that the UK machine, as are the Italian ones I remember, is very much bigger than the equivalent Dutch machine. but then it accepts coins and notes, as well as most credit and debit cards. It also deals with a lot more operations, like collecting tickets bought on-line.
The Dutch machine is a lot simpler and has much less glitz, so I suspect it was designed down to a price and as it looks cheap and nasty on the outside, I suspect the inside isn’t very bright.
After all it does the same thing as the British machine does and just issues you with a small piece of card.
The on-line tickets are all print yourself jobs on a sheet of A4 paper. In theory print at home tickets are one of those ideas that looks good on paper, but in practice could be a serious nuisance and especially at times, when it matters. Printers do run out of paper and ink and just suppose you book a ticket in a hotel room on your laptop.
When I bought the ticket for Brussels to Den Haag, I got one ticket for each leg of the journey. I didn’t have a problem, but the layout of the information like carriage and seat number is not good and I had to get someone to tell me the latter, as I got it wrong and was going to the wrong seat.
On the high speed train, you need a reservation and walk-up tickets seem very discouraged. Not having tried it, I wouldn’t know and if anybody has, I’d like to know.
But Dutch train ticketing seems to be a system designed to be cheap to run and easier for the company, than the customers. The very fact that two months ago, one ticket got me from London to The Hague and this week it was three tickets is surely a retrograde step.
They may be very last century, but I’m beginning to like the simple card tickets designed by British Rail more and more.
Booking A Train Ticket To The Hague From London
The last time, I went to The Hague, I just went to the Eurostar site and booked one ticket to Any Dutch Station.
But now, this simple system has been discontinued at the behest of the Dutch government. For what reason, I will not speculate although, I have had various opinions given to me by my Dutch friends. I’ll give my view after I return from The Netherlands.
So this time, I’ve booked a single ticket to Brussels on Eurostar.
The train I shall be riding on Tuesday, will get me to Brussels just after mid-day. I shall be trying to buy a ticket to The Hague on the convenient 13:18 departure between the two capitals, when I arrive in Brussels.
It’s a real downgrade from the previous service, in that I shall have to change trains at Rotterdam as well. The direct train has been discontinued. I’ve taken that train several times and the standard is similar to what I you get on the fast London to Ipswich and Norwich trains.
So I’ll be getting a quicker high-speed train, but I’d prefer a direct train. In the UK, when I go say from London to Liverpool, I always book direct trains for convenience. I also don’t want to have to wait on a cold platform for a train to arrive. The connection in Rotterdam might be easy, but I’ve only been to the station there, some years ago and can’t remember it.
I thought for safety, I would book a later train in case, I couldn’t fathom out how to buy the ticket in Brussels.
So I went to the SNCB web site to book one. Incidentally, Eurostar allows you to enter Rotterdam into their site, but doesn’t allow you to book tickets, just telling you that there are no tickets available. To find where to book, I looked up how on Seat 61, which gave me the address of the SNCB web site to book the ticket from Brussels to The Hague.
Just imagine someone having to book a ticket urgently, for either business or family reasons and wanting to get to say Utrecht. They would give up or just book to Brussels knowing or even just thinking that they could get a train from there.
So I looked up the SNCB web site and found these trains from Brussels to Den Haag.
13:18 – Dutch high speed train – 15:02 – £21.42
13:52 – Thalys – 15:26 – £38.47
13:56 – Local Train – 2 changes – 16:41 – £24.35
15:18 – Dutch high speed train – 17:02 – £21.42
So by travelling on the slow Dutch train, you have two changes and pay more.
In the end I bought a ticket on the 13:56.
But I had to pay an extra booking fee, just like you don’t do on any British train booked on the train company’s web site. Although I had to pay a similar amount on Eurostar.
The ticket is two sheets of A4 paper, one for each leg of the journey. We may go on about the old British Rail-era orange tickets, but they fit nicely in a wallet.
What do you do incidentally, if you’re booking these tickets on a laptop on a train coming to London to get the Eurostar? Or you’re doing it late at night, and the printer runs out of paper?
I don’t think the SNCB web site gave you an alternative.
Train Ticketing For Football
In the last few months, I’ve been to Barnsley, Birmingham, Bolton, Brighton, Hull, Leeds, Leicester and Wolverhampton to see Ipswich Town play. Although in some cases like Hull and Leicester the football wasn’t the best, I’ve not had much of a problem with the trains. Except of course in getting to Ipswich, where they have chosen match day Saturdays to rebuild the line.
Usually, I travel First Class either one or both ways. On the Wolverhampton trip, where I could be sure of my times, I used Advance tickets that cost just £31 with a Senior Railcard. Some of the supporters, I met at the game, were rather surprised at the price.
But sometimes, I’ll get Off Peak Second Class and pay the upgrade, if it is available, like it is on Virgin. GreaterAnglia and others.
Next Saturday, I’m going to see Ipswich in the FA Cup at Aston Villa. For that game, I’ll book the outrun on a specific train using an Advance First Class ticket on Virgin, as they seem cheaper than Chiltern and stop in New Street, where I can get the train to Witton for Villa Park. but coming back, I’ll get an ordinary Off Peak Standard Class ticket, as that will mean I can get any train. If I want to upgrade to First Class it will cost me £10 on the train.
I’ve just booked the two tickets and they cost me a total of £31.65.
The Anonymous Widower 