Smartphone app

There's absolutely no doubt that London Midland have to be applauded for the smartphone app which they've just launched.  I've had "Train Times", the Network rail equivalent loaded onto my iPhone for over a year and wouldn't be without it, but that one cost £4.99.  The London Midland version is free!

This app isn't perfect, but the shortfalls are minor, few in number, and hopefully fixable by update.

Looking at the main features:

The "Live departures & arrivals" function is a copy of the full Network Rail version and is very, very useful.  So too is the "Journey planner", another feature copied from "Train Times".  The only issue I had with both features was that the default for station selection when I first installed the app was "Nearest" which made it rather difficult to find London Euston. A minor irritant only...

Now for a few things that London Midland have which Network Rail don't provide, all under the major heading of "Info"...

The "Disruption information" feature should be very useful, though I did notice yesterday that it didn't appear to provide any info on the major problems arising from the overhead line damage that shut-down all WCML services into Euston for a few hours yesterday.  This might be because the info is individual train-based and is being auto-generated from another system, but if true then it seems surprising that London Midland didn't think to provide a field for general updates.

"London Underground status" is a link to a mobile version of the TfL website so on an iPhone it opens up Safari.  That's fine, but as iPhone users know if you already have 9 tabs open then it will take one tab down without asking.  In this respect it is no different to email and other apps with web links, but it might have been nice if they'd highlight that this is a link rather than an internal feature of the app.

What is really, really useful is the next one on the list,"@londonmidland on Twitter".  Anyone who follows David and his comms/marketing team know that @londonmidland has deservedly won industry awards for their excellent Twitter feed, so this feature gives direct access to the live information regardless of whether you are a Twitter user or not (and although I am, I will use this feature as I think it will give quicker access to @londonmidland info as it avoids the need to scroll through other tweets).

Next up is "Timetables" which appears to give access to a PDF-type version of the main and pocket London Midland timetables that can be picked up at the station.  Useful.

Selecting "Car parking" allows second-level selection of your station and then the method of payment (web, SMS or phone).  Again, useful.

Last but by no means least under "Info" we get "Delay Repay".  London Midland have to be applauded for any steps which make it easier to make a claim, but this could have been better if they'd allow users to set up their details by default (name, address, and phone).  Also, like their web-based form they don't provide a comment field so it isn't possible to add details about train changes etc.

The final features are "Email us" and "Phone us".  The latter deserves a special mention. It would have been so easy for London Midland to use their 0844 811 0133 number, trapping users with a call-inclusive package into ringing an extra, high-cost number.  They haven't.  The number that the app wants to dial is 0121 634 2040.  I am impressed!

So what's missing?  To be honest, the only thing I can think of is ticket prices and perhaps some info on things like station facilities and maybe an FAQ area covering stuff like peak/off-peak periods, the rules on bicycles, etc.   


So to sum up, London Midland have done a really good job.  With a bit of tweaking and the addition of the missing fare info this could be one of those few apps which rate 5* (iTunes currently shows 4+ which is pretty good for a version 1.0 !!)


If you've got the app too then I'd really like to know your opinion of it.  What do you think?



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Exasperated

One post on here in March...  There's been plenty to write about, so why no words?  The answer is simple - Hardly a day has gone past without a problem, and the daily exchanges on Twitter have been draining...

The cancellations caused by the lack of an overtime agreement between London Midland and the train drivers has been the biggest problem, but we've also had one problem after another on the West Coast Main Line. 

Back in January we were told that ASLEF and London Midland couldn't reach agreement on a number of issues, the main one being on driver training for some new rolling stock up in the Midlands.  In the absence of a deal, the Overtime Agreement between the two parties wasn't renewed in January and drivers wouldn't be working on their rest days.  It looks like no one is now calling this train crew problem an 'industrial dispute'.  It hasn't been coordinated by ASLEF apparently, individual drivers have taken the decision not to work on their rest days.  Hmmm...

Through March the impact of the driver shortage on a day to day basis has increased.  There has been more planned cancellations of the morning and evening peak trains, and where there was sickness or unexpected operational problems further trains haven't run.  Sunday travel has to all intents and purposes been a 'no go'.  

The London Midland/ASLEF problems don't end with the overtime issue.  The strike over harmonisation of two sets of driver contracts that was originally planned for 23 December but which was cancelled due to legal action by the employers looks to be back on again.  ASLEF had the injunction overturned and the union is now reballoting its members.  On top of this, Twitter messages were flashing between @londonmidland and train crew last Friday.  Details remain unclear, but it looks to be something to do with Northampton and Bletchley depots, and a writ prepared by London Midland before, and issued immediately after a meeting on 1 April.

Overall, the relationship between London Midland and ASLEF appears to be at an all time low.

Now for the other problem...  It seems that we've had infrastructure problems on the WCML practically every working day in March.  We've had signalling problems, points failures, overhead line issues and more.  Some days we've had one problem in the morning and another in the afternoon.  Network Rail have a vast amount to answer for.

So what is being done about all this?  Well, if you use Twitter then the comms have been pretty good.  @londonmidland has kept us well informed and apologies every time there's a problem have been forthcoming.  The rail operator has also avoided the temptation to stick to the Ts&Cs of the Delay Repay arrangement and pay compensation only for unplanned cancellations.  That's the good bit.  The bad bit has been that there are few, if any signs, of any action to resolve the problems.  The drivers are still in short supply and we are still getting problems on the line  :-(


Oops, I nearly forgot - One good thing did happen in March.  On Monday 14th the 1751 finally got the extra 4 carriages back so it is now a 12-car train again.  The carriages should never have been taken away in the first place, but London Midland did show that they listen and have the flexibility to make up for an error by correcting the mistake.       

Euston announcements

16mins before departure and
no platform shown for the 1730

Problem 1
A 4-car train arrives on Euston platform 8. A horde gets off at the doors are locked while the train is coupled to another 4-car unit already on the platform. The station staff knows the train is the 1730 and the regular passengers know that too, but the VDUs on the ramp and the platform say the train is the 1751.


Problem 2
A train still isn't due to leave for a couple of minutes but it disappears from the departure boards and VDUs. Why? Health & safety apparently - To discourage people from running to get a train that's about to leave.

Problem 3

The Network Rail Enquiries online boards (at least the versions I get on my iPhone as above right) is proving unreliable when it comes to displaying departure platforms at Euston .  I might think that this were accidental, but coming on top of problems 1 & 2 I don't think so.

The above aren't one-off incidents and they affect other trains and other platforms. The practice of misleading passengers might have been happening for a while, but if it has then I've been lucky and haven't been affected until the last couple of weeks.



If you are reading this and wondering why this really matters then I'll tell the story of what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I had to get home early and got to Euston at around 1750 intending to get the 1754. As I arrived on the station concourse I saw that the 1754 was leaving from platform 8. At the top of the ramp I noticed that the VDU for no.8 was blank. At the bottom the same.


On the platform itself I had time only to read "front 4 cars only". I squeezed onto a packed train. All fine? No, this wasn't the 1554 for Milton Keynes stopping at Bletchley. It was the delayed 1534 which terminates at Tring. Fortunately I realised this after departure and was able to change onto the correct train at Watford Junction.  If I hadn't then I'd have potentially ended up with a long wait somewhere.

This Friday the rolling stock for the 1730 came in a few minutes late and at 1725 the VDUs were still showing the train on platform 8 as the 1751.  I was already queued at the locked doors at 1727 when the loudspeakers burst into life and announced that the train was in fact the 1730.


So what's going on?  Whoever is in charge of announcements at Euston (London Midland/Virgin Trains or Network Rail?) has clearly decided that they need to keep us off the platforms until the train is in and ready to board.  That might be fine for a long-distance Virgin Trains service where people can still be given 20+ mins notice of where to board, but it isn't on for commuter trains where the period between the rolling stock arriving and the service leaving can easily be 10 mins or less.  Virgin Trains passengers don't have a crowded ramp and ticket barriers to negotiate through! 


Have you experienced this?  If so, does it annoy you too?  I'd like to hear your views.

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Silence

The silence referred to in the title here refers to two things:

1. Silence from me (few blog postings in recent weeks)
2. Silence from train crew when things go wrong

Both are indirectly linked...

On the first 'silence', we've had umpteen problems on the line into Euston over the last few weeks but for various reasons I've avoided coming on here to express frustration.  Why?  Because there seems so little point. 

Through November and into December we've had delay after delay and one or two cancellations.  The late running has normally been within the 3-15 minute range.  Not much, but enough (it's my time, and I'd prefer not to spend it unnecessarily on a London Midland train!)

The causes of these delays and cancellations have been various...  The most frequent has been 'failure of lineside equipment' but we've also had more than our fair share of broken down trains.  The recent cold weather has played it's part as well, the latest issue apparently being door problems caused by ice and grit.

Now for the second 'silence'.  Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@eustoncommuter) will know that whenever a delay occurs to a train that I'm on I post updates.  When the guard keeps us informed I say so.  When we hear nothing from the train crew I also say so (and unfortunately this is all too frequent an occurrence).  London Midland are big users of Twitter (@londonmidland) and they are very keen to know when their staff provide good customer service, and when they do not.

It looks like the London Midland train staff have become aware of what's going on which is good.  I wasn't on my regular train home on Friday but a friend who was tells me that after one announcement (subject to be covered in a separate posting) the guard finished with the words "tweet tweet".  Someone has a sense of humour  :-)





   

Service improved? 5

London Midland have a page on their website titled Improving our services where they describe the steps they are taking to address a number of problem areas.


This is the fifth in a series of blog postings which covers an aspect of the service that London Midland say they are working on.

Better Information

On this area London Midland say only that they are renewing the electronic information and public address systems at their stations between Northampton and London Euston, the work commencing in May and expected to be completed before the end of 2010.

I'm surprised that London Midland are declaring improvement work on just two aspects of communication with their customers given the scope that they could cover under this heading.  I'm therefore going to try and fill in the gaps...

We get our train information on the day of travel from a whole stack of sources.  This is my personal view on how each of these rate:

TV teletext: I check page 432 on BBC Ceefax every morning before leaving the house but am not sure why I bother.  It seems now to only cover service changes due to engineering work and major incidents.   3/10.

The Web: My view on this has changed significantly over the last month.  I was a big fan of the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) arrival and departure boards (and the London Midland equivalent) but one or two recent incidents have revealed some limitations. 

In a Twitter exchange NRE admitted that they currently don't have the capability to predict delays, so if a train is expected to leave Euston on time then until it leaves London they will show it as running on schedule for each stop on the route.  If there is a general problem somewhere on the line which is expected to impact on that train then that won't show up until the train is actually delayed.  Once that happens, the arrival and departure boards come into their own.   7/10.

Smartphone apps (e.g. NRE's UK Train Times): Similar comments to Web.  7/10.

Twitter: Here we've got @LondonMidland, the National Rail Enquiries feeds, and a stack of unofficial sources.  The official ones can usually be relied on but in my experience they report only what they are given (and which presumably has come from or is validated by their own staff, Network Rail etc).  This means that they tend to be a bit slow to report problems and they seem to focus more on general updates, missing issues relating to individual trains.  7/10.

The unofficial are more immediate but like all casual stuff, you have to be careful what you do/do not believe.  Both provide information only where someone is in place to provide it, which isn't 24x7.  4/10.

Station staff - Bletchley: Generally good but why are they never on the platforms when we need them?  I can't remember the last time I saw a member of the London Midland station staff on duty on a platform at my home station.  6/10.

Station staff - Euston: These guys come in for a lot of stick, some deserved and some not.  The line of verse "when they are good they are very very good, and when they are bad they are horrid" comes to mind.  

I don't know what the problem is here, but the station staff at Euston do seem to become invisible when there's a problem.   Much has been made of the new information kiosk on the main concourse but with that serving Virgin customers as well as London Midland (plus a few others), I don't think I'll be heading their way too soon.  What we need is people on the platforms briefed with reliable information who are ready, willing and able to tell passengers what is happening.   4/10.

Station VDUs - Bletchley: the new VDU screens are an improvement at Bletchley but they aren't visible at the ends of platform 4, the main boarding point for passengers heading for London.  5/10.

Station announcements - Bletchley: The same problem applies to announcements as applies to VDUs - The nearest speaker on platform 4 for passengers at the northern end can easily be 50 metres away so any announcements are inaudible.

The problem with announcements isn't restricted to the location of the speakers.  So often when there's a problem there is no message and passengers waiting for a train are left waiting and wondering what's going on.  When we are told, the news is often late (e.g. advice on a change of platform only being broadcast within a minute of the train arriving).  2/10

Station VDUs - Euston: Here London Midland/Network Rail do better, but there is still at least one area of improvement needed...  Why oh why do we have to wait to be told the departure platforms for some trains?  The delay is understandable for the Virgin trains which have to be cleaned and stored, but with the London Midland this (unfortunately) is rarely the case.  Take the 17:51 for instance.  Everyone knows that it's formed of rolling stock which comes in on platform 8 at 17:38, so why do they wait sometimes until 17:45 to tell us where to go?

I think Network Rail also deserve an award for what has to be the daftest VDU message of all - Some evenings the screen on the approach to platforms 16-18 says that it is out of use in order to relieve congestion.  What?!!! 7/10.

Stations announcements - Euston: Similar comments to VDUs.  7/10.

Train announcements: I've deliberately left this one until last on the basis that it is the one area where I've never heard a passenger say that they are satisfied.  We all have tales to tell of journeys that were delayed where nothing whatsoever was said on board by the train crew.  I know that there are drivers and guards who do their best to tell us what is going on, but unfortunately they aren't in the majority.  5/10. 

I can think of two sources of information that I've left out - The train tracker text and phone.   I use neither so don't feel qualified to comment.

Overall rating?  Sorry, on this one it has to be a red cross.


So what do you reckon, have I been fair?  Is there anything I've missed out?  What's your view?







Following the same order as used by London Midland, the next one in this series will be Shorter Queues.



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Missing platforms?

On the train this morning one of the regulars mentioned her frustration that London Midland and National Rail Enquiries have stopped posting up platform information for the departures of our trains from London Euston. 

This fellow traveller rarely gets the same train home two nights in a row.  She arrives at Euston via the Euston Square tube station which means there's a choice of entrances.  When there's only a minute or two to spare, picking the right one can make the difference between catching or missing a train, so it's really useful to be able to see in advance where the 17:24, 17:34, 17:51 or whatever is leaving from.

I'm a regular user of the online arrivals and departure boards but hadn't noticed this anomaly so I decided to see what platform information I could get for my own journey home.

What I found was as follows:

At 17:27 I check the National Rail Enquiries' 'Train Times' app on my iPhone.  The 17:51 departure is there, but no platform is shown.  Fair enough, the train isn't in yet.  However, as a regular I know that the 17:51 uses the same rail stock as the inbound arrival from Tring that gets in at 17:38.  

The online arrivals shows board shows platforms and it looks like everyone knows that the 17:38 is coming in on Euston platform 8.   There again, it's still 25 minutes before the 17:51 is due to leave so maybe too early to confirm? 

I get to Euston and cross the station concourse at 17:30.  Looking up I can see that the 17:51 shows as departing from platform 8.

Surely the online boards must now show the 17:51 departure platform?

I check and find the platform detail is still blank.  

The 17:34 is currently on platform 8.  Could it be that the people who run the online site don't want to send people on the wrong train? 

Once the 17:34 has pulled out, the VDU for the platform shows the 17:51. 

I check the iPhone app again.  No platform shown.

I check London Midland's own site.  No platform shown.

Could there be a reason for this?  Maybe the online people are more cautious than those who post up the information on the station VDUs and display boards.  Are they waiting for the rolling stock to arrive?

I walk to the end of platform 8.  The inbound Tring train arrives on time at 17:38.  So now we have the 17:51.

Surely the online departure board must now show the departure platform for the 17:51?

 

It's 17:41.  I check the iPhone app again.  No platform shown.

I check the London Midland site.  No platform shown there either.

What's going on?  Surely by now whatever system feeds the online boards must know that the 17:51 is leaving from platform 8? 

Maybe it's 'policy'?  What possible reason could there be for withholding this information though?

(I notice that the National Rail Enquiries site shows the departure platform for the 17:40 to Manchester)


By now I figure that the departure platform is unlikely to ever appear online, but I take one last look...

At 17:48 we are three minutes from departure, there's still no platform showing online for the 17:51.  This is exactly the time when this information would be of most use for a passenger in a hurry.

The evidence looks fairly conclusive.  No platform information for London Euston departures is being made available online.

If we can have arrival platforms then why can't we have the same information for the trains home?

Information and lack of

"A sea of red"
Nation Rail UK Train Times
16 September 2010

We've had three incidents on the London Midland commuter line over the last ten days which I believe have shown how well London Midland can communicate, and how they can't...


Thursday 16 September - Services delayed by a freight train "axle-box fire"

07:00 from Bletchley delayed by about 15 minutes.  We were kept very well informed by the train crew of what was going on and London Midland's Twitter feed (@LondonMidland) was also spot on.  The National Rail Enquiries online arrivals/departure board was also a useful source of information. 

It did take London Midland's email update service a while to catch up with what was going on, but overall for that day it's a very well done and thank you to all concerned.

Wednesday 22 September - Signal problem at Kings Langley

Same train in the morning but six days later.  The 0700 was kept on the slow line instead of crossing onto the fast at Ledburn Junction.  A bit further down the line we slowed and by 0730 were stopped.  No announcements on the train at this point, and nothing from London Midland either via Twitter or email.  

Around 0735 we were told on the train that there was a signal problem at Kings Langley.  By this time we were moving but it was slow-stop-slow (Virgin Trains roaring past at full speed on the fast line where we should have been).

With nothing on Twitter I sent @LondonMidland a prompt at 0739.  A few minutes later they put out a message advising of a 'slight delay' to services.  I queried this (if the 0700 was running 20 minutes adrift of the timetable then that wasn't 'slight').  Their next general update did acknowledge that the delay was more significant and later in the day I got a message of apology.

For this incident we got too little too late.  It must have been perfectly clear by 0715/0720 that we were not going to make an 0743 arrival at London Euston yet we got no news until 0735.  LondonMidland (or the agency that they use for their Twitter feed) should also have been putting out accurate info much earlier.  

Thursday 23 September - Signal/points problem at Wembley and then Watford Junction station closure (bomb hoax)

This one was the 'biggie' with some trains delayed by an hour or more.

Around 5pm London Midland were using email and Twitter to warn of delays inbound to Euston which in turn would affect the outbound services.  If we allow for the fact that I don't think anyone realised the scope and scale of the problems that evening, the updates from both sources at this point were actually fairly accurate and timely (if anyone failed me this evening it was National Rail Enquiries - As I boarded the fast, first stop Leighton Buzzard, 1849 they had that train running on time.  When it eventually arrived at Bletchley it was 56 minutes late...)

Looking at the many messages posted up on Twitter about this incident, people's experience varied.  Some of those who got stuck at Euston during the period later in the evening when all services were suspended reckoned that they got nothing from the London Midland staff at the station.  Similarly, some who were on trains reckon that they didn't know what was going on. 

The mis-information from the National Rail website aside, my personal experience for this evening was more positive.  The train crew did their job well.  We got plenty of stuff on Twitter from @LondonMidland but some of it was inaccurate (there was a stage around 8pm when they told us that the 'congestion was clearing'.  This was before they realised that there was a second problem at Wembley...)

Getting to the point...

I think the mechanisms are there to keep us informed.  We've got VDUs and speakers at stations, station staff and train crews connected by radio, the online websites and Smartphone apps, Twitter and email feeds so why do we still have reason to complain?

My personal opinion is that the London Midland people on the trains and manning the Twitter/email alert services are probably trying to do their best.  I suspect the problem actually lies with the feed of information to them (the "rubbish in, rubbish out" principle).  In other words, if there's a problem on the line to/from Euston and the Network Rail guys don't tell London Midland about it then how can they tell us?  

As passengers paying a significant amount of money to travel to and from money we have a right to be kept informed when problems occur to our services.  We should be getting consistent, accurate and up to date information when things go wrong. 
   

What do you think?

VDUs: 8/10 for effort

Main displays on platforms 4-5

First off, the new train information VDU screens which have arrived at Bletchley over the last week or two are a huge improvement on the old versions so "well done and thank you to London Midland".   The only place it was previously possible to get visual information for all platforms and following trains was in the station building.  Now we can get that on the platforms themselves.

Platform 1 with VDU.  The
fencing on the left is for the now
unused bay platforms

Another point worth a mention is that we now have station information board coverage for platforms 1 and 2.  These may not be used frequently, but there are occasions when our trains to/from arrive on the fast line so these are a bonus.  

So why did I title this only 8/10 for effort and result?  It's a personal opinion, but I think they could have done even better.

The overbridge

The Bletchley station overbridge

In bad weather or when there is uncertainty about which train is coming onto which platform, people often wait on the overbridge.  So why didn't London Midland put a VDU up there?  Cabling problems can't have been an issue because the new trunking for these displays has been routed over the bridge and down each stairway.


Visibility

Displays looking south along
platforms 4-5 with the shelter
in the background

On the platforms the displays have been placed within 10-20 metres of the overbridge.  On platforms 2-3 this isn't so bad as they are still in line of site wherever you are standing (though you would need very good eyesight to read them).  On platforms 4-5 though, the waiting room/shelter get in the way so the displays are only visible in the middle section of the platform.  This also happens to be the only part of the platform where tannoy announcements can be clearly heard, so if you wait to board a train there then you are pretty well off :-)

The VDUs looking north on
platforms4-5 with the waiting
room in the background

Like a lot of people, I board the train to London from the north end of platform 4.  The nearest VDU has to be 50 metres plus away and is obscured by the waiting room.   The location chosen for these displays was presumably chosen because of the convenience for cabling, but surely it would have been possible to get them closer to the ends of the platform? 

Station building VDU

...and last but by no means least - the VDU in the station building

Didn't someone realise that if they stuck a larger screen up than the one that was there before then it would be lower?  The post-fitting hazard warning sticky tape stuck across the lower edge looks really classy!

Inadequate information

This morning it's raining (not a lot, but enough to get wet waiting on the platform).   Most people waiting for the 07:00 therefore sheltered under the platform awning.

The 06:53 slow train from Milton Keynes to London Euston comes and goes on time.  At 06:59 we get the announcement that the 07:00 is the next train on platform 4, so we leave the shelter and walk out to take up our usual positions on the platform.  We wait, and we wait...

At 07:03 I use my phone to check the National Rail Live Departure & Arrival Boards and find that they don't have the train listed for Bletchley, but it is showing as due to arrive 2 minutes late arriving at London Euston (This isn't unusual, the 'system' appearing to assume that a train has passed through the station if the departure time has been exceeded and there has been no positive report of a delay).

At around 07:07 we get an announcement that the 07:00 has been delayed and the next train onto platform 4 will be the 07:05 Southern service.  In the distance we can see a couple of workmen in orange high-vis jackets on thge track, and two trains are pulled into the passing loop.

At 07:10 a London Midland 8-car Desiro pulls onto Platform 4.  There's no announcement, and the train looks to be 80% empty.   After departure, the onboard announcement says that it's the delayed 07:00.  We pull onto the fast-line immediately (unusual for the 07:00) and when we get to Leighton Buzzard the usual crowd are waiting on platform 2 (so they had had an announcement to tell them about the platform change).

The train makes up time, arriving at London Euston at 07:46, only three minutes later than usual.  As we pull in we get an apology for the late arrival which "was due to a signalling problem outside Bletchley".


If this were an isolated incident then I wouldn't bother mentioning it, but unfortunately it isn't.

• YET AGAIN Network Rail have had a signalling problem which has impacted on the London Midland service.

• YET AGAIN London Midland have either not know what's happening or if they do know then either can't be bothered or are to disorganised to tell us.

• YET AGAIN we have evidence of the amount of slack that London Midland and Network Rail have built into the timetable.  The 07:00 which is scheduled to arrive at 07:43 in London Euston frequently gets in around 07:37/38.  Here they had a ten minute delay at the departure station but managed to cut that back to three minutes at the destination.

Please can we have the level of service that we pay for?