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?



.

Service improved? 3

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 problems areas.


This is the third in a series of postings based on the aspects of the service that London Midland are working on (for the previous post, see Service improvements? 2).

More Trains

London Midland claim that they are addressing this item through an application to the Department of Transport for new carriages.  They say that if authorisation is granted then from 2011 new trains will be built and existing stock refurbished.

So the rail operating companies have to apply to the government for permission to purchase/lease new trains...  A previous posting (15 year franchises) covered the prescriptive nature of the contracts that companies like London Midland have to enter into when they take on the operation of rail services.   This is I'm sure a very complex subject which probably involves discussions on subsidy levels (London Midland receiving £185m of tax-payer funding to run our trains this year - see How much?!!) and consideration of the limited length of the franchise, but I still think it is absolutely daft that a commercial operator has its hands tied in this way.

For the other improvement areas covered so far it has been relatively simple to decide whether I think London Midland deserve a green tick or a red cross, but on the face of it here that's difficult when it appears that London Midland are in the hands of the Government.  But is that the whole story?  Does More Trains have to involve New Trains?  Are London Midland making the most of the trains that they have?

The 07:00 from Bletchley arrives on platform 11 around 07:37 and within minutes is moved out empty to make way for another train.  Is an empty stock movement during the morning rush-hour a good use of assets?  This might be only one train but are their more?

London Midland are rather proud of the fact that they have introduced trains on their new 'Watford Shuttle' which serve only outer London stations.  They have also continued with Silverlink's 'Tring specials' which also only serve a limited length of the Euston-Northampton route.  Is that a good use of assets?  These trains can obviously be turned around quicker but they are still taking up train units, crew and track slots.

How may trains do we see sat on platforms at Euston or their northern starting point for lengthy periods?  Is this a good use of stock?  Couldn't the turnaround time be made shorter so that additional services could be run using the same rolling stock?

There are a lot of question marks above and I have to say that this is probably a subject where I'm going to have to say that I have no idea what the answers are.  On that basis, I think London Midland probably have to get a yellow question mark on the basis that I don't know, but if you reckon that you have the answer then do please say so.

As usual, comments very very welcome.  Do you think that London Midland are doing enough to provide more trains then say so.  Equally, if you reckon that they need to do more to meet the needs of their customers in this area then please have you say below.

On the London Midland site their fourth improvement area is More Punctual.  I promise not to sit on the fence for that one  :-)

    

Service improved? 1

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. 

I figured that it might be interesting to pick one of the aspects that London Midland are working on each week or so, providing my own views on how they are doing.

London Midland have New Trains as their first subject, so I thought that I'd give that one a go too...

New Trains

London Midland say that they have already delivered on this one, having invested £190 million in 37 four-carriage sets for the longer distance services.  I assume that these are the 350/2 Desiros that we have seen arriving on the route into London Euston since 2008 (the earlier and arguably more comfortable 350/1s having been introduced by Silverlink from 2004).

An earlier posting (350 v 321) compared the Desiro 350s with the old 321 trains and there's little point in repeating the same detail here.  There's no doubt that we are better off than we were, but I don't think that the 350s are perfect.  In my view the problems are:

1. London Midland themselves have admitted to reliability problems.  On the Public Performance Measure stats poster for the period 27/6-24/7 they say "We also suffered a number of train faults both on our Euston route and around Birmingham, some of which were caused by the particularly warm weather".  I don't recall the weather being unseasonally warm, but the key point here is that they are admitting that they have issues with rolling-stock.
2. While we are better off overall having air-conditioning on the trains, there is a serious problem when the ventilation system doesn't work.  The guys that fix these things do appear to have reduced the frequency, but there are still occasions when there is no 'air-con' working in individual carriages.  When that happens in the summer, with no windows to open there are only two options - sit and swelter or move to another part of the train (where you will probably end up standing).
3. The seating layout of the 350/2 trains (the ones with the green upholstery) is generally five across.  The alleyways are narrow making it awkward to walk from one part of the train to another on a busy train, and three normal-sized adults will not fit onto a bench of three.
4. There is insufficient provision for bikes and luggage. 

Having said all of the above, I personally think that London Midland are justified in claiming that they have delivered on their commitment to provide New Trains so I'm going to give them a green tick for this one.

What do you think?








(The next posting in this series will be regarding More Seats)  

The hammer mystery

A couple of weeks ago a fellow traveller raised a concern with the guard/ticket inspector on a homeward bound train.  He asked why the safety hammers were missing in our carriage.  What he was told I thought was interesting...


Apparently the safety hammers have been removed from all carriages on all trains because of lessons learned from the Virgin train derailment in February 2007 (BBC - One dead in Cumbria rail crash).  The lessons, according to the guard were:

1. The hammers will only shatter the windows if they are used to strike fairly small areas of glass in the corners of the windows.  Failed attempts to break the glass increase the panic levels.
2. Where people do smash the windows, they can put themselves in more danger when they get out onto the track.

All very logical, and I have to say that I was impressed by the professional way that the London Midland staff member dealt with the question.

Since over-hearing this conversation I've kept an eye out and can confirm that every hammer box I've seen has been empty except one.  That box with hammer enclosed was immediately next to the First Class area on one of the Desiros. 

I'm sure that leaving this hammer behind was an oversight since it would be far too ridiculous to suggest that perhaps London Midland have a touch of the White Star Line view on the importance of looking after the better paying customers (Titanic and First Class passengers supposedly given places in the lifeboats in front of women and children from steerage...)

Not a great day...

I normally try and keep to a single subject per post, so I hope you'll forgive me if a I do a bit of a 'moan dump'.

None of today's incidents were major or unusual (and some of them have become routine), but I don't normally have this number of things to whinge about in such a short period of time...

I still can't buy a paper at the station (see Bletchley station shop).
The air-conditioning in the end carriage of the 07:00 to Euston wasn't working.  The conditions were well described by a travelling companion as "warm and humid".

As usual, the 07:00 arrived at Euston early (timetable flab).  As we got out onto platform 11 at 07:39 the four coach train pulled into platform 10 (on time at 07:40). The result was two train-loads of passengers trying to squeeze past the narrow end of the platform and through the barriers at the same time (see Platform planning).

I did get a paper at the W.H.Smiths on the concourse at Euston.  The trouble was that as I walked out of the station I realised that I had two sets of the Sports and Business supplements.  I may be an idiot but I'm an honest idiot.  I walked back and returned the extras.  the look I got from a member of the shop staff was priceless...

Coming home, in the scrum that is the queue to go through the manual gate onto platforms 8-11 (see Ticket failure), I was elbowed in the side by a woman who was standing back like she was in the queue for the ticket office one minute and then determined to fight her way through to the front the next (the comment she made when I objected was classic - "get a life").

Boarding the 18:29 I found a half decent seat (with a table so I could do some laptop work) in the last but one carriage of the train but in the last few minutes before leaving the guard announced those fateful words "would passengers intending to travel beyond Northampton please make their way to the front four carriages".  Now we know that the train splits at Northampton with the front four carriages going on 'up north' (for this train that being all stations to Crewe), but there really is no rush to move. 

On the Desiros passengers can make their way through the train to the front at any point in the first hour of their journey and there's at least 5-6 minutes in Northampton itself to do the switch.  All London Midland are doing by making these announcements at the last minute before departing Euston is causing people to panic, shifting people from seats at the rear of the train to the front where they sometimes end up unnecessarily standing.  (This time the guard did actually make an announcement after Watford that he'd seen people stepping off the train and rejoining further up, taking the risk of missing the train altogether!)

Like many people who get off at Bletchley, I sometimes work my way down the train after passing Leighton Buzzard to get closer to the doors which stop nearest the bridge steps.  I don't object to people sitting across two seats with their feet out over the narrow alleyway, but why oh why do some of them refuse to move to allow others to walk past?

I got off at Bletchley thinking the troubles were over.  Silly me, I'd forgotten the people who insist on driving the wrong way out of the car park (see One Way?)


Thank you for listening, I don't know if you enjoyed reading the above but I feel much better for having got the gripes off my chest  ;-)

350 v 321

The 350 in the title is the current Desiro trains, and the 321 the units they replaced.  The 'trainspotter bit' will end with a suggestion that anyone wanting to know about their technical specifications may like to check them out on Wikipedia:

British Rail Class 321
London Midland Desiro 350

What is going to be covered here is how these trains compare for us commuters.

Reliability - New v old?  Untried v untried?  The 321 had their faults (including doors icing up one very cold winter) but in terms of reliability they rarely let us down.  The new Desiro 350s seem to be OK and I think I've only been let down 2-3 times but the London Midland email alert service does seem to report a fair few delays/cancellations because of train failure.

• 350 ****
• 321 ****

Seating - Here it gets complicated because there are two sub-classes for the Desiro 350s.  When the 350/1 (blue seating) trains came in they were a huge leap forward.  Suddenly we had 'front to back' facing seats, armrests and more tables.  There seemed to be a lot more room.  We were happy, but then the 350/2 (green seating) units started to appear.  The 350/1s had a pair of seats either side of the aisle.  The 350/2s had three on one side and two on the other.  The armrests disappeared as did the tables.   To be honest, I think the seating on the 321s was better than on the 350/2s.

• 350 *** (it would be **** if we had the blue seating 350/1s more frequently on the Bletchley services)
• 321 ***

General comfort - The 350s are a lot quieter until the announcements start.  The air-conditioning is fantastic when it works.  The 12th carriage in a three unit train seems to lose the air-con and in the summer this means that the carriage can become unbearably hot as there are no windows to open.

• 350 ****
• 321 ***

Other - The ability to walk through from one end of the train to the other when it is made up on two or three units (8 or 12 carriages) is a real bonus on the 350s.  Joining the train at the last minute at London Euston you can walk through to find a seat, and if you are in a hurry when you get back to Bletchley then it's possible to get to the door that will be nearest the stairs on arrival.  The toilets on the 350s are also better fitted fitted out, and as they store the waste on the train they can be used when in the station.

• 350 *****
• 321 **

Overall - The Desiro 350s are undoubtedly an improvement.  If they could fix the air-conditioning problem, reduce the announcements and then concentrate the earlier, blue-seated versions on the Bletchley services then it would almost be a pleasure commuting into London (I'm not sure I really mean that...)

• 350 ****
• 321 ***.