Hi, II - I've got to the stage that I just shrug off too many thingls like this.   Errors in information / lack of the correct information almost seem endemic in the FGW organisation at times and I've had some long battles over things that should be patently obvious - like getting First to display at Trowbridge station the time of trains that leave from THAT VERY STATION to Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon.  I'm now picking and choosing what I report / ask about - just too negative to do 'em all, but I WILL push hard on cases where they are turning business away by not marketing ... and pushing travellers away onto other less appropriate means of transport.

But ... I notice in Melksham a day or two back, First's Town Centre bus stop still tells us that there are no trains from Swindon to Westbury on a Sunday.   I've news for you - there IS a service again ... but how on earth do First expect peopel to use it if it's absent from the timetables that so many people use!

On my latest visit to Bicester Town, I note that the timetable poster has indeed been changed.

Though I noticed this little 'gaggle' of signs at the platform entrance...



It struck me that all three of them have certain issues concerned with them that mean they perhaps shouldn't be there at all? :

1) The facilities are checked on a regular basis. Hmmm, are they really? I somewhat doubt it judging by the documented farce with the help phone at Melksham, though I suppose it is at least useful to have a phone number listed you can call to report faults.

2) Nearest station with access for mobility impaired customers is Oxford. What does this actually mean? Bicester Town is an unstaffed station, but it only has one platform which has level open access from the small station forecourt. The step up from the platform to the train is probably typical of most stations (around 6 inches), so unless you are 'Mobility Impaired' to an extent you are confined to a wheelchair then there are no problems. If that is the case why not use the phrase Confined to a Wheelchair or is that not PC? In any event the nearest station is Bicester North which also has level access to all platforms and is staffed throughout the majority of the operating day.

The 'Station Facilities' poster on the platform also states Oxford is the nearest station to purchase advance tickets, railcards etc., when of course Bicester North is much closer. Sceptics would say that Oxford is quoted deliberately so Chiltern Railways (who operate Bicester North station) miss out on some potential sales commission. Or perhaps it's just an innocent mistake with the person who produces the poster being unaware of the other station?

3) It's against the law to smoke. An interesting one this. As a non-smoker the fewer places people can smoke the better as far as I'm concerned, but I can clearly see that it seems silly to prevent smoking on the station platform, which is as open and windswept as the station forecourt and road. It doesn't actually say where the non-smoking area starts and ends either of course, and as it's an unstaffed station who on earth is going to enforce such a ban?

I guess the wider issue I am raising is that the number of useless/contradictory/vague signage at our stations is increasing incrementally as the years go by, and is yet another way that money is being wasted.

I might be wrong, but I believe the non-smoking legislation brought in by the government concerns indoor and 'covered' areas only that are not private dwellings and might potentially accessed by members of the public - by which I think a 'covered' area is a roof structure that is attached to more than two walls of a building. That explains some of the pubs that have got outdoor covered areas that are exempt (such as outdoor heaters, and canopies). By that definition an uncovered platform would be exempt from this legislation, though of course most covered ones wouldn't be. It does just seem daft at places like Bicester Town, but perhaps it was a railway industry decision to keep everything consistent by just banning smoking on all platforms?

My 'Stupid Sign of the Month' award for February (I spotted it last night!) goes to Pershore and Moreton-In-Marsh (and very possibly other stations).

The signs read "Bicycle Parking - please note that bicycle searches can take place at any time".

Now, how the hell do you conceal something suspicious on a bike? It would take some fiend to hook up a bomb inside the cycle frame, so unless someone leaves their panniers attached (which of course would be rather inviting theft) then this is another example of stupid signage.

I've always had a bugbear as to why "not allowed to pass that point" signs are situated in stupid places. See example below from St Andrews Road :

One of these pictures was taken at about the time of day that First chooses to run a train from Trowbridge (behind us) to Melksham and Chippenham (in frontg of us), and the other was taken some six hours from the time that any train runs.

I was taught when I learned a bit of marketing to provide a product that people wanted, at a time they wanted it.  It strikes me that someone may have failed to do their marketing here ... the picture with queuing traffic is taken when there's no train about an the quiet one is at the time that there IS a train.  And before you ask - the reason for the road being quiet in the second picture is because no-one is travelling and NOT because they're all on the train!