The English love to queue, but.....

...the French are made to!

On Monday this week I needed to buy a public transport ticket from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.  My travels would be varied and multi-modal culminating at Orly Airport on the opposite side of Paris, and a quick bit of mental calculation (and guess work as to where I'd actually go!) meant I needed the one day Paris Visite ticket, valid in the outer zones (Aeroports Inclus).


Whilst there are three principal means of travel from CDG to central Paris (RER Line B, the coach operated by Les Cars Air France, and an express bus service operated by RATP, the Parisien municipal operator) my own travels would start on local bus 350.  However I didn't rate my chances of buying the ticket on the bus so sought to buy it from the RER station at both Terminal 2, and at the airport's central bus and rail station Roissypole.

In my short career with Transport for London queues have been a constant source of both frustration and continued employment.  Queues for rail replacement buses, queues at Olympic venue stations, queues at ticket machines after we close all the ticket offices. Queues for escalators, for trains, for lifts, you name it, if there's a queue on the Tube at some point I've planned, modelled, measured, and hopefully resolved it - or at least made it less bad.

This made the queues at CDG interesting (and a considerable waste of my time for more reasons than one!)

The ticket office at CDG2, with the queue out of the door.

Ticket machines = queues

Even one ticket machine can generate quite a following!

The queue for the main bank of ticket machines snaking round the necessarily large ticket hall!

And opposite, another queue for tickets keeps growing,

Meanwhile, Roissy serves CDG Terminals 1 and 3 as well as being a significant interchange in itself.  Here's the ticket office, with obligatory queue.

And a bank of 6 ticket machines, of which only 4 were working (one has a notice with an expected fix date of 15 May, some two weeks hence, Cubic eat your heart out!)

The banks of ticket machines have two significant problems.  The first is a high degree of non-availability, i.e. broken, and the second if they don't sell the most useful visitor ticket, the Paris Visite.  It is not unreasonable to expect that visitors to the city, tourists or suits, will require a ticket which gets them in to the centre of the city, probably allows them to travel around between attractions (or meetings?), and then gets them back to the airport. Yet the ticket machines do not sell any variation of the Paris Visite.  So you queue up, eventually get to the machine, and your time is wasted.....you must visit the ticket office.  How do I know this? I did it.  I like testing the intuitiveness and capabilities of ticket machines.

So you queue up at the ticket office, and low and behold, they know EXACTLY what the average visitor wants because it is at the top of their notices, placed to keep you occupied and interested whilst queuing for second time!

They know what the customers want, just the plentiful ticket machines don't sell it!

I think the problem is the ticketing function at CDG is operated by SNCF; conversely the RATP machines at Orly Airport DO sell the Paris Visite!

Oh, and 23.50 Euros is steep for a day ticket within the city limits but I suppose it compares reasonably with the £17.20 peak zones 1-6 travelcard in London which includes Heathrow Airport.  I suppose both Crossrail in London and Le Projet Grand Paris in Paris will set some interesting challenges for those who set fares.

Tiantongyuan North Station

In Spring of 2015 I also briefly visited Beijing, primarily to visit the China Aviation Museum at Datangshan, somewhere outside of the north side sixth ring road of Beijing.  To get there I used Beijing Subway line 5 to it's northern extremity at Tiantongyuan North station.  There were a few things going on I thought worthy of mention....

It's busy in the morning rush hour on line 5!  As is increasingly common around the world, there was a heavy demand to suburban centres as well as the centre of Beijing.

All Beijing Subway trains have electronic current location/next stop indicators above each door way.

Tiantongyuan North station is by a bus station and bustling urban centre.  The entry in to the station in the peaks is controlled by a queuing system, set up around c. 8 foot tall metal barriers.

And if you hadn't seen the picture above, at first sight you'd think this is an abattoir or somesuch!

There are cursory x-rays of all baggage entering Beijing Subway.  This has been in place since at least pre-2008 Olympics.  Tiantongyuan North us set up with six baggage scanners, akin to a medium sized airport!

Quick overview of the platform, as is common on the modern metros of the Far East there are platform edge doors.

If you ever want to go to China Aviation Museum this is the bus, the 643.  A print out of the name in Chinese helped with my communications with the plentiful customer service staff on the bus station and the conductor on the bus (every Beijing bus has a conductor).

Grey and maroon buses were bought for the 2008 Olympics shuttle buses.  Being Chinese, they are now operating in various states of disrepair around the city.

And a few shots from the Museum why not?

It is good that the bus had a helpful conductor on board as I'd never have looked up this road and thought there's one of the world's largest aviation museums at the end of it!

An assortment of Soviet era helicopters.

1950s MiGs as far as the eye can see!

Antonov 12. Beautiful!

The only railway in Okinawa Prefecture

 In Spring 2015 I visited Naha, in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa (after a slightly crazy five sector overnight trip from Langkawi - zero public transport there!).  Okinawa is around 3 hours flying time from Tokyo, and as well as a large US military presence is a domestic holiday destination for the Japanese, and increasingly mainland Chinese and Taiwanese (the capacity of Naha Airport's international terminal hasn't kept pace with the growth in flights there).  Naha Airport is connected to the city centre and northern suburbs by what is unbelievably the only railway in the whole of Okinawa prefecture, the Okinawa Monorail, branded as Yui Rail.

As with most Japanese rail systems, once you understand the basics of how they tell you what the fares are and how they sell them it gets quite simple.  Above the ticket machines is a line diagram with a fare to each station, and on the machine is a button you press for that fare, pay your money and you have a ticket.  In Okinawa's case the process for buying a day ticket (at 600 yen) was simple - but then it helps it is a simple one line system and not the multitude of lines and operators in Tokyo.

Line diagram for the Okinawa Monorail, situated above the ticket machine, showing adult and child fares to each destination.

Okinawa Monorail ticket machine, looking not dissimilar to ATMs in the Far East!

Departure information for the Okinawa Monorail.

Irrespective of city or operator the basic infrastructure on Japanese metro systems is very similar.  There are ticket gates which remain in the 'open' position, but if you fail to insert a ticket at entry or exit they will sense your passage and close on you (personal experience on the Tokyo monorail taught me this!).

Friendly looking ticket gates, but the paddles will close on you with some force if you pass through without presenting a ticket.

Each of Okinawa Monorail's 15 stations is built with many common design elements.  They are nearly all located above the central reservation of a road, with access by bridge from below.  There are lifts provided at every station and the trains have level boarding.  The platforms have midriff-height platform edge doors, and if you even think about leaning over one for a better photo a safety minded Japanese commuter will shout at you!  Personal experience, again.

A lift.  A non scientific survey suggested 100% availability and very little use.  As with everything in Japan, clean and functional.

Overview of a Okinawa Monorail station, with gated edges and platform edge doors about 3 feet tall.

Close up of one of the platform edge doors, and instructions on where to stand - allow customers off the train first please!

The rolling stock is domestically built 2-car units with walk-through capability longitudinal seating and a capacity apparently somewhere north of 160.  The interior is again very similar to my other experiences on Japanese metros, with every inch of space on interior panels, ceilings, doors, grab handles, etc used for advertising.

Two Okinawa Monorail trains to the south of Tsubogawa station.  If you're also a dedicated member of Le Club Accor Hotels, this ststaion is immediately adjacent to the Mercure Hotel!

An Okinawa Monorail service heading in to the city centre

A service arriving at the southern terminus, Okinawa Kuko (Airport) showing the points set for its arrival in to one of the two terminating platforms.  It is weird to see such large lumps of concrete move as 'points'!

Bubbling over - Reading Buses' Claret Spritzer

Reading Buses have whole-vehicle route branding for many of their routes, including route names as well as numbers.  Jet Black, Lime 2, Leopard 3, Lion 4, Emerald 5/6, Scarlet 9 and so on, creating a colourful kaleidoscope/menagerie on the streets of the Berkshire town.  Route 21 is named Claret, with buses in an appropriate deep red.  The 21 passes through the University of Reading on its way to the Lower Earley suburb.  However, the University portion of the route generates more demand, which Reading Buses have the route 21a, and has been branded Claret Spritzer.  The brand and livery, as well as associated publicity, is the work of Best Impressions.  No self respecting public transport operator dare put a swirl or a swoosh on their vehicle without getting Best Impressions to make the most of it!  The Claret Spritzer has taken some mid-life 12m long Scania double deckers (at 12m, about 1-1.5m longer than most double deck buses) and developed a concept to appeal to student travellers......

Claret Spritzer 21a certainly is mixing up travel.

From the outside, an ordinary Scania bus, albeit with a bright livery, typical of the style used by Reading Buses.

Upstairs is where the Claret Spritzer comes in to its own.  At front is the 'work zone.'   Behind the work zone is the 'play zone', four tables with a bay of four seats around each. To the rear is the 'lounge zone'.  More on these follows.....

The Work Zone features 2+1 seating in a comfortable leather(esque, I suspect) moquette.  Yes that is a book shelf, with a borrow/replace honesty system.

Little distractions in the Play Zone.  Lego on this table....

....Connect 4 on this table.....

....and pure genius building Angry Birds game in to this table!

To the rear is the Relax Zone.  A 'U' shaped sofa wraps around the rear of the vehicle.  There are two USB charging stations (in opposite corner, each with two USB points) and two wireless charging points.  This isn't particularly innovative for Reading Buses though as USB charging facilities are standard on their vehicles.    Oh, I didn't get a picture of the jukebox just off the bottom left corner, but passengers can Bluetooth their phone to the bus.....

For anyone for whom the Spritzer is all a little bit too much, there are plenty of conventional bus seats downstairs.  Wood laminate flooring is becoming the new standard, whilst birds flying across the rear of the bus is rather more unique!

Whether the Claret Spritzer is a gimmick, whether the features are going to be used, whether the game of Connect 4 will loose all its pieces, who knows, but it's sure one smart vehicle to get people talking, and create a sense of 'engagement' with the customers.  It's not a bus for everyone, many bus users would shun such a vehicle, or dismiss the 'waste of space' upstairs but some features, USB charging, Wi-fi, even the presence of litter bins in the vehicle, are genuinely useful.  Bay seats of 4 always go first on trains, anecdotally they are popular on buses too.  And as a 12 metre vehicle, compared to most double deckers that are shorter, there's not that much space wasted.....

The Great Western Railway....Thames Turbo

On Friday 1st January 2016 I made a rare venture out in to Great Western territory.  A "body on the line" delayed my departure somewhat, but I can't fault the announcements from the guard and then his patience explaining to every customer alternative travel options.  However the purpose of this post is the surprise I had when I went to catch a train from Reading to Newbury.  The train was formed of 3-car Class 166 "Thames Turbo" (as was) 166205 painted in the new Great Western Railway (GWR) branding, replacing the lurid First Great Western (FGW) livery.  I think the dark green and grey is quite understated and very smart.

I expected to find the interior unchanged, with the blue/purple/pink FGW seats, scruffy carpets, dingey doorways.  What I found was a real surprise, which was a fully refurbished interior.  Whilst the seats themselves are the same base, the first class has been reupholstered in a grey leather, which whilst sounding bland looked quite appealing to sit in.  Only had a standard class ticket however, where the seats remain 2+3 but reupholstered in a green and two-tone grey moquette, again far from the worst seat pattern out there.

Further down the train the toilet area has been completely rebuilt, presumably taking advantage of the refurbishment to meet forthcoming accessibility regulations.  This area includes dedicated space for wheelchair passengers, and in a nice touch has a half-height partition between the toilet and the wheelchair area: I always feel the wheelchair area stuffed next to a toilet (as on the Electrostars that GWR will be getting) is unwelcoming at best.

Bodyside detail, unusual way of showing the operator name in a matt green band, but it works.  No 'flying F' logo either!

Overview of the GWR 166.  Quite an appealing livery I think, nothing can be done about the big yellow end which looks out of place!

GWR 166 First Class.  I believe these are the original seats but rather more welcoming,

Overview of reupholstered Standard Class seating and new carpets.

Disabled toilet and wheelchair area.  The wheelchair area is partitioned from the toilet (good) but doesn't have any further comfort factors such as a small table or drop down seat for travelling companions.

The new paler moquette is sadly easily stained, and in my short time on this train I overheard a couple of negative comments from passengers about these.  If only passengers would treat trains like their own house eh.  Nonetheless this shows these refubished units will be a challenge to keep presentable and suspect a darker moquette will be required.

The rebrand from First Great Western is not an overnight hit: most trains still carry the purple FGW livery, a lot of signage is still FGW branded, staff still wear FGW uniforms and some leaflets are still FGW stock (timetables being an exception as these are reprinted regularly).  The delayed train and compensation leaflet is in new GWR green, but explains compensation for delays in terms of whether you are on a former First Great Western, First Great Western Link or Wessex Trains service!  These three came together to form the current franchise on 1 April 2006.  Reference to former TOCs is as good as meaningless, it's been nearly ten years since two of them existed.  This should be simple one for the DfT to sort as part of the franchise extensions on GWR....you'd have thought.....

Darlington bus brands

Passing through Darlington at Christmas it struck me just how many brands there are associated with the buses in the town.  This isn't  case of competition confusion, or of smaller operators providing niche services, rather, it seems to be over-active marketing departments.  All services are provided by Arriva, but the customer is faced with these brands:

• Arriva
• Frequenta
• Sapphire
• Max
• Whoosh
• Darlington Borough Council
• Localmotion
• Connect Tees Valley

All seems a bit excessive to me!

The most common brand is 'Frequenta' on the buses around the town, mainly longer Opare Solos.  Once upon a time this was United 'Roadranger'.

Max is an Arriva brand that no one really understands - theoretically older buses refurbished to a higher-than-average-but-not-quite-Sapphire standard, but these Streetlites don't fit the age criteria.

Sapphire is an Arriva service proposition that makes your everyday journey sparkle!

Frequenta buses aren't just turquoise Solos, they are also green MAN gas buses.

However the green MAN gas buses can also be 'Whoosh' buses if you're going to Peterlee/Sunderland. 

Bus stop flags are primarily branded 'Connect Tees Valley'.  Many of them carry a haphazardly-placed Frequenta sticker, but does make you ask whether only Frequenta (town, local, 'Roadrunner'.....) services stop there.  The statement 'All services' is particularly unhelpful as it actually means 'All services that are planned to stop here'.  At least at-stop timetable information is reasonably good.

However the at-stop information is branded by Darlington Borough Council and Localmotion.  Localmotion was the project name for the DfT 'sustainable travel town' demonstration project a few years ago.

Wouldn't it be good to rationalise this confusing array of brands (and no doubt websites) and focus on one brand for town services (Localmotion sounds better than Frequenta, and has a bit of local history to it), and  for the wider Arriva to work out what Max is.  This would work if affected parties adopted the spirit of cooperation, but I suspect for as long as different bodies have responsibility for running, buses, installing flags, and printing publicity, they'll all want their own brands(s) promoted.