I’d like to thank all our members for posting on the forums, attending our events and entering our competitions. I’d also like to thank all the train companies and other groups which have supported us and provided prizes for our competitions or helped in other ways with events:

• Cross Country.
• First Capital Connect.
• Southern.
• South Eastern.
• The Spa Valley Railway.
• Arriva Trains Wales.
• Grand Central.
• London Midland.
• The UK Heritage Hub.
• Railway Fans.
• South West Trains.
• swlines Ltd.

In addition, I would like to thank everyone who has made a donation to us be it through monetary funding or by writing an article and for those who have made purchases from our shop. I run the YREA from my own pocket and an unemployed myself, so every penny donated really helps to cover the running costs of the website and it’s events. I really appreciate article submissions too, as it helps make a better website for everyone who uses it.

I am really looking forward to another exciting year ahead, including our careers week which starts on Monday, our first ever charity fundraising mission (more on that very soon, watch this space!), the third annual Video Fest competition in November and a whole lot more. If you have any suggestions of anything you’d like to see happen over the next 12 months, please contact the YREA team with your ideas. Once again, I’d like to personally thank everyone who has played a part in making the YREA a success and I look forward to continuing my work with the organisation well into the future.

• My Travel – one place for your favourite journeys and stations.
• Live Trains – view real-time departure and arrival boards for any station.
• Progress Tracking – find out exactly where a train is along a route.
• Journey Planner – plan your journeys with up-to-the-minute travel information.
• Watch a Train – pin a train to My Travel to watch its progress at a glance.
• Push Notifications – get disruption alerts as they happen.
• Wake-up Alerts – avoid missing your stop.
• Tube and DLR – plan your journey to or from London Zone 1 Underground and DLR stations.

A great selection of features as you can see, but is this app all its cracked up to be? Well I think its really good. Being able to save my favourite journeys and stations is a great feature as it allows me to find them more quickly. I also like the way I can pin a train to My Travel to watch its progress as its reassuring to know the train is on its way. When I first read the claim in the app description that I can “find out exactly where a train is along a route”, I thought it was slightly misleading. I looked at a train running from Penzance to London Paddington as an example. The train I chose didn’t call at any stations between Exeter St Davids and Reading, a distance of almost 140 miles. As far as I could see, all the app could tell me was that the train was somewhere between Exeter and Reading, so was hardly ‘exact’. But a pointer from Kathryn at National Rail Enquiries showed me that by tapping on the blob (representing the train) on the screen I could see where it last passed, providing the train planners had loaded it into the system. This is a really useful feature and provides reassurance that the train is well on its way. I also like the way that whilst I’m tracking a train, I can quickly jump to station information.

Before this app came along, I used Crosscountry’s app called Train Tickets. It did include live departures and journey planning so I guess these features aren’t really new to the iPhone. However one thing I really like about the new National Rail Enquiries app is that it includes disruption information. My old app did tell me when trains were delayed, but not why or what other alternatives were available to me, whereas this new app does. My only complaint is that when reading disruption information I think it would be better to have the further information screen displayed within the app itself, rather than having to open Safari to read it.

Disruption alerts being sent through push notifications is excellent, as it replaces the need for me to check my emails or register for a text message alert to keep updated. I also love the wake me up feature. I often fall asleep on late trains and have made a habit of setting the alarm clock on my phone to wake me up before my destination. But this app now does this for me, so its much easier.

The last feature I’d like to talk about is journey planning for London. The app description says you can “Plan your journey to or from London Zone 1 Underground and DLR stations”. I think this is a great feature, but it isn’t perfect. Why not have London Underground and DLR stations in all zones included within the app? Why just zone 1? If all zones were included, perhaps even with a tube map and using Transport for London’s live departure boards system, I’d be able to remove my Tube Buddy app. Everything would be integrated into National Rail Enquiries, and that would be perfect. An improvement for a future update maybe?

Design-wise the application is very good. Its clean, tidy and easy to read, and the adverts which are included are well out of the way (though you can pay to remove these if you want to for £4.99, expensive!). However it doesn’t cope with Voiceover very well. Take live departure boards as the example here. Voiceover can read the departure information with no problems, reading the destination first, then the time of the train, then the platform, then the delay if there is one. However it cannot read the buttons above the departure board, just saying ‘button’ when pressed. Effectively this means its impossible to switch between arrivals and departures if you can’t see the screen, you don’t know what these buttons do. Its the same story with the main navigation at the bottom of the screen. Voiceover just says ‘button’ instead of reading My Travel, Live Trains, Planner and Settings. This is something which National Rail Enquiries’ developers need to look into ASAP.

So to summarise. On the whole, I think this is a good app. It has a brilliant selection of tools to make journey planning easier, its free to download, the design is good and its fast and responsive. But there’s still work to be done. I’d like to see the Voiceover fixes made as soon as possible to make the app accessible to a wider audience, and I’d like to see London Underground and DLR planning improved to cover a wider area. Once these changes are made, the app will be even better. Why not download it yourself? The app is available free on iPhone / iPad / iPod and also on Android.

Firstly, a short introduction to this route. It runs from Hastings railway station (Conquest Hospital on Sundays) through St Leonards to Ravenside Retail Park where the route diverges away from that of the 99 to serve the Pebsham estate and Bexhill College, after which is joins the 99 again to go to Bexhill town centre. After passing the railway station for a second time, the route leaves the 99 once again and heads north to Sidley. Typically, one of the two buses an hour which this route is served with terminates here, or all buses on Sundays and bank holidays. The ones which don’t then travel via the villages of Ninfield, Boreham Street and Herstmonceux to Hailsham, and then down to Eastbourne.

The service through the day is mostly good, with a typical 30 minute service. But there are a few improvements which I think need to be made to this service to benefit both the bus company, the local economy and the passengers who use it.

Gaps in the Timetable

The 30 minute service which route 98 gets is good for the amount of passengers who use it, but there are a few changes which need to be made to it to make it better. Some of these are to do with the spacing of services, which in some parts of the timetable doesn’t make sense to me. The main gap I notice is between around 15:30 and 16:30. Heading eastbound from Sidley, there is no bus between 15:42 and 16:42, and heading westbound from Bexhill College, there is no bus between 15:17 and 16:12. There doesn’t really seem to be any reasons for these gaps of an hour in each direction, and for many passengers this means an long and unneeded wait for a bus. I’d like to see these gaps reduced either by moving the bus before slightly later and the bus after slightly earlier, or by adding an extra bus in the middle, thus restoring the 30 minute frequency for this part of the day.

There is also a period in the evening where Bexhill and Sidley seem to have to many buses for what is needed. Shortly after 18:00 there are three buses in the space of just 41 minutes westbound from Bexhill town centre, at 18:02, 18:25 and 18:43. I’m not sure about the state of these buses further back along the route towards Hastings, but between Bexhill and Sidley my personal experiences of these services have shown there to only be a few passengers on each. Perhaps the middle one of these services at 18:25 should be removed to save money?

A Pointless Service

Leaving Sidley Mount Idol View an 08:29, there is a route 98 service which only runs between Sidley and Bexhill town centre. Arriving into Devonshire Road at 08:46, it misses a route 99 service towards Eastbourne which departs a minute earlier, the next one not being until 09:05. The service to Hastings is also just missed, which also leaves at 08:45 meaning a wait until 09:08 for the next one.

In my personal experience, this route 98 service is little used, and I’m not really surprised given that it doesn’t go very far and doesn’t connect with anything. To improve, I think this service should be re-timed so that it connects with route 99 to Eastbourne, and extended to Hastings so that passengers can remain on the same bus.

Early Morning and Late Evening Services

A massive part of the timetable for route 98 which disappoints me is that there are no early morning or late evening services. This means that passengers travelling early or late, or those wanting connections with peak rail services into and out of London or Brighton don’t have the option to use the bus. The first eastbound bus from Sidley isnt until 07:09 (or 07:38 on a weekend), and the last bus back again from Bexhill town centre is at 18:43. I propose a few changes to the timetable which would bring an early morning and late evening service to Bexhill and Sidley for the first time, and also benefit Pebsham passengers travelling home and to town.

Route 98 – Morning: There should be an additional southbound service from Sidley to Bexhill town centre arriving at around 06:30 to allow passengers to connect with the 06:35 service to Hampden Park and then on into London for 08:30. This service should continue into Hastings, meaning passengers could reach Hastings by around 07:05. In addition, the 07:09 service from Sidley to Hastings should be changed to run on Saturdays as well as weekdays, and run a few minutes earlier so it has a safer connection with the route 99 service to Eastbourne, which leaves Devonshire Road at 07:20.

Route 98 – Evening: Route 98 should have additional journeys from Bexhill to Sidley departing at around 19:45, 20:45 and 21:45, to connect with trains from London which typically arrive at around 40 minutes past the hour. There should also be additional journeys from Sidley to Bexhill arriving at around 20:20 and 21:20 to connect with the fast Brighton services at 24 minutes past the hour, which can also be used for passengers going to Eastbourne.

Route 99 – Evening: There should be some additional services on route 99 between Little Common and St Leonards Warrior Square only, leaving Bexhill town centre at around 20:45 and 21:45 for St Leonards and around 19:45, 20:45 and 21:45 towards Little Common. This would open up travel opportunities for passengers in the outer areas of Bexhill to use a combination of rail and bus travel, and would also provide a walking distance service for passengers who live in Pebsham by dropping off outside Ravenside Retail Park on Bexhill Road.

Looking into these early morning and late evening services is definitely something I think Stagecoach should look into perhaps with support from East Sussex County Council, but is it also something which our local bus operator Renown would be interested in?

Route 98 and 99 on Bexhill Road

Between Ravenside Retail Park and Hastings railway station, route 98 and route 99 both follow Bexhill Road, and also travel together along the seafront in St Leonards and Hastings. These two buses are timetabled very close together through most of the day, and whilst route 99 operates every 20 minutes it is often timetabled to run within 5 minutes of a route 98 bus. As a result of traffic delays and the numbers of passengers, these two buses often play leapfrog with each other as they collect passengers along this part of the route. I think it would be better if these buses were spaced out better along this section of the route, as this would spread the number of passengers out better by offering a bus approximately every 12 minutes.

Concerns Over Capacity

Stagecoach in Hastings, who operate route 98 and most of the other bus routes in Sidley, Bexhill and Hastings, are currently in the process of introducing a brand new fleet of buses. These are an extremely welcome investment in getting rid of our old tired step-entrance buses which really were showing their age, some of which are over 14 years old. The new buses are much better for the elderly and disabled as they have no steps to board and have kneeling suspension, and they’re also more environmentally friendly. But as far as I can see, Stagecoach are looking to replace our fleet of mixed single and double decks with an entirely single deck fleet, and this causes a concern over capacity.

The image above shows the buses which currently serve route 98. The bus on the left is a Volvo Olympian, and seats 87 passengers. The bus on the right is a Volvo B10M which seats 49 passengers. These are the buses which will soon be leaving us.

Stagecoach has recently ordered a batch of ADL Enviro 200 buses, pictured to the right. These are great as they’re newer, more comfortable and better for the environment, plus they also have space for wheelchairs and buggies. However, they only seat 38 passengers which is a decrease in capacity of 11 seated passengers compared to our older buses. But as I understand it, Stagecoach is planning to use these new buses to replace the double deck vehicles too, a capacity decrease of 49 passengers compared to the older buses (effectively another single deck bus worth of seats!). This isnt good.

In my opinion, Stagecoach should consider replacing the old buses with something else, and I suggest the following; Replacing the old single deck buses with Enviro 300 vehicles (pictured below and right) which seat 43 passengers, and replacing the old double deck buses with Enviro 400s (pictured below and left, which we now have on route 99 after recent investments by Stagecoach in East Sussex) which can seat 77 passengers.

All the improvements I have suggested will, I think, improve bus usage in Sidley, Bexhill and the surrounding areas by improving bus services, timetables and journeys for many passengers. I invite Stagecoach to consider these plans and also invite East Sussex County Council to consider investing in the public transport of this area too.

• Disruption information affecting train services from the station.
• Other disruption which may affect passengers (such as on local buses and roads).
• Help for passengers who may be confused about what tickets they need for their journey.
• Information about local events and how how to get there.
• Information and offers regarding local businesses which passengers might be interested in.

This project is currently in a trial phase. But if it turns out to be successful then I’ll definitely carry it on. If you have any questions or comments about the feed then please tweet them to @BexhillStation or send a DM. If you want more information about the project, please see the dedicated page of this website.

The first change I would like to see is more publicity for ranger and rover tickets so people can find them more easily. The National Rail Enquiries website is often the first place passengers would look for this information, and it does have a rangers and rovers section. But I think it could do with some improvement. It currently sorts the rovers into alphabetical order which means unless you already know the name of the rover you probably won’t find it. An example of this is the “Explore Wales Pass” ticket – I wouldn’t automatically look under E for a ticket valid in Wales. I’d like to see this list sorted into locations, much like The Ranger Finder. This means people can search for rovers by clicking on the region they plan to visit and look on a map if they’re unsure.

The main change I’d like to see is more ranger and rover tickets being available for purchase online, just like most other travel tickets are. One company who is already good at this is Scotrail. You can purchase Freedom of Scotland Travelpasses, Highland Rovers and Central Scotland Rovers from their website. This makes finding out about the tickets and buying them much easier.

Train operating companies could incorporate rangers and rovers into their existing booking engines so that single, return, season, advance and ranger and rover tickets are displayed side-by-side in a similar way that London Travelcard fares are already displayed when booking a journey to the capital. When booking a single, return or advance fare, the booking engine could also suggest rovers available in that area at the checkout stage, much like they already do by offering passengers a Plusbus ticket. I think doing this would have a number advantages:

Train companies may benefit from increased revenue, as people would see more easily that these tickets are available and would be more likely to purchase them for their journey.

Some rover tickets are valid for a set number of days, such as 3 days in 7 or 4 days in 8. Passengers need to choose the dates they’re going to travel by completing a set of boxes before they travel. If tickets were sold online then there’s the possibility that these boxes could come completed ready based on the selection the passenger made online, and therefore reduce the number of people travelling with the date boxes left blank and therefore gaining extra days from their rover.

Passengers would benefit from being able to purchase ranger and rover tickets more easily, as they wouldn’t have to queue for them at the station. They would also be able to purchase their tickets before travelling, and therefore be able to get started on their travels more quickly. Some people might book advance tickets to a city location and then use a rover ticket when they arrive to explore the area. These passengers would benefit too because they wouldn’t have to buy another ticket when they arrive – they’d already have it.

On some journeys, a rover ticket is cheaper than the return fare. One example I’ve found is Hastings to Southampton Central via Barnham. The adult return fare is £15, but Southern offer a Daysave ticket for £12. A Daysave ticket is valid for unlimited travel on all Southern services in a day. As this journey is completed only using Southern’s services, it would be cheaper for people to buy the Daysave ticket. Obviously, the Daysave ticket has some extra restrictions (such as being valid at different times of day and not being valid on other operator’s services) and passengers should be told about these on screen when they purchase their ticket. But they should also be able to see the other things the rover ticket can be used for, as this may encourage them to make extra travel plans with that operator and therefore benefit the company even further.

I hope you can see my argument here for selling ranger and rover tickets online, and I’d like to invite you to make your own comments about it. With further ideas and suggestions maybe train operating companies and ticket retailers will consider this for the future? As its January 1st, I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy new year too, and I’m looking forward to writing more for you in 2012.

Photograph: Chris Jeffery.

The first thing I think went wrong was when the Department for Transport chose to incorporate Gatwick Express into the south central franchise, instead of keeping it with National Express. Southern, who currently hold the south central franchise, already operate all other rail services from London Victoria to Gatwick and therefore this decision removed the need for competition between these two services. In my opinion, healthy competition would’ve led to improvements or offers within Gatwick Express to make it a good alternative to Southern’s services.

The next point I would like to raise is about the journey time between the two stations. Gatwick Express were recently asked to take down an advertising campaign as members of the public noticed it was incorrect. It claimed that Gatwick Express was “the fastest way from the capital to Gatwick Airport” when in fact First Capital Connect, who operate services from London Bridge, are two minutes faster, completing the trip in 28 minutes. Also, the Gatwick Express journey time isn’t much different to the normal Southern one. One example would be the 47 minutes past the hour train from London Victoria to Ore and Littlehampton. This train makes the trip from London to Gatwick in 31 minutes. Yes, that’s just 1 minute difference, and its a similar story with Southern’s other mainline services. Whilst Gatwick Express don’t charge any extra for their services (you only need an “Any Permitted” ticket to use them), wouldn’t it be worth saving money with a “Southern Trains Only” ticket considering the journey time is almost the same anyway? Makes sense to me…

The next decision I feel let the Gatwick Express service down was about their rolling stock. After replacing class 73s and coaching stock with class 460 EMUs in 2000, customers were greeted with trains designed especially for airport use with wide doorways, level platform access, comfortable seating, and plenty of luggage space inside including a dedicated luggage compartment at one end of the train. Unfortunately, its now rare to see these trains, as after another Department for Transport decision the class 460s are being transferred to work on South West Trains services and being replaced by class 442 ‘Wessex Electric’ units which used to work Weymouth services. These are not suitable for an express airport service. Their single doors with steps are difficult to negotiate with heavy luggage, and despite a recent refurbishment there’s still nowhere near as much luggage storage space available inside. The introduction of these trains also saw most services downgraded from 8 coaches to 5. Whilst I apreciate that sending the class 460s to South West Trains does benefit their passengers, I think its a real shame that Gatwick Express has lost such fit for purpose and well designed traction.

After all these changes were made to the service, there wasn’t much else going for Gatwick Express other than the fact you could purchase your ticket on board the train. This meant you saved time queueing at the station, and meant you could start your journey and wait for a member of staff to come through the train. Unfortunately this obviously caused problems with fare evasion, and now this isn’t possible. Gatwick Express have installed ticket gates at both Gatwick Airport and London Victoria stations, so you must purchase your ticket before boarding. In my opinion, this was the last good feature of Gatwick Express, and now I honestly don’t see the point in using them other than the fact the trains are sometimes a bit quieter, and sometimes even that doesn’t apply.

So if you’re travelling between Gatwick and London by rail, have a think. There may well be better, more affordable alternatives available to you. Personally, I would like to see Gatwick Express merged into normal Southern services. They could continue to run as an express service, but with the same fares as the normal ones. This would help to relieve some of the crowds on mainline trains from London to the south coast.

Photograph: Matthew Baxter.

First of all we’ll look at what I’ve got. I suffer from three different congenital eye conditions, and that means that they’ve been here since I was born. The first one is called glaucoma and this is probably the one which affects my vision the most. Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye(s) and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye, and that means that I have to travel to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London every few months to have the pressures in my eyes checked by the Doctors. This is probably the main cause of my sight loss, and means that in some parts of my eyes I have no vision at all. This photograph I made in Photoshop a while ago for Facebook gives you some idea about what I can see – click on it to see the full size version.

The next eye condition that I have is called nystagmus and its a form of involuntary eye movement. Most peoples eyes do this normally because its just part of seeing, but damage to one or more components of the vestibular system in my eyes mean my eyes do it a lot more, and they do it all of the time. In simple terms, this means that my eyes are continuously shaking around and everything looks a bit wobbly. If you know me personally, you might see me sometimes shaking my head or my hands about a little. This is something my brain does automatically to try and compensate for the continuous eye movement to try and make things appear more still when I look at them – It tends to happen more when I get tired.

The last one is called cataracts. A cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light. When the passage of light is obstructed, this impairs vision. My cataracts aren’t to much of a problem these days as they were removed a few years ago now, but its something that still needs to be checked when I visit the hospital.

So now you know about my eyes and what I can see, I now want to cover the other question that I often get asked and that is “How can I help?”. Its the little things that make a big difference. Some people don’t know that I actually walk with a symbol cane and I do this so people around me know that I might not be able to see them. Because of my limited field of vision, I struggle in crowds because people seem to appear out of nowhere. It helps to have a friend who’s arm I can hold in situations like when travelling on the London Underground to guide me through. I really appreciate the friends who do this for me, thank you. The other thing that’s helpful is, if you’re writing to me by hand, do it in block capitals – its so much easier to read when its like that.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it has answered some of your questions. Please don’t be shy to ask me if you ever have any eye related questions, its nice to be able to talk about it sometimes rather than everyone keeping their questions to themselves.