• 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 Direct Message. 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.

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.

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?

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 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.

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.