Onward Travel Posters

I might be slow to have noticed but there are some brand new travel information posters at Halesworth railway station. This was an improvement that I suggested a while ago and hopefully they will help the many bewildered travellers I encounter there. These 'Onward Travel' posters have a uniform format and are being rolled out nationally.

It looks as if the bus information is taken from the official Naptan database. Journey Solutions is mentioned on the web as being involved but the posters look very similar to a product that Suffolk's own ITOworld once showed me. They have confirmed they are a prime contractor for web-based ATOC transport info and are also involved, but have no editorial control, for the PDF version.

At Halesworth Railtrack (who own the station) have put up two new glazed A2 frames; one is by the ramp at the community bus exit on the Lowestoft platform and the other is on the fence next to the board about the history of the moving platforms at the north end of the Ipswich side. The Lowestoft side poster does get some illumination from an overhead fixture but you'll be lucky to see or read the Ipswich side at night.

National Rail onward travel info

You can download pdfs of these posters for larger towns and cities across England at www.plusbus.info but Halesworth isn't there because it isn't in the PLUSBUS scheme.

On the National Rail website you can find other local transport information about Halesworth but it's infuriating how it suggests that the DRT services Suffolk Links run every 60 minutes. This is completely false as DRT does not have a regular schedule and usually requires 24 hour advance booking within limited booking times. SCC told me this misinformation is a fault of the database. It does not reflect their claims that DRT will replace rural scheduled services efficiently.

Another issue at Halesworth is the lack of taxi numbers. For these you will have to find the poster taped in the window of the Mencap office who were constantly pestered for travel information. 

I consider the most consistently advertised taxi services in the Halesworth area are:

NEAL’S PRIVATE HIRE 01502 575888 or 0789 9011383

RODNEY FOSDIKE 01986 872829

HALESWORTH PRIVATE HIRE 01986 874028

There is also further afield:

SOUTHWOLD TAXIS 07737 139853

DARSHAM CARS 01728 668039

At the time of writing, none of these taxi operators accept concessionary Suffolk County Council travel vouchers. 

For travel planning purposes, the postcode of the station car park is IP19 8BZ.

I found this nugget about the poster project in Railfuture's magazine RAIL USER EXPRESS edition of 29 May 2011 

ONWARD TRAVEL POSTERS – you need to check the information is accurate at your station!

One outcome of the Better Stations review undertaken by Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall was the need to improve the standard of information delivery at stations across England. In respect of this, two projects have been commissioned by the “Passenger Information Strategy Group” at National Rail Enquiries to improve the standard of information delivery. The Group includes representatives from all train operators, Network Rail, National Rail Enquiries and Passenger Focus. 

The first project is "Information Zoning‟. This will see each station in England divided into four distinct “Information Zones”: (i) Welcome Zone, (ii) Ticket Zone, (iii) Train Zone and (iv) Onward Travel Zone. 

The second is to produce a consistent suite of Onward Travel Posters for display in the Onward Travel Zones. This will ensure that stations have consistent onward travel information, comprising a street map, bus info, &etc. The Onward Travel Poster project has been delivered over the last six months and is now almost complete - there are a few stations whose posters are outstanding, usually because there are major works going in the vicinity. The intention is that posters will be updated at least annually at the time of service changes. Train Operating Companies are also able to request intermediate updates during the year if required. 

An Onward Travel Poster appeared at Wool Station a few weeks ago, and a colleague in our Friends of Wool Station group alerted me to a few errors. I immediately emailed the contact address given at the foot of the poster comments@onwardtravelposters.com and the poster team kindly sent me the Wool poster as a PDF file enabling me to check it thoroughly at home. An updated poster miraculously appeared within a few days of sending in my comments. Thanks guys!
--- So the message is: check your station now and report any errors!!! ---

I think we will have to frequently. There's a scathing review of the posters in Sheffield here. None of these measures however will ever replace a genial Mr Perks.