No more printed system timetables

[A Voice]

We heard at the RailPAC conference last weekend that Amtrak is seriously looking into bring back the printed national timetable, probably as a paid offering. Apparently they were quite surprised by the number of complaints they got when it was discontinued. No details yet, but progress seems to be being made.

Ah, good news after all.

I can see making people pay for the postage to mail out a National Timetable (perhaps free at stations), though I'm not so sure about asking passengers to pay for the booklet itself. If the timetable is to be a marketing as well as trip planning tool - and it is indeed both - then you shouldn't be charging people to promote your services to them. Perhaps a $2-3 fee to defray costs if you absolutely must.

Still, a positive move in the right direction. Many of us said getting rid of the printed National Timetable was a mistake, and we were right.

 

[jis]

Comprehensive national timetable, if available at all, are generally not available for free in other countries. You have to buy them. Individual route timetables are often free to pick up at station or on the web. Information from comprehensive national timetables are available to access for free on the web almost everywhere, but they are usually accessed in a tabular form based on a specific origin - destination - date - time inquiry.

 

[railiner]

I would like to see a free printed national timetable, with paid advertisements.

Perhaps they could simply expand the giveaway seatback magazines to include the timetables?

And since those come out fairly frequently (monthly?)...

They would be more up-to-date than the bi-annual traditional issues...

 

[jphjaxfl]

Printed National Timetables are an expensive relic of the past. I can get all the information I need from my tablet or smartphone. I can get information about the towns we pass through. I usually bring my private railroad Timetables for the routes I am travelling. I have Official Guides to research routes. I think eliminating National Timetables as being cost effective.

 

[neroden]

National Timetables are far, far more useful for planning complex journeys than the stuff online. I have often flipped back and forth working out what connections are possible, which is beyond tedious with websites. (A complete set of individual timetables would do as well, but is a flurry of paper.)

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I wonder if part of it had to do with the relatively recent survey that found that most Americans, particularly the "young" couldn't read a train schedule anyway...

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I can look up something on a columnar timetable MUCH faster than on the Internet, mainly because I can pick up the timetable, flip it open and everything is right there. Of course the advantage of the Internet is schedule changes can be made without obsoleting the timetable.

 

[keelhauled]

There are some very impressive platforms for replicating magazines and such on a screen. Particularly with how ubiquitous touchscreens are getting to be, it seems to me that the best way to deliver timetables in the future is to abandon the PDF format, at least as the default, and switch to something mildly more interactive. The entire timetable as a PDF is a chore to work with, but there's no reason you can't replicate 95% of the printed timetable experience on a touchscreen without the printing and materials cost if you use a different method of delivery.

 

[Thirdrail7]

With all of the track work, cancellations and schedule deviations throughout the year, I think the printed master schedule is really nothing more than a wish list. Online schedules update easily.

 

[Chessie]

I for one would be more than happy to pay a few bucks for national time tables. Printing itself is not the issue but book binding is.

 

[jis]

A printed national time table should perhaps be sold as a souvenir with prominently stated disclosure that the times that appear were accurate around the date it was published but in general are approximations. Online timetables should be consulted for accurate timetables on a given date.

 

[railiner]

A printed national time table should perhaps be sold as a souvenir with prominently stated disclosure that the times that appear were accurate around the date it was published but in general are approximations. Online timetables should be consulted for accurate timetables on a given date.

I like that idea too...

The only thing is, with that disclosure, they might only bother to update the timetable when the original issue finally sold out....

 

[jis]

Yeah, it would help if they were to follow the example of Indian Railways, which issues a book called the TAAG (Trains At A Glance) twice a year. It is an abstract major routes timetable and it is still a substantial half inch to three quarters of an inch thick book. It is issue twice a year. But of course train times change all the time throughout the year and new trains are introduced throughout the year as resources become available etc. The TAAG still gives one a pretty good sense of what the major trunk routes are and roughly whats ervice is available on them. But sometimes the details deviate quite a bit as time progresses.

The TAAG replaced a more substantial 2 inch or more thick All India Railway Timetable sometime back in the '80s or '90s, I forget exactly when. Even after that the inch to two inch thick Indian Bradshaw continued to be published until a little after 2010 when it was discontinued.

 

[neroden]

Amtrak should not underestimate the value of a printed map and schedule book as a marketing tool -- it's a "look where you can get to by Amtrak" tool. And people who are curious will dig into it far enough to figure out whether they can actually make the connections to those places.

This is incredibly difficult to do with any online tool ever. Just not fit for that purpose. All online stuff is geared towards someone who already knows where they're going.