NEW! – Easy to read timetables for each of our stations ….
For years people have been complaining that railway timetables are difficult to understand. But the industry doesn’t seem to do anything about it. Notable exceptions are GMPTE with their clear station posters and also Merseyrail, though they confuse by using the 12 hour clock that the rest of the UK travel industry gave up in 1966!
But now, following an initiative started by our committee member, Mike Ross, who’s also Vice-Chairman of the Mid-Cheshire Community Rail Partnership, and in association with Northern Rail, we’ve broken the mould!
For each station along our Mid-Cheshire Line there’s now an easy to read timetable poster. This is Mobberley’s as an example.
To find the one for your Mid-Cheshire Line station, go to our home page, select your station from the “Choose a Station” box on the left and click “Select”, wait for the station information to load, click on “Timetables” two green boxes down and at the top of the central column is the link to your station’s timetable. Click on it and it downloads as a pdf.
Try it now!
Even better, give a friend who rarely travels by train Northern’s standard timetable and ask them to tell you times for a Saturday around midday from Delamere to Mobberley. Then give them this one and ask them the times back mid-afternoon. Then ask them which they find easiest to use.
Let us know what they thought!
6 comments 
Category:
May 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Nobody had better believe the timetable for Stockport.
There are a lot more trains to Manchester than those from Chester. Also, the 0756 and 0856 terminate at Stockport.
Old Codgers would be less likely to mis-read the times, if those for Up trains were on one sheet on the Up platforms and those for Down trains on another sheet on the Down platforms. We could then have bigger type too.
Never satisfied!
May 10th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Thanks for your comment. Feedback is very welcome – it means that at least one person has noticed what we have done! The aim was to have all the Mid Cheshire Line train times on one side of a sheet of A4 so that people could copy them easily or incorporate them in publicity material.
This is the first time we have published these and you have spotted something we missed at Stockport – the trains that terminate there should be footnoted in the same way as they are footnoted at the other stations – see Altrincham for example. This will be corrected when we revise them for the new timetable.
We will think hard about all your comments and take them into account when we prepare the next versions.
May 10th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
No there are at least two people admiring your new timetables.
I used your Easy to Read Timetables when travelling over to Lostock Grahlam.
Interested to read your comments from your Old Codger – perhaps he did not read the link … which says they are timetables for the Mid Cheshire Line!
Wish we had these Easy to Read Timetables on our line down here at Rhyl.
May 12th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
I do hope that these easy read timetables aren’t displayed instead of full timetables at stations as they are only really of use to people who aren’t changing to another service.
The reason I say this is because on the Knutsford one it says Manchester Piccadilly is 47 minutes away and on the Manchester Piccadilly one it says that Knutsford is 47 minutes. However, Sunday trains from Manchester take 38 minutes to reach Knutsford and there’s always at least five minutes ‘recovery time’ for Manchester bound trains meaning they often arrive before their scheduled arrival time at their terminus.
I think this kind of timetable works well on lines where there’s a service every few minutes and is similar to how bus timetables appear in some larger towns and cities, but I’m not convinced on them for train lines with an hourly service.
May 13th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Maybe they should put the services that are poorly timetabled such as the 17:09 from Manchester in RED and BOLD to make them stick out like a sore thumb in the timetables.
May 24th, 2010 at 11:04 am
The timetables are now on the Community Rail Partnership website for the period to 5 September. They will be going up at the stations as well, and on the Community Rail Partnership notice boards.
Train times are unchanged from the previous timetable apart from different suggested connections from Piccadilly to Stockport for the two peak hour trains which start from there.
We have made changes in response to comments.
Layout has been improved and standardised. ‘Old Codger’ will be pleased to see that the font size is larger. The timetable sheet for Stockport is now limited to trains towards Chester, since there are plenty of trains from Stockport to Manchester in addition to those on the Mid Cheshire Line. ‘Edd’ can be reassured that full timetables are still available from booking offices and are still displayed at the stations. These station timetables are intended to help people who just need the times of trains from their local station. Further feedback is welcome.