Diamond Geezer – ARE TIMETABLES DUMBING DOWN, OR ARE THEY BECOMING MORE ACCESSIBLE 2012

Description

Historically, timetables used detailed, columnar layouts—one column per train—allowing knowledgeable passengers to plan and replan. Modern practice increasingly favors simplified, mobile‑friendly formats: journey planners that provide only start and end times and suggest routes, and bus timetables that replace exact departures with broad frequency intervals. This trend sacrifices underlying information and passenger control for perceived accessibility. The author criticizes DLR timetables as needlessly convoluted—large posters with excessive white space, tiny type and multiple panels for different days and directions—despite many services, like Bow Church southbound, running precisely every ten minutes and thus needing only a simple statement. TfL says a new, simpler DLR poster design will appear from 30 January in response to feedback, but the author worries that “simpler” may mean “dumbed down” and hopes the redesign preserves useful timing detail rather than vague “turn up and wait” guidance.