Why are the Eurostar in-train displays so lacklustre?
I mean this fairly light-heartedly but why is it that the on train information display screens are so devoid of useful information and how can we encourage Eurostar to make them better? I do want to make it clear that I like Eurostar and I like travelling on their trains. I think the service is generally very good, this is just a small thing that I think could be better.
I had the pleasure of travelling by train from Hanover to London by train via Amsterdam a few months ago and the difference in information given to you on the information screens between the German ICE trains and the Eurostar was stark.
On the German train, there was a wide range of information that rotated round in a short cycle. There were maps showing where we were, where the next stop was and the route. The speed of the train was shown and crucially there was some really good info on connecting trains and even buses at the next station including what platform those other services were leaving from and if they were delayed and by how much. I'm probably forgetting some things but all in all it seemed to me to be very useful! Plus, it was all in both German and English, and Dutch as well once we crossed into the Netherlands.
Compare that to the Eurostar trains…. Well I just don't think they're as good. I watched the screen on this journey for as long as it took to loop around (which felt like forever to be honest and was probably about 10-15 minutes). The information was as follows:
- Fleet features
- Advert for club Eurostar
- Advert
- What to do in an emergency - leaving the train
- Info on bins
- Advert
- Tunnel trivia - top speed, tunnel length, depth below sea level
- Luggage instructions
- Courtesy reminder - no smoking, feet off seats, please use earphones
- No inappropriate behaviour reminder
- Advert
- Plug sockets info
- Mind the gap warning getting on/off the train
- Current speed
- We'll soon be arriving at… - this was incorrect, we were over half an hour away from our next stop
- Take your belongings with you
- Mind the gap warning X2 - repeated twice in a row for some reason, not actually approaching a stop either
- Welcome to… - also incorrect, we weren't arriving anywhere
- Meal deal in Café ad
- Eurostar café location information
- Free wifi advert
I will concede there's some useful information buried in there about bins, plugs, current speed, the café and the We'll soon be arriving at… assuming it's accurately timed. Plus it was all in multiple languages. But there's a lot of adverts (probably unavoidable but still annoying) and some superfluous info that sometimes feels as though your being talked down to (in my opinion anyway).
I guess what I'm saying is that I want travel connection info. If German ICE trains can do it for a cross country train stopping at over a dozen cities and towns then surely Eurostar can do it for trains that are only stopping a handful of times!? Think of a train arriving at St Pancras; most of the people arriving there are going to be jumping on another train or the tube or a bus. Why not show the status of some key departures from St Pancras, Kings Cross and Euston and give the status of the Underground lines because you can bet that some people on the train would like to know if the Picadilly line is screwed…
Anyway rant over! I know this is a ridiculous thing to complain about but it just frustrates me when an excellent information system is right there in Germany and the Eurostar equivalent does not compare favourably.