‘Disgrace’ of sign problems at station

LAST night (November 24) – as usual – I was on a Paddington to Reading train which stopped at platform 1. This was at about 23.30.

There is only ONE Oyster machine working there. Why has the other machine been disconnected? It took ages to leave the station. Pathetic.

There were passengers waiting on platform 4 to get to London. But trains were not using platform 4. Why were they there? So I checked to see what was going on.

Why is the screen at the entrance to platform 4 still unreadable? How difficult is it to adjust the contract control to make it readable? How difficult is it to replace the screen? This issue has been going on for months and months. Pathetic.

There are still official signs stating trains for Paddington depart from platform 4, and Oxford/ Reading from platform 3. Why?

Why are the signs at the entrance to platform 4 still stating the wrong platforms in the early morning, late at night and at weekends? Pathetic

Why was the entrance to platform 4 not barricaded off to stop people using it (as it was at the weekend)? Pathetic.

Why were there no staff announcements not to use platforms 4 and 3? Pathetic.

As I said saw there were some passengers waiting at the end of platform 4 for Paddington. They didn’t know that trains for London were only using platform 2. Why were they not informed by working and visible information systems and/ or staff ? Pathetic.

And this chaos has been going on every night for months if not years.

And as I’ve said before if someone is waiting on platform 3 for the last Oxford / Reading train which then arrives on platform 1 then the quickest and only way to catch it is to cross the fast tracks. As an ex-railwayman and ex-health and safety rep for British Airways I am gobsmacked that Great Western Railway, Crossrail, and Network Rail should be deliberately engineering such an unsafe situation.

Frankly the lack of customer information systems and the information signage at Hayes & Harlington Station has been and still is an utter disgrace and totally unprofessional. C.J. BRADY Harlington via email