On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started following
the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the same direction
as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me straight ahead,
towards the main station exit gate line.

When I reached the main station exit, there were no further visible signs
for the DLR. The last one I saw pointed me straight out through the ticket
gates. If I had followed the signs, I would have gone straight out through
the gates into the outside world. It's only because I realised that I
really didn't want to exit the station that I asked an official where the
DLR platforms were.

Apparently, you have to about-turn and look backwards to see where the DLR
is.

This is crap, and I would imagine leads to an awful lot of people going
out of the station looking for the DLR, then having to talk their way back
in having discovered their "mistake".

Is there anyone I can moan at about this?

Thanks.

Tim Fardell wrote:

On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started following
the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the same direction
as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me straight ahead,
towards the main station exit gate line.

Stratford is a very confusing station for the uninitiated, partially because
it's the combination of separate high/low level stations, partially because
the platform numbering is literally all over the place due to changes in the
last fifteen years, partially because neither passenger foot tunnel links
every platform and partially because improvement works that aim to increase
the capacity mean that the routes through the station keep getting opened
and closed. Just to add to the troubles it's a combined station for TfL and
National Express and it's often not clear who is responsible for what.

I don't know which train you were on or which platform you came in at, but
for most of the platforms the signs *should* be taking you to the western
most foot tunnel which comes out on the Jubilee Line side of the concourse,
where you can get an escalator up to the mezzanine and walk straight onto
the DLR platform. (If you're using either the Central Line or Shenfield
metro westbound that come in on the island platform 3 & 5 then you can take
a direct footbridge over the Central Line to the DLR. Be warned that some
late evening and weekend Shenfield metros used the fast tracks and so come
in on platform 9 instead.)

Ideally there need to be signs in concourse for DLR bound passengers who've
come from the foot tunnels to tell them to do a 180 degree turn and use the
escalators up to the mezzanine. But I'm not sure where you'd put them on the
exit side where there are already crowd flow problems that additional sign
clutter will not help.

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Tim Fardell wrote:

On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started
following the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the
same direction as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me
straight ahead, towards the main station exit gate line.

Stratford is a very confusing station for the uninitiated, partially
because it's the combination of separate high/low level stations,
partially because the platform numbering is literally all over the
place due to changes in the last fifteen years, partially because
neither passenger foot tunnel links every platform and partially
because improvement works that aim to increase the capacity mean that
the routes through the station keep getting opened and closed. Just
to add to the troubles it's a combined station for TfL and National
Express and it's often not clear who is responsible for what.
I don't know which train you were on or which platform you came in
at, but for most of the platforms the signs *should* be taking you to
the western most foot tunnel which comes out on the Jubilee Line side
of the concourse, where you can get an escalator up to the mezzanine
and walk straight onto the DLR platform. (If you're using either the
Central Line or Shenfield metro westbound that come in on the island
platform 3 & 5 then you can take a direct footbridge over the Central
Line to the DLR. Be warned that some late evening and weekend
Shenfield metros used the fast tracks and so come in on platform 9
instead.)
Ideally there need to be signs in concourse for DLR bound passengers
who've come from the foot tunnels to tell them to do a 180 degree
turn and use the escalators up to the mezzanine. But I'm not sure
where you'd put them on the exit side where there are already crowd
flow problems that additional sign clutter will not help.

Maybe the signs are already correct for the new DLR extension's platforms
(ie the old NLL platforms) and someone has forgotten to blank them out...

Paul S

On Jan 25, 1:22*pm, Tim Fardell tim.fardell.all-your-
wrote:
On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started following
the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the same direction
as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me straight ahead,
towards the main station exit gate line.

When I reached the main station exit, there were no further visible signs
for the DLR. The last one I saw pointed me straight out through the ticket
gates. If I had followed the signs, I would have gone straight out through
the gates into the outside world. It's only because I realised that I
really didn't want to exit the station that I asked an official where the
DLR platforms were.

Apparently, you have to about-turn and look backwards to see where the DLR
is.

This is crap, and I would imagine leads to an awful lot of people going
out of the station looking for the DLR, then having to talk their way back
in having discovered their "mistake".

Is there anyone I can moan at about this?

Overall responsibility for Stratford station lies with London
Underground, so you could try contacting them via the web form on the
TfL website, going through the menus and I suppose choosing
"Accessibility, maintenance and upkeep" - see:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

Or maybe you could contact DLR as an interested party - their web
form, reached via the above URL, is rather simpler - see:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/dlr/default.asp

If you look at the above page, you'll see further contact details on a
column on the right hand side - with an email address for DLR customer
services, and also one for corporate/ DLR project enquiries - whilst
the former will put you in touch with the plain vanilla CD department
at Serco Docklands (the operator of the DLR), I think the latter will
likely put you in touch with someone at DLR Ltd, which is the TfL
subsidiary (and a part of TfL's London Rail division) that is
responsible for oversight of the DLR. They might actually be the best
bet for a targeted and concise missive, then again they might simply
refer it on to the normal CS people.

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010, Mizter T wrote:

On Jan 25, 1:22*pm, Tim Fardell tim.fardell.all-your-
wrote:
On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started following
the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the same direction
as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me straight ahead,
towards the main station exit gate line.

When I reached the main station exit, there were no further visible signs
for the DLR. The last one I saw pointed me straight out through the ticket
gates. If I had followed the signs, I would have gone straight out through
the gates into the outside world. It's only because I realised that I
really didn't want to exit the station that I asked an official where the
DLR platforms were.

Apparently, you have to about-turn and look backwards to see where the DLR
is.

This is crap, and I would imagine leads to an awful lot of people going
out of the station looking for the DLR, then having to talk their way back
in having discovered their "mistake".

Is there anyone I can moan at about this?

Overall responsibility for Stratford station lies with London
Underground, so you could try contacting them via the web form on the
TfL website, going through the menus and I suppose choosing
"Accessibility, maintenance and upkeep" - see:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

Or maybe you could contact DLR as an interested party - their web
form, reached via the above URL, is rather simpler - see:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/dlr/default.asp

If you look at the above page, you'll see further contact details on a
column on the right hand side - with an email address for DLR customer
services, and also one for corporate/ DLR project enquiries - whilst
the former will put you in touch with the plain vanilla CD department
at Serco Docklands (the operator of the DLR), I think the latter will
likely put you in touch with someone at DLR Ltd, which is the TfL
subsidiary (and a part of TfL's London Rail division) that is
responsible for oversight of the DLR. They might actually be the best
bet for a targeted and concise missive, then again they might simply
refer it on to the normal CS people.

Thanks for all the responses.

I have submitted a suggestion to TFL that an additional sign should be
added to advise passengers that they need to turn around and go up the
stairs to find the DLR.

I will report back if I hear anything, but my hopes are not high!

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:09:31 +0000, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:19:53 -0000, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

Maybe the signs are already correct for the new DLR extension's
platforms (ie the old NLL platforms) and someone has forgotten to blank
them out...

I'd be astounded if they were in place already.

I can confirm there are signs for the DLR which are for the Stratford
Intl/Canning Town which are there and not blanked out.

Eg - heading from the higher-level DLR platforms across the footbridge to
the Central Line/Overground platforms, and just as you're passing the new
staircase and there's a sign....I did take a photo, but I doubt anyone
really cares that much

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Tim Fardell wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010, Mizter T wrote:

On Jan 25, 1:22*pm, Tim Fardell tim.fardell.all-your-
wrote:
On Friday, I arrived at Stratford Station by train, and started following
the signs for the DLR platforms. These all pointed in the same direction
as "Way Out". The last sign for DLR I saw pointed me straight ahead,
towards the main station exit gate line.

When I reached the main station exit, there were no further visible signs
for the DLR. The last one I saw pointed me straight out through the ticket
gates. If I had followed the signs, I would have gone straight out through
the gates into the outside world. It's only because I realised that I
really didn't want to exit the station that I asked an official where the
DLR platforms were.

Apparently, you have to about-turn and look backwards to see where the DLR
is.

This is crap, and I would imagine leads to an awful lot of people going
out of the station looking for the DLR, then having to talk their way back
in having discovered their "mistake".

Is there anyone I can moan at about this?

Overall responsibility for Stratford station lies with London
Underground, so you could try contacting them via the web form on the
TfL website, going through the menus and I suppose choosing
"Accessibility, maintenance and upkeep" - see:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

Or maybe you could contact DLR as an interested party - their web
form, reached via the above URL, is rather simpler - see:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/dlr/default.asp

If you look at the above page, you'll see further contact details on a
column on the right hand side - with an email address for DLR customer
services, and also one for corporate/ DLR project enquiries - whilst
the former will put you in touch with the plain vanilla CD department
at Serco Docklands (the operator of the DLR), I think the latter will
likely put you in touch with someone at DLR Ltd, which is the TfL
subsidiary (and a part of TfL's London Rail division) that is
responsible for oversight of the DLR. They might actually be the best
bet for a targeted and concise missive, then again they might simply
refer it on to the normal CS people.

Thanks for all the responses.

I have submitted a suggestion to TFL that an additional sign should be
added to advise passengers that they need to turn around and go up the
stairs to find the DLR.

I will report back if I hear anything, but my hopes are not high!

Well, rather unexpectedly, I actually got a reply! Fairly generic in
nature, but it looks like someone might actually read my suggestion, so
there is hope.