This afternoon I took a Thameslink train to Sutton which
arrived at St. Pancras International at the "wrong" platform.
This was clearly intentional as the train announcer warned
that the doors would open on the right-hand side. (There
was a train waiting at the other platform which seemed to be
heading for Bedford.) On our platform none of the destination
indicators listed our train or Sutton.

Is two-way running common at St. Pancras International? If it is,
why do the destination indicators not display South London
destinations?

In message , at 20:07:35 on Tue, 29
Dec 2015, Robin9 remarked:

This afternoon I took a Thameslink train to Sutton which
arrived at St. Pancras International at the "wrong" platform.
This was clearly intentional as the train announcer warned
that the doors would open on the right-hand side. (There
was a train waiting at the other platform which seemed to be
heading for Bedford.) On our platform none of the destination
indicators listed our train or Sutton.

Is two-way running common at St. Pancras International? If it is,
why do the destination indicators not display South London
destinations?

Two-way running has to be allowed, otherwise they wouldn't be able to
turn the entire north-facing service there. Which of course doesn't
require any South London destinations to be shown.

I've never seen it though. Perhaps RTT is your friend for today's
movements.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 20:07:35 on Tue,
29 Dec 2015, Robin9 remarked:

This afternoon I took a Thameslink train to Sutton which
arrived at St. Pancras International at the "wrong" platform.
This was clearly intentional as the train announcer warned
that the doors would open on the right-hand side. (There
was a train waiting at the other platform which seemed to be
heading for Bedford.) On our platform none of the destination
indicators listed our train or Sutton.

Is two-way running common at St. Pancras International? If it is,
why do the destination indicators not display South London
destinations?

Two-way running has to be allowed, otherwise they wouldn't be able to
turn the entire north-facing service there. Which of course doesn't
require any South London destinations to be shown.

I've never seen it though. Perhaps RTT is your friend for today's
movements.

No such move on RTT. All departures from STP calling later at Sutton
(Surrey) between 1200 and 1900 left from platform A. Platform B shows some
terminators but all going back North.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 29/12/2015 22:06, Roland Perry wrote:
Two-way running has to be allowed, otherwise they wouldn't be able to
turn the entire north-facing service there. Which of course doesn't
require any South London destinations to be shown.

I've never seen it though. Perhaps RTT is your friend for today's
movements.

Two-way running at St.P is relatively common, i.e. during major
disruptions (which means, unfortunately, every few days over the last
few weeks). When that happens the trains can arrive in either platform
A or B and reverse there. Whether the destination boards can cope?
Well they so often give wrong information that I can't say that I've
noticed. The signs at the mezzanine level, where they direct you to
the left for northbound and straight ahead for southbound services are,
of course, entirely misleading when there's two-way running. Regular
passengers get to know, how on earth visitors manage I have no idea.

But TSGN (as people keep reminding me) have only a management contract
with DafT so they have no interest whatever in providing passengers
(sorry, customers) with accurate and timely information, as this doesn't
seem to have been written into their contract.

--
Clive Page

On 29/12/2015 19:07, Robin9 wrote:
This afternoon I took a Thameslink train to Sutton which
arrived at St. Pancras International at the "wrong" platform.
This was clearly intentional as the train announcer warned
that the doors would open on the right-hand side. (There
was a train waiting at the other platform which seemed to be
heading for Bedford.) On our platform none of the destination
indicators listed our train or Sutton.

Is two-way running common at St. Pancras International? If it is,
why do the destination indicators not display South London
destinations?


"Wrong Line" running or reversal at SPILL is very rare and I am not
surprised that the PIS does not support it. I would guess that the
"Stand Back - Not For Public Use" appeared on the indicators - it
happens occasionally, even for right direction service trains! Reversal
of trains from the north is usually done at an EMT platform or at
Kentish Town.



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In article , (Clive Page)
wrote:

On 29/12/2015 22:06, Roland Perry wrote:
Two-way running has to be allowed, otherwise they wouldn't be able to
turn the entire north-facing service there. Which of course doesn't
require any South London destinations to be shown.

I've never seen it though. Perhaps RTT is your friend for today's
movements.

Two-way running at St.P is relatively common, i.e. during major
disruptions (which means, unfortunately, every few days over the last
few weeks). When that happens the trains can arrive in either
platform A or B and reverse there. Whether the destination boards
can cope? Well they so often give wrong information that I can't say
that I've noticed. The signs at the mezzanine level, where they
direct you to the left for northbound and straight ahead for
southbound services are, of course, entirely misleading when there's
two-way running. Regular passengers get to know, how on earth
visitors manage I have no idea.

But TSGN (as people keep reminding me) have only a management
contract with DafT so they have no interest whatever in providing
passengers (sorry, customers) with accurate and timely information,
as this doesn't seem to have been written into their contract.

You can say that again! GN have tweeted that they have a special timetable
this week. When I asked where I could get it from (the put a PDF of last
Sunday's fiasco on their web site) they told me to go to the NRE Online
Journey Planner web site. When I asked how that was supposed to work offline
I got no answer. I just can't believe what a shambles this franchise is
turning into. God help them when through Thameslink running starts.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article m,
(Peter Lawrence) wrote:

On 29/12/2015 19:07, Robin9 wrote:
This afternoon I took a Thameslink train to Sutton which
arrived at St. Pancras International at the "wrong" platform.
This was clearly intentional as the train announcer warned
that the doors would open on the right-hand side. (There
was a train waiting at the other platform which seemed to be
heading for Bedford.) On our platform none of the destination
indicators listed our train or Sutton.

Is two-way running common at St. Pancras International? If it is,
why do the destination indicators not display South London
destinations?

"Wrong Line" running or reversal at SPILL is very rare and I am not
surprised that the PIS does not support it. I would guess that the
"Stand Back - Not For Public Use" appeared on the indicators - it
happens occasionally, even for right direction service trains!
Reversal of trains from the north is usually done at an EMT platform
or at Kentish Town.

Not according to Real Time Trains as I reported earlier. That data didn't
show any wrong line /departures/ just arrivals.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 20:24:47
on Wed, 30 Dec 2015, remarked:
But TSGN (as people keep reminding me) have only a management
contract with DafT so they have no interest whatever in providing
passengers (sorry, customers) with accurate and timely information,
as this doesn't seem to have been written into their contract.

You can say that again! GN have tweeted that they have a special timetable
this week. When I asked where I could get it from (the put a PDF of last
Sunday's fiasco on their web site) they told me to go to the NRE Online
Journey Planner web site. When I asked how that was supposed to work offline
I got no answer. I just can't believe what a shambles this franchise is
turning into. God help them when through Thameslink running starts.

I saw someone earlier in the week trying to get them (on Twitter) to
explain what had happened to the Moorgate Service the previous day, and
the reply, from GN, was "We had been informed that an hourly service
would operate but I am having trouble finding service information from
yesterday."
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
20:24:47 on Wed, 30 Dec 2015, remarked:
But TSGN (as people keep reminding me) have only a management
contract with DafT so they have no interest whatever in providing
passengers (sorry, customers) with accurate and timely information,
as this doesn't seem to have been written into their contract.

You can say that again! GN have tweeted that they have a special
timetable this week. When I asked where I could get it from (the put a
PDF of last Sunday's fiasco on their web site) they told me to go to the
NRE Online Journey Planner web site. When I asked how that was supposed
to work offline I got no answer. I just can't believe what a shambles
this franchise is turning into. God help them when through Thameslink
running starts.

I saw someone earlier in the week trying to get them (on Twitter) to
explain what had happened to the Moorgate Service the previous day,
and the reply, from GN, was "We had been informed that an hourly
service would operate but I am having trouble finding service
information from yesterday."

Couldn't make it up!

--
Colin Rosenstiel

That did not appear on the indicators. Only the normal
north-bound destinations were listed. Our train was ignored,
potentially leading to confusion.