Pointless messages on electronic platform boards
 

On 20/08/2018 21:41, D A Stocks wrote:

I think it was some time last year I turned up at Gatwick to find the
platform display telling everyone about the "next train", complete with a
slowly scrolling list of destinations that didn't allow any space for
details of any subsequent services running from that platform. This "next
train" was a) timetabled to depart about an hour previously and b) had been
cancelled. It was just as bad upstairs on the main cocncourse where the
displays were full of details of the last two hours of cancellations with
nothing telling anyone what was actually running.

So it's no better than it was several years ago, when services were
disrupted due to bad weather. According to both the LED displays and the
recorded announcements, several trains (including non-stoppers)
approaced, arrived, and departed. In reality, there was not a train to
be seen, and the occasional one that managed to get through wasn't
displayed and had to be announced by a real person!

--
rgds
LAurence

Pointless messages on electronic platform boards
 

On 21/08/18 12:26, Laurence Taylor wrote:
On 20/08/2018 21:41, D A Stocks wrote:

I think it was some time last year I turned up at Gatwick to find the
platform display telling everyone about the "next train", complete with a
slowly scrolling list of destinations that didn't allow any space for
details of any subsequent services running from that platform. This "next
train" was a) timetabled to depart about an hour previously and b) had been
cancelled. It was just as bad upstairs on the main cocncourse where the
displays were full of details of the last two hours of cancellations with
nothing telling anyone what was actually running.

So it's no better than it was several years ago, when services were
disrupted due to bad weather. According to both the LED displays and the
recorded announcements, several trains (including non-stoppers)
approaced, arrived, and departed. In reality, there was not a train to
be seen, and the occasional one that managed to get through wasn't
displayed and had to be announced by a real person!

I travelled from Gatwick railway station during the cancellation crises
at the end of June. Even with the reduced service there were last
minute platform changes and passengers expecting to travel on the
cancelled services were having to ask employees which train to catch
because the indicators were useless.

Pointless messages on electronic platform boards
 

On Mon, 20 Aug 2018 23:15:48 +0100
"martin.coffee" wrote:
My experience of Gatwick was that the indicators were pretty useless.

At least they're consistent in that part of the world then with the flight
indicators going tits up because it seems none of the pre pubescent "engineers"
who worked on it understood the concept of redundancy. But then any
company that removes a direct link from the tower and replaces it by an
internet based round the houses system is clearly doing it simply for its own
profit rather than whats best for the customer.

Pointless messages on electronic platform boards
 

On 21/08/2018 13:44, martin.coffee wrote:

I travelled from Gatwick railway station during the cancellation crises
at the end of June. Even with the reduced service there were last
minute platform changes and passengers expecting to travel on the
cancelled services were having to ask employees which train to catch
because the indicators were useless.

There is, or was when I was there last, a display monitor on one of the
platforms that shows (or can be made to show as the press of a button),
the station layout, appraching trains with numbers, and so on. It's
obviously meant for platform staff, but is very useful for passengers
who can understand it.


--
rgds
LAurence

Pointless messages on electronic platform boards
 

Laurence Taylor wrote:
On 21/08/2018 13:44, martin.coffee wrote:

I travelled from Gatwick railway station during the cancellation crises
at the end of June. Even with the reduced service there were last
minute platform changes and passengers expecting to travel on the
cancelled services were having to ask employees which train to catch
because the indicators were useless.

There is, or was when I was there last, a display monitor on one of the
platforms that shows (or can be made to show as the press of a button),
the station layout, appraching trains with numbers, and so on. It's
obviously meant for platform staff, but is very useful for passengers
who can understand it.



They’re quite common at staffed stations on the gWr network, and presumably
others too.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMw8y6AWkAARZnF.jpg


Anna Noyd-Dryver