On Dec 8, 3:23*pm, John B wrote:
On Dec 8, 11:45*am, Mike Bristow wrote:

How about a panel next to the main display which reads along the lines
of *"Next train for quickest arrival at Paddington is: xx.xx plat y"
This would need to be larger than the normal display to ensure
passengers see it first, and perhaps with a footnote that other
earlier trains run but will arrive after the recommended train.

This could work really well at stations where there is one, main,
destination (eg: *at Woking, you'd pick Waterloo; at Reading, you'd
pick Paddington; and at Stratford, Liverpool Street).

Indeed, they already have these at both Waterloo and Reading.

But at a terminus, it's not so good: *There are a large number of
destinations, and finding the right one can be a pain. * *I really
dislike Manchester Picadilly station because they take this approach;
there's such a vast amount of information it can be a pain to find
the needle you want.

Agreed that the board at Picc is annoying - but the board at London
Bridge works well, despite the enormous number of destinations. The
main difference is that the London Bridge one is a single, static
rectangle, rather than a permanently scrolling triangle.

Is the London Bridge one based on first departure time or first
arrival time?

There is something similar at Lewisham where it just repeats whatever
is on the platform indicator for the next scheduled departure,
regardless of whether there is something else coming first (ie it will
show the time of the one half an hour late rather than the one on time
due five minutes after it). It also shows "Next train to ... Charing
Cross ... cancelled" rather than the time of the next non-cancelled
one.

(Slightly related problem is screens in the concourse just repeating
"stand back ... not for public use" for several minutes, instead of
guiding people to their platform.)

On this ... a strange thing at Greenwich recently.

1st 1020 Cannon Street expected 1022

2nd 1010 Charing Cross cancelled

Can't work out what happened there.

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008 07:41:55 -0800 (PST), MIG
wrote:

On Dec 8, 3:23*pm, John B wrote:
On Dec 8, 11:45*am, Mike Bristow wrote:

How about a panel next to the main display which reads along the lines
of *"Next train for quickest arrival at Paddington is: xx.xx plat y"
This would need to be larger than the normal display to ensure
passengers see it first, and perhaps with a footnote that other
earlier trains run but will arrive after the recommended train.

This could work really well at stations where there is one, main,
destination (eg: *at Woking, you'd pick Waterloo; at Reading, you'd
pick Paddington; and at Stratford, Liverpool Street).

Indeed, they already have these at both Waterloo and Reading.

But at a terminus, it's not so good: *There are a large number of
destinations, and finding the right one can be a pain. * *I really
dislike Manchester Picadilly station because they take this approach;
there's such a vast amount of information it can be a pain to find
the needle you want.

Agreed that the board at Picc is annoying - but the board at London
Bridge works well, despite the enormous number of destinations. The
main difference is that the London Bridge one is a single, static
rectangle, rather than a permanently scrolling triangle.

Is the London Bridge one based on first departure time or first
arrival time?

Not sure, but East Croydon has one based on first arrival time.

On Dec 9, 9:01*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2008 07:41:55 -0800 (PST), MIG





wrote:
On Dec 8, 3:23*pm, John B wrote:
On Dec 8, 11:45*am, Mike Bristow wrote:

How about a panel next to the main display which reads along the lines
of *"Next train for quickest arrival at Paddington is: xx.xx plat y"
This would need to be larger than the normal display to ensure
passengers see it first, and perhaps with a footnote that other
earlier trains run but will arrive after the recommended train.

This could work really well at stations where there is one, main,
destination (eg: *at Woking, you'd pick Waterloo; at Reading, you'd
pick Paddington; and at Stratford, Liverpool Street).

Indeed, they already have these at both Waterloo and Reading.

But at a terminus, it's not so good: *There are a large number of
destinations, and finding the right one can be a pain. * *I really
dislike Manchester Picadilly station because they take this approach;
there's such a vast amount of information it can be a pain to find
the needle you want.

Agreed that the board at Picc is annoying - but the board at London
Bridge works well, despite the enormous number of destinations. The
main difference is that the London Bridge one is a single, static
rectangle, rather than a permanently scrolling triangle.

Is the London Bridge one based on first departure time or first
arrival time?

Not sure, but East Croydon has one based on first arrival time.- Hide quoted text -

Going inwards that certainly makes sense. As it would at Bromley
South, Orpington etc. I wonder if they have them?

But that's for one or two obvious destinations (Victoria, London
Bridge). It would be very complicated to have the first arrivals at
Dartford, Orpington, Ramsgate, Brighton, Barnham etc, sometimes via
different routes, shown at London Bridge.

On 9 Dec, 23:34, MIG wrote:
But that's for one or two obvious destinations (Victoria, London
Bridge). *It would be very complicated to have the first arrivals at
Dartford, Orpington, Ramsgate, Brighton, Barnham etc, sometimes via
different routes, shown at London Bridge.

And yet it has two of them. One in the interchange concourse above the
platforms, one above the entrance to the subway from by the bus
station down to platforms 1-6. Plus there's a mini one on the main
concourse.

U

On Dec 9, 11:40*pm, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 9 Dec, 23:34, MIG wrote:

But that's for one or two obvious destinations (Victoria, London
Bridge). *It would be very complicated to have the first arrivals at
Dartford, Orpington, Ramsgate, Brighton, Barnham etc, sometimes via
different routes, shown at London Bridge.

And yet it has two of them. One in the interchange concourse above the
platforms, one above the entrance to the subway from by the bus
station down to platforms 1-6. Plus there's a mini one on the main
concourse.

That was my initial question: does it show first arrivals or first
departures? I spose I could go there and work it out.

On 9 Dec, 23:43, MIG wrote:
That was my initial question: does it show first arrivals or first
departures? *I spose I could go there and work it out.

Turns out I have a photo of the bloody thing*:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maha.thr...43176564896722

There's a via Greenwich train at 19.38, and a Woolwich via Lewisham at
19.39. Since the Greenwich train almost certainly continues to
Woolwich, and yet Woolwich passengers are told to wait for the 19:39,
It appears to be recommending the earliest arrival rather than simply
the first departure.

(* because it was still showing KXTL and no St Pancras last March)

U

On Dec 10, 12:03*am, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 9 Dec, 23:43, MIG wrote:

That was my initial question: does it show first arrivals or first
departures? *I spose I could go there and work it out.

Turns out I have a photo of the bloody thing*:http://picasaweb.google.com/maha.thr...ndonBridge#527...

There's a via Greenwich train at 19.38, and a Woolwich via Lewisham at
19.39. Since the Greenwich train almost certainly continues to
Woolwich, and yet Woolwich passengers are told to wait for the 19:39,
It appears to be recommending the earliest arrival rather than simply
the first departure.

(* because it was still showing KXTL and no St Pancras last March)

*U

Aha. It certainly does. Next question though ... if the via Woolwich
was 10 minutes late or cancelled, would it show the Greenwich one (one
would hope so, but it makes it all the more mysterious why the one I
saw at Lewisham was so crap)?