Since its refurbishment a number of years ago now, Manchester Piccadilly has been equipped with a very large blue board which lists the station's direct departures over the next ~30 mins, in order of which arrives first at the station listed even if this is not the first departure, this will be listed top in that group of stations (or possibly, whichever has the shortest journeytime, I'm not totally sure). All the other information you would expect is also there, plus the final destination of the train (although, it does have the rather odd quirk of adding any additional information, such as 'Via Manchester Airport' or 'Local Stopping Service' or 'Req. Stop' to the TOC column). Here's a photo:
So, my question is, are there any other stations that use this as the primary form of communicating platform information to passengers on the concourse? Apart from screens on the platforms themselves (which do face the concourse so you can see them through the glass) and the simple list of departures, which is only really useful to the public if they know already what time their train is, this is all Piccadilly has. It's never been a 'problem' per se, because its exceptionally rare for any train to have made it onto the departure board without a platform showing, but I'm intrigued: other large or Network Rail managed stations that I know of all use the list of departing trains by time, with all their calling stations listed under them, usually moving to the left or right as the trains depart. Think of Lime St and Leeds, and the very large vertical lists at Euston and King's Cross, as well as Waterloo, Glasgow Central, London Bridge and the new ones at New Street. St Pancras is just weird (although it looks like they used the same blue screens). Which type do you prefer? Why was the apparently successful formula changed in Manchester? Note that I'm not saying Fastest Train To or 'A to Z departures' boards don't have a place in communicating information, just that I cannot think of another location where they are the main form of information presented. Perhaps Clapham Junction? But that is very different to Manchester Piccadilly! What do you think?
So, my question is, are there any other stations that use this as the primary form of communicating platform information to passengers on the concourse? Apart from screens on the platforms themselves (which do face the concourse so you can see them through the glass) and the simple list of departures, which is only really useful to the public if they know already what time their train is, this is all Piccadilly has. It's never been a 'problem' per se, because its exceptionally rare for any train to have made it onto the departure board without a platform showing, but I'm intrigued: other large or Network Rail managed stations that I know of all use the list of departing trains by time, with all their calling stations listed under them, usually moving to the left or right as the trains depart. Think of Lime St and Leeds, and the very large vertical lists at Euston and King's Cross, as well as Waterloo, Glasgow Central, London Bridge and the new ones at New Street. St Pancras is just weird (although it looks like they used the same blue screens). Which type do you prefer? Why was the apparently successful formula changed in Manchester? Note that I'm not saying Fastest Train To or 'A to Z departures' boards don't have a place in communicating information, just that I cannot think of another location where they are the main form of information presented. Perhaps Clapham Junction? But that is very different to Manchester Piccadilly! What do you think?
There are indeed only two sides to the board. I should have mentioned this earlier. The third is covered in Network Rail's posters: "Welcome to Manchester Piccadilly" I think. It also does indeed rotate between the two 'faces' of the screen. So the picture at the top represents half of the departures currently on the board. It seems to me that every station is indeed listed, with duplicate stations dropping off if there are odd additions that only come up every now and then; 'Yorton' 'Prees' and 'Wem' are examples. To the point about finding it difficult to search for your station, yes that can be annoying and it does change around, but whatever you do, DON'T walk around to the next screen, because by the time you get there it will have changed again! Just stay and wait! I personally prefer this setup to most any alternative because its large enough that its easy to read (at least, it was when it was new, nowadays its fading a bit in places!) and yet still fits on a mammoth list of stations.
