The plan is of course written for everything to have its proper place but King's Cross a mass of different TOCs, stock types, train lengths, and local/intercity services. Add to this that there is top working and prohibitions on some platforms for some trains - it doesn't take much for everything to get displaced, hence last minute platform alterations (decisions often made entirely by the signaller on approach to the station, so staff only become aware as the customers do)
I think in many cases stations in other countries have more platform capacity at their disposal and more staff resources on the ground and behind the scenes. In most cases they have wisely avoided fragmentation and avoided allowing the entire basis of operation to become overly accountant-driven.
Much more eloquent than what I said, this is what I am getting at, completely agree.
It lost one platform
And a suburban one at that.
Was the plan for all GTR 700s to use the core tunnels? Rather than terminate at Kings Cross?
I think so from memory? The only thing that were supposed to be using Kings Cross were a few peak time extras (to Peterborough I think mostly) and the hourly Kings Lynn service (though some of them were main trainshed anyway).
But towards the end it was being used for the 5-car open access operators.
You can of course do the Marylebone trick of not putting the platform number up at all, with the train setting off, wonderfully to time, but empty.
Does this really happen?
...sometimes, but not often
I see. Thanks!
It's a cultural thing as much as it is anything else, at least in Germany/Switzerland/Austria. Anybody who's done more than a token amount of long-distance travel in these countries - and especially Germany, with such a large and complicated network - will have experienced platform changes and altered formations just as happens here.
What is also a factor that has not been mentioned is that if you display platform numbers, people will head to them and start to board, getting in the way of cleaning and before seat reservations have been set up
I can appreciate this, but it's not necessarily impossible to manage, such as by only opening certain doors on the train and having staff ask passengers to wait. Many operators also make announcements to the effect that boarding has not yet begun, and show "DO NOT BOARD" on the information displays (though this requires that they be installed at multiple points along the platform, something also antithetical in much of Britain).
TBC? Yes, fairly common. Usually when the booked platform is already occupied for some reason so they're not sure where it's going to go, or the train for the service has failed so they're waiting to see where the replacement will be found from.
In theory. I got caught out recently in Germany...
Yeah, I've found Cologne Hbf to be an absolute nightmare for late notice platform alterations as soon as there's any disruption (which is most days!) for example
Well the timetable itself cannot be "guaranteed", but that doesn't stop it from being made available.
