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How about just paying off the firm that installed it and using it to display departures? Then open out the concourse again and improve it further where possible.
I am pretty sure the screen was agreed and work carried out as part of a contract, so I doubt they can just pay off the firm that installed it and tell the advertising company tough **** you can't use it anymore.
Well, I guess they could, get sued, and the taxpayer ends up paying a few million in compensation.
I am pretty sure the screen was agreed and work carried out as part of a contract, so I doubt they can just pay off the firm that installed it and tell the advertising company tough **** you can't use it anymore.
Well, I guess they could, get sued, and the taxpayer ends up paying a few million in compensation.
If they want a budget fix, moving the two new screens into the middle next to each other and having one do IC and one do local departures would probably be vaguely workable. It's the layout that really doesn't work.
If they want a budget fix, moving the two new screens into the middle next to each other and having one do IC and one do local departures would probably be vaguely workable. It's the layout that really doesn't work.
I think I said this when they announced the new departure boards ‘experiment’, the driver clearly was to create space for advertising rather than any sort of passenger flow considerations.
And low and behold not even a year later we now have our giant advertising display in place of the departure boards.
Every time I see photos of the original Euston I feel sad that I didn't get to experience that in person. I actually think we need a renovation to go back to something more like that original.
The only good thing done recently is the addition of departure screens in the outside area
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Yes, exactly this. The problem is that the new departure screens don't work, and they've been told that multiple times. They provide insufficient information as there aren't enough panels, they're too small, they're hard to look at (because they use a design of screen intended for viewing at a distance for viewing relatively up-close) and their location causes passenger flow issues.
There's plenty more detail upthread on why they don't, and it is possible that a single one in the middle (rather than two) with more panels could work, but they don't as they are, they're useless.
They were also insanely expensive compared to something that would work in that location (a long row of maybe 12 or so 40-something inch LCD panels on a metal pole in the middle of the concourse rather than two of them). This would have cost low hundreds of thousands rather than over a million.
I am sure there are nice photos of the old 'temporary' concourse at King's Cross too, and people might say they miss that, but given how busy these stations are now and the fact that the station upgrades were done to cope with increasing demand at the time, I doubt there's any way to go back to things as they were.
Every time I see photos of the original Euston I feel sad that I didn't get to experience that in person. I actually think we need a renovation to go back to something more like that original.
Euston has always been one of my favourite stations, I know a lot of people don't share my view, but its original design has always pleased me. I used it starting in the later 1970s so I guess it hadn't been mucked around with much by then. I understand that it's much busier now than it was designed for, and this causes problems.
Getting rid of the junk on the concourse more recently was a big improvement.
The departure board clearly has one location, which is where it's been until now.
As others have mentioned, the only good thing is that I use Realtime Trains and Open Train Times to locate my platform, sometimes before I've arrived at the station, so for me I don't need the departure board anyway.
But I share the prevailing view that this is a huge negative and deleterious change which shows what the people who run our railways think about their passengers.
Whilst this looks terrible and seems like a poor allocation of space and bad provision for customer information, what’s worse is it could set a bad precedent for other London terminals with a similar layout.
I certainly hope not and hopefully Euston is (and has been!) an isolated basketcase.
Whilst this looks terrible and seems like a poor allocation of space and bad provision for customer information, what’s worse is it could set a bad precedent for other London terminals with a similar layout.
I certainly hope not and hopefully Euston is (and has been!) an isolated basketcase.
Euston has always been one of my favourite stations, I know a lot of people don't share my view, but its original design has always pleased me. I used it starting in the later 1970s so I guess it hadn't been mucked around with much by then. I understand that it's much busier now than it was designed for, and this causes problems.
Getting rid of the junk on the concourse more recently was a big improvement.
The departure board clearly has one location, which is where it's been until now.
As others have mentioned, the only good thing is that I use Realtime Trains and Open Train Times to locate my platform, sometimes before I've arrived at the station, so for me I don't need the departure board anyway.
But I share the prevailing view that this is a huge negative and deleterious change which shows what the people who run our railways think about their passengers.
Current Euston is absolutely awful in my view, definitely my least favourite of the london terminals I use. Old pictures make it look much nicer than it is now, but I do see the point about increased passenger numbers
They are very hard to look at because they appear to use a technology intended for viewing at a medium distance (e.g. up where the old board was) for viewing up close. For close viewing, TFT LCD or OLED are better technologies (probably the former as it's cheaper and doesn't suffer screen burn-in like the latter does). They are indeed too bright, but also too low resolution for up-close.
Brightness is probably adjustable in software, that said.
Someone really screwed up here and spent a fortune on something that works very badly.
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It works OKish at Paddington because the boards aren't placed such that they result in everyone standing in the way of the main flows, though. They also use a technology (orange LED) that works for close viewing, and they have enough panels.
Paddington is also a bit different from Euston in that it has a very long concourse - imagine if Euston's concourse ran all the way from P18 to P1 rather than just being the middle bit? With that layout, distributing the displays can make more sense. Waterloo is even more extreme in this regard, which means it has several different boards, some low level and some high level, because there's not one location where you can put one to be seen from anywhere. Euston is different - if one is placed where originally intended, you can see it from everywhere other than inside shops and in the tunnel.
True but there isn’t a humongous advertising display either. Granted Euston’s ‘unique’ layout allows this so perhaps it may not so bad, but other NR stations desperate for cash certainly might consider it.
To be honest, if you just put one of the exact same setup as Paddington has (orange LEDs with enough panels above an info desk) around the central column in the Euston "Great Hall", it probably would work. Wouldn't be as good as the original board, but it'd be OK.
The layout at Euston would be well designed if the main entrance to the station was in the middle between the two sets of boards. The thing is, it isn't, it's in the corner next to WH Smuggs' reading room, as that's where most Tube passengers plus anyone continuing on foot towards most of central London including St P will enter/leave. You thus need to draw people into the middle, not keep them at the sides.
(Because of where the Tube escalators are, you can't easily move the entrance into the middle which would also fix the flow).
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True but there isn’t a humongous advertising display either. Granted Euston’s ‘unique’ layout allows this so perhaps it may not so bad, but other NR stations desperate for cash certainly might consider it.
Dunno if this tweet from Euston has been posted previously, but the one thing we DON'T need are advertising screens. We need more and better information screens, as I have replied it's no good having packed concourse where you can't get to read what's on the small ones.
Thank you to passengers for your patience while we have had scaffolding in the station. We have started to take it down. Coming soon, replacement advertising screen for partners
Someone suggested that the X/Twitter account is on “our side” from the alt text they wrote:
Image shows an empty station concourse at Euston with the small departure screen in the centre of the image. To the back of the image, a section of a large screen has been revealed now scaffolding has been removed but it is blank and not showing any content (black screen) To the right of the image is a scaffolding tower, orange at the bottom and blue at the top, with two track workers on a box ladder in full orange clothing and hard hats, working on the scaffolding.
The positioning (of everything except the arrivals board) is utterly shambolic, and makes the problem of fighting your way from an arriving train through a herd of departing passengers stampeding towards their soon-to-depart train even worse. The only nice touch, I would say (as of when I was last there) is the countdown timer on the platform boards.
The positioning (of everything except the arrivals board) is utterly shambolic, and makes the problem of fighting your way from an arriving train through a herd of departing passengers stampeding towards their soon-to-depart train even worse. The only nice touch, I would say (as of when I was last there) is the countdown timer on the platform boards.
It was showing up to the time of departure for all services, which was causing missed trains. It's now set to 2 minutes for everything, but I've not had chance to observe what happens when it reaches 0 - it presumably doesn't automatically remove trains from display, that's still done manually, as it wouldn't work properly in delays if it did.
Another poorly thought through "feature" to be honest.
It was showing up to the time of departure for all services, which was causing missed trains. It's now set to 2 minutes for everything, but I've not had chance to observe what happens when it reaches 0 - it presumably doesn't automatically remove trains from display, that's still done manually, as it wouldn't work properly in delays if it did.
Another poorly thought through "feature" to be honest.
I am pretty sure the screen was agreed and work carried out as part of a contract, so I doubt they can just pay off the firm that installed it and tell the advertising company tough **** you can't use it anymore.
Well, I guess they could, get sued, and the taxpayer ends up paying a few million in compensation.
I suppose you can negotiate your way out of any contract you like if you're willing to part with enough money. As you hint, I doubt that is realistic at this stage.
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If they want a budget fix, moving the two new screens into the middle next to each other and having one do IC and one do local departures would probably be vaguely workable. It's the layout that really doesn't work.
There'd of course still be no visibility at all if you were standing directly under the balcony or were on it. You'd have a fab view of the advertising though.
When there's disruption I notice you physically can't get into the space that has a good view of the departure screens. There are just too many people. It's so bad it's probably discriminatory against people who can see but not very well.
"Our revenues are still down 30% compared to 4 years ago. With every decision we make from now, should there be a relentless focus on the customer experience, to get them back?"
"Nah."
"Our revenues are still down 30% compared to 4 years ago. With every decision we make from now, should there be a relentless focus on the customer experience, to get them back?"
"Nah."
During the disruption last week when nothing could leave Euston, the departure boards were clearing services as they were due to depart (many were not showing as cancelled, just vanishing) except for Tring bound trains. At one point the departure boards were 50% Tring services
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