Platform alterations at Liverpool South Parkway

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I made a complaint to Merseyrail recently because of the lack of any platform alteration announcements at Liverpool South Parkway. For anyone who doesn't know, Merseyrail are the only National Rail TOC with no automated CIS announcements at any of their stations. The only announcements that play are general safety and information announcements and none for any specific services so if a service is altered platforms, it has to be announced manually by staff.

Merseyrail called me back and they told me that platform alterations for Liverpool South Parkway are supposed to be announced by the signaller at Manchester ROC as it is the only station in which alterations are possible and are not signalled by Sandhills IECC. I also asked why Merseyrail did not use automated CIS announcements at any of their stations and they told me that their funding model means that are unable to afford a more sophisticated CIS that has provision for automated announcements but staff at Sandhills IECC can announce to any station they manage, either in real-time or pre-recorded to repeat at certain intervals.

The reason for them not having automated CIS announcements does make sense. As wrong as it is, this is the same TOC that does not accept e-tickets so I find it believable. The thing I am struggling to get behind is the fact that Manchester ROC are supposedly responsible for platform alteration announcements at Liverpool South Parkway. I know signallers used to do this before automated CIS announcements were commonplace but with the very wide area that Manchester ROC covers, I cannot imagine they would be able to do announcements alongside controlling train movements, especially during disruption.

If anyone can shed any more light on this situation, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The high level platforms have automatic announcements, so I presume your issue is where an alteration occurs on the low level platforms. This is rare, it will only happen when a train is turned early and IME even then a late-running Merseyrail will usually go non-stop to Hunts Cross rather than be turned early at South Parkway.

 

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The high level platforms have automatic announcements, so I presume your issue is where an alteration occurs on the low level platforms. This is rare, it will only happen when a train is turned early and IME even then a late-running Merseyrail will usually go non-stop to Hunts Cross rather than be turned early at South Parkway.

This is only platforms 1 to 4. When I was last there, there were no automated announcements on these platforms. Maybe this has changed since I last went?

 

[Tetchytyke]

This is only platforms 1 to 4. When I was last there, there were no automated announcements on these platforms. Maybe this has changed since I last went?

I don’t know, I’ve not been there since December but (from memory) had automatic announcements then.

The Merseyrail platforms don’t but as Merseyrail say, that’ll be due to the fact that South Parkway isn’t controlled by Sandhills.

 

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I don’t know, I’ve not been there since December but (from memory) had automatic announcements then.

The Merseyrail platforms don’t but as Merseyrail say, that’ll be due to the fact that South Parkway isn’t controlled by Sandhills.

Yeah Merseyrail platforms fair enough but not for mainline platforms. Hopefully someone on here can clarify if announcements have been implemented or not

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Yeah Merseyrail platforms fair enough but not for mainline platforms. Hopefully someone on here can clarify if announcements have been implemented or not

There are no train arrival or departure announcements at Liverpool South Parkway.

It is a curious arrangement because the customer information system that Merseyrail uses is in use at plenty of other operators. Literally the only difference is that they don't license the bit that actually makes the audible announcements.

Merseyrail does actually have an audible digital announcement system, but it is incredibly dated and largely unused. It's possible that this system is totally disused now.

Someone else will be able to tell you whether there is possibly a disability angle here. If Merseyrail were a public body, I think they'd probably have to install such a system to comply with the duties.

 

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There are no train arrival or departure announcements at Liverpool South Parkway.

It is a curious arrangement because the customer information system that Merseyrail uses is in use at plenty of other operators. Literally the only difference is that they don't license the bit that actually makes the audible announcements.

Merseyrail does actually have an audible digital announcement system, but it is incredibly dated and largely unused. It's possible that this system is totally disused now.

Someone else will be able to tell you whether there is possibly a disability angle here. If Merseyrail were a public body, I think they'd probably have to install such a system to comply with the duties.

Would that CIS happen to be Worldline? I know that's the one that is most often used by other TOCs