Errors on departure boards

[moogal]

That "formed of 11 carriages" looks like a manual note so someone has probably clicked on the wrong train when they were intending to put that note on a Pendolino service.

I've seen the diagram being different from the text before, it is probably from a different source. Which was correct out of interest, I suspect the diagram?

It was particularly confusing given no Pendolino services (usually!) call at LBZ.

The return train was 8 carrages, the diagram was incorrect. I have had the opposite issue before though, where the screens have announced 8 and I've arrived on the platform to be greeted by a single 350.

 

[structos]

Might have been added additionally. Did it stop there or were you not on that train?

Was on it, can’t recall if the app showed the stop, RTT and Traksy certainly didn’t
There looked to be no apparent reason why the stop would’ve been added back and appeared to be a mistake for it to be shown on the systems

Train just went past the station, with some passengers quite confused

 

[RGM654]

Many years ago, when I was waiting at Watford Junction for the northbound Highlander, the indicator on the platform showed it as calling at a few stations south of the Thames. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a photograph and now don't remember exactly which stations.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Did 'Solari' (split-flap) boards ever display erroneous information?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Did 'Solari' (split-flap) boards ever display erroneous information?

They very often got stuck on the wrong flap, yes. An advantage of modern displays is that if they fail completely they show nothing, whereas a "Solari" display could fail showing erroneous information.

 

[Milo's Trains]

last week at Waterloo. Image shows scrambled departure board.

Reminds me of that scene from Nightsleeper, (BBC) at London Victoria.

 

[Horizon22]

Reminds me of that scene from Nightsleeper, (BBC) at London Victoria.

It does a bit! This example probably just needed a bit of the classic IT fix of “turn the screens off and on again”. Amazed by how often this works.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Did 'Solari' (split-flap) boards ever display erroneous information?

I have quite a few pictures showing the hilarious routes they displayed when this happened.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have quite a few pictures showing the hilarious routes they displayed when this happened.

Stuff like a Cross City service terminating at Paris Nord wasn't entirely unknown to be displayed at New St, I believe.

 

[jumble]

This one is a bit of an enigma
Trivia Where is it?

 

[zwk500]

Trivia Where is it?

The roundel is a bit of a giveaway

Spoiler: Answer:

Wembley Park

 

[jumble]

The roundel is a bit of a giveaway

Spoiler: Answer:

Wembley Park

The roundel is a bit of a giveaway

Spoiler: Answer:

Wembley Park

Oh well you are smarter than Google lens AI who knows where I will be tonight

This image captures a moment at a London Underground station on the Metropolitan line at 23:45:24 on January 20, 2026.

• The next train is a semi-fast service to Amersham, arriving in 2 minutes.
  
  
• The following train is to Baker Street, arriving in 7 minutes.
  
  
• The Metropolitan line is the oldest underground railway in the world.
  
  
• "Fast" and "semi-fast" trains on this line have different stopping patterns to manage capacity efficiently.
  
  
• The user is likely at Pinner station, as this is on the Metropolitan line and the user's current location is Pinner.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Not been there for a long time. Presume that's not a bi-directional platform that's shown in post #40 and so you wouldn't normally ever have the next train displayed as heading to Amersham, and then the one immediately thereafter to Baker Street; as from Wembley Park they're in opposite directions, and that's the error?!

 

[stadler]

The screens at Great Northern stations still randonly display "www.wagn.co.uk" every now and again. The last time that i saw it was six months ago but at least once it year it seems to randomly pop up on one of their screens.

I have seen the boards at Brighton sometimes display ECS trains to "Lovers Walk TRSMD" as if they are an ordinary passenger service.

I have also occasionaly seen the boards at Brighton and Eastbourne and Seaford display the fast train approaching message despite being a terminus station.

Not on the screen but the automated announcements at Hastings currently announce all Ashford trains as calling at "Winchelsea New Inn" which is only supposed to be used for rail replacement buses. Hastings seems to always get these errors as about ten years ago they had "Polegate, Berwick Upon Tweed, Glynde" being announced for all Brighton trains.

 

[greaterwest]

The screens at Great Northern stations still randonly display "www.wagn.co.uk" every now and again. The last time that i saw it was six months ago but at least once it year it seems to randomly pop up on one of their screens.

That was the old default message for the old large-format Daktronics LED screens, but I thought they'd been replaced with Infotec LEDs?

 

[stadler]

That was the old default message for the old large-format Daktronics LED screens, but I thought they'd been replaced with Infotec LEDs?

Ah maybe the final ones are gone now. When i was travelling around the GN network in Summer 2025 (the last time i saw the www.wagn.co.uk message) there was still four old boards left at a couple of GN stations. But they had replaced all the others with new Infotec boards. I reckon the final four boards are very likely gone now.

A few photos from recent years of the GN stations boards displaying the www.wagn.co.uk message:









It is quite incredible that the WAGN message lasted so long and both FCC and GTR never managed to change it on these boards.

 

[43096]

I have seen the boards at Brighton sometimes display ECS trains to "Lovers Walk TRSMD" as if they are an ordinary passenger service.

That may be for staff purposes? Paddington used to show ECS workings as “Old Osk Common Depot via Not in Setvice”.

 

[greaterwest]

Ah maybe the final ones are gone now. When i was travelling around the GN network in Summer 2025 (the last time i saw the www.wagn.co.uk message) there was still four old boards left at a couple of GN stations. But they had replaced all the others with new Infotec boards. I reckon the final four boards are very likely gone now.

A few photos from recent years of the GN stations boards displaying the www.wagn.co.uk message:

lots of large photos

It is quite incredible that the WAGN message lasted so long and both FCC and GTR never managed to change it on these boards.

Yes those are the boards I am referring to, this is the default message which is embedded in the firmware settings which, unlike the Infotec boards, is not trivial to adjust if I recall correctly.

 

[galwhv69]

Yes those are the boards I am referring to, this is the default message which is embedded in the firmware settings which, unlike the Infotec boards, is not trivial to adjust if I recall correctly.

Yes that's correct, only way to get it changed is to replace the board which requires funding to be allocated

 

[jamieh27]

I do remember seeing on Geoff Marshall's video when he was visiting Barking Riverside station when it was new at the time he went to Barking old P1 and display board said Platform 12a.

 

[D6700]

When I arrived at Peterborough station on Friday at around 17:00, my train wasn't shown on the main departure boards, which caused some concern and confusion. I passed there again yesterday evening and discovered why - a train is stuck on one of the screens. I wonder how many days late the Aberdeen service is?! It didn't stand out on Friday, due to the time I was there, but certainly did much later on Saturday evening!

 

[saismee]

a train is stuck on one of the screens

And it's not just a stuck screen, it's showing the correct time so I assume it's updating normally. I've seen screens get truly stuck and show the same frame (for multiple days!) but not stuck displaying old data.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

And it's not just a stuck screen, it's showing the correct time so I assume it's updating normally. I've seen screens get truly stuck and show the same frame (for multiple days!) but not stuck displaying old data.

That's reminded me, a few months ago the display at Wigan Wallgate completely ignored the Blackburn <-> Headbolt Lane services, just showing Southport (to and from) and Leeds services.

I've also seen my local station's display get stuck with the same issue, and then get stuck with the same 2 trains showing (but the timestamp updating) for about a week straight.


I have also seen the display at Meadowhall with a windows error, but it continued to function

Microsoft .NET Framework
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore the error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit the application will close immediately.
Collection was modified: enumeration operation may not continue

 

[Belperpete]

The departure indicators at Machynlleth also show the TrawsCmru bus services between Aberystwyth and Bangor. This is presumably as part of TfW starting to integrate the services. Unfortunately the intermediate stops are listed as DOGLELS and CAEFBST. The same thing also happens on the National Rail on line departure board. However, the journey planner comes up with the correct names (Dolgellau and Caernarfon), so the information must be available.

 

[SargeNpton]

The departure indicators at Machynlleth also show the TrawsCmru bus services between Aberystwyth and Bangor. This is presumably as part of TfW starting to integrate the services. Unfortunately the intermediate stops are listed as DOGLELS and CAEFBST. The same thing also happens on the National Rail on line departure board. However, the journey planner comes up with the correct names (Dolgellau and Caernarfon), so the information must be available.

The CIS will need an updated TIPLOC list from CORPUS to make sense of those stops. Problem is that whoever supports the CIS probably doesn't realise that.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Manchester Piccadilly, Ore is it? by Amira Blossom, on Flickr

There's been more than a few times when the help point at Ore would display the departures for a different station entirely. Here it is showing Manchester Piccadilly, but I've also seen it display the likes of Haywards Heath, London Bridge, and York.

I guess those help points were just pointed to the URL of a Tiger departure board or similar so it'd be relatively easy to reset or accidentally change them.

Not an issue now as those screens are now long out of use, being replaced with a traditional platform CIS system.

Not on the screen but the automated announcements at Hastings currently announce all Ashford trains as calling at "Winchelsea New Inn" which is only supposed to be used for rail replacement buses. Hastings seems to always get these errors as about ten years ago they had "Polegate, Berwick Upon Tweed, Glynde" being announced for all Brighton trains.

The Berwick-upon-Tweed instead of Berwick mistake occurred quite a few times on trains too. I last saw it a few years ago on a late Sunday service. I wonder if it may have been due to an abnormal calling pattern because of engineering works. My understanding is that it can be quite easy for the planning bods to make a mistake like that when manually creating announcements.

Speaking of Hastings, there's also been a few times where the late night ECS workings to Eastbourne have appeared on station screens. Thankfully, the station building is closed by that point so you'd have to actually be on the platform itself to notice them so no cantankerous passengers to deal with. Some ECS to Park Sidings also used to be displayed with the TIPLOC code HASTPSD. I always presumed it was to aid staff.

 

[BAFRA77]

Saw a weird one at Birmingham Snow Hill on Sunday evening just gone. It was one of these screens in the front of the station just off Colmore Row showing departures from the station:

Image shows a West Midlands Train style departure summary screen with the word "Departures" in the top left, the time in the top right, and a list of services underneath in table format

But instead of the word "Departures" as it does in the top left - it instead read "Inverkeithing" but the destinations underneath it were all of the correct services running from Snow Hill

 

[jamieh27]

Saw a weird one at Birmingham Snow Hill on Sunday evening just gone. It was one of these screens in the front of the station just off Colmore Row showing departures from the station:

But instead of the word "Departures" as it does in the top left - it instead read "Inverkeithing" but the destinations underneath it were all of the correct services running from Snow Hill

Looks like it showing departures from Leighton Buzzard, how weird its doing that.

 

[BAFRA77]

Looks like it showing departures from Leighton Buzzard, how weird its doing that.

No - that was an example picture of a similar board to help describe the issue

 

[Steddenm]

No - that was an example picture of a similar board to help describe the issue

Can't be Leighton Buzzard as 11-car AWC services don't call there. I think the calling points are scrolling.