Platform Departure Screens with Wrong Carriage Formation

DelW · 1 Aug 2026

Waiting for my 9 coach SWR train (450+444), the station departure board tells me its formation is ABCDIHGFE.

It's not clear to me what use this might be. Those letters don't appear on the train itself or anywhere else, and there are no reservations on the line. On board the PIS uses SWR's usual "coach X of X", and short platform announcements use "front X coaches at (...) station". So what use are these letters?

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bahnause · 1 Aug 2026

RT4038 said:
Maybe because in Switzerland they have Swiss people operating the system, for (mainly) Swiss passengers, all of whom have the Swiss culture, whereas in Britain....... We are who we are.

It's more because it is a automated system, that sends an alert to the rolling stock planning system, if a formation is not what it is supposed to be.

duffield · 2 Aug 2026

TUC said:
Not a wrong formation, but am I only one who gets confused when a train reverses direction at a station as to whether the displayed configuration is one for the direction upon arrival or departure?

This is a particular issue for unfamiliar passengers at Sheffield getting an EMR Norwich service and travelling beyond Nottingham. The announcements say to join "the front two coaches" for destinations beyond Nottingham, then the train arrives, passengers join the "front two coaches", and end up in the rear two leaving Sheffield, not necessarily realising they are in the wrong half. The staff then have to sort them out onboard, which is not great if it's a crowded train and they have luggage.

I've noticed that EMR stations have recently been given platform "zone marking" so maybe the announcements will be changed to something like "passengers for stations beyond Nottingham should board the coaches in zone x"?

Mainline421 · 2 Aug 2026

duffield said:
This is a particular issue for unfamiliar passengers at Sheffield getting an EMR Norwich service and travelling beyond Nottingham. The announcements say to join "the front two coaches" for destinations beyond Nottingham, then the train arrives, passengers join the "front two coaches", and end up in the rear two leaving Sheffield, not necessarily realising they are in the wrong half. The staff then have to sort them out onboard, which is not great if it's a crowded train and they have luggage.

I've noticed that EMR stations have recently been given platform "zone marking" so maybe the announcements will be changed to something like "passengers for stations beyond Nottingham should board the coaches in zone x"?

Aberystwyth trains are always announced at New Street as the “front two coaches," which is accurate after the train reverses at Shrewsbury, but at New Street they are actually the rear two coaches. The reverse applies to the Pwllheli portion too

GLC · 2 Aug 2026

RT4038 said:
Maybe because in Switzerland they have Swiss people operating the system, for (mainly) Swiss passengers, all of whom have the Swiss culture, whereas in Britain....... We are who we are.

I fail to see how instead of operating the British system for British passengers, it was operated for Swiss passengers, would be an improvement

embers25 · 3 Aug 2026

Almost every 159/158 SWR show as having First class in the wrong coach. Basically, wherever it shows, it will usually be the exact opposite. It used to be right every time but about a yar ago it went wrong and has never been fixed.

Jimini · 3 Aug 2026

I do Reading <> Coventry on a semi-regular basis. I'd say that nine times out of ten, the XC formation displayed is correct, but it does have its moments and gets it wrong from time to time. Given the number of reversals in service I guess it's to be expected, but I've often done the gentle jog to 1st class when it gets it wrong.

The exile · 3 Aug 2026

It doesn’t help that there must be (at least) two separate info flows - the number of times that the “staff information” screens and the public information screens / announcements give contradictory information is otherwise inexplicable.

Falcon1200 · 3 Aug 2026

Jimini said:
I do Reading <> Coventry on a semi-regular basis. I'd say that nine times out of ten, the XC formation displayed is correct,

I travel regularly on XC to and from Oxford, and would agree, but when the train is arriving I still look to see if the coupling cover is yellow, denoting the First Class vehicle!

duffield · 4 Aug 2026

A 3+2 coach 170 (1L13 1351 Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich) came into Sheffield today bound for Nottingham and Norwich, and the PIS was wrong regardless, in the sense that it said the front 3 coaches were for Norwich; whether it meant on arrival or on departure, it was actually the two coach unit for Norwich. The announcements were correct though. Lots of people ended up in the wrong section and unlike the usual state of affairs no staff came through to check (probably because the guard was in the other unit and of course unlike class 158s there's no gangway between the two units on class 170s). I suppose it doesn't matter that much though, everyone got sorted out at Nottingham although the staff were having a difficult job trying to repeatedly keep people from boarding the 3 coach unit while they were try to get it empty to lock it up.

Dfatcontroller · 8 Aug 2026

On Thursday during the "power issues affecting Manchester" the 1716 Euston - Crewe was announced as stations to Birmingham where the front five carriages will continue to Crewe.
I guess it's meant to be 2xEvero units. Formed 9-car Pendolino!

AutoUnder · 13 Aug 2026

I would assume the main issues here is each TOC uses it's own system and each one is set up differently. A lot of the time, information is significantly more lacking for services that ran by a TOC that don't operate the station itself. I do note however some posts mention issues have occurred for services ran by the same TOC that run the station. I can only assume in this instance it's an internal issue of some sort. CIS is definitely an area the railways need to standardise under GBR

jamieh27 · 14 Aug 2026

AutoUnder said:
I would assume the main issues here is each TOC uses it's own system and each one is set up differently. A lot of the time, information is significantly more lacking for services that ran by a TOC that don't operate the station itself. I do note however some posts mention issues have occurred for services ran by the same TOC that run the station. I can only assume in this instance it's an internal issue of some sort. CIS is definitely an area the railways need to standardise under GBR

I know BR era they had a mix of Infomat and Ditra as well as manual announcements across the region.

Platform Departure Screens with Wrong Carriage Formation

DelW

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bahnause

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duffield

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Mainline421

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GLC

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embers25

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Jimini

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The exile

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Falcon1200

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duffield

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Dfatcontroller

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AutoUnder

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jamieh27

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