"Arrive and Go" vs Timetables

[Chrisgr31]

I regularly travel from Charing Cross to London Bridge, and Victoria or London Bridge to East Croydon and vice versa.

Bearing in mind the the frequency of trains between these stations and I guess there are other examples (Waterloo to Clapham Junction, Waterloo East to London Bridge etc) why do the TOCs publish a timetable?

Surely it would be better to have an arrive and go system and the displays just say Next Fastest Train to London Bridge Platform 3 for example.

This would save the need for passengers to check lots of listings for the train that stops where they get off, making it clearer for them. It would also mean that if a particular train was full/short formed or whatever you could decide not to display it as stopping at that desitnation to reduce the loading on it.

 

[NSE]

You get that at many places. Victoria, Kings Cross, East Croydon to name but a few have a small board that just says "Next fastest train to:" then you get (for example at East Croydon)

London Victoria: 19:40 (Platform 1)
London Victoria: 19:23 (Platform 4)

So despite the 19:23 leaving first it calls all stations, the next fastest one is the one leaving after as it overtakes the first one. Stations like Limehouse have it similar to the way you describe it as the platfrom information screen is set permanently to Fenchurch Street and the bit below just says calling only at Fenchurch Street. The only thing that changes is the time of departure.

 

[185143]

Liverpool Lime Street, there are the boards with all train departures and another which says next fast train to... For example

Crewe:09:04 platform 8
Manchester:09:22 platform 9
Preston:09:27 platform 4
and so on.

 

[CallySleeper]

Manchester Piccadilly has this, Leeds has an even bigger A-Z board

 

[CatfordCat]

I think I've seen "next train to X, platform Y" indications at quite a few stations.

Broadly speaking, train companies don't publish timetables specifically for things like Charing Cross to London Bridge, trains will appear in various timetables for points beyond.

Although summary timetables for things like London terminals to Lewisham / East Croydon are useful, particularly towards the start and end of day.

Although many bus operators would give that sort of journey a timetable along the lines of "buses at A, B, C times, then every 5 - 10 minutes until X then Y, Z" rather than list all the departures.

Although with somewhere like Lewisham or East Croydon, there are journeys to multiple termini, which may not be all that frequent (from memory, the Lewisham - Victoria service is only every 30 minutes off peak for example)

Unlike most of the London Underground where people turn up and go, knowing that all trains will go to the same place in central London (again, people will look at timetables at start and end of day and on the more remote bits of the network if they have any sense.)

In the bus world, people will stop bothering to look at timetables if the frequency is high enough - the magic frequency being 15 or 10 minute headway depending on who you ask .

 

[causton]

In the bus world, people will stop bothering to look at timetables if the frequency is high enough - the magic frequency being 15 or 10 minute headway depending on who you ask .

TfL think it's 12 minutes. A service with a 12 minute frequency will say "buses every 12 minutes" but a service with a 15 minute frequency will say "buses at 00,15,30,45". They must have worked that number out from somewhere!

 

[transmanche]

TfL think it's 12 minutes. A service with a 12 minute frequency will say "buses every 12 minutes" but a service with a 15 minute frequency will say "buses at 00,15,30,45". They must have worked that number out from somewhere!

There's an explanation of sorts on the TfL website:

A high frequency route has five or more buses an hour. It's a route where passengers tend not to look at the timetable before arriving at the stop.

For this reason we are more interested in how reliable and evenly spaced the service is. Scheduled arrival times are less important. We aim to ensure buses run at evenly spaced intervals and do not 'bunch'.

A low frequency bus route generally runs four or fewer buses an hour. A passenger using this service is more likely to use a timetable. This means it's more important that services run on schedule.

 

[DJL]

There's an explanation of sorts on the TfL website:

makes sense

 

[Deerfold]

Outside of London the Traffic Commissioner thinks it's 10 minutes (for certain things). If an operator has a period of operation where buses are at least every 10 minutes they don't have to submit changes to timetables with the usual notice unless that period shrinks.

Personally I'd rather have timetables until we get to 7-8 minutes.

 

[ainsworth74]

Manchester Piccadilly has this, Leeds has an even bigger A-Z board

I like the A-Z board at Leeds it would be nice if a few more stations had similar.

 

[168lover]

Liverpool Lime Street, there are the boards with all train departures and another which says next fast train to... For example

Crewe:09:04 platform 8
Manchester:09:22 platform 9
Preston:09:27 platform 4
and so on.

I think that this type of departure board should be at every major station. It is alot easier than looking through looking through loads of trains trying to find your train. It is also stops 'If I wait for the train after does it get in before the current one' milarky

 

[Frontera2]

On the SWT corridor between Raynes Park and Waterloo, they do just that.

At any station between Raynes Park / Waterloo on the Up Slow, the trains are instructed to depart when they are ready, not to worry about the timetable.

The CIS for this line of route has been changed to a "Countdown" eg minutes until next train.