Bristol Temple Meads Platform Indicators Conflicting

[Parham Wood]

Yesterday my wife took the 7:57 train from Bristol Temple Meads (BRI) to Cardiff.

On entering BRI she found that some platform indicators were showing the train leaving from platform 11 and others platform 13.

As this was her first train trip for over ten years she found this confusing and stressful. Fortunately platform staff were able to direct her to the correct platform. I know that there was a temporary timetable in operation due to engineering work so perhaps this was partly the reason.

 

[The exile]

It is a frequent occurrence at Bristol area stations for the information displayed on the screens labelled "Staff information" (wording has been removed on some) and the "normal" platform indicators / audio announcements to be at odds. The staff ones are more likely to be correct, but it is a situation that shouldn't be permitted to happen at all - especially when you have the situation where the auto-announcements are busy spouting one platform number as the train pulls into a different one. When it's a change like 5 - 7 at Temple Meads or 1 - 2 at Parkway all it does is cause a bit of an inconvenience and teach passengers not to believe what they're told (unfortunately) - when it's 1 - 2 at Bath or 11 - 13 at Temple Meads it's more serious.