CIS - 16 Coaches

[RichardKing]

I was at Eastbourne earlier this afternoon, on my way up to East Croydon.

There was an 8 car 377 sitting on the platform, awaiting to be attached to a 4 car 377 (from Ore). As there was a Rugby match at Falmer today, services on the East Coastway were lengthened.

Now, as the train from Ore was coming into the far end of the platform - just prior to attaching - a CIS announcement came on. It said that this train was formed of 16 coaches (even though there were 12 coaches on the platform at the time (including the portion from Ore)).
Also, the additional information on the CIS regarding short platforms were as follows: Plumpton = front 7 coaches; Polegate, Lewes, Wivelsfield, Haywards Heath and East Croydon = front 12 coaches. In the unlikely event that this was to be a 16 coach train, why were Gatwick Airport, Clapham Junction and London Victoria disregarded as not being able to accommodate a 16 coach train. The maximum length of the three aforementioned platforms are 12 coaches as well.

I was wondering why it thought that this train was going to be 16 coaches. What made it think that 16 coaches were on the platform?

 

[louis97]

Normally down to the unit allocation to the service. Would of had 4 units allocated. Nothing to do with what is physically sat in the platform at the time. And with regards to the short platform information likely that those stations have no platform length information in the system, where as the others do - or something along those lines.

 

[tsr]

I know this is all highly theoretical as the train wasn't over 12 coaches in length anyway, but...

London Victoria can accommodate more than 12 coaches on a couple of the platforms - at a push, normally with some special arrangements - so therefore it may be that there is no automatic CIS announcement for the platform lengths for trains over 12 coaches terminating there. It is true, though, that the same cannot be said for Gatwick Airport or Clapham Junction.

Now further off-topic...

In any case, some of the announcements in the Southern area for short platforms are incorrect anyway. As an example, Ockley is usually announced as being for the front 6 coaches only, whereas 7 coaches of 377 stock fit quite happily on the platform. You might say this is for when 455s have their rear coaches locked out, but no - on the now very rare occasions an 8-car 455 runs down there, the rear two coaches will be locked out but the announcements will make a mess of it and still say you must be in the front 5 coaches for Warnham regardless of the stock or accuracy, so the overall announcements are tailored for neither 377s nor 455s and are thus inaccurate. And the SDO board for 377s at Warnham correctly shows it is a 6-coach platform, but on a 377 only the front 5 coaches will in fact have their doors opened anyway. And SWT's CIS at Clapham Junction cannot comprehend most of the others either.

Confused? Welcome to my world...