Expected Times

[trentside]

Hi everyone,

I've caught a Lincoln train from Retford a couple of times in the past week and on both occasions the train has been shown as running 15-20 minutes late on the platform monitors. On both occasions the train was only around 5-10 minutes delayed, and announcements were made to this effect by the station staff.

I've experienced this once before, a few years ago and was told it had been reported but nothing had been done about it. Apparently this has recurred again, but I'm wondering why this happens? Especially when the station staff have access to the correct running times, but presumably the screens are set up by a different system?

Thanks - Trentside.

 

[northwichcat]

Could it be something to do with recovery time meaning it arrives 15 minutes late but departs 8 minutes late?

 

[Lincoln]

I believe the staff at the smaller East Coast managed stations do not have direct control over the information screens. So if they are showing the wrong information then they can do little except contact the controller to report it.

Sometimes at Lincoln the Northern services have spurious delays showing on the information screens coming inbound from Sheffield, but at present the system doesn't tie it to the next service thereby passing the delay minus turnaround/recovery on for the next departure.

I would imagine that the system controlling the screens has somehow 'lost' the train in question and starts stacking up delays against it until it is found again and reported correctly.

 

[trentside]

Thanks for the information, Lincoln.

This seems to be quite a regular occurrence at Retford recently. Saying that, my 10:23 train the other day was correctly shown as 5 minutes late.