Fastest Train To... vs Departures By Service

[Starmill]

XC services from Croydon stopped later than King's Cross Thameslink closed (Dec 2008 versus Dec 2007). The board clearly predates both of them. Does it have any WCML stations north of Watford?

Surely Milton Keynes should be on there?

 

[Eagle]

East Croydon's only had direct services to MK since 2008 (and also before about 2000 in the days of Connex).

 

[David Goddard]

Reading's main concourse (1980s ticket hall) information desk has a bank of screens in departure order, followed by two summary screens for departures and one for arrivals. At the far left end there is a screen with "Next Fastest Train to London Paddington" to highlight the HSTs/ non stop turbos over the stoppers, which are normally listed elsewhere as Ealing Broadway.
This screen is very useful, especially as this is by far the most common destination from Reading, and sees slow and fast trains.
Of all places I think it would be good to add Oxford to this screen as well, as that sees four fast and two stopping trains each hour, the latter normally overtaken en route by the following fast(s).

 

[Starmill]

East Croydon's only had direct services to MK since 2008 (and also before about 2000 in the days of Connex).

Oooooh, didn't know that. See what you mean... Someone local come tell us

 

[edwin_m]

Does Marylebone still have red departure indicators? I think it did last time I visited, circa 2001!

 

[yorksrob]

Good idea in principle but (like most CIS sytems) let down by the implementation. You can see on the OP photo that only stations Liverpool-Z are visible and every 10s or so it swaps to show the first half of the alphabet, with a seconds or so of blank before it refreshes. I usually find I'm just about to locate the station I want when it disappears, so I just refer to the small orange LED screen facing the entrance that shows the next few departures (I know which train I'm aiming to catch in any case).

I have the same problem with the screens that swap between pages 1 and 2 of 2, though as there is less information on the screen I find I get more chance to find what I want.

I find the same thing with Piccadilly.

 

[142056]

London Paddington when coming up from the Underground has a board of "Fast Trains to Reading" so you know where you are going before getting on to the concourse.
As does London Euston but with Watford Junction being the destination of choice.

 

[Starmill]

Just at East Croydon, that board has "Manchester Piccadilly" on it! Pathetic!

 

[cjp]

Does Marylebone still have red departure indicators? I think it did last time I visited, circa 2001!

More of an orange than a red - but very large and clear.

They do, however, have the bad practise of leaving the departure platform undisclosed until a few minutes before the train is due to depart which is real pain if burdened with luggage, a bike or disabled and slow - see here http://railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1441440&postcount=1

 

[transmanche]

I'm not sure I'd trust the departure boards at Manchester Piccadilly - well not when you've seen the arrivals board displaying this 'special notice'...

 

[Starmill]

I'm not sure I'd trust the departure boards at Manchester Piccadilly - well not when you've seen the arrivals board displaying this 'special notice'...

Hahahahahaha! I first thought that the problem was that there was a train arriving from Liverpool Street! Clearly me suffering from Norwich Syndrome!

 

[pinguini]

Southampton Central has this

 

[radamfi]

Actually one downside is that they only show direct services and can't advise you when it would be quicker to change somewhere. Such as the one at Salisbury; I could see confused passengers waiting two and a half hours for the next advertised direct train to Cheltenham, when in reality they should have got the next train to Bristol and change there.

Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) station has an A-Z board with the next train but allowing for connections. For example it will might say

Leeuwarden 2103 platform 1, change at Zwolle

Indeed, it won't tell you the next direct train if it is quicker to change, even if it is earlier.

 

[Crossover]

I'm not sure I'd trust the departure boards at Manchester Piccadilly - well not when you've seen the arrivals board displaying this 'special notice'...

Looks like this good weather got to their head a little bit...still, a good way to confuse the tourists :P

 

[LE Greys]

Looks like this good weather got to their head a little bit...still, a good way to confuse the tourists :P

You should have seen the King's Cross flap-board sometimes. It would throw a random 'Stevenage' into a first-stop St Neots commuter fast (luckily before the RPIs became so desperate, they would have had a field day) or display a train departing at an impossible time, like 27:53. Occasionally, Leeds semi-fasts would take an unusual diversion to Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven, or Hull Trains services would go to Scarborough (which at the time hadn't had a regular direct service from King's Cross for twenty years). Funny, I miss seeing the old thing now, it had a mind of its own.

 

[jon0844]

So the 2753 isn't running then? Time to Tweet @firstCC and moan then.

 

[TEW]

SWT have recently being installing A to Z lists in concourses, replacing older screens which listed the next departures. I'd rather have both, the A to Z boards have lots of destinations on so the writing is smaller and it can take longer to find out your train. The A to Z boards are let down by listing destinations which never have a direct service and by not taking into account quicker options available by changing on route. If you're travelling to a destination not listed it can be confusing as well.

 

[HSTEd]

With the rise of inexpensive e-paper surely you could go for greater and greater display areas?

It wouldn't even cost that much to cover the entire wall above the platform gates at Manchester Piccadilly with displays.
(I am also in favour of displays along the platform edges showing information about the trains and what vehicles are where and so on).

 

[Eagle]

With the rise of inexpensive e-paper surely you could go for greater and greater display areas?

With a corresponding increase in computing power required as the pixel count goes through the roof :P

Although seriously, that is a good idea (and if you make the pixels suitably sized not one that a single desktop PC couldn't handle); the only problem is that e-ink needs some form of illumination, either by backlighting it like an LCD monitor, which could be expensive electricity-wise, or using the existing station lights to spotlight it, which would not give a very reliable or consistent luminosity.

 

[HSTEd]

With a corresponding increase in computing power required as the pixel count goes through the roof :P

Well you only really need one or two frames per second.... modern graphics cards can probably manage that over an insanely large displays.
Its not as if text and simple graphics are very graphics intensive either.

Although seriously, that is a good idea (and if you make the pixels suitably sized not one that a single desktop PC couldn't handle);

Just fit a more powerful graphics card, a couple of hundred more pounds for the driving computer is not going to make a significant difference to the price of the installation.

the only problem is that e-ink needs some form of illumination, either by backlighting it like an LCD monitor, which could be expensive electricity-wise, or using the existing station lights to spotlight it, which would not give a very reliable or consistent luminosity.

With LEDs I am not sure the running cost would really be that significant, even with LCDs the power output is a handful of watts per square foot.

 

[rebmcr]

You can't backlight e-ink, it's a purely reflective technology thus only frontlighting would work.

It's not a problem though, basically any advertising hoarding in the last century is comparable, and they seem to work very well. The old flapper displays also required frontlighting.