I think that there has been a steady decline in preparedness to walk further than can be avoided in all (erm) walks of life.
That plan doesn't always work ... at Doncaster, trains will often stop at the very far end of the platform (even when they are 5-car trains and the platforms can accommodate 10-car trains at least) such that even the back of the train has gone completely past the station buildings at platform canopy.
They used to be.
This has been a phenomenon for a much longer time than the advent of smartphones, it is simply that people don't want to walk.
Unless your train is in reverse formation, which last week a lot of Avanti trains were.
The same is the case at Partick, where there are now signs and regular announcements that 3 carriage trains only stop at the front part of the platform. People rarely pay attention of course, so there is often quite a crowd around the rear carriage in both directions!
Very true but many of the things I mentioned, in my opinion, are worse these days I attribute it to selfishness and phone addiction
Understandable for Argyle Street, but at Central westbound they never used monitors IIRC, as the platform is straight, so the driver just looked out his/her window.
For several years we had the ludicrous situation at several SWR stations that the canopies were not covering where the trains stopped. For instance, at Kingston, the canopies cover about four cars, but on an eight car train only the rear two cars stopped under it. This was because SWR decided they couldn't trust the drivers to remeber how many cars the train had, so they removed the "8 car" stop board and all trains had to stop at the 10 car board, despite the fact that most trains were 8 car and the driving cabs of the 10 car trains were totally different, so it would be hard for a driver to forget what he was driving. Result - everyone for Kingston crammed in the rear carriage, instead of spread over the 6th and 7th, and many people missing their trtains because they were confronted with a wall ofm humanity making for the exit past the rear car, parked next to the narrowest part of the platform. And of course anyone alighting from the front six cars got wet!
The station entrance is a portal.
It's great at Chester. Virtually no one goes down to platform 3B (where trains stop clear of the crossover and associated signal) until their train rolls past them. So just go down and wait a few metres short of the car stop mark and you can take your pick of the seats before the crowd comes running down the platform.
This is very harsh on drivers especially if they change formation throughout the day. Makes sense to have one stopping point rather than have an instance where a driver may have stopped short and thus an incident
Given how often I manage to get off a Thameslink train miles from the footbridge, I don't think that's really true.
Not just an LNER problem, it has spread to a good number of other operators.
For some stations, remaining close to the entrance or footbridge/subway is a very wise move as it is likely to be the place where you are most likely to get information and least likely to get caught out by a late and unannounced platform change.
Heaven forbid that we should run a passenger railway for the passengers.
It's to mitigate again at stop short incidents, nothing to do with the monitors.
I'm not sure that dropping passengers out of doorways because there is no platform is great customer service either. Less of an issue on SWR where there are guards, but when Burnham (Bucks) went DOO there were incidents of drivers forgetting the length of their train and dropping passengers onto the ballast.
So you approve of the "solution" of having every train stop at the extreme end of the platform (not referring specifically to Burnham as it's a station I'm not familiar with)?
Indeed. Oxford has a particular problem with this, because first class is right next to the main barriers. The staff do a good job encouraging people to move north along the platform, although not everyone listens (or, given Oxford and its multi-national appeal as a tourist destination, many may not understand). The main flashpoint is the trains coming off the Cotswolds line, so they have limited time on the platform and often leave late because everyone moves up when it arrives. Or everyone slowly tries to board through the first class doors - slowly because people do this, and then stop and say "oh, this is first class, we need to move down the train", causing a big queue behind them. People generally ignore the zone system, despite this being made clear(-ish) in the departure displays and related announcements.
Footbridges at Bedford, Flitwick, Harlington*, Leagrave*, Luton, Harpenden, St Albans (which now has two, both middle-ish), West Hampstead, and St Pancras are all in the middle of the platform. It's only Luton Airport Parkway - which was originally built with the footbridge at the south ends of the platforms - but the new footbridge installed for the DART, where most people now arrive from, was built... in the middle!
No, they are all in the middle-ish area of the platform, but far from consistently positioned.
My recollection of Gatwick is that the interior columns holding up the bridge, and providing lift/escalator access, are very wide, making the bits of the platform alongside the columns very narrow. This in turn makes it hard to see where on the platform you are, you can't see where there is space along the platform, and you can't get past the columns especially with your / other people's luggage in the way.
My bold
I think they do, however 2 carriages difference really isnt a lot if it makes it that little bit safer for all at all times
