Inaccuracies with Elizabeth line platform door screens

[Acton1991]

Has anyone else noticed the inaccuracies with the platform door screens of the Elizabeth line in the central section?

Sometimes they don’t show that certain services aren’t calling at Acton Main Line and Hanwell (usually trains terminating at Maidenhead), and they say ‘Network Rail’ instead of ‘national’. Just seems messy to me…

 

[t_packer]

Yep! Noticed this too, very messy indeed.

Surely the map should either show *all* Lizzie stations and cross out those not being served, or simply only show the station shops of a particular train.

Also “Network Rail” should obviously read “National Rail” and I cannot believe that this hasn’t been spotted. It is a little frustrating, given how delayed this railway was, that TfL has not long ironed these creases.

I still think that a better approach would be to show two separate lines after Paddington, with the Heathrow branch showing all stops and the Reading branch having connector blobs at Ealing Broadway, Southall and Hayes. It would make stopping patterns much clearer to passengers. You could then have Metropolitan line style ‘semi-fast’ routes shown on the Reading branch for those peak services which skip Southall, Hayes, Iver, Langley and Taplow, and announce these trains as such. Much neater than station staff reading out a whole long list of stations not being called at.

The over-simplified line diagrams give the impression that all trains call at all stations. It’s mad, for instance, that the platform diagrams at Hanwell show the whole route out to Reading which no such service exists. Far better to show that passengers must change at Hayes or Southall. We know how to elegantly represent these things with line diagrams, so it’s nuts to me that we’re not doing it.

At present, there is no way for a new Elizabeth line passenger to make sense of any of the stopping patterns until they see where a particular train is calling. So at the very least, the lines crossing out stations on the platform screens need to be far bolder.

 

[James H]

This morning at Liverpool Street the platform staff announced the train was for 'all stations to Maidenhead' when the screens showed it wasn't calling at Acton Main Line (etc)

 

[Horizon22]

I'm fairly sure it used to show National Rail when it first opened. Not sure why its changed. Paddington and Liverpool Street used to show "National Rail" I'm pretty sure.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Dec 2022 ==

Sometimes they don’t show that certain services aren’t calling at Acton Main Line and Hanwell (usually trains terminating at Maidenhead), and they say ‘Network Rail’ instead of ‘national’. Just seems messy to me…

It takes the base timetable data (and any service disruption amendments). So a Maidenhead should show "not stopping at X & Y" which would include Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell. But it is somewhat the reverse to how the rest of the network does it however I suppose that's how the system was specified.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There's one screen at Bond Street westbound which keeps showing eastbound trains... if they haven't fixed it yet and you want to try to video it, it's located roughly three carriages length back from the front of the train...

 

[davetheguard]

and they say ‘Network Rail’ instead of ‘national’.

I'm fairly sure it used to show National Rail when it first opened. Not sure why its changed. Paddington and Liverpool Street used to show "National Rail" I'm pretty sure.

To be pedantic, is it even correct to offer an interchange with National Rail when Crossrail/Elizabeth/Purple Train is itself a National Rail service? (Yes, I know TfL don't like to admit it).

I don't know how else you'd phrase it though: not sure that "Other National Rail services" or "Other Train Operators' services" would be an improvement. And if you do the seemingly obvious "Great Western Railway" or "Greater Anglia" etc., any signage becomes out of date if/when the DfT remaps services for the umpteenth time.

 

[Acton1991]

To be pedantic, is it even correct to offer an interchange with National Rail when Crossrail/Elizabeth/Purple Train is itself a National Rail service? (Yes, I know TfL don't like to admit it).

I think this is slightly pedantic. It’s a TfL service branded as Elizabeth line (akin to tube line branding in many ways) and therefore quite practical for an interchange with National Rail to be branded in such way

 

[Horizon22]

To be pedantic, is it even correct to offer an interchange with National Rail when Crossrail/Elizabeth/Purple Train is itself a National Rail service? (Yes, I know TfL don't like to admit it).

I don't know how else you'd phrase it though: not sure that "Other National Rail services" or "Other Train Operators' services" would be an improvement. And if you do the seemingly obvious "Great Western Railway" or "Greater Anglia" etc., any signage becomes out of date if/when the DfT remaps services for the umpteenth time.

Yeah there is a little bit of that and TFL exceptionalism going on!

 

[mr_moo]

I had not noticed this before but I watched the displays on Paddington station Westbound today and they all said "Network Rail" instead of National. Weird, but perhaps a nod to the above points as it is a National Rail line but is not a Network Rail one in the core.

 

[LLivery]

I'm fairly sure it used to show National Rail when it first opened. Not sure why its changed. Paddington and Liverpool Street used to show "National Rail" I'm pretty sure.

It use to only have the Double Arrow on a blank white flash, though the screens on the trains themselves said 'National Rail'

 

[Acton1991]

It’s definitely just a mistake, like a host of other little things on the line. The in-car diagrams are also a total mess.

 

[stuu]

A minor detail but the messages on the screens use TFL in all caps, rather than TfL. Presumably they just don't have enough staff to worry about details like that. It does make you wonder what else is being forgotten about though

 

[JaJaWa]

Those screens originally used Siemens / Crossrail design and fonts. They were changed to the TfL design and fonts a few weeks ago which is where the ‘Network Rail’ error crept in.

 

[Acton1991]

New one today. A train to ‘Westbound’. Super helpful!

 

[mr_moo]

Wow. Seems to be going further downhill. Lol

 

[Horizon22]

New one today. A train to ‘Westbound’. Super helpful!

It happens when the train for whatever reason is not accurately in the timetable or there's an error with the timetable files. The synchronisation between the information systems in the central part and the "traditional" sections is quite complex and occasionally throws a wobbly.

 

[Taunton]

New Years Eve information chaos.

Waiting at Custom House, platform indicators both ways showed nothing except "See it say it ...". Not quite clear how BTP managed this coup when the indicator is not showing destinations, but anyway. Then announcement "Stand clear next train does not stop here". Despite which westbound train to Heathrow seems to be stopping, with passengers inside. Open doors, while stark announcement "Stand clear ...". Inside the train, all is correctly indicated.

Coming back some hours later from Bond Street, same. Next trains shown as 12, 22, 42 minutes time, as if 02 and 32 are cancelled. But train approaches almost immediately, and again "Stand clear next train does not stop here". Only know it's for Abbey Wood, not Shenfield, by having seen the destination through the platform screens. Doors open, to constant booming out of "Stand clear ...". Info inside train all correct. Off we go, repeated at subsequent stations, back at Custom House it's exactly the same as several hours beforehand, where we alight to a fusillade of "Stand clear ...".

It really should be possible if the info system have completely failed, to either make manual announcements and/or put up a better default message - even "See front of train".

Incidentally, having visited the pantomime at the Palladium in between, comedian star Julian Clary makes a witty ad-lib about "Ooooh, See it Say it Sorted" and gets a good laugh!