I’ve recently begun travelling from Northampton to Euston quite frequently on weekend late evenings, normally at around the time that two-track working comes into effect. I have been surprised to see that, despite the fact that the possessions of two of the four lines are a weekly occurrence, and the timetable is built around it, the passenger information systems seem unable to cope with them, especially when it is the slow lines that are closed.
This week, as on several previous occasions, my Northampton-Euston most-stops service switched right onto the fast lines at Ledburn. At every intermediate subsequent intermediate stop, the departure boards at the fast line platforms we stopped at displayed generic messages, while on both the up and down slow platforms, the train times were shown, despite the lines being under possession. Inevitably, this meant that at each stop, there were passengers waiting for my train, all of whom had to run through the underpasses, often with luggage and pushchairs, when they saw a Euston-bound train pull in on the up fast platform. I’ve seen this happen on at least three separate weekends now. When the train has a generous crew, it waits for the running passengers, racking up minutes of delay which is far from ideal when operating with two lines. With more punctuality-minded crews, the trains pull away with passengers left behind facing - in some locations - an hour’s wait. These stations are all unstaffed by this time of the night, so there’s no-one to redirect passengers to the right platform in advance of the train arriving.
The exceptions tonight were Watford Junction, where the information screens were right (and where there would have been staff anyway) and Harrow & Wealdstone, where the screens were wrong, but the TfL staff had clearly shepherded people to the right platform.
It seems very surprising to me that this is such a regular occurrence, given the long-standing arrangement of two-track operation on weekend evenings, and that the information system is so incapable of dealing with slow trains on the fast lines.
This week, as on several previous occasions, my Northampton-Euston most-stops service switched right onto the fast lines at Ledburn. At every intermediate subsequent intermediate stop, the departure boards at the fast line platforms we stopped at displayed generic messages, while on both the up and down slow platforms, the train times were shown, despite the lines being under possession. Inevitably, this meant that at each stop, there were passengers waiting for my train, all of whom had to run through the underpasses, often with luggage and pushchairs, when they saw a Euston-bound train pull in on the up fast platform. I’ve seen this happen on at least three separate weekends now. When the train has a generous crew, it waits for the running passengers, racking up minutes of delay which is far from ideal when operating with two lines. With more punctuality-minded crews, the trains pull away with passengers left behind facing - in some locations - an hour’s wait. These stations are all unstaffed by this time of the night, so there’s no-one to redirect passengers to the right platform in advance of the train arriving.
The exceptions tonight were Watford Junction, where the information screens were right (and where there would have been staff anyway) and Harrow & Wealdstone, where the screens were wrong, but the TfL staff had clearly shepherded people to the right platform.
It seems very surprising to me that this is such a regular occurrence, given the long-standing arrangement of two-track operation on weekend evenings, and that the information system is so incapable of dealing with slow trains on the fast lines.