Leeds departure boards giving different information

[TUC]

On several occeasions I have noticed that the two main departure boards in Leeds station give different information. For example, yesterday afternoon I arrived in the station knowing it was very tight for time for me to make the 1638 to Selby. I looked at the board in the centre of the foyer and the train was not shown, making me think I had missed it. However I then noticed that the time was 1637 and so, unless it had left early, it would not have departed yet. I then looked at the other board near the ticket barriers and found the train was still displayed as 'arrived'. With a bit of run through the station I made the train. However had I believed the first board I would have thought I had missed it. As said, this is not the first time that the two boards have given different information. Do they draw information from different sources? The differences and consequential inaccuracies are clearly unhelpful to passengers.

 

[gottago]

I think the point is to stop people legging it through the station and potentially causing injury for a train they're likely to miss whereas when you were close to the barriers you at least had a chance. There's been a few times when I've arrived in Euston about three minutes before a train I could have caught has departed and it's already been removed, again I assume this is to stop me running into people out of desperation to make it.

 

[magd1272]

Elephant & Castle has the same issue. The main LED display by the ticket office will display trains that have already been removed from the TV screen above the back entrance.

 

[TUC]

Although given that in Leeds the two display screens are around 100m apart, the thought that this is sufficient difference to justify not displaying the information on the screen further away from the barriers seems somewhat odd.

 

[LowLevel]

At a lot of stations the trains are taken off the boards 2 minutes before departure. At the station I worked at it was because we were sick of laterunners falling down the stairs and hurting themselves and others while sprinting. They still displayed on the boards on the actual platform though until they'd departed for obvious reasons.

People used to say 'it's our risk' - no, it isn't - if you smash yourself into a bloody mess on a set of stairs it's inevitably the railway staff who have to spend their time sorting you out and cleaning up the resulting mess. I've seen several serious injuries result and I know there have been fatalities as well.

 

[Qwerty133]

At a lot of stations the trains are taken off the boards 2 minutes before departure. At the station I worked at it was because we were sick of laterunners falling down the stairs and hurting themselves and others while sprinting. They still displayed on the boards on the actual platform though until they'd departed for obvious reasons.

People used to say 'it's our risk' - no, it isn't - if you smash yourself into a bloody mess on a set of stairs it's inevitably the railway staff who have to spend their time sorting you out and cleaning up the resulting mess. I've seen several serious injuries result and I know there have been fatalities as well.

Don't know where you worked, but at Leicester you can often enter the station, buy a ticket and get to the train before it departs after it is taken off the board on the concourse. Of course it is not a clever thing to try and i've never done it but because of how the system works (with everything less than 3 mins Late counting as on-time to the boards, and then only increasing the delays every 3 mins), there can often be 5 mins between it leaving the board and it leaving the station.
At Derby, trains are taken off 2 mins before departure even if they are departing from Platform 1 which is no more than a 20 second walk from the concourse, often confusing irregular passengers who think they've missed the train, or think that the train on the platform is theirs, when it is actually the one before.
On principle I agree with services being taken off the boards in advance of departure, but only at major stations and when the train is already in or arriving at the station and not when the platform is visible from the concourse.