New clock unveiled

[Tester]

Try going to the USA, where they have no concept of a 24 hour clock.

Yes - dealing with intercontinental plane schedules is a nightmare!

 

[43096]

Yes - dealing with intercontinental plane schedules is a nightmare!

Amtrak trains are, too - especially on the really long distance trains over two or three days duration.

 

[vic-rijrode]

I once saw a (bus, not train) timetable that had actually been published in AM and PM. I was utterly baffled by it, as public transport times never use the 12-hour clock (except in extremely rare odd cases like that). Thankfully, it did later go back to the correct 24-hour format.

I strongly urge that we go back to the Bradshaw era of timetables and analogue clocks. All this clarity with the 24 hour clock and connecting services is so utterly useful that it leaves no room for timetable experts to decipher what are direct services, what is am or pm, what are Saturday Only or Mondays Excepted services, what are through services to Bournemouth West (weekends in July only - from Sheffield Victoria and Manchester Central on alternate weekends - see table 458).

It's all just too simple.

Take down that clock and put up a Gents one with curly hands (set to the wrong time) immediately, I say.

 

[thelongestroad]

Now available on the Play Store:

GB Rail Clock - Apps on Google Play

Unofficial widget and Wear OS watch face for Great Britain's Rail Clock

play.google.com

Although sadly won't work on my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, anyone know of a workaround?

 

[Steddenm]

Now available on the Play Store:

GB Rail Clock - Apps on Google Play

Unofficial widget and Wear OS watch face for Great Britain's Rail Clock

play.google.com

Although sadly won't work on my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, anyone know of a workaround?

View attachment 191095

Nor on my Samsung Watch running WearOS unfortunately

 

[jfowkes]

Now available on the Play Store:

GB Rail Clock - Apps on Google Play

Unofficial widget and Wear OS watch face for Great Britain's Rail Clock

play.google.com

Although sadly won't work on my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, anyone know of a workaround?

View attachment 191095

Despite being a literal circle, for some reason the widget takes up a 2x3 rectangle on the screen, meaning a lot of wasted space.

I'm assuming there's a complicated technical reason for this but it is very annoying.

 

[Leyland Bus]

Despite being a literal circle, for some reason the widget takes up a 2x3 rectangle on the screen, meaning a lot of wasted space.

I'm assuming there's a complicated technical reason for this but it is very annoying.

Depends what you have as your background, looks fine on mine, very happy with it, its abit of fun

 

[MrJeeves]

Despite being a literal circle, for some reason the widget takes up a 2x3 rectangle on the screen, meaning a lot of wasted space.

I'm assuming there's a complicated technical reason for this but it is very annoying.

The widget requests a minimum size, which is a square. Most devices, however, will have a home screen grid where each cell is rectangular.

On my phone, it uses a 2x2 grid, which happens to be taller than it is wide.

 

[josh-j]

Probably worth noting that doesn't look like an official app - before anyone complains to Network Rail about it!

 

[Steddenm]

Probably worth noting that doesn't look like an official app - before anyone complains to Network Rail about it!

It isn't. It has been created by someone on here.

 

[tfw756rider]

Merseytravel used the 12 hour clock until the early 2000s for both bus and rail.

The 24 hour clock was late in coming to Northern Ireland as well.

Interesting, thanks both! I was referring to a bus timetable in Great Britain around 2023 time, it was very odd.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Oct 2025 ==

Try going to the USA, where they have no concept of a 24 hour clock.

Nah, I'm good Not that that's the only thing they have no concept of, of course
(I have American extended family, no offence to Americans intended )

 

[styles]

Try going to the USA, where they have no concept of a 24 hour clock.

Probably the least offensive thing about visiting the US in 2025.

Though I do actually want to try a long distance private cabin Amtrak service at some point. I wonder if there's something I could do solely in Canada.

Does Canada have the concept on 24 hour clocks?

 

[BlueLeanie]

Try going to the USA, where they have no concept of a 24 hour clock.

Well, they call it "military time", so if they have served they won't have an issue. IT guys work on systems usually think in the 24 hour clock too.

For everyone else, BO:LD, on a printed timetable is the usual indicator for PM. Which isn't always helpful when there is only one service a day and bold tends to be relative to other content on the page.

 

[styles]

Well, they call it "military time", so if they have served they won't have an issue. IT guys work on systems usually think in the 24 hour clock too.

Not sure if this is Garmin specific, but 24 hour clock and military time clock are different. Military clock has a leading zero and no colon between the hours and minutes, whereas the default 24 hour clock has no leading zero but has a colon.

 

[BlueLeanie]

Not sure if this is Garmin specific, but 24 hour clock and military time clock are different. Military clock has a leading zero and no colon between the hours and minutes, whereas the default 24 hour clock has no leading zero but has a colon.

Well, like so many things, just because it's called something doesn't mean to say it is something. If it was "official" military time it would have a character at the end of it to indicate the relevant Timezone. As I'm typing this, Military time would be 0737Z to indicate GMT or, for example, 0037U in Los Angeles. The leading zero in the 24 hour clock whether 07:37 or 7:37 is a matter of personal taste.

 

[Cletus]

This tweet may be deleted

https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1982359213369094285

The #clocks have gone forward and we're celebrating a new timepiece for the railway, 200 years after the first passenger service ran in Britain!

 

[styles]

This tweet may be deleted

https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1982359213369094285

Oh no.

Insert timetable/delay jokes here.

 

[edwin_m]

Correctly saying the clocks have gone back would suggest they think Rail Clock is a retrograde step!

 

[sh24]

Seen the clock in the wild a few times now and I really like it. The moving arrows look great and convey a decent sense of the seconds to boot.

 

[DelW]

"Design Week" has an article about the competition and the design rationale of the successful entrants:

“Excellent ordinary” – how the UK’s new Rail Clock was designed

Last week at London Bridge Station, Rail Clock was unveiled to the public. The striking circular design, which uses both Gerry Barney’s 1965 double arrow motif, and Margaret Calvert and Henrik Kubel’s…

www.designweek.co.uk

Network Rail and Design Bridge and Partners take us inside the design journey to create the UK’s first national rail clock in 50 years.

Last week at London Bridge Station, Rail Clock was unveiled to the public.

The striking circular design, which uses both Gerry Barney’s 1965 double arrow motif, and Margaret Calvert and Henrik Kubel’s Rail Alphabet 2 typeface, will roll out across the UK’s rail network in both physical and digital iterations.

It was designed by Design Bridge and Partners (DBP), who won a competition run by Network Rail, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Design Museum, which attracted more than 100 entries.

 

[Tester]

"Design Week" has an article about the competition and the design rationale of the successful entrants:

“Excellent ordinary” – how the UK’s new Rail Clock was designed

Last week at London Bridge Station, Rail Clock was unveiled to the public. The striking circular design, which uses both Gerry Barney’s 1965 double arrow motif, and Margaret Calvert and Henrik Kubel’s…

www.designweek.co.uk

That's a good read - thank you.

 

[HMTrains]

Hi, does anyone know what stations actually have the new clock on their displays, I know NR Managed stations did but wondered if it had been rolled out to more.

 

[YorksLad12]

Hi, does anyone know what stations actually have the new clock on their displays, I know NR Managed stations did but wondered if it had been rolled out to more.

Huddersfield (TPE) has it. Leeds (NR) didn’t have it last Wednesday, but the gate line displays are still the yellow/orange type - I didn’t see it on the white displays on the Northern Concourse and I didn’t look at the Next Train To display on the train side of the gate line.

 

[edwin_m]

It would be interesting to know of any sightings at stations run by TOCs that are still private.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Hi, does anyone know what stations actually have the new clock on their displays, I know NR Managed stations did but wondered if it had been rolled out to more.

LNER seem to have installed it to show on the CIS at all their stations.

 

[thomalex]

Disappointing to see Leeds are currently installing what looks like a toy town clock on the lift building of the new entrance. Seems a perfect candidate for the new clock.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not in use at New St which does have a software clock on the main CIS, but I think it's on a white LED board so it would need to wait until that's replaced with a colour display or it would look wrong.

 

[takno]

Disappointing to see Leeds are currently installing what looks like a toy town clock on the lift building of the new entrance. Seems a perfect candidate for the new clock.

They have a design which looks more toy-town than the new GBR one?

 

[YorksLad12]

They have a design which looks more toy-town than the new GBR one?

Please, please, please let it be a Trumpton Town Hall clock replica. You can buy them on Amazon.

 

[edwin_m]

The new clock appeared in digital form on the main departure screen at Nottingham, sometime between Thursday 20th and Thursday 27th. May be noteworthy as I don't believe anyone has posted about seeing it at a station run by a TOC that is still private.