Odd connection announcement

[David Burrows]

I have travelled on a number of LNER services through Peterborough and each time it is automatically announced (and appears on screen), in both directions, as 'now approaching Peterborough, change here for March'. Only March, which is not an enourmous town, is mentioned, not Ely, Cambridge, Norwich, Stanstead Airport, Stamford, Leicester, all of which are probably far more important destinations compared with March which was mainly built round the railway, being the junction for the Joint Line and with Whitemoor yard.
Is there a reason for March (only) to be mentioned, or did the person who produced these announcements live in March and play a little joke?

 

[The exile]

I have travelled on a number of LNER services through Peterborough and each time it is automatically announced (and appears on screen), in both directions, as 'now approaching Peterborough, change here for March'. Only March, which is not an enourmous town, is mentioned, not Ely, Cambridge, Norwich, Stanstead Airport, Stamford, Leicester, all of which are probably far more important destinations compared with March which was mainly built round the railway, being the junction for the Joint Line and with Whitemoor yard.
Is there a reason for March (only) to be mentioned, or did the person who produced these announcements live in March and play a little joke?

Visitors to inmates at Whitemoor, perhaps? Equally - it makes sense as a northbound announcement (there are better ways to get from London or Stevenage to any of the other places) - maybe it’s being played in the wrong direction. In similar vein, I’m always puzzled by announcements on XC Bristol starters on arriving at Bristol Parkway “change here for South Wales and London Paddington” - both of which you could have got direct trains to from the place you boarded the XC service on, probably with no loss of time.

 

[Horizon22]

Visitors to inmates at Whitemoor, perhaps? Equally - it makes sense as a northbound announcement (there are better ways to get from London or Stevenage to any of the other places) - maybe it’s being played in the wrong direction. In similar vein, I’m always puzzled by announcements on XC Bristol starters on arriving at Bristol Parkway “change here for South Wales and London Paddington” - both of which you could have got direct trains to from the place you boarded the XC service on, probably with no loss of time.

This happens all over - you get announcements sometimes you're on a train from A to D which doesn't stop at B or C when approaching D to "change here for B and C". I presume it is just dumb PIS logic.

GA services at Shenfield from Liverpool Street state "change here for Elizabeth line services".

 

[A S Leib]

GA services at Shenfield from Liverpool Street state "change here for Elizabeth line services".

I think it can be quicker to backtrack from Watford High Street to Euston via Watford Junction, with the Oyster fare being the same as travelling directly; is that the case for Liverpool Street / Stratford to Brentwood?

 

[Horizon22]

I think it can be quicker to backtrack from Watford High Street to Euston via Watford Junction, with the Oyster fare being the same as travelling directly; is that the case for Liverpool Street / Stratford to Brentwood?

Yes Brentwood is a permitted route but that's the only station.

 

[Parham Wood]

Visitors to inmates at Whitemoor, perhaps? Equally - it makes sense as a northbound announcement (there are better ways to get from London or Stevenage to any of the other places) - maybe it’s being played in the wrong direction. In similar vein, I’m always puzzled by announcements on XC Bristol starters on arriving at Bristol Parkway “change here for South Wales and London Paddington” - both of which you could have got direct trains to from the place you boarded the XC service on, probably with no loss of time.

It used to be and I am not sure about now without consulting the timetable that you could get to Paddington or S Wales quicker than the next scheduled direct service from Temple Meads by going to Parkway and changing.

 

[mickey]

It’s at least better than SWR, whose Arterio announcements are sometimes just wrong. Approaching Teddington it says ‘change here for service to Strawberry Hill and Richmond’ when you’re on that train already! They need two sets of announcements, one for loop trains and another for Shepperton… but of course this costs money and effort so they didn’t bother.

 

[Watershed]

It used to be and I am not sure about now without consulting the timetable that you could get to Paddington or S Wales quicker than the next scheduled direct service from Temple Meads by going to Parkway and changing.

lt's still the case, particularly on Sundays or at the extremes of the day. Admittedly an unlikely option for most to choose when there are direct trains, but it does represent a non-overtaken journey opportunity so it will show up in a journey planner.

 

[xotGD]

Someone with splits or an Advance may be changing at Parkway.

 

[The exile]

Someone with splits or an Advance may be changing at Parkway.

In which case they’ll know that already!

 

[liamf656]

The same goes for EMR Regional trains which suggest passengers can change at Nottingham for services to Birmingham and London... even if the train has come from Derby!

 

[800001]

I have travelled on a number of LNER services through Peterborough and each time it is automatically announced (and appears on screen), in both directions, as 'now approaching Peterborough, change here for March'. Only March, which is not an enourmous town, is mentioned, not Ely, Cambridge, Norwich, Stanstead Airport, Stamford, Leicester, all of which are probably far more important destinations compared with March which was mainly built round the railway, being the junction for the Joint Line and with Whitemoor yard.
Is there a reason for March (only) to be mentioned, or did the person who produced these announcements live in March and play a little joke?

I was told it is because they can only announce connections on LNER where by customers with tickets can change in either direction.

Eg if they announced change here for Ely, tickets from London are not valid to change at Peterborough.

Or change for trains to Lincoln or Leicester, tickets from the north would not be valid to change there.

 

[duffield]

The same goes for EMR Regional trains which suggest passengers can change at Nottingham for services to Birmingham and London... even if the train has come from Derby!

But if that announcement is on approach to Nottingham then the service will have picked up passengers at Beeston, for example, and it may make sense for them to double back via Nottingham if connecting for London or Birmingham since only half the relevant services stop at Beeston.

 

[sheff1]

I was told it is because they can only announce connections on LNER where by customers with tickets can change in either direction.

Eg if they announced change here for Ely, tickets from London are not valid to change at Peterborough.

Or change for trains to Lincoln or Leicester, tickets from the north would not be valid to change there.

Passengers from both north & south can change at Peterborough for Stamford and I would expect more to be going there than to March.

 

[D1537]

I was on a 185 from Northallerton to Thirsk recently and the PIS on the train was displaying the next train from York to Leeds if you left the train at York ... despite the fact we were on a train that called at Leeds.

In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen the 185 PIS display connections for a train in the opposite direction from which you've just arrived...

 

[A S Leib]

I was on a 185 from Northallerton to Thirsk recently and the PIS on the train was displaying the next train from York to Leeds if you left the train at York ... despite the fact we were on a train that called at Leeds.

Connections for Cross Gates and Garforth, or fast to Leeds?

 

[Parallel]

There use to be an announcement on GWR services arriving into Newton Abbot from Paignton advising you to change there for services to Torquay and Paignton!

They’re reworded a lot of them in Cornwall now to say things like ‘Falmouth trains connect with the main line here’ which are in use both on the main line and for the associated branch.

On the GWR 387s you get a whole plethora of places you can change for at Reading, Didcot and Swindon but you get absolutely nothing for Bristol Parkway, Newport or Cardiff Central. Not even a ‘mind the gap!’ Clearly when they added these stations to the system they didn’t bother with any of the supplementary information.

It always used to make me laugh when you arrived into Cardiff Central on an IET and were told to change there for ‘Cardiff Queen Street, Ebbw Vale Parkway and Treherbert’ which are fairly random destinations really. I’d have thought Barry, Caerphilly and Pontypridd may have been more obvious choices.

 

[D1537]

Connections for Cross Gates and Garforth, or fast to Leeds?

I thought that at the time, but it just said Leeds. When I looked at it, it was an XC to Plymouth!

 

[dodecahedron67]

I was on a 185 from Northallerton to Thirsk recently and the PIS on the train was displaying the next train from York to Leeds if you left the train at York ... despite the fact we were on a train that called at Leeds.

In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen the 185 PIS display connections for a train in the opposite direction from which you've just arrived...

185 PIS will just show all possible connections after the minimum connection time at selected main stations, regardless of where they are going to

 

[vlad]

I've been on an XC from (north of) Birmingham to (south of) Reading. When we stopped at Leamington Spa it was announced we could change there for Birmingham Snow Hill.

I appreciate it could have meant stations towards Snow Hill (it's an obvious place to change for Warwick, for example) but I still think it was a strange thing to announce.

 

[py_megapixel]

GWR tells you to change in Swindon for "the north".

As far as I can tell, the furthest north you can get on a direct train from Swindon is Worcester. The meaning of "the north" is of course notoriously poorly defined and contentious, but I think there is universal agreement that it does not include Worcester!

In fact I can't think of many stations from which a journey to "the north" would involve changing in Swindon at all. Maybe Melksham and Trowbridge?

 

[MikeWM]

I've certainly raised an eyebrow at the 'change here for March' (and nothing else) announcement a few times. It makes very little obvious sense to single out March when approaching from the north.

 

[sheff1]

Heading north on Thameslink the announcement was "We are now approaching East Croydon. Change here for other National Rail services". I was heading to Sheffield on an 'other National Rail service', who knew I should change at East Croydon - the journey planners had advised a change at St Pancras

 

[thelongestroad]

I think the most random/stupid "change here" is annouced on trains arriving at Reading from Paddington which advise to change for the Railair to Heathrow.

 

[800001]

I think the most random/stupid "change here" is annouced on trains arriving at Reading from Paddington which advise to change for the Railair to Heathrow.

If on an IET it is because it plays the same announcement regardless of the direction of the train.

 

[A S Leib]

GWR tells you to change in Swindon for "the north".

As far as I can tell, the furthest north you can get on a direct train from Swindon is Worcester. The meaning of "the north" is of course notoriously poorly defined and contentious, but I think there is universal agreement that it does not include Worcester!

From Penzance, effectively everywhere in Great Britain looks like the North, and Worcester's the northernmost place served by GWR

Having more Bristol to Oxford trains means changing at Swindon and Oxford is a bit more realistic than changing at Swindon and Reading for the north, but, as you've said, there's very few places where you'd change there rather than Bristol Temple Meads or Parkway.

 

[thelongestroad]

If on an IET it is because it plays the same announcement regardless of the direction of the train.

Quite but surely it should be programmable not to? Or maybe don't say it at all.

 

[Parallel]

I think it’s Didcot that the IETs used to announce ‘The North’ but that’s much the same. The furthest north you can get is Banbury or Worcester. What they probably should say/have said was ‘Change here for Oxford, for connections towards the north’ or similar.

Swindon used to announce the Golden Valley stations but in the wrong order, I think it used to say ‘for Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Stonehouse, Kemble and… STROUD! Please change here’. I only remember because it used to infuriate me no end.

Bristol Parkway also used ‘The North’ but that makes sense seeing as there are actually direct trains there!

 

[800001]

Quite but surely it should be programmable not to? Or maybe don't say it at all.

Sounds daft. But for the purposes of announcements the TMS system does not know what direction the train is going. That's my understanding.

 

[NSE]

Heading north on Thameslink the announcement was "We are now approaching East Croydon. Change here for other National Rail services". I was heading to Sheffield on an 'other National Rail service', who knew I should change at East Croydon - the journey planners had advised a change at St Pancras

Don’t really get what’s wrong here? Not sure what I’m missing. If you’re on a northbound TL then ‘other National Rail services’ could include services to the East Grinstead, Uckfield, Tattenham Corner or Caterham branches. Or maybe onto the London Bridge via Tulse Hill service. Seems a reasonable announcement to me.