Paddington stampede

[carriageline]

Seriously, these are the same people who get on a train that is pick up only at Reading to get off. You think a bit of card on a peice of string will stop them?


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[jon0844]

Armed soldiers looking down on them from the overbridge, shooting those who ignore the sign?

 

[Flamingo]

Armed soldiers looking down on them from the overbridge, shooting those who ignore the sign?

Please Sir. Me Sir...

 

[Mutant Lemming]

There are some occasions when the excuses seem a bit thin though. Last Friday at Liverpool Street the 12:00 to Norwich was cancelled so there would be additional passengers on the 12:30. The platform would be obvious to many on here because it was the only loco hauled set in the station. It was there a good 15 minutes beforehand, confrimed to me by asking the barrier staff but the departure platform was not on any of the boards. The train had been cleaned and Greater Anglia don't do seat reservations. I had managed to find myself a nice seat and then 5 minutes before the train is due to depart the stampede (almost thought I heard moo-ing and braying) commenced. The train was there and ready a good 15 minutes beforehand and there would be additional passengers from the previous cancelled service so why leave it till the last few minutes to display it on the boards ?

 

[jon0844]

Please Sir. Me Sir...

Just as long as you play fair. No creating signs saying 'please pass this sign if you're travelling to Reading'...

 

[tsr]

There are some occasions when the excuses seem a bit thin though. Last Friday at Liverpool Street the 12:00 to Norwich was cancelled so there would be additional passengers on the 12:30. The platform would be obvious to many on here because it was the only loco hauled set in the station. It was there a good 15 minutes beforehand, confrimed to me by asking the barrier staff but the departure platform was not on any of the boards. The train had been cleaned and Greater Anglia don't do seat reservations. I had managed to find myself a nice seat and then 5 minutes before the train is due to depart the stampede (almost thought I heard moo-ing and braying) commenced. The train was there and ready a good 15 minutes beforehand and there would be additional passengers from the previous cancelled service so why leave it till the last few minutes to display it on the boards ?

I've noticed this sort of stuff a bit with GA (I think I mentioned similar events earlier, but more like the other way round, with trains announced whilst being prepared - though both would appear just as common and inconvenient in my fairly limited experience). It's a shame, as I am usually fairly impressed with GA operations, despite the large volume of complaints I see online.

It may be that, in your case, reservations were being removed so that passengers could be packed onboard more uniformly, without squabbles amongst themselves (I'm sorry, but in a sense, it's a whole lot better to aim complaints at the staff only, rather than have everyone bickering with each other about small bits of white card)! Or perhaps there was a very short staff briefing about any overcrowding or service issues, meaning it was not possible to declare the train safe and ready for boarding. Or maybe a set was expected late - perhaps run ECS from somewhere, though I somehow doubt it - and there was a slight possibility another service would run about the same time, the set might swap or something like that. Or none of the above! Who knows? Possibly only Liverpool Street staff.

Greater Anglia most certainly do offer seat reservations on London-Norwich services on a regular basis, but it is entirely possible they were removed from your service (or perhaps you were sitting in a generally unreserved area).

 

[Nym]

Have something like this across the door:

Is it just me, or does it look like she's doing lampshade renewals?

 

[RailAleFan]

I always assumed that just in time platform announcement was for crowd control reasons, in particular, where you have a layout such as London Euston it would just be chaos if a train was announced on platform 4 at the same moment as a Pendolino full arrived on platform 3, so it's not just announcing it when the train has been prepared but making sure you're not going to cause a head on people collision!

 

[D6975]

On my last trip up via Padd, the train manager came round after Reading, removing all the seat reservations. A small touch admittedly, but one that undoubtedly reduces prep time at Pad.
I've also recently seen reservations being put in place for a return journey on the last leg of an outward journey - an even better idea. It was on a Norwich - Liv St IIRC.

 

[Welshman]

I always assumed that just in time platform announcement was for crowd control reasons, in particular, where you have a layout such as London Euston it would just be chaos if a train was announced on platform 4 at the same moment as a Pendolino full arrived on platform 3, so it's not just announcing it when the train has been prepared but making sure you're not going to cause a head on people collision!

I find the layout of Euston station is such that head-on people-collisions are caused by "just in time" platform announcements!

Try walking from the Melton/Cardington St entrance or the gents' loo towards the main concourse, as an announcement is made with 7 minutes to spare for a train departing from the top of platform 18, or platforms 1-3!

I appreciate that the staff at Euston do some pretty slick turn-rounds when the timetable is disrupted, but when the platform is announced in good time, then folks saunter towards their train, rather than stampede.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I always assumed that just in time platform announcement was for crowd control reasons, in particular, where you have a layout such as London Euston it would just be chaos if a train was announced on platform 4 at the same moment as a Pendolino full arrived on platform 3, so it's not just announcing it when the train has been prepared but making sure you're not going to cause a head on people collision!

Euston seem to either announce the platform with two minutes to spare, or they announce it before the train is even in the platform. There doesn't seem to be any sort of middle ground at that station.

I actually think the layout of Euston encourages the stampede, because there are so few places to wait comfortably and the concourse is just one big open space with nothing in it.

 

[table38]

I actually think the layout of Euston encourages the stampede, because there are so few places to wait comfortably and the concourse is just one big open space with nothing in it jam-packed with retail kiosks

There, fixed that for you

Take a look at the very start of this video for how it was supposed to be!

[youtube]9E6CQUrP7Lg[/youtube]

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Greater Anglia most certainly do offer seat reservations on London-Norwich services on a regular basis, but it is entirely possible they were removed from your service (or perhaps you were sitting in a generally unreserved area).

I was unaware they did for standard. When I have booked advances in the past to Norwich (admittedly a year or so ago) we went out standard and returned first and I could only reserve the retrun first class seats. I was told the standard was just 'sit anywhere'. Is it a recent change ?

 

[91103eastcoast]

On my last trip up via Padd, the train manager came round after Reading, removing all the seat reservations. A small touch admittedly, but one that undoubtedly reduces prep time at Pad.
I've also recently seen reservations being put in place for a return journey on the last leg of an outward journey - an even better idea. It was on a Norwich - Liv St IIRC.

I've seen this one East Coast before - it does seem to result in the reduction in the time taken to prep a train.

 

[londonmidland]

'Will passengers intending to travel on this service, please join the train now, as it is ready to leave' :roll:

 

[Parallel]

'Will passengers intending to travel on this service, please join the train now, as it is ready to leave' :roll:

Arriva have a really long announcement which is occasionally used whilst a train waits at the platform. I was at Shrews awaiting a service when an announcement for the stopper to Tenby played and by the time the Welsh announcement had finished, as well as the list of stations in English and the autoannouncer said "Any passengers waiting, please join this now train as it is ready to leave", it had already left a couple of minutes before.

 

[Hyphen]

"X, Y, Z are request stops, and passengers for these stations should arrange with the conductor for the train to stop, so that they can alight."

That ends up being a pretty long announcement (played after the list of all calling points) and adds at least an extra 30 seconds to any announcement. It makes the HoW service out of Swansea particularly 'fun' to listen to!

Can't help but think it's a peculiar way of putting it, but I've never listened to how request stops are announced elsewhere in the country.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Is that including the Welsh version ?

 

[Hyphen]

Is that including the Welsh version ?

For the HoW train out of Swansea, it's not unusual for the announcement to still be playing when the train starts moving. It does everything in Welsh first, including the request stops, then starts from the beginning in English.

 

[jon0844]

Paddington stampede? Not a problem for me today.

Arrived at PAD to get a train to Slough (and then Windsor for Legoland) and approaching the gates for platform 5 (no train on platform) I was approached by the gateline guy asking where we were going. I said I was expecting the Oxford train from platform 5 (having looked at RTT), so he went off to check, came back and confirmed it would be there - and invited us all through to wait on the platform!

So, as the train came in and the stampede started we were ready to jump on (once about a gazillion people came off the 3-car service with about 2 suitcases each. Goodness knows where they'd been!). I did note that the train was only announced about 2 minutes before, which is rather crazy. It did leave a bit late, mind.

Everything went like clockwork today, despite the heat, but at Windsor coming back I was amazed that all the tourists just tried to pile on the train before anyone could get off. One person on the train decided enough was enough and pressed the door close button on them, which was quite funny.

And on the 180 back to Paddington after, there was a family most upset at having to get off the nice spacious seats, unplug their tablet charger and leave the air conditioned heaven. They were saying how they wished they had trains that nice! (I didn't jump in to say that it was lucky it didn't catch fire on our short trip back).