Stations with strange or missing platform numbers

[JustinStacey.x]

I remember reading the minutes from a meeting where passengers asked if the platform numbers at Stratford could be renamed in time for the Olympics to avoid confusing passengers. Network Rail responded by saying that it's not just a case of changing the signs on the platforms and that it would cost several million to renumber!

Right because it's so difficult to move a few signposts and update a few computer records... lol

 

[Mojo]

I guess you'd have to change the signs, rebrief all staff, update diagrams, change details in the signalbox, change any theatre indicators (if they have them there), reprogram the PIS...

 

[jopsuk]

update a few computer records... lol

I think you'll find that, because of the tight controls on safety critical software such as signalling programs, that changing the numbers assigned to platforms is probably not a simple task, requiring extensive testing.

At least, I really, really hope it is!

 

[Bittern]

Glasgow Central was renumbered after the resignalling at them moment it is misisng a 12 and 13, until they are built as part of the paisley improvements. Were going to be used for GARL.

Platform 12 is located next to the end of Platform 11. It was formerally Platform 11a.

 

[Waddon]

doesn't have any track serving it. Ergo, it's not a platform, it's a fence with a drop onto some chippings on the other side.

I believe platform 1 at Clapham Junction is due to be reinstated when the East London Line service via Peckham Rye eventually gets there.

p.s. on the same subject, The old Wimbledon bay platform at West Croydon has just been infilled to extend one of the London-bound platforms, as part of the East London Line project works, but the old platform number is still hanging there (I can't remember what platform number this is - it's either 2 or 3). The others haven't been renumbered either. It gets a bit confusing at times

 

[Ben]

There are plans for a new through platform at Huddersfield which would become platform 9 because of it's proposed position.

Source?

 

[jon0844]

I guess you'd have to change the signs, rebrief all staff, update diagrams, change details in the signalbox, change any theatre indicators (if they have them there), reprogram the PIS...

I read elsewhere that they ARE now going to renumber the platforms at King's Cross and scrap Platform Y.

This will finally allow platform 9 3/4 to be in a logical position between 1-9 and 10-12!

 

[43021HST]

How can you have a platform number 0

 

[CCF23]

Kings Cross is soon to have a platform 0, the new one that's going to be next to platform 1. This might have already been said.
Upminster has a strange platform 1a which faces Shoeburyness and is never used (i think it was used when a Upminster to Grays shuttle ran)
Also Barking's eastbound District Line platform 2 is on both sides of the tracks and the doors open on both sides.

 

[googolplex]

Bedford has a Platform 1a, which is for the Bedford-Bletchley line and is seperate from Platform 1.

 

[CMS]

Where's platform 5 at Watford Junction, and what platform was the disused track there (between platforms 10 and 11)? And at the moment Blackfriars only has platforms 4 and 5. The high level 'special platform' at Highbury & Islington was platform 7.

 

[Bighat]

Kings Cross is soon to have a platform 0, the new one that's going to be next to platform 1. This might have already been said.
Upminster has a strange platform 1a which faces Shoeburyness and is never used (i think it was used when a Upminster to Grays shuttle ran)
Also Barking's eastbound District Line platform 2 is on both sides of the tracks and the doors open on both sides.

Yes, stub platform 1A at Upminster is/was for the Upminster to Grays shuttle, via Chafford Hundreds.

 

[Oracle]

Southampton Central has a bay that is not numbered 5, presumably as it is not passenger-signalled.

Bournemouth has a short and hidden (behind a wall) bay Platform 1 that I think is never used now. I don't know if it is still used, but Platform 4 is effectively the extension of 3 that I recall was used by the Weymouth trains.

 

[SWT Driver]

Guildford has platforms 1-8, although platform 7 is never officially used as it's the opposite side of platform 6 which is a single track, all platforms have the A & B ends & it doesn't help when one of the station announcers then calls it the country end or London end.

Southampton Central's down bay platform isn't available for regular passenger use as it doesn't have the "proper" signal at the end of it, it can be used in dire emergency though.

Bournemouth's platform 1 is only used occasionally now, it's mostly used to store a unit & the extension is used by some services, but for the life of me I can't remember which ones!

It does come into its own though if they want to loop something, they can send it down to the extension & then route one from the down via the up & back down again, been there done that!

 

[class313]

At west Hampstead for a short while, the platform were number 1 and 2, but the destination boards all said eastbound and westbound. Very confusing.

 

[Proud Salopian]

Shrewsbury has platforms 4-8.

Erm.

Shrewsbury has platforms 1-7. Platforms 1 & 2 have no track, but otherwise are still there. Platform 3 is back in use and has very recently had a lift and passenger waiting room installed. Platforms 4, 5, 6 & 7 are on the main island of the station. As for platform 8... it doesn't exist. I sometimes (jokingly) call the "mini-platform" by Howard Street "platform 8" and the only trains that pull up in that siding are permanent way ones.

So I'm afraid there's nothing really unusual about Shrewsbury's platforms or their numbering!

 

[jon0844]

Kings Cross is soon to have a platform 0, the new one that's going to be next to platform 1.

It was going to be platform Y, not 0 - but now it appears ALL the platforms are going to be renumbered so it starts at 1 (as you'd expect if common sense is used) and all the others go up by one - which as I said above, puts 9 3/4 in the right place between the main building and the suburban one (assuming it is still going to remain a separate building?)

Clearly there's a cost associated with signalling etc, but I presume someone realised that it needed to be done - and other work was going to be done anyway?

 

[driver9000]

Preston has totally silly bay platforms 3c and 4c miles away down the end of the main platforms which are numbered 3 and 4 and not in any way connected with the bays. They are totally out of view from the main part of station so if anything still does use them, god help the passengers actually trying to find the platforms!

The bays at Preston are associated with the main through platforms 3 and 4. Platforms 3 and 4 are split into A and B subsections (north end is A and south end is B). The platforms signs dont make reference to 3a and 4a but departure screens do, this being most obvious when TPE portion trains split. Platforms 3c and 4c are still in daily use mostly by off peak Ormskirk services, by late running trains being terminated at Preston instead of continuing on to Blackpool etc and some Hazel Grove/Buxton services use it around the peak period to save a through platform and shunting. When services are going from the bays the station announcer usually tells passengers that they are at the 'extreme south end of the station'

 

[EltonRoad]

The two platforms at Oban are still numbered 3 and 4.