My comment was more along the lines of that it had clearly been agreed in line with a revised plan, I am very aware the keying time does not matter. Changing the timetable that late though is never a good look particularly if it benefits the performance metrics…
Agreed, just saying that it was to ensure the integrity of the service for the mainline would have been far better than hiding behind the emergency engineering works comment on NRE.
Unfortunately timetables get changed all the time, sometimes with plenty of warnings and sometimes not. No one deliberately sets out to make these changes late. Normal travelling public don't generally give a toss about performance metrics. What matters to them is the journey experience, which it makes practically zero difference to whether the train is cancelled at 2150 or at 2210. They are equally annoying. The 2200 timeline has always been a contractual matter internal to the industry, not part of the contract with the fare-paying public. It is needed for contractual purposes as a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Looking at the relevant comms, this may simply have been down to a miscommunication rather than deliberate attempts to hide the real reason (after all, neither reason is really any better than the other), but the point raised by the OP was a valid one and probably should have been picked up earlier.
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The patting itself on the back thing is part PR and part political. It is just a fact of life. I don't like cringy PR or political point-scoring but I do appreciate they are important at promoting rail travel as part of a wider sustainability drive. Lots of things need improving across the industry, including changing mindsets and many things are slowly improving, but there is a long way to go and it can be argued some changes should be implemented quickler. On the other hand the industry's hands are tied to a certain degree as changes cost money and the latter is not in plentiful supply, and subject to prevailing government agenda.
I experienced a last minute platform change at Sheffield a couple of weeks ago. I was waiting for the Leeds to Nottingham train which was due to depart from platform 5. There was an announcement of a platform change to platform 6 just before the train was due to arrive. I’m reasonably able bodied and was able to get over the bridge fairly quickly and the train was arriving into the platform just as I hurried down the stairs. Having boarded the train I was quite surprised how soon after the doors were closed and the train departed. Any less mobile, older people and families with young children or large luggage items would not have had a chance of getting to the train before it departed, especially anyone who would have needed to use the lifts.
Part of the problem is that the crew aren't told if there has been a platform alteration, so won't wait for passengers if they don't know.
I would have thought a conscientious member of crew would look up their booked workings on a source of real time information (e.g. NRE, Real Time Trains) so they can advise people on which side of the train the exit will be. Making such announcements is routine in other countries but seems to be in the "we don't do things that way" pile in Britain.
Oh I don't doubt that, but on the vast majority of lines it would be possible to look up the platform the train has been routed into on the likes of Open Train Times or Traksy.
At stations where there are multiple possible platforms a long way apart you'd hope there would be some effort to establish it though. For example by asking platform staff or, in their absence, passengers if there was an announcement.
As above their diagram doesn't generally tell them their booked platform. And unlike the guard they're obviously not allowed to use their phone to look anything up.
Ah alright, wasn't aware of this.
Even if it was, how would they know whether it has or has not been announced or displayed at the station in good time, if at all?