Wrong Time

[setdown]

Hi, I’m noticing that the current time displayed on some London Underground boards appears to be wrong:

-Ealing Broadway Central line: the two platform boards next to each other both show different times, and are both wrong.
-Paddington Hammersmith/Circle line: the display near the barriers is at least a couple of minutes slow. Not great when making a connection to NR!

Is this a common thing? I reported the issue at Ealing Broadway, but nothing was done about it. I’d have assumed they’re automatically set?

 

[Recessio]

On the Victoria line, Vauxhall has often been a few minutes out over the last few months. I reported it to the station staff at the gateline who basically couldn't give a toss (the gate staff at Vauxhall aren't always the best, but there's a lot of dodgy people that hang around causing trouble there so I can't blame them).

How does the timing system work? Is it not some sort of Radio or NTP system to ensure synchronisation?

It's also funny that there's issues with the timing when standardised timing literally came about *because* of the railways!

 

[computerSaysNo]

I had thought boards like this would have been part of a LAN (Local Area Network) and plugged into a local server via a (very long) ethernet cable (so the local server would request realtime running updates from the global server at TfL, and then store them locally for whenever amount of time, and the individual departure boards would just request updates from the local server). So therefore all departure boards would auto-update their clocks from the local server which in turn would update its clock from the global server?

 

[Gloster]

Which prompts the thought: what would your situation be if you missed a train because a clock was wrong? If the clock was a few minutes late or, as once happened to me, had stopped at a time that chanced to be a few minutes earlier than the time you look at it. If you think that you have a few minutes in hand and, say, go and buy a coffee or a paper, but then miss the train, would you have the right to compensation? (I am talking about clocks on railway property here.)

 

[LUYMun]

On the Victoria line, Vauxhall has often been a few minutes out over the last few months. I reported it to the station staff at the gateline who basically couldn't give a toss (the gate staff at Vauxhall aren't always the best, but there's a lot of dodgy people that hang around causing trouble there so I can't blame them).

There's a very easy solution - just get Geoff Marshall to film a video at Vauxhall, get him to complain about the unsynchronised clock, TfL will get out of their beds, the station staff will get a stern talking-to. Job well done!