The things people say!

dwv1968 · Post by **dwv1968** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:50 pm

Overheard getting onto the Skipton to Leeds train at Keighley yesterday morning:

Passenger to guard: "Does this train go through Bingley?"

(NB. All trains between Skipton and Leeds and/or Bradford go through Bingley - they can't do anything else!)

Guard to passenger: "No madam - it goes on the bypass!"

Made my morning did that!

David Varley

alex2008 · Post by **alex2008** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:01 pm

Admittedly somethingâ€™s are really stupid, but how is a passenger who may not of used the railways going to know whether the train goes through Bingley or not? The railways are hard enough to use as it is, I have trouble understanding some of it, and god knows how Joe Bloggs can cope! What ever happened to train numbers, if a passenger knew from the timetable (or internet) they needed train VT014 thats all they would need to look out for, IMO making things a lot easier? Just like airports, I donâ€™t need to scan the destination for my plane (which with new scrolling screens you cannot even do this on a train station) all I need to look for is EZY221 its so much easier.

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 12:38 am

When I worked the 303s out of Glasgow and a passenger asked me
"how long is the train to xxxxx"
I would point to the plate on the cab front and tell them. . . .

"296 feet".

But only if I was sure they wouldn't hit me.

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 12:50 pm

You need to be very careful with wit like that these days. Some misery guts would possibly complain to your boss.

eddief · Post by **eddief** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 5:27 pm

its the same on the preserved railways. We had someone ring up Grosmont sheds once asking what was running the next day. This was the conversation that followed
"well we got the crab running"
"oh real which 1?"
"the one we just fished out from the sea at Whitby"

fs9freak · Post by **fs9freak** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:25 pm

Southampton Central has (effectively) 9 platforms!
1a&b, 2a&b, 3a&b, 4a&b and 5!
They have the old tv screens with the arrivals and departures over the next couple of hours! They have the destination and time, I think they should include the platform number. Especially at stations where trains don't go to a destination from one designated platform, designated by direction!

Tomnick · Post by **Tomnick** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 5:46 pm

fs9freak wrote:Southampton Central has (effectively) 9 platforms!
1a&b, 2a&b, 3a&b, 4a&b and 5!
They have the old tv screens with the arrivals and departures over the next couple of hours! They have the destination and time, I think they should include the platform number. Especially at stations where trains don't go to a destination from one designated platform, designated by direction!

I thought it was fairly standard for the platform number to be shown? Lincoln's system seems ancient, but still shows a departure platform, with a reasonably small number of trains. Unlike Southampton, it's not even slightly bi-directionally signalled, so everything's normally easy to find.

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 6:00 pm

I've not seen a system like that that doesn't show the platform numbers. Though i've not been paying attention at Southampton the occasions i've been there recently. At waterloo the platforms aren't announced until about 10-15 mins before the train goes (at peak times, anyway), so perhaps a similar system is in operation there?

fs9freak · Post by **fs9freak** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:32 am

They do have the announcements at Southampton!, but only on the trains that are not starting a route! So, if you're on the wrong platform, you have about 1 minute to get from one platform to another, and that bridge can be busy!

allypally · Post by **allypally** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:35 am

Most medium to large sized stations have screens like that. Even the automated BNS. Wolverhampton's are dreadful. They either get stuck an hour ahead of time, or dont work at all.

alex2008 · Post by **alex2008** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:21 pm

Yeah, what ever happened to those great digital BR station clocks that would display the hours, minutes and seconds quite clearly, much much much better than an electronic display. Made a cool ticking kind of sound too and fun to watch when it reached a nice round time like 10.00.00... yes I lead a boring childhood.

Post by **martinhodgson** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 5:34 pm

alex2008 wrote:Yeah, what ever happened to those great digital BR station clocks that would display the hours, minutes and seconds quite clearly, much much much better than an electronic display. Made a cool ticking kind of sound too and fun to watch when it reached a nice round time like 10.00.00... yes I lead a boring childhood.

Lancaster still has them

ca55ie · Post by **ca55ie** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 5:51 pm

alex2008 wrote:Yeah, what ever happened to those great digital BR station clocks that would display the hours, minutes and seconds quite clearly, much much much better than an electronic display. Made a cool ticking kind of sound too and fun to watch when it reached a nice round time like 10.00.00... yes I lead a boring childhood.

LOL!

Post by **martinhodgson** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 6:42 pm

ca55ie wrote:
alex2008 wrote:Yeah, what ever happened to those great digital BR station clocks that would display the hours, minutes and seconds quite clearly, much much much better than an electronic display. Made a cool ticking kind of sound too and fun to watch when it reached a nice round time like 10.00.00... yes I lead a boring childhood.
LOL!

It's true... they went in sequence, so 10 o'clock was all 6 digits clicking one after the other! What a great noise!

fs9freak · Post by **fs9freak** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:28 pm

alex2008 wrote:Yeah, what ever happened to those great digital BR station clocks that would display the hours, minutes and seconds quite clearly, much much much better than an electronic display. Made a cool ticking kind of sound too and fun to watch when it reached a nice round time like 10.00.00... yes I lead a boring childhood.

They're replacing them! At least over the south coast! They've been replaced with the LCD light displays which lists the next destination and stops, and (briefly) the next two trains after that! But they're only for that one platform!