On 25/10/2013 21:08, Roland Perry wrote:

In message om, at
18:15:20 on Fri, 25 Oct 2013, Peter Lawrence
remarked:
Thameslink train indicators between Blackfriars and West Hampstead
(and possibly elsewhere) now show for each train a number, presumably
the number of minutes before that train is espected to arrive, or the
word Due meaning the train should be in the platform

This is the way most bus shelter PIS work (in the regions, anyway, I've
not examined a TfL one recently).

TfL ones work like that - the (universally adopted) convention used
elsewhere is that if the system has live (realtime) info on a bus, then
it displays it as arriving in 'x minutes', whilst if it only has
standard timetable info (and no live / realtime running info) then the
scheduled calling time is displayed (e.g. 18:22).

All TfL routes have realtime tracking - elsewhere it's basically up to
the bus company whether they want to install the kit on their buses.
They should - it makes all the difference - but it's a deregulated
industry...

Back to railways and their PIS - it's not just Thameslink stations that
use the 'x mins' until terminology - there's a bit of a mix out there.