"Tristan Miller" wrote in message
...

What is it about British railway stations that prevents them from
assigning
platforms to trains in advance, as it is done elsewhere? Is any work
being
done to fix this problem?

They do assign platforms to services in advance. They just don't publish
the details though. Please don't assume that the day's arrivals and
departures at somewhere like Waterloo are randomized - it just couldn't work
like that.

There are 'carriage working notices' published 6 monthly with the timetable
change, and they DO allocate a platform for every service. But as soon as
they have a significant delay (such as yesterday's jumper in the morning
peak) it goes pear shaped. As soon as that happens, anything on published
notices becomes misleading.

Paul S

Greetings.

In article news wrote:
"Tristan Miller" wrote in message
...

What is it about British railway stations that prevents them from
assigning
platforms to trains in advance, as it is done elsewhere? Is any work
being
done to fix this problem?

They do assign platforms to services in advance. They just don't publish
the details though. Please don't assume that the day's arrivals and
departures at somewhere like Waterloo are randomized - it just couldn't
work like that.

Well, I didn't think it was completely random. But it's sufficiently
irregular as to be unpredictable for riders. I know, for example, that the
NXEA London Liverpool Street--Chigwell service usually departs from
Platform 3, but it's quite common for it to use any of the other first five
platforms. So if I'm waiting for the service, I'll wait near the gates to
the lower-numbered platforms rather than the higher-numbered ones.

There are 'carriage working notices' published 6 monthly with the
timetable
change, and they DO allocate a platform for every service. But as soon
as they have a significant delay (such as yesterday's jumper in the
morning
peak) it goes pear shaped. As soon as that happens, anything on
published notices becomes misleading.

OK, so maybe I should revise my question to "Given that both British and
continental railways allocate platforms well in advance, why is it that
continental railways are able to publish these allocations and generally
stick to them even in the event of delays?" I used the Deustche Bahn for
years when I was working in a German city, and while delays were not
uncommon, platform changes were almost unheard of. I can't think of a
single occasion on which my train departed from a platform other than the
one listed on my ticket, even when I had bought the ticket days or weeks in
advance.

Regards,
Tristan

--
_
_V.-o Tristan Miller Space is limited
/ |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you

In message , at 11:43:17 on Fri, 4 Mar
2011, d remarked:

Any trains that have seat reservations will be announced a lot sooner than
a few minutes before departure.

Unless it's whatever GNER is called this week, at Kings Cross, in which
case you'll still routinely get under 10 minutes notice.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:44:05 on Fri, 4 Mar
2011, d remarked:

Walking from one side of Kings X to the other takes all of one 1
minute

Not from halfway down platform 1 to halfway down platforms 2-8. Or even
9-11 if it's an FCC train which is involved.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:27:24 on Fri, 4
Mar 2011, Tristan Miller remarked:

Better that 500 people get ****ed off 5% of the time having to change
platforms

New Street fans will say that as much as 5% is typical. I wonder what
the actual figure is there?
--
Roland Perry

On Fri, 4 Mar 2011 14:20:26 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:44:05 on Fri, 4 Mar
2011, d remarked:

Walking from one side of Kings X to the other takes all of one 1
minute

Not from halfway down platform 1 to halfway down platforms 2-8. Or even
9-11 if it's an FCC train which is involved.

Well probably not. But I meant if you were wandering around the concourse
waiting for your train to appear on the boards.

B2003

On 4 Mar 2011 15:07:24 GMT
Huge wrote:
On 2011-03-04, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 11:43:17 on Fri, 4 Mar
2011, d remarked:

Any trains that have seat reservations will be announced a lot sooner than
a few minutes before departure.

Unless it's whatever GNER is called this week, at Kings Cross, in which
case you'll still routinely get under 10 minutes notice.

It's not specific to GNER or KX. Bumheads statement is simply cock.

"Bumhead". Wow , did you think that up all by yourself or did you have help?

Just out of interest , when was the last time you were at Kings X? I was
there 2 weeks ago so unless its been enlarged since then 1 minute is
more than enough for someone who's not physically handicapped to walk from
one side to the other.

B2003

In message , at 14:32:01 on Fri, 4 Mar
2011, d remarked:
Walking from one side of Kings X to the other takes all of one 1
minute

Not from halfway down platform 1 to halfway down platforms 2-8. Or even
9-11 if it's an FCC train which is involved.

Well probably not. But I meant if you were wandering around the concourse
waiting for your train to appear on the boards.

It's still quite a jog to the suburban platforms though. And if you are
waiting for an Intercity, as soon as the platform's announced there is
generally an instant impenetrable scrum of people between you and the
relevant platform barrier.
--
Roland Perry

In message , Huge
writes
As opposed to FCC at Bedford, who spend most mornings playing what I call
"Platform Roulette". I think they do it just to **** people off.

They play the same game at Luton and Luton Airport Parkway. Sometimes
they don't announce the platform until after the train has arrived: by
the time passengers get up the stairs and down the other side, the train
has left. I've complained to FCC about it more than once: it's clear
from their replies they don't see this as a problem (for them). The
passengers have paid for their ticket already, and they get to their
destinations eventually, probably not quite late enough to be able to
claim a delay repay. And they blame it (perhaps correctly) on Network
Rail.

--
Clive Page

On 2011-03-04 19:06:08 +0000, Paul Corfield said:

On Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:14:12 +0000, Tristan Miller
wrote:


I suspect that in many cases trains actually do leave from the same
platform on a consistent basis - it just doesn't feel like it.
Stratford is a great big jumble of a station and yet many services use
the same platforms day in, day out and passengers know exactly where to
go. Trains are also shown on indicators well in advance of their
arrival time and certainly before they will have left Liverpool Street
(for e/b services).

Of course they leave from the same platforms consistently, at least at
Liverpool Street. One of the problems caused by the late advertising of
platforms is that by the time you get onto the platform you find it's
full already as the regulars know which platform the train almost
always uses. It puts you at a real disadvantage when seats are short.

Note that I'm not talking about Tristan's complaint, that platforming
by destination is not consistent. He's right, but individual services
do, much more often than not, leave from the same, allocated, platform
every day.

If anyone doubts that platforming is planned in why do they imagine
that the railway so often makes platform alteration announcements? It's
not because they've changed their mind (advertised it first at one
platform then another), It's because the train will not be using its
booked platform, the one that all of the regulars expect it to use.