[Eagle]

Originally Posted by jopsuk

in "normal" use at Stirling are 2, 3 and 6- with 9 & 10 for some services. To my knowledge, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are only used for berthing units? Platform 1 has long vanished.

I looked this one up. There is one passenger service on Sunday mornings that departs platform 8, but other than that the bays are stabling only. Reason being that very little actually starts or terminates at Stirling, with local services continuing either to Dunblane (platforms 2, 3, 6) or Alloa (platforms 6, 9, 10).

Salisbury platform 5 (a west-facing bay) is similarly unused, although because the depot is right around the corner (accessed via the former platform 1) it's not used for stabling either. Bournemouth platform 1, however, is unused simply because it's too short for anything that terminates there.

[D6975]

Temple Meads had its platforms completely reversed in 1965 when the Brunel shed was taken out of use. Platform 1 used to be where platform 15 is now. The current platform 1 used to be platform 12.

[maniacmartin]

What I find most odd, is some stations such as New Cross have platforms labelled with letters only

[jopsuk]

Supposedly that's to avoid confusion with New Cross Gate. I know they're quite close together, but they don't share announcements or departure boards, so I don't understand how anyone could get confused.

[12CSVT]

Originally Posted by jopsuk

Supposedly that's to avoid confusion with New Cross Gate. I know they're quite close together, but they don't share announcements or departure boards, so I don't understand how anyone could get confused.

If that's the reason for New Cross having letters instead of numbers, then I'd have thought either Kings Cross or St Pancras should be lettered considering how close they are, and both linked to Kings Cross St Pancras underground.

[causton]

Originally Posted by 12CSVT

If that's the reason for New Cross having letters instead of numbers, then I'd have thought either Kings Cross or St Pancras should be lettered considering how close they are, and both linked to Kings Cross St Pancras underground.

Isn't that why the platforms at St Pancras International low level are lettered?

(didn't stop one woman - who on my way back from Reading festival, I encountered on the 1106 service from Kings Cross, when she should have been on the 1106 service from St Pancras to Luton Airport!)

[12CSVT]

Maybe the Eurostar platforms should be numbered using Roman numerals !

[Cherry_Picker]

Solihull station didn't even have platform numbers until seven or eight years ago, just huge arrows with direction of travel and the names of the most popular destinations listed.

[Mikey1984]

I have a copy of a quail map circa 1989 which shows the platform numbers for Taunton as 1,4,7,9

[wintonian]

Originally Posted by 12CSVT

Nothing unusual about the way Basingstoke patforms are numbered in my opinion.

If you really want confusion, try Portsmouth & Southsea, where platforms are numbered from south to north 2, 1, 3, 4.
Edinburgh is probably the worst where platform numbering doesn't seem to follow any logic.

Ah yes but no. 1& 2 are high level through services to and from Harbour, with 3 & 4 low level bay platforms for starting/ terminating Southampton, Waterloo and Littlehampton services, so does make some sense.

[AndyLandy]

I guess if they could have labelled the Fast London platform as 1, they'd have done that, but given that's even more confusing (the Fasts are the centre pair of lines), they resorted to starting with 1 being the platform closest to the entrance...

[Eagle]

Originally Posted by 12CSVT

Maybe the Eurostar platforms should be numbered using Roman numerals !

V to X?