ryan125hst
Established Member
I noticed a number of months ago that Zone letters had been applied to the platforms at Retford station, but nothing seemed to refer to them on the departure boards. LNER had altered the fixed coach letter boards to better suit the Azuma lettering upon there introduction, but it still wasn't perfect for 10 car trains as it didn't make any indication of the presence of first class in the middle of the train. It was even worse for 5 car trains where coach E would be next to the board for M for example (I think this is the case at stations such as Grantham and Wakefield Westgate.
I went to pick my sister up from the station yesterday and noticed that the zones are now being displayed as follows. It was a 9 car Azuma heading to London:
1st class zones 1 to 3.
Standard class zones 4 to 9.
Train formation (Zones 1 to 9)
M L K J H G C B A
The screen cycled between this and the usual calling points and train layout information. I think it's a great idea given the 5, 9 and 10 coach formations and different stopping positions.
It is even more useful in the event of a 10 coach train. I saw this as I found that the zone information appears on the Tiger departure boards website. For a 10 car it appears as follows:
1st class zones 1, 2, 6 and 7.
Standard class zones 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10.
Train formation (Zones 1 to 10)
M K H G F E D C B A
When were these markings added to the platform?
When did the zones first start appearing on the Customer Information System (CIS)?
It's interesting to see that even the Low Level platforms have Retford have these. I was unsure why it was showing zones 4 and 5 for Lincoln bound trains and zones 2 and 3 for Sheffield bound trains until I saw photos on Flickr showing they had been added to platforms 3 and 4 as well.
It also seems that some platforms have got a lot of zones. From looking at photos and videos, it seems that platform 3A and 3B at Doncaster has a total of 15 zones, platform 4 at Darlington has 18 zones (northbound trains seem to call at zones 18 to 10) and York platform 3 and 4 zones are continuous and range from 1 to 20!
I went to pick my sister up from the station yesterday and noticed that the zones are now being displayed as follows. It was a 9 car Azuma heading to London:
1st class zones 1 to 3.
Standard class zones 4 to 9.
Train formation (Zones 1 to 9)
M L K J H G C B A
The screen cycled between this and the usual calling points and train layout information. I think it's a great idea given the 5, 9 and 10 coach formations and different stopping positions.
It is even more useful in the event of a 10 coach train. I saw this as I found that the zone information appears on the Tiger departure boards website. For a 10 car it appears as follows:
1st class zones 1, 2, 6 and 7.
Standard class zones 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10.
Train formation (Zones 1 to 10)
M K H G F E D C B A
When were these markings added to the platform?
When did the zones first start appearing on the Customer Information System (CIS)?
It's interesting to see that even the Low Level platforms have Retford have these. I was unsure why it was showing zones 4 and 5 for Lincoln bound trains and zones 2 and 3 for Sheffield bound trains until I saw photos on Flickr showing they had been added to platforms 3 and 4 as well.
It also seems that some platforms have got a lot of zones. From looking at photos and videos, it seems that platform 3A and 3B at Doncaster has a total of 15 zones, platform 4 at Darlington has 18 zones (northbound trains seem to call at zones 18 to 10) and York platform 3 and 4 zones are continuous and range from 1 to 20!