I am quite surprised with this as I have always found Euston to be very informative - the last time I visited (though this was 2 years ago) my platform was showing about 25-30 mins before departure.
Or just do it like every other station and advertise the platform as the inbound service arrives
Avanti do seem to have begun to hire agency staff at their own stations, it was rather amusing seeing a member of agency staff look rather puzzled when I showed him my ranger ticket, ended up waiting there for about 5 minutes while he consulted the ticket office. Agency staff on the railway in revenue protection and security-related roles do not work, they should only really use agency staff for cleaning imo, like Atalian Servest on Avanti. I've had experiences at Euston where a member of SES group "security" staff (no SIA badge, so just a man in a hi-vis with the agency logo on) refused to allow passengers onto the platforms 12-15 ramp, resulting in a huge crowd of people waiting at the top of the ramp, not helped that a packed 11 car 390 had just arrived, resulting in a rather large crowd of people, some waiting and some trying to leave the hellhole that Euston is.
I've seen the same at Paddington. 12 car 387 advertised four minutes before departure on platform 10. Massive queue at the barriers. Made worse by the dispatch staff blowing the whistle constantly whilst half the passengers were still the wrong side of the barriers. Just caused a load of stress and irritation, not to mention overcrowding at the back of the train. The sensible move would have been to open the barriers.
All good and well but many of the arrivals that form departures have less than 10mins turnaround time (!) and they won't advertise services when the train hasn't arrived at the platform for safety reasons.
Not sure about Avanti, but LNR don't use agency dispatchers as far as I'm aware, but not all permanent staff are proactive anyway, some will come round to dispatch trains at the last minute so pot luck as to whether it would be advertised, sometimes the controller upstairs gives them a nudge though asking if a particular service can be boarded though if they haven't been instructed and it's getting near to departure time!
They do at other stations. Is Euston particularly unsafe for some reason ?
At major termini they tend to try and avoid it where possible although it often isn't (e.g. Victoria) but the ramps down to the platforms at Euston would pose a risk with conflicting flows as they're quite steep. Easily resolved by advertising the train early enough that the rush is over before the train arrives, of course.
Most of the Platforms are quite wide so it wouldn't be a huge issue, but it seemed to me that they liked to keep control over the passengers, if they advertise it early with no train down there and then someone ends up on the track...platform staff are not usually waiting to meet arrivals so nobody to watch the train in, platform unsupervised so more could go wrong I suppose. As when I worked for LNR there we were given a range of Platforms to cover, not only an island platform but a whole range (12-18 or 1-7) so not all platforms are constantly staffed.
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I don't believe there is a specific regulation or law against it, although if staff were worried about you being disruptive or dangerous they could ask you to wait on the concourse or in the lounge and if.you refused you could be asked to leave, at which point if.you refused to leave its Trespass and you could be removed felm the station.
So in my example (given that we're talking about the weird oddity that is Euston) - I would be quietly sitting on a bench (if there is one), otherwise quietly standing in an unobtrusive area, well away from the platform edge etc., reading my book with a VALID ticket for travel from Euston for a destination that does go from a) Euston b) from that platform during that day c) the station is still open
You wouldn't be trespassing UNTIL you were asked to leave, and only then if you refused. You could only be asked to leave if staff felt you were being disruptive or dangerous, although I'm not sure what the threshold in the legislation is - I think it's quite low (something like 'in the opinion of a member of staff').
This happened to me at Euston on 3 December having come back from Qatar via Heathrow.
I cannot imagine many people wanting to spend a long time in the grim hole containing Euston's platforms. Even worse than Birmingham New Street in my opinion.
I've only had one incident, about 25 years ago at Waterloo. A particularly angry member of staff took exception to me taking a photo of a CEP. I think it was heading somewhere unusual like Dorking or Chessington. He insisted that I leave the station and I wouldn't be allowed to travel. I was already seated on the train by this point and refused to budge. Amazingly, he found a BTP officer. The copper spoke to me for about 30 seconds, took one look at my ticket, and let me carry on with my day. The angry man looked very disappointed.
Not just the railway, they can be found in pretty much every walk of life.
I think there's an awful lot of weight throwing going on in these cases, and part of it is deliberately confrontational, to bully people.
