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St Pancras to St Pancras

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NeilCr

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Today we travelled back to Ramsgate from St Pancras International via Faversham

The train is advertised both on indicators and on board as finishing at Ramsgate. I know,
as I use this service quite often, that, in fact, the train continues back to St Pancras via Dover Priory. And, indeed, as usual the train manager announced just this as we came into Ramsgate. It is a bit confusing - there was a passenger who had been told to get on that train to go to Dover but was thoroughly bemused by continued references to the train going to Ramsgate. The train manager did not come through the train - another passenger and I did try to explain the situation to the lady and - fortunately - we were proved correct

Out of idle curiosity does anyone know why this occurs. Surely better to advertise the train's destination as St Pancras via Faversham, Ramsgate and Dover?
 
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Spartacus

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Out of idle curiosity does anyone know why this occurs. Surely better to advertise the train's destination as St Pancras via Faversham, Ramsgate and Dover?

One reason would be that there's trains that go clockwise and trains that go anti-clockwise around Kent, so serve Faversham, Ramsgate and Dover in opposite directions.

Secondly would be because it would no doubt cause a rather lot of confusion for passengers at St Pancras to have a train shows to where they already were.

Seems strange that the passenger should end up on that one which would take over two hours to get to Dover rather than one a few minutes later that takes an hour. The third reason (which in many ways encompasses the two above) is to try and keep such passengers on the most appropriate train. At least they didn't want Ebbsfleet or Folkestone, which would have been even longer.
 

dvboy

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Presumably they don't want it advertised on board as for St Pancras where there are train going the opposite direction that will get to St Pancras quicker.

I think I've been on it in the other direction where it's been announced as for Rochester knowing full well it will be going through to St Pancras from there.
 

NeilCr

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26 Feb 2019
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Thanks both. That's interesting. I guess I am seeing it through more local eyes as I use this train mostly in East Kent

I agree about why that passenger was on the train and not the direct one later. She was very confused and - in all honesty we were more interested in making sure that if she stayed on it she would get to Dover than the backdrop to the story. Anything involving changing (I wondered briefly about Faversham) wouldn't have been the best idea!

I do get the general gist - the round trip the other way is advertised as terminating at Sandwich. I use that to Ramsgate, on occasions, myself.

I suppose the more underlying point (probably for another forum) was why the train manager never showed his face. There was someone who was carrying out surveys trying to help but she didn't know much more than the passenger

Appreciate the replies
 

Ethano92

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On SWR, the Kingston looper trains going via Kingston first round and back to Waterloo and advertised as "strawberry hill via Kingston" and far as Earlsfield where they're then advertised as "Richmond via strawberry hill" and "London Waterloo" from Strawberry hill onwards so passengers are generally never caught out. As for on board, the 455 PIS achieves this whereas the 701 PIS doesn't and splits it as either "strawberry hill" or "Waterloo" which removes the sense of a circuitous route.

On the Sutton loop on Thameslink, either direction you go, the only assurance you get is a brief message before reaching Sutton, shown as the final stop at all times "this train will continue to central London via X"

Another example would be Southern showing "London bridge" on the displays at Victoria for a circuitous route going through all the South London suburbs, I would expect them to perhaps show it as South Bermondsey or New cross gate one stop short to both have people accidentally travelling from zone 1 to zone 1 via zones 3/4.

From SWRs 455 (and PIS screens at stations) its clearly possible to better advertise a service as continuous but it doesn't seen to be taken up very often.
 

tsr

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Between the parallel lines
Another example would be Southern showing "London bridge" on the displays at Victoria for a circuitous route going through all the South London suburbs, I would expect them to perhaps show it as South Bermondsey or New cross gate one stop short to both have people accidentally travelling from zone 1 to zone 1 via zones 3/4.

This certainly does not happen.

Very few unfamiliar travellers end up on these trains. (Many of them aren’t actually that well-used at all!) London Bridge and Victoria are in close proximity on the Tube map and probably almost always connected by TfL routes when a journey between the two stations is plotted on journey planners, and this would be the most intuitive option for tourists. It would be rare enough for non-local passengers to even find out that the Southern service exists. And if they did end up on the NR concourse at Victoria or London Bridge, and wanted to go to the other station of the pair, prevailing wisdom is that it’s actually easier to put them onto the direct Southern service, rather than sending them all the way back to the Tube stations and via a change of trains at Westminster.
 
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