New Clapham Junction Departure Boards

LTJ87 · 12 Mar 2024

Passing through Clapham Junction this evening, I noticed new departure boards are being installed at the foot of the stairs from the tunnel to the platforms.

There's also been some activity in the long closed retail units in the tunnel which seem to be used for equipment for these works. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to spot any other changes.

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talldave · 13 Mar 2024

Nice. I wish Overground would take note of how useful it is to show the scheduled departure time!

Via Bank · 13 Mar 2024

Still a spectacular amount of space wasted with scrolling operator name, numbers of carriages, Tube service updates etc. none of which is relevant to the specific train (as opposed to calling points.)

TrainBoy98 · 13 Mar 2024

Via Bank said:
Still a spectacular amount of space wasted with scrolling operator name, numbers of carriages, Tube service updates etc. none of which is relevant to the specific train (as opposed to calling points.)

Would something like:

19:51 London Victoria (Southern Service // 4 cars) *
Calling At: a,b,c

Not work better? The operator/length is less important to most than the calling points - at least one would assume. Also the "via" should not scroll - Guildford via Wimbledon (eg) would surely fit together on a fixed top line?

(*Aware "cars" is not correct/ideal, but was thinking space-wise carriages might not fit)

Via Bank · 13 Mar 2024

TrainBoy98 said:
Would something like:

19:51 London Victoria (Southern Service // 4 cars) *
Calling At: a,b,c

Not work better? The operator/length is less important to most than the calling points - at least one would assume. Also the "via" should not scroll - Guildford via Wimbledon (eg) would surely fit together on a fixed top line?

(*Aware "cars" is not correct/ideal, but was thinking space-wise carriages might not fit)

“Cars” is fine, it’s technically correct for EMUs and most people will understand. If they’re that worried about people whinging about the American terminology they can do “8 x <carriage icon>”.

And agreed on not scrolling unless there’s a reason to. Otherwise people just stop until it scrolls around to the important information, obstructing the screens and then rushing off to get their train. it should be laid out to allow people to make a decision quickly.

MikeWM · 13 Mar 2024

Is there anywhere at CLJ now that tells you the platforms for the next few services to Waterloo? I didn't see anything when I was there last weekend, resulting in a fairly tedious wander between both halves of the station to try to avoid having to wait 8 minutes for the next one from platforms 10/11. I'm sure that used to be displayed on the main departure board by the gatelane in the main (south) entrance, but it seems to have gone and I didn't see anything else offering the same information.

zwk500 · 13 Mar 2024

TrainBoy98 said:
Would something like:

19:51 London Victoria (Southern Service // 4 cars) *
Calling At: a,b,c

Not work better? The operator/length is less important to most than the calling points - at least one would assume. Also the "via" should not scroll - Guildford via Wimbledon (eg) would surely fit together on a fixed top line?

(*Aware "cars" is not correct/ideal, but was thinking space-wise carriages might not fit)

TOC and Cars could easily be columns of their own, potentially even stacked.

D6975 · 13 Mar 2024

Only 5 services at a time? That's woefully inadequate at a station as busy as CJN. A couple of late running services will result in a right time service not appearing until it's almost due at peak times.

zwk500 · 13 Mar 2024

D6975 said:
Only 5 services at a time? That's woefully inadequate at a station as busy as CJN. A couple of late running services will result in a right time service not appearing until it's almost due at peak times.

If it only needs to show services from 2 platforms at a time it's not quite as bad.

thomalex · 13 Mar 2024

That is the worst ‘departure board’ I’ve ever seen.

It’s a TV screen

Basher · 13 Mar 2024

Darlington have some new boards, interesting there is a man doing sign language on the display. But no sound comes frome the boards. Strange

Minstral25 · 13 Mar 2024

zwk500 said:
If it only needs to show services from 2 platforms at a time it's not quite as bad.

Two platforms going in opposite directions, so very poor in reality.

Why do they mix up Northbound and Southbound services on the same screen. Passengers only ever want to head in one direction and they want to see only trains in their direction.

This really ought to be two screens for different directions - especially in this case, as every single train that calls at P12 goes to London Victoria only (No intermediate calls, no other destinations) whereas on P11 they go to many different destinations, 3 of the 5 spaces here are filled up with trains that only go to one stop.

They do this on the new Thameslink boards at St Pancras as well - when you are looking for a Southbound train and several Northbound trains are running very late, you may only see 1 or 2 Southbound trains in the whole display, meaning if you are heading south there are no details about your next train.

Basil Jet · 14 Mar 2024

I wonder what's in the 4-inch wide black section on the right end?

Geogregor · 14 Mar 2024

There is also a new board here:

P1740704 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

P1740699 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

P1740701 by Geogregor*, on Flickr

Pakenhamtrain · 14 Mar 2024

thomalex said:
That is the worst ‘departure board’ I’ve ever seen.

It’s a TV screen

Using TVs or a railway spec version get used all over the world.
We use them a lot now on our platforms.

Concourse PIDS at South Yarra station now using network map colours

Photographs of trains and railway infrastructure from around Victoria, Australia

railgallery.wongm.com

Service disruption notice for the Frankston line beyond Cheltenham

Photographs of trains and railway infrastructure from around Victoria, Australia

railgallery.wongm.com

Platform PIDS at South Yarra station now using network map colours for the Pakenham and Frankston lines

Photographs of trains and railway infrastructure from around Victoria, Australia

railgallery.wongm.com

We even used CRT screens before LCD

Belgrave service on the CRT PIDS at Flagstaff station

Photographs of trains and railway infrastructure from around Victoria, Australia

railgallery.wongm.com

jon0844 · 14 Mar 2024

Nothing wrong with TV screens now large panels are cheap, and you can usually deal with burn-in and brightness issues with good design and software tweaks (like pixel shifting).

Also you have new tech like mini-LED, which allows for large graphical displays and bright, vivid, colours and extremely good contrast ratios.

I'd say that the whole industry will move towards this as it allows for more customisation, as well as experimentation to improve things as time goes on. Currently with some of these, like the ones at St Pancras and Clapham Junction, you can see that different styles can be tried and that's often something you cannot do with traditional screens).

Bletchleyite · 14 Mar 2024

I don't think there's a problem with using TV screens now (there was in plasma days because of the horrific burn-in problem, but there isn't now with more modern LCDs and OLEDs). However I do think other than the system LNER use (which really is very good) that the format and presentation quality of all the new ones I've seen, most notably the system used by West Midlands Trains, is just badly thought out and sloppy.

This one is no exception - that big board is terrible.

jon0844 · 14 Mar 2024

I personally think the massively animated screens on Greater Anglia are the worst. They look like someone got their first video editor and to use every animation and transition for fun.

Then had idea about how to produce the content.

These screens are also in a sort of experimental phase but it looks like the designers have almost unlimited flexibility. I'm sure in time they can become very useful.

Bletchleyite · 14 Mar 2024

jon0844 said:
I personally think the massively animated screens on Greater Anglia are the worst. They look like someone got their first video editor and to use every animation and transition for fun.

They're the same ones as WMT use, and they look terrible, yes, not least because some of them appear to be done using some sort of remote desktop setup (i.e. the screen itself is just displaying remote video) and so the animations are horribly jerky. Cheap and nasty in my view.

Just make them do what the old LED ones did but in clear, crisp white-on-black text (ideally in Rail Alphabet*), perhaps with a few pictures the LEDs couldn't do like a coach picture and a number rather than wasting space on "this train is formed of 12 coaches" and the use of yellow for delayed and red for cancelled, and it'll be perfect.

* Or RA2, but I find 1 clearer.

trebor79 · 14 Mar 2024

jon0844 said:
I personally think the massively animated screens on Greater Anglia are the worst. They look like someone got their first video editor and to use every animation and transition for fun.

Then had idea about how to produce the content.

These screens are also in a sort of experimental phase but it looks like the designers have almost unlimited flexibility. I'm sure in time they can become very useful.

Bletchleyite said:
They're the same ones as WMT use, and they look terrible, yes, not least because some of them appear to be done using some sort of remote desktop setup (i.e. the screen itself is just displaying remote video) and so the animations are horribly jerky. Cheap and nasty in my view.

Just make them do what the old LED ones did but in clear, crisp white-on-black text (ideally in Rail Alphabet*), perhaps with a few pictures the LEDs couldn't do like a coach picture and a number rather than wasting space on "this train is formed of 12 coaches" and the use of yellow for delayed and red for cancelled, and it'll be perfect.

* Or RA2, but I find 1 clearer.

Agreed. The important information isn't on the screen for long enough before the animation to some useless bit of info kicks in.
Mind you, they are an improvement in the sense that many of the rural stations had no live departure board at all.
But really just the orange or white on black LCD displays would have been more than adequate. I wonder if TV's are cheaper?

Bletchleyite · 14 Mar 2024

trebor79 said:
I wonder if TV's are cheaper?

Yes, substantially so, because they're so ubiquitous.

To use an example those monstrosities at Euston cost a million or so each - I reckon you could have done it as a row of TVs on a metal framework for £100K, easily.

New Clapham Junction Departure Boards

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