So, the 456s can, effectively, just be run without front displays for historical equipment reasons? Are they the only suburban stock in Britain not to have such working displays? The whole thing seems to be something of a mess, and clear destination displays have perhaps taken too low a priority in rolling stock design of late.
Q. What did the chuntering Class 455 say to the newly refurbished class 456?
A. Pull yerself together and get yer exterior electronic destination equipment working - like a "proper train" - for Surrey's sake! Surely you must me contravening the DDA?
To which the poor little 456 replied: Oi, look 'ere mate - I'm just your average 2-car BREL EMU; there's really not a whole lot that I can do about it as I didn't exactly choose to have my original fully-functioning blinds removed! And besides, it's not like your blinds are always set correctly...and don't get me started on your on-board announcements which are wrong half the time; it's getting kind of comical...
On a more serious note: I still don't understand why modern, clear and (perhaps most importantly) reliable electronic destination displays were not installed on SWT Class 455s during their initial heavy refurbishment a few years ago. The dot matrix displays fitted on "Desiro UKs" are very clear, although a "centrally-mounted external bodyside destination display" on either side of each carriage would probably be more helpful than the current 4 per unit! As an aside, I feel that end destination displays really ought to be mounted on the nearside i.e. above the driver's window!
The 455s obviously have unit-to-unit gangways (staff only) meaning space for destination equipment at the unit end is rather tight and the information which is displayed (if correct) is often partially out-of-view or too difficult to read for many passengers; the good old gangwayless Networkers' end dispays, on the other hand, are actually amongst the clearest out there - at least when they're working:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe..._Orpington_to_Victoria_2D38_(16267999750).jpg
Perhaps a good compromise for gangwayed stock would be a CLEAR "headcode" displayed on the offside in conjunction with a clear ultimate destination on the nearside?:
https://c6.staticflickr.com/4/3085/2870225965_01ba8a8efb_b.jpg
The Alstom Juniper 458/5: great idea, resourceful thinking, a lovely class of train...but - unfortunately - no new, clear exterior destination equipment (including bodyside displays) installed; the current screens are now obscured by the new gangways and may as well be displaying Arabic!
Finally, back to the 456s: even if getting their existing, inherited electronic destination screens to operate as intended is technically impossible or prohibitively expensive, could SWT not at least have used cardboard "destination cards" (like a cash-strapped bus operator) in the interim?