Contradictory announcements

[Qwerty133]

Earlier I was on board a service at Leicester station when both a station announcement about the service and an on board service started about the same time. They both started the same saying which service it was, but then the on board announcement said front 3 coaches for XY and Z and the station announcement said front 4 coaches for XYZ and A. These announcements could cause much confusion for passengers.
Has anyone heard any other contradictory announcements?

 

[91103eastcoast]

At Finsbury Park a few years ago, there was chaos on the Hertford loop. I remember manual announcements saying "the xxxx to Hertford is not cancelled, please do not listen to the automated announcements" whilst Digital Doris kept telling us about how the same service was cancelled literally 30 seconds later.

Cue: lots of confused passengers staring at an empty 6-car 313, unsure whether it would actually go anywhere!

 

[PHILIPE]

You should be o Platforms 6/7 at Cardiff Central when there is disruption on the Cardiff Valley Network. Fair play the staff are good with announcements, just as well, because the CIS and announcements are just spouting out a load of rubbish in relation to what is actually happening.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I like this :

. . . . manual announcements saying " . . . . . , please do not listen to the automated announcements"

 

[Parallel]

Instead of contradictory announcements, there were no announcements (or information on the display screens) at Bath Spa earlier, which seemed to cause some issues, particularly for the average passenger when the Portsmouth Harbour/London Paddington/Brighton/London Waterloo/London Paddington services all depart within just over half an hour and there had been delays on incoming services around Fareham as well as issues north of Bristol. Thankfully the station staff were giving advice and information to the people approaching them with queries!

In terms of contradictory announcements, I was at Newport recently and the HST to Swansea was announced (on the screens and through the autoannouncers) as making an additional stop at Patchway between Newport and Cardiff Central. Then it did the standard 'third announcement' and disappeared from the departure board (I asked the platform staff what was going on and they didn't seem to have a clue), before appearing on it again 20 minutes later as running 40 minutes or so late. Clearly it was on diversion for some reason or another but it was one big confusing mess. Eventually most people crammed on a stopping service to Llanelli and then the HST showed up 10 mins later, but was crawling through Port Talbot all the way to Swansea as the stopper was calling at Baglan, Briton Ferry, Skewen and Llamsamlet.

I can imagine disrupted Valley Lines services at the busier stations is an absolute nightmare. I was genuinely surprised they only have 2 platforms at Cardiff Central for the Valley Lines, there were pacers and sprinters everywhere! I'd imagine Queen Street also gets pretty bad. It seems the best way to cut down delays is to terminate trains early, but that means some stations and routes not getting a train for a couple of hours due to the delays affecting the services behind!

Slightly unrelated but I've noticed at these platforms, the autoannouncers just say... e.g. "Platform 6 for the 15.01 service to Bargoed, calling at..." without saying 'Arriva Trains Wales'. Is this because of the very tight schedule at these platforms and they need to cut down the announcements? I'd imagine it'd get confusing if they put in "Platform 7 for the xx.xx service to Barry Island. This is the service from Aberdare." "Platform 6 for the xx.xx service to Aberdare. This is the service from Barry Island", just curious as to why they don't include 'Arriva Trains Wales' when they do on the other platforms. Maybe Arriva don't want to be associated with the amount of pacers that run on these lines

 

[marks87]

Not so much contradictory announcements, but a couple of times when I've been on a Glasgow Central-Newcastle via Dumfries service, the manual on-train announcements have said it's only going as far as Carlisle.

I know it's unlikely anyone getting on before Kilmarnock is actually going beyond Carlisle, but still...!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Has anyone heard any other contradictory announcements?

Yes, 10 car trains off Epsom for Victoria... the screens and announcements at Epsom say front seven cars for Ewell East; on board the train it says front eight cars.

Pretty much the exact same scenario as in the OP except without the extra station name bit.

 

[scottishchris]

"The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone"

 

[Rhondda Rudie]

Instead of contradictory announcements, there were no announcements (or information on the display screens) at Bath Spa earlier, which seemed to cause some issues, particularly for the average passenger when the Portsmouth Harbour/London Paddington/Brighton/London Waterloo/London Paddington services all depart within just over half an hour and there had been delays on incoming services around Fareham as well as issues north of Bristol. Thankfully the station staff were giving advice and information to the people approaching them with queries!

In terms of contradictory announcements, I was at Newport recently and the HST to Swansea was announced (on the screens and through the autoannouncers) as making an additional stop at Patchway between Newport and Cardiff Central. Then it did the standard 'third announcement' and disappeared from the departure board (I asked the platform staff what was going on and they didn't seem to have a clue), before appearing on it again 20 minutes later as running 40 minutes or so late. Clearly it was on diversion for some reason or another but it was one big confusing mess. Eventually most people crammed on a stopping service to Llanelli and then the HST showed up 10 mins later, but was crawling through Port Talbot all the way to Swansea as the stopper was calling at Baglan, Briton Ferry, Skewen and Llamsamlet.

I can imagine disrupted Valley Lines services at the busier stations is an absolute nightmare. I was genuinely surprised they only have 2 platforms at Cardiff Central for the Valley Lines, there were pacers and sprinters everywhere! I'd imagine Queen Street also gets pretty bad. It seems the best way to cut down delays is to terminate trains early, but that means some stations and routes not getting a train for a couple of hours due to the delays affecting the services behind!

Slightly unrelated but I've noticed at these platforms, the autoannouncers just say... e.g. "Platform 6 for the 15.01 service to Bargoed, calling at..." without saying 'Arriva Trains Wales'. Is this because of the very tight schedule at these platforms and they need to cut down the announcements? I'd imagine it'd get confusing if they put in "Platform 7 for the xx.xx service to Barry Island. This is the service from Aberdare." "Platform 6 for the xx.xx service to Aberdare. This is the service from Barry Island", just curious as to why they don't include 'Arriva Trains Wales' when they do on the other platforms. Maybe Arriva don't want to be associated with the amount of pacers that run on these lines

There will soon be another platform at Central for valleys trains.Also,a layout change will mean trains will be able to go to Queen St from platform 4.

There will also be 2 extra platforms at Queen St.

 

[GatwickDepress]

What the on-board PIS and the mounted departure boards on the platform at London Victoria say can vary when it comes to information. For example:

"Front 4 coaches to Littlehampton, rear 4 coaches for Ore." - On platform.
"Front 4 coaches to Ore, rear 4 coaches for Littlehampton." - On train.

The one on the platform is nearly always right, since it seems to be that the systems on-board the train are still set up to think the "front" is the London-end.

Normally it's quickly remedied by on-train staff, leading only to minor inconvenience for passengers, but at least once I've had it not been noticed until we approach Haywards Heath. Cue maelstrom of irritated passengers.

A similar experience happened on my last DaySaver.

"The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone"

"The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."

 

[user15681]

What the on-board PIS and the mounted departure boards on the platform at London Victoria say can vary when it comes to information. For example:

"Front 4 coaches to Littlehampton, rear 4 coaches for Ore." - On platform.
"Front 4 coaches to Ore, rear 4 coaches for Littlehampton." - On train.

The one on the platform is nearly always right, since it seems to be that the systems on-board the train are still set up to think the "front" is the London-end.

Normally it's quickly remedied by on-train staff, leading only to minor inconvenience for passengers, but at least once I've had it not been noticed until we approach Haywards Heath. Cue maelstrom of irritated passengers.

Over on the SE side there's a similar problem. The way that SE seem to get around it is that they'll leave the automatic announcements until the train has left the station. Until then, the guard will make manual announcements, in accordance with the departure screens.

I heard a confusing announcement only yesterday morning, actually. A 12 car (3 x 4 car) train arrived at Victoria, where the 4 cars closest to the barrier would be separated from the rest of the train and then the 8 cars furthest from the barrier would form the next service to RAM and DVP. The announcements, however, said "Platform 1 for the 0852 service to RAM and DVP, front 4 coaches to RAM, rear 4 coaches to DVP. A lot of people interpreted that as the rear 4 coaches in the platform to DVP and not the rear 4 of the 8 car train ready to leave. There was much confusion and rapid pressing of the door buttons, until I told them it was further down.

 

[AndyW33]

In some places you get long-line PA announcements from Control as well as automated and local manual ones.
Nottingham, 2 years ago, arriving on Leicester-Lincoln service: "This service will now terminate here, all change please". Puzzled passengers disembark, to hear automated announcement on platform "The train at platform nn is the nn:nn to Lincoln" (being the train they've just got off). Next a longline announcement from control "Due to a person being hit by a train between Newark and Lincoln all Lincoln services are suspended, buses are being arranged, please make your way to the station entrance". Local announcement "Passengers for Newark and Lincoln please remain on Platform nn and await further information". Platform staff, shouting "This train for Lincoln" pointing to another unit that has just arrived further down the same platform and has come from Lincoln, displaying Leicester.
Whole process within 10 minutes, it was the Christmas Fair weekend, busiest of the whole year on this line.
The platform staff were right...

No wonder some passengers insist on confirming where a train is going with the driver or guard.

 

[Bantamzen]

A few years ago I had boarded a 156 operating as on the Leeds - Doncaster stopper (it was around the time the 321/9s were undergoing a refurbish so DMUs often operated) when the guard announced that this was indeed the xx.19 to Doncaster.

About a minute later, a second voice came on and announced that this was the xx.xx to York. So a big sigh went up & passengers started to de-train, only to then hear the first guard's voice come on again and announce:

"Ladies & Gentlemen, please ignore the other numpty guard telling you is the the York train. This is the Doncaster train, his train is further along the platform!"

Cue a burst of laughter & one very embarrassed looking second guard gather his kit & head for the other 156 at the platform.

 

[tsr]

Over Christmas/New Year just gone, the engineering works at Gatwick and Stoats Nest Jn caused some interesting issues with the Gatwick Airport CIS (which, interestingly enough, is known to rebrand itself as "London Waterloo East" every so often).

Northbound trains to Redhill were booked into Platform 1 or 3, but, late in the day, seemed to be indicated for the exact opposite on platform displays and announcements. There were several minor delays whilst tired late-night passengers had to be shunted over to the booked, correct platform, in order to head North. Fortunately, there weren't usually too many of them to move over, it seemed.

Then there were the abandoned London Victoria services (suspended due to Ockley falling over) showing up on the boards, occasionally as on time, and then gradually all as cancelled (correctly). It would have been more helpful not to show them at all, but then you might have had people complaining even more about conflicting info on NRE and in the temporary timetable booklets.

The trains which ran on a couple of Sundays from Redhill towards the South Coast were set up incorrectly to auto-announce themselves as running non-stop from Redhill to Three Bridges. This was not useful in any way, and led a few people to believe stations such as Horley weren't being served at all, only to be surprised when they did stop. A guard told me this was because some bright spark decided it might be best to program "something vaguely right, rather than nothing" into the relevant system. Oh dear.

And then there was the saga of two-thirds of the evening East Grinstead services being accidentally shown as cancelled by NRE one day, resulting the First Group bus controllers not actually knowing if they could send buses there or not. Oops.

 

[Oswyntail]

Last Friday, waiting at Shipley for the train to Ribblehead. The screens did not show it, simply showing the trains either side of it, without saying it was coming, or cancelled. NRES and the ticket office confirmed it was running as normal. Then the disembodied voice calls out "Stand clear on platform, fast train approaching. This train does not stop here" 158 appears, to my untrained eye going fast enough not to be stopping. Many other waiting passengers start waving at the driver, to get him to stop. Driver, looking rather bemused, waves back - and stops the train as normal.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

I once helped out a publican friend, who had been let down by some "entertainment" she had booked.

My revised poster stated "Nov xxth - Psychic Evening cancelled due to unforseen circumstances"

 

[transmanche]

My revised poster stated "Nov xxth - Psychic Evening cancelled due to unforseen circumstances"

This joke is currently doing a farewell tour of the CrossCountry network, before being used to reinforce the Dawlish sea wall - as it is of a similar age...

PS It's also happened to Derek Acorah.

 

[306024]

I guess some find "please stand behind the yellow line" contradictory judging by those that insist on standing on the edge of the platform.

"The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."

No, the white zone is for loading of passengers and there is no stopping in a RED zone.

 

[plastictaffy]

Slightly unrelated but I've noticed at these platforms, the autoannouncers just say... e.g. "Platform 6 for the 15.01 service to Bargoed, calling at..." without saying 'Arriva Trains Wales'. Is this because of the very tight schedule at these platforms and they need to cut down the announcements? I'd imagine it'd get confusing if they put in "Platform 7 for the xx.xx service to Barry Island. This is the service from Aberdare." "Platform 6 for the xx.xx service to Aberdare. This is the service from Barry Island", just curious as to why they don't include 'Arriva Trains Wales' when they do on the other platforms. Maybe Arriva don't want to be associated with the amount of pacers that run on these lines

Quite a lot of the services from my local station (Northampton) just advertise it on the CIS as the xx.50 or whatever to London Euston, without the London MIdland bit. Northampton isn't anywhere near as busy as the likes of Cardiff Central. ( I much prefer the Welsh for Cardiff Central - Caerdydd Canolog!!)

 

[hassaanhc]

Not announcements today but an unlucky coincidence with train destination displays. At Waterloo the 1752 to Weybridge was from Platform 18 using a single 455 (might have been showing London Waterloo on the rear), however the 444017+450109 "hybrid" next to it in P.17 to Portsmouth Harbour had Weybridge showing on the 450 end which was closest to the barriers! Hopefully no one believed the train display and got on the wrong train. (The 444 end was showing "London Waterloo Stopping Service"). Something that annoys me sometimes is the train destinations being changed just minutes before departure rather than soon after arrival, therefore showing "London Waterloo" for much of the time spent in the platform.

 

[DazDude]

On more than one occasion on the WCML I've waited for a train which is announced as a Virgin Pendolino only for it to arrive as a Voyager..

 

[Bantamzen]

There's also potential confusion at Guiseley. When a Bradford - Ilkley service arrives at the Ilkley bound platform, usually about 30 seconds later the automated system announces that this service is actually approaching the platform. By this point the guard is usually shutting the doors & preparing to signal to the driver to move off, and occasionally they've already done so!

 

[londonbridge]

On more than one occasion I've boarded a train at East Croydon heading towards London and the scrolling text displays (sorry not sure of correct terminology to use) were running in the opposite direction and displaying "The next station is Gatwick Airport".

 

[LBSCR Times]

On more than one occasion I've boarded a train at East Croydon heading towards London and the scrolling text displays (sorry not sure of correct terminology to use) were running in the opposite direction and displaying "The next station is Gatwick Airport".

Similar to when the Ore / Littlehampton to Victoria service joins up at Hayward's Heath.
The number of times the on-train announcements advises us the next stop is Hastings......
What is more worrying sometimes is people's geography, in that they don't know where some of the larger towns are that trains go to, if it is not on their route of travel!

 

[CNash]

I've had a couple of occasions where the guard can't decide whether the train is made up of "carriages", "coaches" or "cars" in the space of the same announcement: "If you are alighting at Clapham Junction, you will need to be in the first five cars of this ten coach service. The doors in the rear five carriages will not open."

 

[PHILIPE]

I've had a couple of occasions where the guard can't decide whether the train is made up of "carriages", "coaches" or "cars" in the space of the same announcement: "If you are alighting at Clapham Junction, you will need to be in the first five cars of this ten coach service. The doors in the rear five carriages will not open."

Somebody has just started a separate thread to discuss how to call the vehicles.

 

[steamybrian]

Leaving Tonbridge on the 9th coach of a 12 car train which was due to divide at Ashford with front 8 to Ramsgate via Dover Priory and rear 4 for Ramsgate via Canterbury West.
The rolling announcement on the train said- "This is coach 9 of 8. The front 4 cars for Ramsgate via Dover Priory and the rear 4 cars for Ramsgate via Canterbury West.

 

[samogers]

Often on the peak services between London and Ore, the CIS at Lewes as well as the station announcements state that it is a service to Eastbourne & Ore. However, the train itself has the destination of just Ore. Also, the trains that ARE announced to divide at Eastbourne often don't and the trains that AREN'T do. Very confusing for passengers including myself!!

 

[4-6-2 Coast]

Just last night I was at Edgware Road tube station looking for a District line train to Wimbledon. The platform signs said the S7 train at platform three was it, but the onboard signs said Circle via Moorgate. I got on it anyway, only to be told to get off - it's going out of service. Ten minutes later it still hasn't moved, and they announced it really was going to Wimbledon. Then the PIS says the destination has changed: Hammersmith & City line to Hammersmith. I get off again and the platform sign is now indicating it's for Plaistow. It finally left in that direction, with the PIS still showing destination: Hammersmith.

Ten minutes later a C-stock train arrives, which we are assured is our Wimbledon service. Two stops down the line the driver then announces a change of destination - we're going to Kensington Olympia! I've never been to KO on the District line so I decide to stay aboard. At KO it reverses back as an Edgeware Road service, and as I get off at Earl's Court, the last thing I hear is the driver making another announcement that it's now for High Street Kensington.