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Hammersmith-Paddington next train indicators (or lack thereof)

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Mag_seven

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Is there any official reason for there not being any next train indicators at the stations along this stretch of line? It's particularly annoying as the service pattern is (by tube standards) fairly infrequent, with a train every 8-12 minutes.

They have them on the eastbound at Padd but not on the westbound.
 

W-on-Sea

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Fairly sure it's because the signalling on that stretch of line is rather old and can't supply the required information.
 

Mojo

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Is there any official reason for there not being any next train indicators at the stations along this stretch of line? It's particularly annoying as the service pattern is (by tube standards) fairly infrequent, with a train every 8-12 minutes.
Signalling is all automatic and not even the staff can see the exact location of the trains; staff Trackernet displays only show location of trains based on radio cells, and even that isn't exactly very reliable!

By the way, for most of the day service on the Hammersmith branch is every 5 Min.
 

74A

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I asked TfL this question must be nearly 15 years ago. The problem is due to the signalling. Its so old that accurate information cannot be given. It is worse where there is a junction nearby.

If you are waiting at Paddington for a District Line to Wimbledon the system does not know the train is coming until it has left Edgware Road. So you never get more than 1 minute warning. However if you are waiting for an Edgware Road train the previous junction is at High Street Kensington so you can get up to 5 minutes warning.

I guess the reason you don't have any destination information on the Westbound is that the previous station is Edgware Road so you would only get one minutes warning and as all trains go to Hammersmith it is not possible to catch the wrong train.

You get the same problem at South Kensington for Eastbound services. No trains are shown until they are one minute away. As there are various destinations (Circle Line Barking, Upminster) it does give some useful information.

I was told things would improve when the new signalling is installed. Probably about 5 years time ?
 

Mikey C

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Golders Green had the same issues until the signalling on the Northern Line was replaced.

It was a bit annoying the stations either side were fine, and to make things worse the simple platform indicators were quite often wrong, as they would get out of sync, leading to many a confused passenger ending up on the wrong branch of the Northern Line!
 

Busaholic

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Golders Green had the same issues until the signalling on the Northern Line was replaced.

It was a bit annoying the stations either side were fine, and to make things worse the simple platform indicators were quite often wrong, as they would get out of sync, leading to many a confused passenger ending up on the wrong branch of the Northern Line!

Mornington Crescent!:lol:
 

tranzitjim

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Would there not be a simple timetable based system?

Say, there is a train due at HH:MM?

Also, cant Edgeware road start giving information as soon as the points are set ready to send a particular service down that way. So, the train should not need to arrive at Edgeware road, giving you a little bit more than that 1 minute of warning.
 

orienteer

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We were told the same on the Uxbridge branch, ie signalling too old. But since the new signalling receded into the distant future, they have found a way to provide indicators.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Would there not be a simple timetable based system?

Say, there is a train due at HH:MM?

Also, cant Edgware road start giving information as soon as the points are set ready to send a particular service down that way. So, the train should not need to arrive at Edgware road, giving you a little bit more than that 1 minute of warning.


At Edgware Road the decision as to which train proceeds first is often made at the last minute; the priority seems to be to keep the Circle via High Street Kensington and the Wimbleware departures at their correct time intervals even at the expense of keeping a Hammersmith departure waiting for a while.

So the points often aren't set until the train is about to depart - there is no earlier warning available than at present.

For this same reason, a timetable based "predictor" won't work very well.
 

Mojo

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We were told the same on the Uxbridge branch, ie signalling too old. But since the new signalling receded into the distant future, they have found a way to provide indicators.

They designed a system for a number of locations to utilise Trackernet feeds; this being the system that also powers the live departure information on mobile phone apps, etc. This isn't available on the Hammersmith branch though.
 

rebmcr

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A regular display combining both branches, with ETA estimates in minutes and a nice big "Trains on this display may arrive out-of-sequence" sign on the bezel would probably work.
 

greatkingrat

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They designed a system for a number of locations to utilise Trackernet feeds; this being the system that also powers the live departure information on mobile phone apps, etc. This isn't available on the Hammersmith branch though.

If you look at the live departure board for Paddington H&C platforms, it shows eastbound trains that are still 7 or 8 minutes away.

If it knows a train will reach Paddington in 7 minutes, why can it not work out that same train will reach Royal Oak a minute or two earlier?
 

Mojo

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If you look at the live departure board for Paddington H&C platforms, it shows eastbound trains that are still 7 or 8 minutes away.

If it knows a train will reach Paddington in 7 minutes, why can it not work out that same train will reach Royal Oak a minute or two earlier?

The information on that page is powered by Trackernet feeds; however as I said on that branch full information is not available, so it cannot accurately report the information, and this keeps jumping around. In the past few Min I have been watching that page, and comparing it to information only available to staff. At one point it displayed two trains as "Due" despite one being in the platform and one behind it still at Westbourne Park. For the past 4 Min one train has been "Due" and one "5 Min" - all that is known is that one train is between Westbourne Park and Paddington, and another is between Goldhawk Road and Wood Lane...and as I type that the train supposedly between Goldhawk Road and Wood Lane has vanished.

When I used to travel on this line regularly, and indeed still do infrequently, information is provided over the PA; for instance "The next Eastbound train has just departed Shepherds Bush Market. This will be at Wood Lane in one minute, Latimer Road in three minutes, and Ladbroke Grove in four minutes."
 

moogal

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When I used to travel on this line regularly, and indeed still do infrequently, information is provided over the PA; for instance "The next Eastbound train has just departed Shepherds Bush Market. This will be at Wood Lane in one minute, Latimer Road in three minutes, and Ladbroke Grove in four minutes."

The one annoying thing with that is that it doesn't tell you what train it is - i.e. H&C or Circle, which isn't a problem westbound, but does if going Eastbound and wanting somewhere past Liverpool Street.

(For those about to say "take the first train and change", the problem is the trains fill up past about Latimer Road so if you want a seat you're better off waiting for the right one.)
 
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