London Victoria departure screens

[talldave]

I've had my first experience of London Victoria's new departure screens this week and think they're excellent. I like the fact that they show the arrival time at every stopping point, which is kept updated if the departure is delayed. Sadly, I can't find a Network Rail press release for this latest upgrade of the entire departure board, but this article contains some pictures:

Check out the huge new train departure board at London Victoria station

A huge new departure board screen has appeared at London Victoria station, and it's big, bright, and offers a lot more information than the old screens could show.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

By contrast, the new screens (I refuse to use the word upgraded!) at Crystal Palace which were sneaked in during Covid lockdown by London Overground are utterly pathetic. Gone is the clear and unambiguous "one screen per train" format and the replacement displays don’t even give the departure time of the train. It's depressing that this kind of rubbish is rolled out when there are plenty of examples of best practice elsewhere on the network.

 

[Recessio]

Wow those are excellent! So much clearer than the old ones, and the colour coding really helps too.

By contrast, the new screens (I refuse to use the word upgraded!) at Crystal Palace which were sneaked in during Covid lockdown by London Overground are utterly pathetic. Gone is the clear and unambiguous "one screen per train" format and the replacement displays don’t even give the departure time of the train. It's depressing that this kind of rubbish is rolled out when there are plenty of examples of best practice elsewhere on the network.

Not giving the departure time of the train makes me wonder if its a push to make LO more Metro-like, turn-up-and-go.

 

[3rd rail land]

I've had my first experience of London Victoria's new departure screens this week and think they're excellent. I like the fact that they show the arrival time at every stopping point, which is kept updated if the departure is delayed. Sadly, I can't find a Network Rail press release for this latest upgrade of the entire departure board, but this article contains some pictures:

Check out the huge new train departure board at London Victoria station

A huge new departure board screen has appeared at London Victoria station, and it's big, bright, and offers a lot more information than the old screens could show.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

By contrast, the new screens (I refuse to use the word upgraded!) at Crystal Palace which were sneaked in during Covid lockdown by London Overground are utterly pathetic. Gone is the clear and unambiguous "one screen per train" format and the replacement displays don’t even give the departure time of the train. It's depressing that this kind of rubbish is rolled out when there are plenty of examples of best practice elsewhere on the network.

I've not been to London Victoria recently but from the images in the article they look fantastic. All the information one could want is clearly visible.

Wow those are excellent! So much clearer than the old ones, and the colour coding really helps too.

Not giving the departure time of the train makes me wonder if its a push to make LO more Metro-like, turn-up-and-go.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but no LO route gets more than 4TPH. That's not what I would call turn up and go. Frequent yes but not turn up and go style.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

I've not been to London Victoria recently but from the images in the article they look fantastic. All the information one could want is clearly visible.


Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but no LO route gets more than 4TPH. That's not what I would call turn up and go. Frequent yes but not turn up and go style.

East London Line does get more than 4tph, so does the North London and West London Lines!

 

[Horizon22]

They’re created and installed by Infotec who are doing a lot of similar boards like these - there’s good examples at Manchester Piccadilly and London Waterloo too.

I’ve long thought we can do more than the simple orange boards with fairly static text and info and it’s good to see it coming to fruition although obviously cost will be a factor (this cost £1 million).

I've not been to London Victoria recently but from the images in the article they look fantastic. All the information one could want is clearly visible.


Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but no LO route gets more than 4TPH. That's not what I would call turn up and go. Frequent yes but not turn up and go style.

East London gets a lot more than that - if you’re Sydenham or further in you get 8tph, plus the Southern stopper.

 

[3rd rail land]

East London Line does get more than 4tph, so does the North London and West London Lines!

They’re created and installed by Infotec who are doing a lot of similar boards like these - there’s good examples at Manchester Piccadilly and London Waterloo too.

I’ve long thought we can do more than the simple orange boards with fairly static text and info and it’s good to see it coming to fruition although obviously cost will be a factor (this cost £1 million).



East London gets a lot more than that - if you’re Sydenham or further in you get 8tph, plus the Southern stopper.

I stand corrected in that case!

 

[Horizon22]

I stand corrected in that case!

No worries - usually it’s 4tph to West Croydon and 4tph to Crystal Palace.

 

[Recessio]

Have they announced any other stations these are going in at? Is it NR-managed stations only too or is this a new standard for all TOCs, do we know?

 

[LLivery]

Have they announced any other stations these are going in at? Is it NR-managed stations only too or is this a new standard for all TOCs, do we know?

The last time I was at London Waterloo (couple weeks back), the smaller screens on the concourse were the new style.

By contrast, the new screens (I refuse to use the word upgraded!) at Crystal Palace which were sneaked in during Covid lockdown by London Overground are utterly pathetic. Gone is the clear and unambiguous "one screen per train" format and the replacement displays don’t even give the departure time of the train. It's depressing that this kind of rubbish is rolled out when there are plenty of examples of best practice elsewhere on the network.

Is this on the concourse? I haven't noticed it on the platforms.

 

[Taunton]

Looks interesting, I would add a few points :

There's no display of the current time (unless out of shot), always useful to compare to departure times.

There is a display which in small letters has "2 of 2". Really would be better if such took two screens shown all the time, it often takes several cycles of the screen to focus fully on such. It's especially stupid where the "Page 2" only displays one line of information.

The 1028 to Orpington is irrelevant seeing as the 0958 for the same stops has not even been platformed yet.

Nine boards is really insufficient for a station with 19 platforms, especially at times of disruption. There is an issue that the more boards, and the more information each carries, the larger the display becomes, then it has to be mounted higher, which means the font has to be larger, this costs more, and you get into chasing your tail for sizing.

I do like a "subsequent departures" summary at the right hand side, especially as many with advances now turn up well in advance for a specific train. Not an issue at Victoria I know.

 

[swt_passenger]

Looks interesting, I would add a few points :

There's no display of the current time (unless out of shot), always useful to compare to departure times.

There is a display which in small letters has "2 of 2". Really would be better if such took two screens shown all the time, it often takes several cycles of the screen to focus fully on such. It's especially stupid where the "Page 2" only displays one line of information.

The 1028 to Orpington is irrelevant seeing as the 0958 for the same stops has not even been platformed yet.

Nine boards is really insufficient for a station with 19 platforms, especially at times of disruption. There is an issue that the more boards, and the more information each carries, the larger the display becomes, then it has to be mounted higher, which means the font has to be larger, this costs more, and you get into chasing your tail for sizing.

I do like a "subsequent departures" summary at the right hand side, especially as many with advances now turn up well in advance for a specific train. Not an issue at Victoria I know.

If you follow the link to the ianvisits site, much becomes clearer, such as the huge display of current time, and the whole area for Southern trains was displaying an engineering work notice during that big line closure period. The summary screen is to the right of the clock…

 

[Taunton]

From Ian Visits:

A cancelled train is a screen message we all hope to see rarely, but a nice touch is adding some information as to why the train is cancelled.

Those of use of advanced years will remember the old Solari flap boards, which, possibly only on the Southern Region, had a couple of lines at the bottom with "Delayed due to" or "Cancelled due to", followed by the last line with various reasons, generally known as "the excuses". This was especially amusing when, as sometimes, the board reset back to base position and cycled through the whole string of "Fog", "Industrial action", "Staff shortage", "Flooding", "Train defect", etc, sometimes to laughter from the concourse. It was apparently the inspiration for the scriptwriter of 1970s comedy TV servies Reginald Perrin, who each week would arrive in his office giving deadpan a different, increasingly ludicrous excuse for lateness, my favourite being "Escaped puma, Chessington North".

 

[route101]

I like them at Victoria. Like Waterloo, the station is so big sometimes to make the next fastest train to etc..

Also a new male auto announcer at London Victoria.

 

[talldave]

The last time I was at London Waterloo (couple weeks back), the smaller screens on the concourse were the new style.



Is this on the concourse? I haven't noticed it on the platforms.

Yes, just the concourse. Sill the orange LED jobs on the platforms. There's a similar setup at Norwood Junction where admittedly there isn't really space for multiple screens, but Crystal Palace has loads of space.

 

[py_megapixel]

I'm not a particular fan of the icons used for "go" and "wait". The go one looks like it symbolises a fire exit and the Wait one is just a bit cartoonish - besides, just the word "Wait" seems a bit brusque - it reminds me of the shouty staff on the through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly, which is fitting considering that was the first place in the country to get a display in this style. "Please wait here" would be more polite-sounding.

On the other hand, I really like the colour coding. Using blue for Wait is an excellent idea; my first thought was that red would be more intuitive, but then I realised that firstly it would be confusing to red/green-colourblind passengers, and secondly a lot of people would take red to mean cancelled.

 

[physics34]

They are pretty good, but i wonder what happened to the 'everything must be orange because thats the last colour people who are losing their eyesight will see' rule.

 

[LLivery]

Yes, just the concourse. Sill the orange LED jobs on the platforms. There's a similar setup at Norwood Junction where admittedly there isn't really space for multiple screens, but Crystal Palace has loads of space.

Ah, I now realise which ones, I don't mind them, but agree they should have the departure time. The addition of a bus departure board is a good bit of integration as well. What we are missing is service update info for 'National Rail'. In South London, you know more about Underground delays in NW London, than you do rail disruption in South London itself. Hopefully, GBR has plans for this.

 

[mmh]

Seems retrograde to me. Just because you can make something multi-colour doesn't mean you should. I'd have hoped the first generation of plasma screen based display boards would have proved that; orange was deliberately chosen as easiest to read from a distance.

 

[py_megapixel]

Seems retrograde to me. Just because you can make something multi-colour doesn't mean you should. I'd have hoped the first generation of plasma screen based display boards would have proved that; orange was deliberately chosen as easiest to read from a distance.

The orange boards at Victoria were hard to read from a distance anyway because there was too much ambient light. The new display is much better in this respect.

 

[Ken H]

Anyone seen them in bright sunlight? Can the sun ever actually shine on the screens?

 

[Horizon22]

Seems retrograde to me. Just because you can make something multi-colour doesn't mean you should. I'd have hoped the first generation of plasma screen based display boards would have proved that; orange was deliberately chosen as easiest to read from a distance.

The use of colour is hardly a retrograde step - it allows people to highlight key information, utilising modern LED technology which is a lot sharper and focussed. That's not to mention the over accompanying information including key graphics and symbols which aid passenger decisions.

I personally feel the platform number could have been given larger prominence, but overall its a massive improvement utilising technology which has employed successfully in other places for decades.

 

[SE%Traveller]

It looks good! shame it's only on the Southern Station, the Southeastern still has the old ones.

 

[Bald Rick]

truly excellent. But then the Head of Stations in NR Southern is also excellent.

Anyone seen them in bright sunlight? Can the sun ever actually shine on the screens?

no, the sun won’t shine on them, except perhaps very early on summer mornings.

 

[yorksrob]

I prefer the flapper boards.

 

[XAM2175]

I'm not a particular fan of the icons used for "go" and "wait". The go one looks like it symbolises a fire exit and the Wait one is just a bit cartoonish - besides, just the word "Wait" seems a bit brusque - it reminds me of the shouty staff on the through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly, which is fitting considering that was the first place in the country to get a display in this style. "Please wait here" would be more polite-sounding.

It takes a lot more space to say "please wait here", unless you make the text smaller. There's a balance to be made between tone and readability when writing for these applications.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It takes a lot more space to say "please wait here", unless you make the text smaller. There's a balance to be made between tone and readability when writing for these applications.

Having looked at it "Please wait" would fit and would solve the "English politeness" issue. No particular need to point out where to wait, that's reasonably obvious.

 

[jopsuk]

some of the information displayed, such as arrival times at each station, can be displayed on orange LED boards- see Kings Cross for this (and Euston too I think?) where they also include seat booking levels for each carriage of long distance services

 

[zwk500]

some of the information displayed, such as arrival times at each station, can be displayed on orange LED boards- see Kings Cross for this (and Euston too I think?) where they also include seat booking levels for each carriage of long distance services

Euston's certainly does display intermediate calling point arrival times and loading levels.

I prefer the flapper boards.

To general astonishment, I'm sure
The new boards are more flexible, quieter and less likely to stick showing wrong information through equipment failure (the risk of operator failure is, of course, no different). While I'm slightly sad I never saw (or don't remember seeing) a flapper board in action, I don't think we should be forever stuck in just one person's perfect era.

 

[boiledbeans2]

I've seen the ones at Waterloo and Victoria.

I think some improvements can still be made. The main problem is that some of the fonts are too small.

1) If you refer to the picture in the first post. You can see at the bottom, there is a diagram of the train carriages and a small "8" at the end of the diagram. Nobody is going to count the number of carriages on the screen, especially if they are standing at a distance. So everyone will just look at the number "8" at the end. The "8" is too small to be seen from a distance. The font of the "8" is much smaller than the other stuff on the screen.

2) In the picture in the first post, the train operator is shown at the bottom of the screen, which is "SouthEastern" SouthEastern's logo is large and clear, which isn't a problem. But when they display Southern's logo, they display the whole green roundel. So half of the height is occupied by the roundel, while the words "Southern" are only half the size of the "SouthEastern" logo. It is difficult to read from a distance.

3) At Waterloo, they used one of the screens to display the planned engineering work poster, i.e. the SWR map and some text below. So practically this was shown on one of the screens:

Cheap Train Tickets | No Booking Fees | South Western Railway

Buy cheap train tickets and check train times with South Western Railway. Save up to 50% with Advance tickets, pay no booking fees and get rewarded with SWR Rewards.

www.southwesternrailway.com

Nobody could read anything as the words were way too small.

In summary, I think the new screens are a good idea, but improvements can be made to improve the readability.

 

[Mikey C]

I used Victoria yesterday for the first time in a while yesterday, and was very impressed. When I saw this type of screen at the Manchester Piccadilly "waiting area" last year, I thought it was a major step forward for the railway.