Orange zone

[D2022]

I keep seeing signs about foot high or suspended from platform canopies that have different colour zones on

What are they?

 

[wintonian]

I keep seeing signs about foot high or suspended from platform canopies that have different colour zones on

What are they?

They were (and still are occasionally at Reading for first/ standard class) used to help passengers locate where their coach will be when it arrives.

I don't pay an awful lot of notice but I believe they are Blue, Purple, Gold and Yellow, plus whichever one I have missed.

 

[D2022]

They were (and still are occasionally at Reading for first/ standard class) used to help passengers locate where their coach will be when it arrives.

I don't pay an awful lot of notice but I believe they are Blue, Purple, Gold and Yellow, plus whichever one I have missed.

Ah right, I've noticed ones at Bath are now gone and been replaced with actual coach letters. But Swindon has a couple still on the island.

 

[wintonian]

Ah right, I've noticed ones at Bath are now gone and been replaced with actual coach letters. But Swindon has a couple still on the island.

Here's a blue one since they demolished most of platform 7 (nee 4) at Reading with the new mega structure forming in the background.

 

[AndyLandy]

There are still quite a few of these along the WCML. Certainly they were still there at Stafford the last time I looked. As has already been said, they are ostensibly to help passengers find their coach, but all I've ever been able to deduce is that "Gold Zone" is 1st class. I have no idea what the other colours represent.

The current practice of announcing train formations on the display boards on the platforms is a far more elegant solution to the problem.

 

[D2022]

Here's a blue one since they demolished most of platform 7 (nee 4) at Reading with the new mega structure forming in the background.

Sadly that picture doesn't show up on my phone

 

[wintonian]

Sadly that picture doesn't show up on my phone

Link - It's not very interesting though.

 

[D2022]

Link - It's not very interesting though.

It just takes me to the national rail site, bloody phone lol

 

[lincolnshire]

It was another thing from the days on a Nationalised Railway Network Called British Rail, they was introduced by Inter-City so that you would know where to stand for your coach with your reserved seat in it and to save you wandering up and down the platform looking for your coach. They was also designed to be illuminated internally, don,t think many got an electric supply to them.
As been previously said above some are still in situ even today, I think that they are still at Carlise Citadel in place.

 

[SS4]

It just takes me to the national rail site, bloody phone lol

Imgur link. It really isn't that interesting although you can tell it used to be P4 since there is no mention of where P4 is

As for the signs I believe Birmingham International ([stn]BHI[/stn]) and Coventry ([stn]COV[/stn]) have them.

 

[mirodo]

As does Preston, IIRC.

 

[LexyBoy]

Wait in the blue zone for the 0822 to Bedwyn.

There is no parking in the white zone.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

As does Preston, IIRC.

Correct. I think they survive at most Virgin-managed WCML stations, all of them between Carlisle and Stafford do certainly.

 

[TrainBoy98]

Imgur link. It really isn't that interesting although you can tell it used to be P4 since there is no mention of where P4 is

As for the signs I believe Birmingham International ([stn]BHI[/stn]) and Coventry ([stn]COV[/stn]) have them.

No mention of 4,5,6,7 so may be all of them!

 

[Bedpan]

I always thought that they were something to do with the transport of mail rather than people - mailbags and parcels would be put into the different zones, depending on where their final destination was, so that they could then be loaded into the correct part of the train when it arrived. Hence fewer zones needed than the number of cars in the train.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I greatly prefer the French system: a display which shows where each carriage will be placed on a given train -
(http://frenchmelbourne.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/04-theme_composition-trains.jpg) the letters along the bottom of the display are the equivalent of the coloured zones occasionally used here

 

[AndyLandy]

Wait in the blue zone for the 0822 to Bedwyn.

There is no parking in the white zone.

The white zone is for loading and unloading. There is no parking in the red zone.

Ahh, Airplane. Classic!

I greatly prefer the French system: a display which shows where each carriage will be placed on a given train -
(http://frenchmelbourne.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/04-theme_composition-trains.jpg) the letters along the bottom of the display are the equivalent of the coloured zones occasionally used here

That's quite a neat way of doing things. Even knowing the train formation in advance, it's still not obvious where you should stand on the platform for your carriage in this country.

 

[Eagle]

They're far from out of use.

They are still used at Coventry for their original purpose. Certainly there are a lot of diagram posters showing which coaches of both 390/0s and 390/1s will line up with which of the three zones (blue, purple, gold in that order).

 

[Class172]

The departure boards at Birmingham International still tell you that Blue Zone is for Standard Class, and Gold for First Class.

 

[tankmc]

I have seen these at watford, i assumed thats what they was for but never knew which coach its actually related to.

In a slightly off topic would it not be more usefull to have screens dotted down the platform that change depending on the next service ie; Wait here for coach C. Maybe getting ahead of myself lol.

 

[calc7]

I have seen these at watford, i assumed thats what they was for but never knew which coach its actually related to.

In a slightly off topic would it not be more usefull to have screens dotted down the platform that change depending on the next service ie; Wait here for coach C. Maybe getting ahead of myself lol.

Works well for East Coast and Virgin Trains but is a nightmare for CrossCountry!

 

[Trainfan344]

There are some colour boards at Lincoln IIRC

 

[Eagle]

That's interesting, I thought they were an InterCity thing (did IC serve Lincoln Central much?)

 

[Bald Rick]

Invented by Lancaster station team in early 90s, and then rolled out to most West Coast stations in 1992/3 by the dynamic, thrusting ICWC team (that I may have been part of). The rest of Inter City followed suit in the following year.

Any similarity to continental railway platform zoning is purely coincidental