On Saturday I decided to do some line coverage and noticed just how out of date a couple of things are. The thing is both of these things are there to aid passengers, not confuse them.
I'll start with the 'London Connections' maps on display in the un-refurbished Class 455 units. Yes, they're being replaced during the re-furbishment programme but these maps are out-of-date in terms of years, not months. The 'passenger sized' versions of these maps have been updated quite a few times since! Here is a few of the innaccuracies I can remember off the top of my head - I've probably missed some!
It's so old it dates back from before Anglia Crosslink was in operation down my way south-west of London and that has long gone!
I then decided to make my way back to Kingston after travelling the Hampton Court branchline which meant changing at New Malden. The centre platform (ex-platforms 2&3) has been closed so the down platform (ex-platform 4) has been re-numbered as platform 2. The thing is, when fast trains pass the now-closed island platform (every few minutes) an announcement plays telling passengers to keep clear of the platform edge, despite the edging slabs having been mostly removed etc and worst of all it still calls the up fast line platform 2! Why even bother having PISs etc on closed platforms such as this? It's not even as though the platform has been in use recently to benifit from them.
I'll start with the 'London Connections' maps on display in the un-refurbished Class 455 units. Yes, they're being replaced during the re-furbishment programme but these maps are out-of-date in terms of years, not months. The 'passenger sized' versions of these maps have been updated quite a few times since! Here is a few of the innaccuracies I can remember off the top of my head - I've probably missed some!
- SWT still shown as serving West Croydon
- Croydon Tramlink still shown as British Rail
- Jubilee line still shown serving Charing Cross
- No such thing as Chandlers Ford services
- 'Silverlink' still shown as 'North London Railways'
- 'Connex' is still shown with it's two divisions
- 'Great Eastern Railways' and 'Anglia' in existance
- No sign of First Group with 'GE' or 'FGW/FGWL'
- 'Connex South Central' still running north of Watford
- LU lines shown in the old London Connections 'line & dot' style.
It's so old it dates back from before Anglia Crosslink was in operation down my way south-west of London and that has long gone!
I then decided to make my way back to Kingston after travelling the Hampton Court branchline which meant changing at New Malden. The centre platform (ex-platforms 2&3) has been closed so the down platform (ex-platform 4) has been re-numbered as platform 2. The thing is, when fast trains pass the now-closed island platform (every few minutes) an announcement plays telling passengers to keep clear of the platform edge, despite the edging slabs having been mostly removed etc and worst of all it still calls the up fast line platform 2! Why even bother having PISs etc on closed platforms such as this? It's not even as though the platform has been in use recently to benifit from them.
