Platform section lettering

[jopsuk]

A lot of larger stations have platform sections lettered, especially where services or just sets are split, with departure boards showing the part of the platform the service will leave from. Most seem to be done A, B C etc, but I've noticed there are some exceptions:
Cambridge- platforms 1 and 4. These have no letter at the "inner" end, but are "1a" and "4a" are the "outer" ends.
Edinburgh- 8 & 9 have "E" and "W" sections

any others like this?

At Kings Cross, in the "Suburban" shed the letter only seems to be used when the "front" unit only is in use- despite being split into A & B.

(this being different to the non-numeric platforms thread)

 

[fairlie]

Sheffield has Platform 2c which is a bay and not part of the same platform face as 2a and 2b.

 

[Tomnick]

Likewise for Reading (4a and 4b) and New Street (the new bay on the LNW side). Some locations also had 'coloured' portions on platforms (I remember them mainly on the WCML), intended to help passengers wait on the correct section of the platform for different parts of a long train, as opposed to dividing platforms to differentiate between two or more trains standing at the same platform.

 

[sprinterguy]

At Kings Cross, in the "Suburban" shed the letter only seems to be used when the "front" unit only is in use- despite being split into A & B.

Same at New Street: Usually, the platform a train is at is designated either A or B, except for the longer services, such as the Pendolinos, Crosscountry HSTs and doubled up Voyagers, where just the platform number is used as the trains take up the majority of the entire platform face. There's probably a few other examples of this.

Both Newcastle and Sunderland stations have exceptions from the platform lettering convention: At Newcastle, platforms 5 & 6 are a single platform face, as are platforms 7 & 8, so in many places would have A or B lettering.

And Sunderland, despite being a single island platform, also has four numbered platforms, two either side of the island: One either side for Metro services and the other for heavy rail, grouped by direction. So although not lettered platforms, they are related to the subject.

 

[jopsuk]

Cambridge, they're all one platform-face- from the south are 1a, 1, the station entrance and scissor crossover (a stretch no trains stop at), 4 and 4a.

 

[stut]

At Kings Cross, in the "Suburban" shed the letter only seems to be used when the "front" unit only is in use- despite being split into A & B.

Ah, I missed this thread when I posted this very point on the non-numerical thread...

King's Cross suburban is odd for many reasons - the 'b' is at the barrier end, which seems counterintuitive, and the platforms are labelled, for example, '9a' and '9b' for the length, so when a train is up as departing from '9', there's always a few people who aren't sure they're in the right place.

Elsewhere...

Guildford used to show trains as being 'London End' and 'Tunnel End' (with arrows on the canopies, in case you couldn't see the great big tunnel).

 

[mallard]

Some locations also had 'coloured' portions on platforms (I remember them mainly on the WCML), intended to help passengers wait on the correct section of the platform for different parts of a long train, as opposed to dividing platforms to differentiate between two or more trains standing at the same platform.

Plenty of stations still have those and not just on the WCML, most stations on the GW have them. As far as I can remember, I've only ever heard an announcer reference them once, can't remember where, but probably somewhere in GW/SW land where it was used to tell first class passenger where to board.

 

[Deerfold]

I'm wondering what the largest number of splits on one platform is? I seem to recall Platform 11 at Leeds having a-d (I really should be surer as I caught a train there on Sunday). I did notice that despite it being a Sunday evening there were 3 trains due out of various bits of Platform 11 over about 20 minutes.

 

[Geezertronic]

Plenty of stations still have those and not just on the WCML, most stations on the GW have them. As far as I can remember, I've only ever heard an announcer reference them once, can't remember where, but probably somewhere in GW/SW land where it was used to tell first class passenger where to board.

Happens the majority of the time at Birmingham International when a VT service is announced. That's the reason the Pendolinos all point the same way (First Class at the Euston end) unless the 390 is in reverse formation.

 

[driver9000]

Intercity devised the coloured sections and many former IC stations seem to retain them. Intercity station announcments used to tell passengers what coaches would be in each particular zone eg "first class will be in blue zone". They seem to have fallen out of favour about 8 or 9 years ago with Virgin, although they were used on the platform screens at Preston for a short while when the LED indicators were first fitted.

 

[dave_wm]

The last few times I've been to Birmingham International, they've still used the zoning system. You normally get 'The train now standing at platform 4 is the xxxx Virgin Pendolino service to London Euston, calling at xxxx. First Class will be located in the Gold Zone.'

It appears on the LED screens as well I think.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

At Stafford, p6 gets referred to on the little boards as (from the south): 6 SOUTH, 6b, 6a, 6 NORTH, and its 15-car long. And I've never known a train even call there (schedualed to, that is)

 

[Jordy]

The service from Birmingham to Stafford via Hednesford used to terminate in platform 6, I believe it is used by a handful of XC and Virgin services too.

 

[PR1Berske]

Intercity devised the coloured sections and many former IC stations seem to retain them. Intercity station announcments used to tell passengers what coaches would be in each particular zone eg "first class will be in blue zone". They seem to have fallen out of favour about 8 or 9 years ago with Virgin, although they were used on the platform screens at Preston for a short while when the LED indicators were first fitted.

Preston still uses them in the announcements, first thing this morning at least when I got on board

I am not surprised that Virgin have distanced themselves away from using the Zones. They still are pretty useful as a guide for passengers who many not travel very regularly.

Preston's two bay platforms - 3c and 4c - are still described in announcements as being "beyond the Gold Zone".

 

[driver9000]

It depends who the announcer on duty is at Preston when it comes to using the zones, some do and some don't. Platforms 3c and 4c are often "at the extreme south end of platform...." The A and B sections at Preston were never referred to even when trains were there until TPE introduced portion working which now see's the sections appear on the deaprtures screen, they now make mention of 1A, 1B etc too when it used to be referred to as 'north' or 'south' ends.

 

[PR1Berske]

It depends who the announcer on duty is at Preston when it comes to using the zones, some do and some don't. Platforms 3c and 4c are often "at the extreme south end of platform...." The A and B sections at Preston were never referred to even when trains were there until TPE introduced portion working which now see's the sections appear on the deaprtures screen, they now make mention of 1A, 1B etc too when it used to be referred to as 'north' or 'south' ends.

I can still remember "...at the extreme south end of platform 3 beyond the British Transport Police...."!

You're of course right about the a/b appearing on the departure screens since the introduction of Glasgow/Cumbria splits on Platford 3 (usually). I will never tire of seeing confused types wondering why the displays on either side are for dfifferent destinations until the front end departs

 

[driver9000]

Preston's signage isn't exactly clear, platforms 1 & 2 are marked 1a,1b etc on the platform identifiers, but 3-6 are not. This caused confusion (more than normal) when 3A and 3B etc started being referred to so the poster hoardings in the X formation near the ramp on the platforms had printed '3A' and '3B' signs stuck to them. Despite having worked through Preston station for a number of years now I still don't know the coloured zone layout

Until around a year or so ago platform 3 used to still have the coach letter identifiers for the APT painted on the platform surface - albeit in a very faded state, wish I'd taken a photo of them now. Coach H/J near the information office was the clearest.

 

[lemonic]

I find it confusing at Stratford (London) that there is platform 10 and 10a, but they are completely different platforms, rather than 10a being a part of platform 10... it almost caused me to miss a train once when I was in a rush.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I find it confusing at Stratford (London) that there is platform 10 and 10a, but they are completely different platforms, rather than 10a being a part of platform 10... it almost caused me to miss a train once when I was in a rush.

it because it was a newbuild with the reopenings of platform 10a, 11 & 12, and of course with Stratford's complexity, it was far easier to call it 10a than renumber everything

 

[sirdouglas]

leeds has almost all of it's platforms split into letters

 

[shinkansen1966]

Or we would adopt the German system. A consistent system of dividing the platform into sections A - E . With the the destination board using a train graphic to indicate length and where first / standard class will be. But that would require our railways to work together for the benefit of the passenger.

The last time I saw the railways working together in the UK was when they worked together to defend the introduction of the £10 Network Card Mon->Fri minimum. I emailed several of the offending TOCs. They all gave me a near indentical answer.

 

[krus_aragon]

it because it was a newbuild with the reopenings of platform 10a, 11 & 12, and of course with Stratford's complexity, it was far easier to call it 10a than renumber everything

They could have numbered it platform 9 3/4 :P

 

[MidnightFlyer]

lol To be honest, its got to get done again soon, there's new platforms and stuff all over the place, a 9 3/4 would be nice though