Improving passenger information on the Elizabeth line
Last week, a new sign appeared at the end of the Elizabeth line, making it much easier to know which train is leaving first.
The stations at the end of the line often have two (or more) platforms where trains terminate before returning to town, so when passengers arrive, the issue of which train is leaving first can arise.
It’s not a huge problem, as stations have many train departure boards, but the text size can be problematic to read if you’re in a hurry. Also, to stop people from huddling by the stairs, the departure boards on the platforms have to be a bit further along the platform.
Hence, people seeing two trains on the platform will instinctively know one of them will leave soon, but they will not know which one.
Last week, Abbey Wood station at the end of the Elizabeth line gained something straightforward, but very useful — a big arrow.
It simply points to which train will leave next – saving confusion.
It’s a tad aggressive at deterring people catching the train that’s about to leave as I timed it, swapping sides roughly a minute prior to departure, which was plenty of time for people to walk to the train — as some did.
However, it’s a helpful aid for passengers, and apart from being informative, it could reduce the incidence of people running along the platform to the departure board to see which train is leaving first — and that’s a safety improvement.
The sign was installed last week, fairly quietly is seems as one member of staff hadn’t been briefed and until I spoke to them was still trying to work out what it was for.
Similar signs could be useful in many stations where trains turn around, such as Stratford, where they used to have something similar but removed it some years ago to be replaced with a much harder-to-read departure board.
Much as TfL tends to do a great job with design language and wayfinding, their recent track record on electronic signage is rather more mixed.
For example, I find the TfL bus countdown signs eternally frustrating. I don’t need to know the timings of the next 6 departures of the same route. I just want to know when the next departure of every route serving the stop is.
Absolutely correct. It would be a lot clearer if each destination was listed only once, with at most two departures against it.
Fictitious example:
17 Monument ……………. 3 min,14 min
44 Elephant and Castle ………… 6 min
123 Waterloo ……………..7 min,27 min
39 South Kensington ………….. 14 min
Sometimes I find it useful to know when a less-frequent bus will arrive. The problem is when the screens spend too much time on 1 5 6 7 and 1 8 9 10 and when they skip to 1 5 6 7 from 1 8 9 10 entirely missing out 1 2 3 4 from the cycle.
The intention of the arrow is more to deter the last minute passengers from opening a door, passengers running and streaming in, the driver trying to lock the doors and thus delaying an on time departure, and it missing its slot into the core with a knock on effect of service reliability.
[citation needed]
This would be incredibly useful for the Jubilee line at the absolute hell that is Stratford.
Would be useful for any island platform terminii I think. But this very article states they used to have a form of it where you said and then removed it for whatever reason.
Something similar would be useful at Morden, but with a platform number instead of an arrow.
“Stratford, where they used to have something similar but removed it some years ago to be replaced with a much harder-to-read departure board.”
Same at Walthamstow Central where prominent and perfectly legible (I guess 2 inch) old fashioned backlit Next Train indicators have been left unlit, therefore confusingly telling passengers to go both ways — only to be replaced by less obvious tiny orange dot matrix arrows less than a quarter of the size.
Some years ago I was told by an off-duty station man, that the question they get asked most by passengers on platforms is which way is the train coming in.
I’ve checked this on several rail systems, both in the UK and abroad and it is certainly very common for passengers to ask this question.
I suspect a valid reason for the question, is to be at the right end of the train for your preferred exit at your destination station.
But as far as I know no railway indicates the direction that trains will arrive.
Would an appropriate arrow or sign improve safety on platforms?