Destinations

It's an utter shambles.

For over a quarter of a century, the Eastbound District describer at Hammersmith has been largely a work of fiction.

I've written about this here, before.

What you frequently get is:

Describer says "Upminster 1 minute"

After several minutes it changes to "Upminster"

After another minute it goes blank

It then displays: "No smoking on the Underground"

At some point after this you may get a vaguely accurate indication of what is coming next. (Vague being the operative word.)


I find it almost impossible to believe, and quite impossible to understand, how LU have, for over 25 years, thought it perfectly acceptable to lie to their customers day in, day out.

However, when I mentioned here previously, everyone here seemed vary relaxed about it.

Whatever the excuse, they are issuing false information.

If the reason for that falsity were as you say, then they should indicate something other than a falacious destination.

However, your guess does not account for the frequent occasions when the "Upminster" cycle mentioned above is not followed by an Upminster train but one to Tower Hill. And the arrival time is in no way related to the time that was displayed (as my post makes quite clear).



That's just a figure you've plucked from thin air.

At Hammersmith, which is the station to which I was, accurately knowing when the next District line train will arrive can be vitally important if, for example, you want to make a connection at Victoria.



I don't think you really know what you're talking about, here. Accurate information at Hammersmith can make a dramatic difference if, for example, someone needs to urgently make a connection at Victoria, for Gatwick.



No, the information that said the train would arrive in a minute was FALSE.
The indication that said the train was going to Upminster was FALSE.

If it was just a rare occurrence it would not be so bad but it is something that happens day in and day out, and has done for over a quarter of a century, so there is no way LU management are not aware of it.

And I call repeatedly disseminating false information when you are perfectly well aware that that is happening lying.

It's just a pity that there are so many people who don't care about such mendacity and simple make excuses for it.

At worst it's a failure to disseminate information correctly. Lying has the implication of a deliberate and premeditated attempt to deceive for gain. What gain is there to be had here?

Do the trains display the correct destinations on the front and sides when they pull in? If so, perhaps the sensible solution would be to remove the erroneous information by disabling the boards altogether until the new signalling takes over and corrects the situation.

The original poster was talking about destination displays at Ravenscourt Park, and it was that I was addressing. My 99% comment was concerned with the destination of the train, and I doubt if many people are concerned with whether the train is going beyond Tower Hill, and those who do are well-advised to change somewhere beyond Earls Court anyway.

It is indeed not so good, and not easily explained, when a train promised in one minute somehow dematerialises between Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park but, however time-critical the journey, there is little the intending passenger at Ravenscourt Park could do about it other than wait, even if he were to be told the next train is really ten minutes away rather than one. So although inaccurate information is never a Good Thing, it is unlikely the travellers would have any alternative options if they had better information - at Ravenscourt the District, whether it comes in one minute or ten, is the only show in town.

The situation is a little different at Hammersmith, although given the labyrinthine interchanges at Green Park it is difficult to imagine that it would ever be a better bet to take the Piccadilly Line from Hammersmith for your example of a journey to Victoria.

Yes they do, and I have always felt that your solution is absolutely the one they should adopt.

It's not the lack of information that is the worst part of the problem, it's the ever repeated and wilful display of incorrect information, which prevents making a well informed decision that is so obnoxious.

Admittedly, not being resident in London for the vast majority of my adult life I really do have to say that anybody worrying about a wait for 2 minutes for a train doesn't know they're born. Short of posting Python's "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch I'd say that everybody needs to settle down. Lives are being ruined by such fine time tolerances.

Ravenscourt Park has never had the traditional light box type indicators

It's not so much the odd two minutes that's a problem.

The difficulty caused by the random nonsense on the eastbound describer comes when there is a significant delay on the District line going east.

Even though there are no District line trains whatsoever, going in that direction, that does not stop the indicator saying there will be one along in 1 minute, before going through the rest of its cycle and eventually displaying nothing but a 'no smoking' notice ever so often.

It wouldn't be so bad if the staff were a little pro-active about announcements.

You may find it hard to credit, but people do find missing their train at Victoria when the could have easily caught it given reasonable information somewhat annoying, and I can't say I blame them. Especially if they have to get to Gatwick in order to catch a flight.

It's particularly annoying as the answer is to simply stop the thing displaying information that is not known to be valid, as you immediately observed.

I sort of get what you mean. I'll be in London tomorrow using some trains but I'll be allowing quite a bit of recovery time just in case. To be fair, if I had a flight to catch I'd allow all sorts of contingencies, public or private transport. A few minutes isn't sufficient for this INMHO 

R stock would have been more common, but a few CO/CP stock trains were still running on the main line until 1981 - R stock held out a couple of years longer. They looked very similar, except for the rather obvious difference that the CO/CP stock were red and the R stock was silver