Barking for H&C

Off peak, I believe many H&Cs do turn round at Whitechapel, and if the service is up the wall you can bet they're turning them round early somewhere. If you're travelling from Barking or onwards, always get the first train to Whitechapel and you should be able to pick up an H&C from there.

It'd probably help if some of the train describer displays worked on the LUL platforms too - not seen any of them work at all in the last 6 months or so...

Barking has no train describers for the District or H&C platforms.

IIRC the H&C off peak service is one every 16 minutes to Whitechapel plus one every 16 minutes to Barking. So if one Barking train runs late and gets turned at Plaistow ( a common occurrence) then you'll have a long wait!

As mentioned a few posts back, your better off going to Whitechapel and finding one there.

Should you manage to get as far west as Liverpool Street on a direct service, then the chances are you were on a H&C to begin with. If the H&C is up the wall, and you manage to reach Liverpool Street on, say, a Circle Line, my advice is to stay on that train until you are beyond Moorgate or even until Edgware Road.

If it's up the wall, we may be turning the H&Cs at both those locations.

The H&C operates an 8-minute service more or less throughout the day. During the peak, most trains alternate between Plaistow and Barking. Off peak, trains alternate between Whitechapel and Barking - giving the 16 minute frequency mentioned above.

It's also worth remembering that not all H&Cs leave from Barking platform 3. There are a few trains - even during the midday off-peak - that start from Barking Sidings. The advice given by biolizard to take the first train heading west and change at Whitechapel (or more conveniently at Aldgate East and remain on the same platform) is what I would strongly recommend.

And if things are REALLY bad on the SSL, the H&C may be cut back to serve Hammersmith-Edgware Road only. In that case, District to Tower Hill and Circle round to Edgware Road (clockwise or anti from Tower Hill, depending on which section of the Circle is screwed up!)

Odd, could have sworn I saw a light box on platform 6 (Westbound) - the light allowed the bottom part to show some destinations - possibly referring to changing at Aldgate East for the "Metropolitan" line...

Cheers, thought I wasn't seeing things

So if these light boxes work on the rest of the line, why not Barking - a major junction station?

There is or at least was until recently one for platform 3 at Barking too, it is or was under the canopy at the tail end of plaform 2.

I''m not sure if the one on 2 is still there a few months back the glass was broken allowing the blue "backlit" destinations to be seen. The westbound one is still there. Neither have worked for many years indeed, however the one on pl 3 did work much more recently, but it too has given up the ghost now !

I agree it's v poor that such a major station doesn't have them !

Also of note that hardly any of the recently fitted dot matrix at the Eastern end of the District / H & C work now, even though all excpet Heathway w/b did work at one time or another after recent fitment !