Countdown timers at Stratford

The last time we were at Stratford, a while back, the train was driven in manually by a female. The doors opened, punters got off, lady then called for the masses to get on, and whoosh, train was off again! If you were on the platform and did not get on quickly you would have been left behind.

Jubilee line at Stratford is a mess. I was unlucky enough to use it for 3 months this year (April to June) and it was pretty bad...

Constant changes in train departures (one train announced to depart first, but another one departs instead with announcement 10 seconds before doors close)

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Frequest 8-10 minutes gaps in service (especial in the evening peak)

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Commuter misery.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that the old section is signalled by SSR service controllers ;D ;D ;D

This is always going to be a problem with termini where trains can depart from three (or more) platforms - as it's quite easy to end up on the "wrong" platform if you just miss a train or departure order is changed.

Best thing to do is walk to the bridge and then have a look at what's happening from there, as it saves you walking twice as much if you miss a train and the others are on the other side anyway. When you're coming through the gateline as well, have a lookout for the grey box with 6 colour lights on (up by the emergency exit near the Jubilee gateline) – that's our repeater for the three platforms.

By the time the SCRO has got a PA out, a real-time one or one of the touchscreen, a signal might have already been cleared. Whether or not the dot matrix keeps up with this is another thing: the SCRO has probably announced the platform based on the dot matrix information (as they've got a feed for it in the Control Room), unless of course they've been told otherwise of the running order by the controller or the signal op. They're only as good as the information they get, and we cant have all our cameras pointing all at the headwall to keep an eye on what signals are getting cleared first. We did try firing up Trackernet on the big widescreen monitor we have in the Control Room as we can get all the signals up on there and see them clearing (as well as the routes being set with the points, which gives our SCRO an extra few seconds to push out a PA), but that too has quite a delay.

It's all 10 times worse when we get frequent platform changes, usually in the peak or when there's problems and three empty platforms, like what Alex has mentioned. Control Room doesn't get told anything, and even if they do it's not until the very last minute, thus you can't even ask the SAs what's going on because even we can't guarantee that what the dot matrix says is going to happen. Many a time I've sent a passenger onto a platform with a train that says there's 4 minutes, only to see the repeater in the corner of my eye put on a green for that platform. Then we've got the Line Controller (or Service Controller – whatever) having a go at Train Ops because they're late for their pick-ups, which is in fact not true, because they follow the timetable and wait at the platform the timetable says their train should be at, so if the Gods decided it's going into another platform, it's not their fault! But that causes extra hold ups, 'CORRECTION' is flashing up forever and a day on the vids 10 seconds too late and thus you have the mess that is Stratford.

Unfortunately, this has been a long-term there. I worked there for over a year before I managed to get out (and off that Jubilee line gateline!), and nothing much has changed, so it seems.

The current Jubilee Line service in WTT No.10 has 24 trains per hour scheduled - maximum. This is between Willesden Green and North Greenwich. Of these 24 trains per hour 3tph terminate at North Greenwich and 3tph at West Ham (to Stratford Market depot). Therefore the maximum service serving Stratford is 18tph or three trains every 10 mins. Reversing time at Stratford in the peaks is about 7 or 7.5 minutes.

Alas, 30tph at Stratford won't be in the life of the current signalling - but maybe the new? We wait and see.

Even at 16tph,the off peak & Saturday/Sunday service,trains regularly have to wait outside Stratford for a platform to become free.

Don't confuse platform / signalling capacity with timetabled recovery time / early arrival at the home signals.

If this is true, how are LU going to run 30tph or over on the Jubilee line after the upgrade?

I think this has been discussed before, but there was no conclusion.

The Central did have the benefit that they were able to put in place some quite lengthly overrun sections, at West Ruislip, and also at Epping using the old East Siding and a length of the former Ongar branch. I'm not convinced the entry to Ealing Broadway is nowadays much faster than in past times.