I still don't understand why real time infomration works reasonably well when everything is going smoothly, but collases when there are wiespread delays and is abandoned when the going gets really tough. Let me give you two examples.
The day before yesterday I was on London Bridge station waiting for the 1619 to Ashford. As it hppens I was there ten minutes early and expeced to see the 1612 Brighton train at the same platform, but it was marked as 'cancelled'. I checked on he smart phone ad it appeared to have been diverted via Tulse Hill. Well, these things happen.
At 1617 an Electrostar rolled in to platform 5. Regular travellers knew that this was the 'canclled' Brighton train and not the Ahford tran shown on the platform indicatos. Unseasoned tavellers for the Ashfor line got on to be greeted with an on trian announcement that the next stop would be East Croydon.
In quick time, then, the platform indicators changed to sow the train as going to Gatwick Airport, there was an announcement that this was a train for Gatwick Airport, the doors shut and the train moved off. Too quick for any unsuspecting passengers to Gatwick and I hope nobody for Ashford was trapped inside.
Then, yesterday afternoon, as I came back from Bruxelles to Ashford, the 1630 Ramsgate train was announced as being 6 minutes late. I checked on the website and saw that it was running between 12 and 15 minute late. South Eastern build in an automatic recovery of 1 minute per stop for late running trains - which almsot never happens. So the announcements kept on understating the delays until the train actually came and left, 12 minutes late.
It all shows that information is never given priority, as it should be.
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