please empty your brain below

I normally seem to get the "not next" Jubilee line train at Stratford.
Fortunately as the service is fairly frequent it does not mean too long a wait, and it does ensure getting a seat.
Some people might need to know the final destination of the train.
A bright illuminated arrow over the appropriate platform saying "Next Train" would be nice.
I think the arrangements for Jubilee departures at Stratford were designed so the staff watching on CCTV could have a constant laugh watching people keep just missing the train as they walked along the platform as the train pulls out and then not having a clue where to go - so going back to the main board - identifying a train - just in time for that one to pull out as well. In fact you could spend your whole day trying to catch the 'next' train.
they've done the same at Walthamstow. a nice old fashioned "NEXT TRAIN" light box with an arrow that you could see from a distance, replaced by a new small board that you now have to be practically stsnding under to read. at least that one has arrows (left or right), but it still smacks of the same cretinous attitude that TfL have with these things.

incidentally, if your destination is anywhere beyond Willesden Green on the Jubilee line from stratford, you shouldn't be taking the Jubilee Line in the first place. head west on the Central and changing at Bond Street is always quicker. or take the Overground to West Hampstead probably more pleasant ...
Ludicrous - on a line with no branches, where the advice is always to take the first train and change where necessary, all you need to know is where the next train goes from, and when.
You're right, of course - who wants to know on the Jubilee platform at Stratford whether the train is going to Stanmore, Wembley Park, Willesden Green etc.? - they just want to know which train is going first ! They are going to be bombarded with aural and can see the destination once inside the train ! LU has a 'one size fits all' approach whereas passengers appreciate simplicity, like Tower Hill on the westbound - next train is for the left or right (with lit arrow). Seems to have worked since the 1960s !
This is entirely speculative, but I would hazard a guess that the reason this has been done is because they are changing the whole line to one Passenger Information System.

Before, each station had its own individual set up, which increases unreliability and costs. Now, with the new signalling, there is a chance to bring everything together which in the long run IS more reliable.

I suspect that the extra cost of designing individual station specifications has been decided to be uneconomical, especially in these times.

It's not an excuse per se, but potentially why they are doing it.
I love the ancient 'Next Train' indicator arrows at the bottom of the escalators at the entry to Platforms 9 and 10 at Moorgate. I hope there is no plan to change them - clear and simple and they do the job perfectly!
As a resident of E18 who uses this interchange regularly, I despair. It comes to something when the famously archaic platform indicator at Earl's Court is actually superior.
But when people are in 30-minute-long queue to get on a train from the Olympics in a few weeks' time, they may be reassured to have so much information about the next eight trains
Hidden away in their ivory tower there must actually be someone who (hopefully) reads stuff like this and can actually do something about it. This is such a simple thing to get right yet there are so many idiots about.

I'd love to be able to get into a reasoned dialogue with someone at TfL about this.
The amount of times I've asked exactly those two questions (albeit in a usually more harried and sometimes less clean fashion) when Ive been rushing through to get to a West Ham match.

As usual, thanks DG.

CF
I'm not convinced that the Central line would be any quicker, since it stops at so many extra places - and the Overground, which never exceeds fifteen miles per hour, stops at every street corner and dumps you a brisk stroll away from the tube at West Hampstead definitely isn't the way to go.

All the same, eight trains (on twelve lines!) is definitely overkill. They could instantly improve the signage by making all the text four times bigger in the same total amount of space.
7 years on from that terrible day, I'm actually really glad that today's post is about TfL's cretins. Things could have been so different but London and the transport system bounced back from those events so well, all we have to worry about when using the Tube is stuff like this...
swirlythingy: there's very little in it, but the Jubilee is actually slower, and makes more stops, in both cases.

Stratford to Bond Street
Central Line 21 minutes, 10 stops
Jubilee Line 25 minutes, 12 stops

Stratford to West Hampstead
Overground 31 minutes, 13 stops
Jubilee Line 35 minutes, 17 stops
I regularly travel from Stratford to Swiss Cottage. It's definitely hit and miss whether or not you gain anything by using the central line to Bond Street. You may have arrived at Bond St 4 minutes earlier, but you then have to walk to the jubilee line platform and wait for the next train. The four minutes you gained are usually lost by then.
I've been experimenting recently as I'll be doing my best to avoid using the central or jubilee lines during the Olympics. My destination is between Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road, although closer to Swiss Cottage. Overground to Finchley Road and Frognal is a reasonable option, despite the longer walk at the other end, provided a train is leaving in the next few minutes.
I think the best route is to use national rail into Liverpool Street then get the metropolitan line to Finchley Road. The walk at the other end is a little longer, but the journey is quicker. :)
Alice/Swirlythingy

Agreed the change at Bond Street or West Hampstead makes the Central Line less attractive, but it was the "so many extra places" and "stops at every street corner" that I was really taking issue with - the Jubilee actually has more stops than the alternatives.

the route via the Met is not much quicker - Stratford to West Hampstead via Liverpool Street and Finchley Road is 13 stops (and two changes) in 27 minutes travelling time (but not counting interchange time) - but much more pleasant than the deep tubes.
If there is such big cost of having different signage at different stations, then why not just call the tracks "13 left arrow", "15 right arrow" e.t.c?

The track numbers canĀ“t be hard coded - if so the system would not be able to handle for example track "3a" and "3b". (Perhaps the system is actually unable to handle that?).

Also a few configurable out ports that controls "next train" indicators could be seen as a standard thing that everey indicator board electronic unit could have regardless of if it's used at a particular station or not.
YEss - The sign said 2 mintes Sonia announced 2 minutes so I walked briskly to mid-train (I change at CW) and the doors shut in my face-- would I get to the next train or would they lie to me again.

I use Jubilee from here about every 2 weeks but am still confused and even CROSSER.
"Why aren't I surprised?"

That's incorrect grammar. "I" is the subject, so the verb needs to be in first person singular = am. On another way: you wouldn't say "I are", but you would say "I am".

So it needs to be either "Why am I not surprised" or the American "Why ain't I surprised".










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