please empty your brain below

Why the black hole round where I live?
Because the signalling system in that area is ancient and even LU don't know where their trains are.

I dream of this for buses. There is a bus that runs past the end of my road but only half-hourly so I always end up walking in a different direction to the main road where there is a frequent service.

Correction. I see your point. But I do recall reading there really is something funny with the signalling system there that leaves an information black hole around Bow Road.

London Overground departures have been on the National Rail Live Departure Boards site for years. Be good if you could get NR departures via the TfL site, but judging by their recent antics with their £5 iPhone app, would they let the info out?

Wood Green is another one where there's far more information online than on the platform. I'm not quite convinced of its accuracy (it's currently reporting a 9 minute gap between trains, and some services just show as 'Piccadilly Train'), but it's better than nothing.

If you want to be a really sad tube geek (like, umm, me?), then you might be delighted to know that Charring Cross on the Jubilee Line is still available.

@IanVisits. Thats because for operating purposes trains still run to Charing Cross on the Jubilee. The system is piggy-backed off the signalling system and doesn't know (or care) if the trains are in passenger service. You also get engineers trains and other out-of-service trains appearing and confusing the system.

Sad Tube Geek of Purley

You can get applications for the iPhone that make use of this too without having to use the browser. Try TubeDeluxe. If I'm in an area with mobile reception I've taken to using this rather than the platform departure boards - it seems more accurate.

It doesn't like Paddington. For some obscure reason they have two flavours of Paddington (Circle and H&C) neither of which work. Gah.

London Underground have a system called Trackernet that extracts what information it can from the various signalling systems and - as far as is possible - compiles it into information about where every train is. I believe that's where the data for this is coming from. There's a monitor showing Trackernet itself in an office window on the District Line platforms at (I think) South Kensington.

On most lines the train describers (the displays on the platform) are triggered by an entirely different system (that's more accurate, but less comprehensive). That's why there's a discrepancy.

Hmm. Late at night it can be odd, showing trains going to depots and so on (have seen this on the Northern line); and when lines are closed for engineering works, but on which trains, not for public use, are running, they are sometimes shown, too (have seen this on the victoria).

So it clearly requires a bit of tightening up. The national rail version is great, i think, largely

I can't see this being terribly useful, although it is a nice to have. The great thing about the Tube, surely, is that trains are very frequent. you rarely have to wait more than a few minutes - which is the time it would take to find out when a train is due.

Also such systems DO operate for buses in some places. Notably in Crawley where buses are not so frequent, and so I make a lot of use of the real time system.

http://www.metrobus.co.uk/real\\_time.php

Bow Road is my local station too and it is a pity that we're not yet covered by the online departure boards. I'm sure you do the same already, but I use the board for Bromley-by-Bow and add/subtract the time a train takes to get from Bromley-by-Bow to Bow Road to get the approximate departure board for Bow Road.

Now that is good....it would be even better if there was some sort of graphical representation

Brilliant. As I work opposite St James Park tube station but have no view of the trains this is going to be extremely useful.

(I also meant to comment last week on how reassuring your post was about the length of time it takes to write a good blog post. I get fed up with people saying it doesn't take long to write a blog and everyone should do it. Point is, if it's taken hardly any time to write most of the time it won't be worth reading.)

Not sure about other stations as I only get to London once a year now, but my old local station on the Northern Line has had a similar indicator board on the platforms for donkey's years.

The only difference is that the middle section says whether it is going to Morden via Embankment or Bank.

Ian: I used to feel the same way and never understood why people would need to know about trains ahead of time, and why anyone would hurry when trains are every 2 minutes... once you actually live here those 2 minutes somehow start to matter and I now feel really bad if I have to wait for 3 let alone 4 minutes for a train, hah.

I got stuck on the tube twice today. Once this morning when the Waterloo & City Line was suspended 'due to a lack of safety equipment', and once this evening because someone decided to leave a five minute gap between trains on the Piccadilly Line at Holborn.

I always use TfL's tube delays map to plan my journey, and to decide whether I need to make any changes to my normal route, but I have a feeling this will come in just as handy - I can now tell how severe (or minor) the delays actually are!

I'd find it awkward, however, if there are more arrivals listed on the Waterloo & City Line than departures. Well, I suppose you can't have everything...

Mr Thant is quite correct - the feed is from Trackernet. I looked on Trackernet earlier today to see if the Bow Road "black hole" existed there. Sure enough it does but I don't know why. There is an ongoing programme of improving and expanding Trackernet so I would expect the black holes to be filled in over time. Work is also ongoing to ensure new signalling, on lines that are being upgraded, continues to feed Trackernet.

I am speculating that the problem at Bow Road is that Trackernet can't tell whether if a train is approaching, at, or has just left the platform.

even on vic line strike day the system was showing trains running here and there - any one know why?!?











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