please empty your brain below
Quite an apt post for World Usability Day. I don't own any of their products, so please don't think me a fanboi, but I'd love to see an underground station designed by Apple. Actually, scratch that. I'd just like to see one that's simply been designed.

Martin Wink | 10.11.11 - 12:56 a.m. | #

A good example of this phenomenon is the eastbound Circle Line platforms at Farringdon where the indicator board was, earlier this year, completely blocked by a CCTV (I think) gantry which blocks the view from the entire main staircase and half the platform.

| 10.11.11 - 7:33 a.m. | #

Why not have the indicators hanging over the railway lines? An area free of other signs, pillars and easily visible from the platforms.

Big Al | 10.11.11 - 7:47 a.m. | #

And for deep-level tube stations, repeater signs on the tunnel wall, facing the platforms, above train height. Given how much other 'infrastructure' TfL has, wouldn't be an unreasonable expense.

Gordon | 10.11.11 - 9:14 a.m. | #

Doesanyone know if TfL have seen/ responded to these criticisms - has anyone sent them the link? Do they have a response?

daguerrotype - aka 'Midnight Cowboy' | 10.11.11 - 9:19 a.m. | #

Oh, I'm sure you'll still have something to write about Mile End's information displays by next year's tube week! It'd be nice to see TfL put some thought into them for once, though. The one and only display at South Wimbledon is partially or completely (depending on how far along you're waiting) obscured by the sharp curve of the platform. They really ought to install a second at stations like that where it's blindingly obvious half the passengers haven't got a hope of reading a display positioned at one end. Will they? Nope. DG has conclusively proved, across several years, that they just don't care.

Regarding the photos: how are both of them depictions of 'Platform 1'?

swirlythingy | Homepage | 10.11.11 - 10:17 a.m. | #

Rather than at interchange stations (and even then it's arguable) I have always wondered what Londoner's obsession with tube indicators is really about.

I mean, whether it's 2 minutes away, or 6 minutes away... what does it change? How does one behave differently? If you can't see the board, does it matter that you just wait on the platform until the train arrives?

I of course speak from the point of view of someone who lives just outside London, where the difference in public transport provision is marked. Where I moan that the 2 hourly bus hasn't turned up, Londoners moan that they can't easily find out whether their train is 1 or 2 minutes away!

Lewis | 10.11.11 - 10:42 a.m. | #

My nearest tube station is on the Central Line, so I frequently find myself on the platforms of Mile End when making that easy interchange with the District Line. I have experienced just about everything you have written of here - but not thought it through so clearly. It seems a shame they can't simply remove the false ceiling and refurbish/waterproof the arched roof - but I guess that's too costly.
If, when you stand on an escalator, you can pass dozens of small flat screens constantly streaming moving adverts, why can't the same technology be applied on multiple wall spaces along a platform? Or even have the NTI info projected on the wall opposite the platform at regular intervals, as advertisers also currently do at some stations.

Richard | 10.11.11 - 11:24 a.m. | #

"I mean, whether it's 2 minutes away, or 6 minutes away... what does it change?"

I take your point to a degree, but on many lines the trains go to different places (e.g. District line to Wimbledon or Richmond) so you also need to know where the next train is going, which the displays also show.

Jon Combe | 10.11.11 - 12:42 p.m. | #

"I take your point to a degree, but on many lines the trains go to different places (e.g. District line to Wimbledon or Richmond) so you also need to know where the next train is going, which the displays also show."

I know. If only they would show it on the front of the train, or on in-car displays, or announce it at every stop or something... oh, hang on.. ;)

Lewis | 10.11.11 - 12:55 p.m. | #

Well, they've got those big projected advertising things on some Victoria line platforms, they could use those!

Audrey | 10.11.11 - 1:17 p.m. | #

So there's money for advertising screens and projectors all over the place, but not for next train indicator boards. Easy problem to solve then - get advertisers to sponsor the NTIs.

Ah, wait... some people object to such sponsorship (cf outcry over renaming of football stadia, DG's previous comments on IKEA sponsored Oyster card holders). Sadly it's the way the world's going...

Blue Witch | Homepage | 10.11.11 - 3:55 p.m. | #

"...what does it change? How does one behave differently?"

The NTI boards make a HUGE difference. If I'm in town - at Embankment, say - and need to get to Mile End, the most direct way is by District Line. However, plenty of eastbound District Line trains terminate at Tower Hill. If I see that the first arrival is a Circle Line train, and the second is a District Line train to Tower Hill, followed by another Circle Line train, and the fourth a District Line train all the way to Upminster (this, believe me, is a very common scenario), then I will save considerable time getting the first Circle Line train and changing at Liverpool Street to the Central Line (eastbound), rather than waiting for about 20 minutes for a District Line train that can take me to Mile End.

This is just one small example. The NTI boards frequently influence my decisions when travelling by tube. Which is why, I guess, they were introduced.

Richard | 10.11.11 - 4:28 p.m. | #

I agree wil Big Al :"Why not have the indicators hanging over the railway lines? An area free of other signs, pillars and easily visible from the platforms."

It would make it so much easier! Loving the blog, and I'm amazed you take the time to post every day! I know I couldn't!

Dan Theecan
[email protected]


Dan Theecan | Homepage | 10.11.11 - 4:50 p.m. | #

Just speculating....but I imagine either there isn't enough clearance height above the train to position signage, or it is considered too risky to afix signage in a place where, were it to become dislodged, it could fall onto the line and potentially cause a derailment. Also, it would clearly be impossible to do even the most basic maintenance work on a defective NTI board while trains were running.

Richard | 10.11.11 - 5:05 p.m. | #

I believe time is different on the underground; I enter a different dimension on the tube. So are the Cretins responsible for this as well? Surely the time must come from central control?
There must be a chief cretin...does he have a watch?

1 minute is not 60 seconds on the Piccadily Line. It is actually 89 seconds according to my watch.

Amused | 10.11.11 - 6:57 p.m. | #

There's a good view of the Platform 2 next train indicator from half of Platform 3, and a good view of the Platform 3 next train indicator from half of Platform 2.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 10.11.11 - 7:31 p.m. | #

Mile End is an issue, no two ways, and there was a real attempt to redesign the 'legacy' Metronet ceiling scheme that gave the low height issue, but work was too far advanced to re-design and reconstruct. I'm hopeful a solution will be found - in answer to some other comments, DMIs cannot be fitted over track because of maintenance issues and repair access. There's a real challenge about the 'hierarchy' of items suspended off platform ceilings and soffits. Ideally, information signs have priority - but they're often conflicted by other things seen as vital - such as station and train CCTV cameras - and at the moment, for example, there's a lot of work going into trying to manage S-stock's 'fixed' CCTV camera positions, the view they have to give to train operators and the impact on signs. I don't want to sound defensive but we do work very hard to get correctly designed stations - they're often just small spaces with many demands on them. Also, somewhat echoing some earlier comments and having been on other operators systems of late, LU does provide a very good quality of information on train destinations and times - never perfect but better than what we had 10 years ago. And a final point on some of the older DMI and line 'minutes' - DMIs are usually driven off signalling information and if the signalling section is closer to 90 seconds than 60 seconds, that is what drives the 'minute'- my, aren't we time obsessed!

Moe Quette | 17.11.11 - 9:58 a.m. | #

I wish I had read this before I nearly killed myself last week trying to see whether the next train was District or H&C, moving my head back about a second before a District Line train whooshed past my ear. Gave me the jitters about my own mortality all day, and a lingering weariness about checking the indicators on my commute if I value my life.

Meg | 24.11.11 - 12:12 p.m. | #











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