London Euston station is undergoing the installation of high-definition departure boards over the next few weeks in order for real-time testing to be carried out.

The electronic departure and arrival boards will be located in the centre of the station concourse and will see four times as many screens for passengers in place of one set of overhead LED screens over platform entrances. The installation will see two double-sided banks of full-colour display boards which are positional on posts.

The project has seen computer modelling carried out in order to learn how moving passenger focus from the front of the concourse to the centre will aid the flow of people at the London terminus for the West Coast main line.

The coming months will see the boards live-tested and trialled for the very first time. The latest LIDAR cameras will also monitor passenger movement in real-time recording useful data which will provide important detail to see if the boards should be repositioned in order to benefit the route people make between concourse and trains.

James Dean, Network Rail’s West Coast South route director, said: “There’s been a huge amount of work in recent years to make more space for passengers at London Euston, all in preparation for this latest exciting phase to overhaul our departure and arrivals boards.

“This will be a big change for passengers which is why we’re trialling the boards first and then listen to feedback from station users. The high-definition displays have been really successful in other stations, so it’ll be great to get them in position and see how they work for the thousands of passengers who use Euston every day.”

Passengers will benefit from the new screen’s clearer and easy-to-read information which will be able to change quickly during times of disruption. The boards also operate a traffic light system in order to provide further detail such as when trains are available to board, are delayed or have been cancelled. The high-definition board will go on to eventually replace the old-style LED departure and arrivals boards which are more than 20 years old.

Screens similar to the new digital boards have already been installed at a number of stations such as Manchester Piccadilly and London Victoria with glowing reports from passengers due to how easy they are to read and follow.

Following the trials, the old-style boards will be decommissioned and removed.

The ongoing project which aims to see improved passenger flow around the station has taken place over a number of years and has so far seen:

• Widening of the ramp for platforms 8-11 after retail units were removed during 2021
• Increased concourse seating in place of the former London Underground entrance
• Removal of concourse clogging retail units under the departure boards in Spring 2019
• Relocation of the underground station taxi rank in January 2019

More banks of the same type of electronic passenger information screens are also set to be installed outside of the station on the piazza during early 2023.

The departure boards come as part of a wider £16m investment for Euston station in order to bring it up to date, making it more suited for passengers’ future travel needs.