London Euston is to restore its display of travel information on the station’s large screen, after passengers indicated that they preferred information to advertisements.
Network Rail, which manages Euston, will start testing the new screen tomorrow (Wednesday 11 December) and hopes to put it into action next week.
Once operational, it will display live travel information on the large screen where the departure boards used to be.
While the screen is being tested, Network Rail is advising passengers to continue to get travel information by referring to the screens in the middle of the concourse. It will display information about the screen’s testing in the station.
Network Rail has a five-point plan to improve passengers’ experience at Euston. It hopes that reverting to displaying live travel information on the large screen will provide clearer and more visible updates for passengers.
Network Rail switched the screen off in October and carried out a review of how to best use it.
Feedback from passengers revealed that they prefer to have a sizeable focal point on the station’s concourse that provides travel information.
Other parts of the five-point improvement plan have included earlier boarding of Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway trains.
This has received positive feedback from passengers, with some commenting that allowing passengers to board at a more relaxed pace has created a calmer station environment, especially during busy peak times.
Network Rail is also reminding passengers travelling to and from London Euston over the Christmas period that the station will be extremely busy this year.
Even more passengers than usual are expected to travel through Euston because engineering work will disrupt other major routes into London.
Network Rail suggests that passengers travelling to or from London Euston on the West Coast Main Line can avoid the busiest periods by travelling before Tuesday, 24 December, or after Thursday, 2 January.
“We’ve been clear the station simply hasn’t been good enough for customers, and that’s why we recently tasked Network Rail with making immediate improvements to address crowding and give passengers the experience they deserve.”
Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport
Responses
I knew it. Here is democracy and common sense. Sometimes we have to admit to our mistakes.
Network Rail, the person who thought it was a good idea to remove the displays has no future in the railway industry Euston is a railway station not an airport, often a train will arrive and depart within minutes, standing in the concourse waiting for the platform to be announced then moving with couple hundred other people getting to your train as they can fill up and be gone in 10 minutes meanwhile somebody who has noticed a line change on a screen has just missed it
And this is supposed to be some great revolutionary idea? It is no more than the average rail traveller would expect.
Its about time Euston was completely rebuilt. It is a hideous station, badly designed, thoroughly unpleasant to wait at and an absolute eyesore.
“…with some commenting that allowing passengers to board at a more relaxed pace has created a calmer station environment, especially during busy peak times.”
It is so obvious that announcing the platform for a departing train as soon as it’s available to board is a good idea, that it makes you wonder whose bright idea it was to delay this announcement until about 5 minutes before departure time. That was clearly always going to cause a stampede for the train.
Why do Network Rail need to relearn such obvious facts?
Network Rail has a propensity for encouraging ‘blue sky’ thinking amongst its managers, even when some of the big ideas this produces are clearly bonkers. The person who signed off that huge advertising screen should stand on Euston concourse while commuters throw wet sponges at them.