Great Western Coffee Shop

At Tilehurst station, there is always a "four-minute warning" announcement, i.e. "The XX.XX to London Paddington... is expected to arrive in approximately four minutes."

So far, so reasonable, you may think. The problem is that this announcement is always made just as the train rounds the corner, approximately one minute away!

This is a standing joke at Tilehurst, & I was wondering why this presumably automated announcement is so obviously mistimed.

It has now extended to the departure screens as well, i.e. showing the train as running 2 minutes late when it actually arrives 1 minute early.

It's almost certainly a programming clich in the Customer Information System.

CIS works on combination of the programmed timetable and actual train running, whereby it picks up the train passing certain points which then triggers the announcement, which is  pre-programme for that point. Obviously at Tilehurst the reporting point is nearer the station than 4 minutes. So  a two minute or one minute warning should be triggered instead of the 4 minute one you get.

At Slough on the Down Relief (platform 4) the 4 minute warning is usually pretty accurate.

Thanks - so I wonder why they don't fix it.....!

At least you have announcements. The PA at Nailsea hasn't worked for months. Ticket machines OOO again today. No-one seems to care.