How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

johoare

Hero Member

Posts: 2818

How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

« on: August 05, 2009, 23:20:49 »

I was on the 22.10 from Paddington to Maidenhead tonight. At 22.05 it was announced as being on platform 13 so we all started making our way there.. I was one of the first so by no means slow, yet as we were still on platform 12 there was an annoucement saying that the 22.10 was not only on platform 13, it was the front train on platform 13 (!) and it was ready to leave so please could we board now.. As you can imagine this caused pandemonium and a lot of people started running. As we arrived on platform 13, with still quite a distance to go to the front train, the despatch person started blowing his whistle.. So the people who were still walking calmly joined in the sprinting masses..

I walked and got there with a minute to spare, so why oh why, when the train was about as far away as it could be, and was announced so late anyway, did they do that? Ridiculous...

At least the train wasn't air conditioned. That would have been unbearably hot especially because of the enforced exercise for the passengers..

Oh and an interesting comment as we got off at Maidenhead from a child who was with his mother.. He wondered why people bought tickets since we didn't need it to get on the train, or to get off. I have to agree I was thinking the same thing..


	Logged

devon_metro

Hero Member

Posts: 5175

Re: How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2009, 23:41:08 »

I must sympathise, I've had to make a rather frantic dash from the main concourse to Royal Oak before. Err. I mean platform 13. And to top it off, it was the front unit only!


	Logged

inspector_blakey

Hero Member

Posts: 3574

Re: How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2009, 23:57:01 »

That's a recurring theme whenever I catch late trains from Paddington. Can anyone on the inside explain to me why the 0021 PAD^» - OXF^» always seems to depart from platform 13, in the deepest, darkest, furthest recesses of the station, when it's virtually the only service around at that time of night? And even if it has to depart from 13, why does this only show up on the platform indicator with nanoseconds to spare?

Further, I know despatch staff have to keep things running to time, but shouting at passengers who can't be expected to have been at their train in plenty of time since it's only just been announced isn't great customer service.


	Logged

Mookiemoo

Hero Member

Posts: 3117

Re: How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2009, 00:31:25 »

Had my first experience of 13+ last week - thursday - had to go to apple store to order new laptop for a drop kicked macbook pro (they are good but dot like being kicked!)

Ca in at what I thought was the tube station I see on the way into paddington.

What made it worse was the tide of people leavig the train had to fight the tide of people going to it - it was so far away that we had not made it to station proper before it was announced for the return journey

Although - it was behid barriers but the barriers were open - circa 630pm - so not sure which platform it was!

Apologies for the spellig - my keyboard is ******** util my new machie arrives. Sometimes its the t, sometimes the e, toight its the N


	Logged

Ditched former sig - now I need to think of something amusing - brain hurts -I'll steal from the master himself - Einstein:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love"

IndustryInsider

Data Manager
Hero Member

Posts: 10419

Re: How to cause pandemonium at Paddington

« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2009, 10:37:51 »

Quote from: inspector_blakey on August 05, 2009, 23:57:01

Can anyone on the inside explain to me why the 0021 PAD^» - OXF^» always seems to depart from platform 13, in the deepest, darkest, furthest recesses of the station, when it's virtually the only service around at that time of night? And even if it has to depart from 13, why does this only show up on the platform indicator with nanoseconds to spare?

It's usually formed off of the 00:15 arrival from Reading, so that probably explains the late platform confirmation.


	Logged

To view my GWML^▸ Electrification cab video 'before and after' video comparison, as well as other videos of the new layout at Reading and 'before and after' comparisons of the Cotswold Line Redoubling scheme, see: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/IndustryInsider/

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: [1]

« previous next »