Now that's a train delay Upminster with which London travellers shall not put
- Reference: 1593422105
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/29/bork/
- Source link:
Spotted on the platforms of London's Gunnersbury station by Register reader Julian, the display looks innocuous enough at first glance. However, something is amiss within the bowels of the UK capital's Transport for London (TFL) since even at its least competent 20 hours seems a bit long to wait. Even for a tube to Upminster.
[1]
Certainly, back in the days when we used to travel London's creaking public transport network to Vulture Central, a wait of more than a few minutes was enough to trigger tuts and sighs from the locals. Almost as much as those generated by that person with the rucksack or those people unable to resist the allure of their horror burger and fries on a particularly lengthy underground stretch.
A spokesperson for TfL stated the obvious in telling us: "This appears to have been an error on one of our digital display boards which we worked to fix as soon as possible."
Indeed it was, for the display predates the current lockdown by a good while. Now, we remember lengthy delays on its network with fondness. In this case, 1,241 minutes into the future (not the best of the Max Headroom sequels, we'll grant you.)
The station before Kew Gardens and Richmond, the two platforms of Gunnersbury serve both the District line and London Overground and the station itself was opened in 1869. Back in 2017 (shortly before this picture was snapped), Gunnersbury saw its London Underground [2]entry and exit figures standing at 5.71 million, slightly down on the previous year but quite the jump from 2007's 3.66 million.
We suspect 2020's number might look a bit different.
Waiting for the train that never comes? To be honest, it feels like March will never end, so pass the time by sharing your own example of LEDs larking about or Windows demonstrating the robustness of ice in a furnace with an [3]email to The Register's desk of Bork. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/06/25/tfl_bork.jpg
[2] https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/underground-services-performance#on-this-page-2
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#30425953585142541e43405555547044585542555759434455421e535f5d
[4] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8461/how-to-thrive-in-the-digital-economy?td=wptl1956
And, uh, yes. That's Mornington Crescent.
Gunersbury
A bit posh for me. Brixton (though gentrifying at a rate) is much more my thing. I'm not admitting to having a relative living in Kew though. I once had an interview for the gardens as well.
Only 2,808 hours from Tulsa, only 117 days away from your arms
If it's the same for the tube as it is for overground, these displays will use the same or similar publicly accessible API and datasets as everyone has access to and it would likely be an error in the data rather than a display malfunction. The data is not safety critical and errors do occur with inconsistencies between data fields. The order of departure seems correct even though the time was way off.
As for "an error... which we worked to fix as soon as possible" - I find that hard to believe given it would have auto-fixed itself in around 5 minutes, as soon as the scheduled departure was no longer displayed.
That's just another 'by rote' response. Honesty really doesn't seem to exist these days.
'feels like March will never end'
The writer's suffering even more lockdown-induced chrono-confusion than I am. At least I know it's Thursday.
Re: 'feels like March will never end'
Yes but what year?
Re: 'feels like March will never end'
It's a joke. Life in June is the same as March! March never ended!
1241 min
ot, this reminds me of a Polish song, Wars wita was!, loosely translated as "welcome to Wars!". Sadly, the "wars" bit was / is nothing more than, once infamous in the commie times, a brand of dining cars on Polish railways. Anyway, one verse, in the form of station announcement, went something like this:
"A slow train from Warsaw West do Gdynia Central has increased its delay to approximately 4688 minutes and has been officially declared missing. The state of being missing can increase or decrease..."
And, years later, when communism was over, but the railways in Poland still remained in their goode olde state of mind, one warm summer, I did happen to wait for this particular (night) train at that particular station in Warsaw. And it was delayed and delayed, and eventually came about 6 hrs late, instead of late night it appeared around 5 a.m. already after dawn, when we were supposed to arrive at the destination. While it was a particularly warm night, people on the platform were not amused, particularly parents with kids slumped over their shoulders.
That said, I'm pretty sure people waited a couple of days (and nights) for a train in Europe c. 1945 so I can see some progress :D
[1]Uh oh. Have their been recent changes to the lines?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Subway_Named_M%C3%B6bius