This poster is now a permanent fixture on Platform 11 at Stratford station.
But...
But surely the rear two coaches will be empty if nobody uses them, which seems a particularly perverse way to avoid overcrowding.
I mentioned this on Twitter on Friday, and even Chas out of Chas and Dave was sufficiently moved to retweet it.
Platform 11 is where trains start their journeys to Tottenham Hale and Bishops Stortford. Passengers arrive on the platform at the rear of the train, hence the potential overcrowding.
Sometimes the train has four carriages. More usually the train has eight carriages. Walking past the first two and filling up the other six might then make more sense, especially when it's rush hour.
When I turned up on Friday the train had four carriages, so the sign was urging everyone to leave the back two empty and crowd into the front two, which was bonkers.
When I turned up on Saturday the train had eight carriages. Most people casually ignored the sign and sat in the rear two coaches, which weren't even half full because it wasn't rush hour. A few good people walked up to the next two carriages, but these were even less full. Nobody whatsoever sat in the front four carriages, nobody at all, because they were an unnecessary hike up the platform.
During the rush hour I can imagine the back of the train gets really busy, particularly because these services sit in the platform for a good twenty minutes before setting off. What's more, the next two stops up the line both have exits at the rear of the platform, so a lot of people are going to want to sit at the back of the train no matter what.
But asking "Please do not use the rear two coaches of the train" is ridiculous, because the command is based on the paradoxical assumption that too many people do. And chaining the sign to a pole so it's always on display is ridiculous, because most of the time no mitigating action is required.
Ask properly, or don't ask at all. Rabbit rabbit bunny jabber rabbit rabbit rabbit bunny rabbit jabber jabber rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit bunny bunny jabber rabbit.
