You know what TfL's We Can't Be Arsed To Print That Any More department has started printing again?
First and last trains.
They started omitting them recently on station posters, instead exhorting passengers to scan a QR code and use the TfL website instead. They also suggested using the TfL Go app even though the TfL Go app doesn't show first and last trains. Unsurprisingly passengers weren't impressed, especially on the outer reaches of the Metropolitan line where trains are irregular and less frequent.
One of the triggers was a desire to save money, apparently about £30K a year, because it's easier to slap up a generic poster than to check all the correct departure times and make a bespoke poster. Another trigger was the introduction of new timetables on seven Underground lines last month. First and last train times don't usually change but they did this time on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines, so this sudden disappearance was especially unhelpful. I blogged all about this last week.
I'm not in the habit of checking the outer reaches of the Metropolitan line myself so originally had to rely on evidence provided by others. A Redditor called AdamLukePaul posted a photo showing the new poster at Chorleywood station, so it was definitely there, and also definitely at Amersham and also definitely at Chalfont & Latimer.
But others amongst you who live out that way saw different evidence ("Amersham still has the old poster", "Chorleywood has a poster with full train times", "Rickmansworth has the proper posters") so what was going on? I've been out to have a look.
Firstly, as far as I can tell there are no remaining timetable-less posters north of Harrow on the Hill. There definitely were but they've either been removed or replaced. Here for example is the new poster at Chorleywood, one of two, which shows all tube and Chiltern times along with first and last trains.
The poster on the opposite platform is looking very worn with a folded corner and a soggy stripe all down the right hand side, but the date in the corner is 13.1.25 so it's not been up long. Indeed I'm pretty sure it wasn't up on 13.1.25, the emptier poster was, and this one's been printed since to replace it.
The situation at Chalfont & Latimer is even more cut and dried. There are now three posters with full timetables, one on each platform, and if you look carefully you can see the old QR code underneath! The accursed posters all went up, someone's since given the order to replace them and the new posters have been slotted in on top.
A special round of applause to the muppet who put a northbound timetable on platform 3, the shuttle bay that's been disused since 2010, because the only passengers potentially hanging around must be waiting for a southbound train.
Meanwhile several stations now have a poster that combines a timetable with an exhortation to scan a QR code, i.e. the best of both worlds. Watford's got one, also Pinner and also Northwood, as seen here.
But it's not that simple. At a large number of outer Metropolitan line stations the posters are now out of date. The posters at Croxley both say 8.4.24-29.9.24 in the bottom right hand corner, for example, i.e. this is last year's pre-leaf-fall timetable. The same is true at Rickmansworth and all across Harrow-on-the-Hill.
Meanwhile the timetable at Northwood Hills is dated 21.5.23, and Moor Park manages to have a 21.5.23 on one platform and 8.4.24-29.9.24 on the other. What I'm guessing happened here is that the nasty new posters have been taken down but no replacement has yet been printed so what you're seeing is the timetable that used to be underneath.
It's a mess of inconsistencies, basically, but much better than erasing all the train times and expecting people to look them up on their phones.
Just don't expect to see such retractions elsewhere on the network. New posters without first/last trains remain on the Central line, Jubilee line, Circle line, District line, Hammersmith & City line and the inner reaches of the Metropolitan line, with no sign of being replaced. But even this hasn't been done consistently. For example the posters on Bow Road's platforms are still dated 11.9.22 so although they show first and last train times they're now out of date.
One unfortunate area with no reprieve is the arc of stations served by the Hainault shuttle on the Central line. These have some of the least frequent services on the network, only every 20 minutes, and used to have a timetable poster so locals could learn when best to turn up. But this time last year they too were replaced by pig-lazy QR code atrocities and these alas are still in place. Below is the poster at Roding Valley where passengers have been disregarded for the last twelve months, and exactly the same rubbish appears on the platforms at Chigwell, Grange Hill and Hainault.
A possible reason for this is that the Central line timetable has been in freefall of late as insufficient rolling stock has meant a significant reduction in service. But the shuttle has generally been protected so it does feel particular two-fingered to print a bland overview with acres of blank space which just says "A Woodford-Hainault shuttle is running all day" without mentioning the 20 minute frequency, when it starts or when it stops.
It's not all dreadful. Here's the new poster for the Waterloo & City line which displays all you need to know really quite simply. But you'll notice it does include the first and last train times, they haven't jettisoned those for no good reason unlike at the many dozens of stations where they have.
To summarise
• Over the last few months many timetable posters have been replaced by dumbed-down versions without first and last train times.
• Someone has since made the decision to remove the new posters from the outer reaches of the Metropolitan line.
• Some of these stations now have updated full timetables and some now show old timetables.
• It all looks a bit hasty and uncoordinated to be honest.
• Uninformative posters remain on other lines.
It's a partial victory for common sense over blinkered efficiency.
But don't put your phone away just yet.
