Train times

Over the past couple of years, I have been following the development of the UK Departure Boards. It’s an at-home version of the train departure screens that can be found at railway stations. As I have been watching their development, the devices have got much better and easier to configure, but the large ones are quite expensive, and I am not sure I could justify one just for the fun. I think if I owned an office, then it would be great to have one for my staff. But, I don’t.

Some time ago, I became aware of the desktop version, which is a very small screen that sits on a table top or desk and has the look of the real departure board. The screens show live departures for many of the UK’s Train/Tube/Bus/Tram stations and can be customised to show the station and platforms of your choice. At the end of last month, I finally decided to order one and, today, it arrived. It is now configured to show the London-bound platforms at Raynes Park. Now to find out how useful, or not, it will be. My hope is that, because we live close to the station, we can watch for the next train from this unit and only leave when we know there’s a train on the way. Post-pandemic, there has been a marginal reduction in the frequency of trains from Raynes Park, so this little screen means that we can avoid the 15-minute wait on a platform.