I’m a great fan of BBC Only Connect and I love this kind of real-world oddity, but I am not sure if that below list is of much help to the average visitor to London.
Whilst I can fully understand that there are virtual services out there (Circle and H&C for example), causing platforms to serve more than one line, the fact that 21 of London’s stations use the same platform number for two different platforms isn’t really that useful from a wayfinding point-of-view. Yes, some of these have been around for hundreds of years, but do we reallly need to keep duplicate platform numbers going forward?
At least TWO of these have been added very recently (Tottenham Hale and Stratford International)
P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | P7 | P8 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blackfriars | BFR | Thameslink N/ District WB | Thameslink N/ District EB | ||||||
Blackhorse Road | BHO | Overground WB/ Victoria NB | Overground EB/ Victoria SB | ||||||
Brixton | BRX | Southeastern SB/ Victoria NB | Southeastern NB/ Victoria NB | ||||||
Cannon Street | CST | Southeastern SB/ District EB | Southeastern SB/ District WB | ||||||
Charing Cross | CHX | Southeastern SB/ Bakerloo SB | Southeastern SB/ Bakerloo SB | Southeastern SB/ Northern NB | Southeastern SB/ Northern SB | ||||
Euston | EUS | Avanti NB/ Northern SB | Avanti NB/ Northern NB | Avanti NB/ Victoria NB | Victoria SB | Avanti NB/ Northern SB | |||
Finsbury Park | FPK | Great Northern SB/ Piccadilly WB | Thameslink SB/ Victoria NB | Piccadilly WB | Thameslink SB/ Victoria SB | ||||
Kings Cross | KGX | LNER NB/ Met WB | LNER NB/ Met EB | LNER NB/ Vic NB | Thameslink NB/ Vic SB | LNER NB/ Pidcadlly WB | LNER NB/ Northern NB | LNER NB/ Northern SB | |
Liverpool Street | LST | Met EB | Overground NB/ Met WB | Central EB | Overground/ Central WB | ||||
London Bridge | LBG | Southeastern NB/ Northern NB | Southeastern NB/ Northern SB | Southeastern NB/ Jubilee EB | Thameslink SB/ Jubilee WB | ||||
Marylebone | MYB | Chiltern NB/ Bakerloo NB | Chiltern NB/ Bakerloo SB | ||||||
Paddington | PAD | District SB | GWR WB/ District NB | Bakerloo NB | Bakerloo SB | ||||
Shadwell | SDE | Overground NB/ DLR EB | Overground SB/ DLR WB | ||||||
Shepherds Bush | SPB | Overground SB/ Central EB | Overground NB/ Central WB | ||||||
Stratford International | SFA | Southeastern WB/ DLR SB | |||||||
Tottenham Hale | TOM | GA SB/ Victoria SB | |||||||
Vauxhall | VXH | SWR NB/ Victoria NB | SWR NB/ Victoria SB | ||||||
Victoria | VIC | Southeastern SB/ District EB | Southeastern SB/ District WB | Southeastern SB/ Victoria NB | Southeastern SB/ Victoria SB | ||||
Walthamstow Central | WHC | Overground SB/ Victoria SB | Overground NB/ Victoria SB | ||||||
Waterloo | WAT | SWR SB/ Northern NB | SWR SB/ Northern SB | SWR SB/ Bakerloo NB | SWR SB/ Bakerloo SB | SWR SB/ Jubilee WB | SWR SB/ Jubilee EB | ||
Elephant & Castle | ZEL/ EPH | Thameslink NB/ Northern NB | Thameslink SB/ Northern SB | Bakerloo NB |
Then there are other places (East Ham) where the planform numbers are great and logical and in the dataset … but hidden from view for the real-world H&C/District lines signs.
My guess this is at the core of why you can’t use something like a chatbot to give instructions: you can’t say “go to Euston Station and take platform 2” because there are two (plus Euston Square).