All stations to Drogheda.
 

I'm just back from London and took the Southern service from East Croydon to Tulse Hill.

Each station we approached stated which carriage we were in and which station we were approaching. At each station we heard an announcement as to the carriage number, destination, next station and subsequent stations.

Tonight I have taken the 2015ish from Pearse on the Northern Commuter. There was no announcement at Pearse or Tara. At Connolly the driver announced in a semi-comprehensible drawl that the first stop is Portmarnock then "all stations to Drogheda".

How would someone from out of town know that this train is to serve their destination?

And does Mosney get served?

What are the announcement rules?

Re previous post, all announcements on the Southern service were automated in a clear, slow woman's voice.

The newer commuter trains have automated announcements, listing the exact stations the train stops at. It doesn't tell you your carriage number, but that doesn't matter since we don't have different carriages stopping in different stations.

Where there is no automated announcement system, or where it's not working (or not switched or), the driver is supposed to announce stations manually. As you've heard, the quality of these announcements varies..

And no trains in service currently stop in Mosney.

Even though I observed on the Northbound (towards Malaahide) PIS at Howth Junction and Donaghmede on a sunday Evening not too long ago (a couple of weeks)

"1 Calling at all stations to Dundalk EXCEPT Mosney"

Is there anything even left of what was the station there?

Mosney has been closed for well over 5 years and doesn't appear on any map or timetable

When the automatic system is working it lists all calling stations, however this has resulted in some criticism since it gets very annoying

Legal requirement is this station, next station and destination

This station? I have heard on arrival at a statio on a luas. Have never have seen it on any trains.

The next station is x

gap

train stops, doors open

This train is for y next station is z

It just doesn't happen in a fluid manner with IE

I use Southern every day, they are on the whole, a decent company with a real desire to get the basics right. That said, the announcements do not occur on every train and the carriage number is only on the new Electrostar sets. [/off topic]

I do think that the platform displays stating "All stations to x" and then the driver saying the same is not enough.

It implies everyone using the train has a knowledge of the network.

It's fairly easy to ignore the noise of the announcement but not easy for the uninitiated to know if their train is going to stop. Especially on the Northern Commuter line where very few services make the same stops.

Thats a little bit like the Irish hate of buying maps and then wondering why they can't find somewhere on the other side of the country.

If it is 'all stops', then you are guaranteed to be allowed off - assuming you've made it onto the correct line in the first place.

I do have to agree with that. The amount of non-local people that have asked me "does this train go to <random station>" for a DART shows that much.

Our system is apallingly hjard to use if you don't have local knowledge. I've often seen DARTs show up when the platform display said something else, with no announcement on either train or platform. It happened to a friend of mine from the UK. The platform display said Maynooth, and she was not to know that electric trains can't go there, and didn't find out until she was in Howth.