Whilst I wholeheartedly support National Rail Enquiries’ aggregation of live train running data and disruption information, sometimes it can be wholly inaccurate and present a misleading picture.
Suppose I am travelling from Highbury and Islington to Shoreditch High Street today. I know these stations are on the same line, so I visit the Live Departure Boards site. I am presented with a warning saying there are no train services from this station on Sunday 3rd April.
What? But there’s a list of trains to West Croydon and Crystal Palace that all stop at Shoreditch. I visit the link in the warning and find that, actually, there are no trains between Stratford and Acton Central. The map linked to is very helpful actually, and it shows the route with the disrupted section in red. But what’s missing? The link from Dalston Junction to Highbury and Islington. So, do I need to go to Dalston Junction to take my train now?
The answer is actually quite straightforward – the website is wrong, and I know this because I’ve looked up the departures from Shoreditch High Street and seen that they’ve all departed Highbury and Islington.
What on earth is Joe Public going to do when presented with conflicting and incorrect information? It’s no wonder a number of people I know get aggravated at the quality of disruption information.