CityRail updated their indicator boards last Monday. Big deal, so you say, and normally I'd agree with you.
The change involved finally adding a "via" destination to the indicator software, shown on screens and announced on the platforms by the computer and those dulcet(?) tones of Taylor Owynns. The current system's been around since not long after 2000, and I always found it a bit lacking - instead of "via" it'd only say "limited stops" or "all stops" on screen, and eventually spoke only the final destination. Especially when your home town has at least five ways of getting home (you can get to Campbelltown via the Airport, via Sydenham, via Granville, and the rare trips via Bankstown or Regents Park...)... although not usually on the same platforms.
Given that Hornsby trains going two ways (via the North Shore or Macquarie Park) will be departing from the same platform come Sunday week, I can understand why they're doing it now. Most of the selections of "via" destinations are straightforward and sensible enough, however I'm sorta scratching my head at some of the selections of "via" destinations. Line by line...
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North Shore Line. Trains to Hornsby/Berowra get "via Gordon"; short trains to Gordon get "via Lindfield"; shorter trains to Lindfield get nothing. I can understand why they're avoiding Chatswood as a "via": since the Macquarie Park trains go through Chatswood too.
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Northern Line. The main reason for all this mess. At Central, trains going towards what will be Epping are signed as "via Strathfield". Trains toward Hornsby via the new link will be "via Macquarie Park"...cue everyone calling that branch the "Macquarie Park Line", much like the "Granville Line" that the South Line is often called. North of Central though, Epping trains are shown as "via Central". May be useful at somewhere like Chatswood, but useless anywhere between (say) Town Hall and North Sydney! (Incidentally, current Macquarie Park shuttle trains get "via Macquarie Park" at Chatswood but nothing inside the link itself.)
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Western Line. It appears "via Parramatta" is the preference, although again, suffers from the same "via Central" fate at Town Hall. Parramatta is okay, although Strathfield is historically used more as a "via" point.
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Bankstown Line. Sensible: "via Bankstown" for trains to Lidcombe or Liverpool. Short runs to Bankstown itself get "via Campsie" - which is okay, especially since express trains in the afternoon run limited stops to Campsie, then all to Bankstown and beyond.
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Inner West Line. Sensible: "via Regents Park" for the Bankstown trains. Short trains to Ashfield get nothing.
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South Line. Sensible: "via Granville" for these trains. So straightforward, I forgot to add it the first time. :P
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Airport/East Hills Line. Airport trains have "via Airport" reinstated. When the current indicators were introduced at the start of the decade, "via Airport" was the only "via" destination seen, replacing the usual "limited stops" line, before being dropped. Not sure what the peak-hour trains via Sydenham are signed as - I wouldn't be surprised if they signed it "via Beverly Hills" instead of "via Sydenham", for similar reasons as to why they avoided Chatswood or Hurstville.
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Eastern Suburbs/Illawarra Line. Ranges for reasonable to plain weird, since they avoided Hurstville. Limited stops services to Cronulla and Waterfall get "via Kogarah" - reasonable since a lot of people set down there, and it's a major station (undercover too). But all stations services (as on the short runs to Hurstville/Sutherland) get "via Banksia". Sutherland
via Banksia??? I'm curious as to how many actually set down there, but I wouldn't really call it major. Eastern Suburbs trains get nothing at Central, although wouldn't be surprised if further down the line it's shown as "via Central".
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Carlingford Line. Okay, I just put this in for shits and giggles. ;)
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City Circle. At Central, "City" has been replaced by "City Circle" again, no "via". The signs used to say "City Circle", but always limited stops for some reason...and was eventually replaced by "City - all stops" instead. At Redfern - where monitors have replaced the LEDs on half the platforms - trains are shown as, eg. "Museum via Town Hall" and announced "Museum via City Circle". I've never liked them using Museum or Town Hall as destinations, because "City" services are usually described by how they
enter the circle - trains signed as "Museum" are often spoken as "City via Town Hall". But this is compromise enough.
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Intercity trains. No idea about these, and the intercity platforms at Central haven't had their indicators changed.