Solari departure board

Solari departure boards is a popular designation for the flap display boards used in railway stations, airports and bus terminals around the world to indicate information on departing trains, planes or buses. They got their name from Solari di Udine, the Italian company making such boards.

Until recently, they were in widespread use at large stations in Great Britain. However, in recent years many have been replaced in favour of LED departure boards.

The boards are currently in use at the following stations:

United Kingdom

* Watford Junction, black coloured, full flip columns for Silverlink County services to Northampton, Southern services to Gatwick Airport, and Virgin Trains and First ScotRail services to North Wales, the North-West and Midlands of England and various destinations in Scotland. However, for Silverlink Metro services to London Euston and Silverlink County services to St Albans Abbey the calling points are fixed and only the time of the next train is changeable, due to all trains calling at the same stations.

United States

*30th Street Station Philadelphia. Mounted above centrally located information desk. Small flip boards located at the head of each track stairway.
*Baltimore Penn Station. Mounted above information desk in concourse.
*Boston South Station. 2 Boards, one for MBTA service, the other for Amtrak. To be replaced shortly with LCD boards. Classic flipping noise will be retained in an electronic form to draw attention to updated information.
*Newark Penn Station. In waiting area located above entrance to track concourse.
*New Carrollton Amtrak Station. In waiting area.
*New Haven Union Station. Above stairway to platform concourse. Combined Metro-North and Amtrak.
*Route 128 Station. Located in waiting area.
*Trenton Rail Station, New Jersey. 2 Side by side low profile boards in over-track concourse.
*Atlantic City Rail Terminal. Located in waiting area.
*Secaucus Junction. In the main concourse.

Stations which previously boasted these boards included, amongst others:

United Kingdom

* London Charing Cross, split into two sections with promotional images on destination blinds and up to two calling points per blind, operator shown below calling points, however as of 18th July 2007 these have now been dismantled and taken away replaced by the new LED boards like those used at Waterloo and Victoria.
* London Liverpool Street, taken out of service September 2007. A live webcam used to broadcast frequently updated images of this board, but is now replaced by a cessation announcement: [http://www.vicinitee.com/liverpoolstreetlive/index.cfm] . The board, pictured, was blue coloured, with one destination per blind, operator above calling points, and could show a range of special messages, including "Boat Train", "Special Service", "International", "Stansted Express" and "This train has been replaced by a substitute road service".
* London Victoria, replaced November 2004
* London Kings Cross, replaced within the past 10 years, see GNER promotional video: [http://www.railbritain.com/index.php?option=com_downloads&Itemid=304&func=fileinfo&parent=category&filecatid=2]
* Edinburgh Waverley, replaced by an LED departure board
* Birmingham New Street, replaced by LCD screens. The large clock from the board survives above the gateline, with the remaining panels replaced by advertising.
* Reading railway station
* London Waterloo, replaced by LCD units within the past five years, still there out of use until December 2006, when it was taken down to make way for an LED departure board that became operational in March 2007.

United States

* New York City's Grand Central Terminal, replaced by LCD units during reconstruction of the terminal. It was one of the most famous of the Solari departure boards in the world.
* New York City's Penn Station also featured these boards in both the Amtrak portion and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) portion. The board in the Amtrak portion, which showed departure information, was replaced in 2000 by an LCD board. The boards in the LIRR portion featured departing trains as well as boards at the head of each stairway to platforms for tracks 13 through 21, which displayed the stops and connections associated with the posted train. These were replaced over a period of several weeks between February and April 2006. The new signs, also made by Solari di Udine, use a combination of LCD and LED technology.

External links

* [http://www.solari.it/ Solari di Udine web site]