The source of the information and the known limitations of the Live Departures and Arrivals can be found in the Live Departures and Arrivals Boards Limitations information.

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The information given is 'as is' - the data is retrieved from the trains themselves as they pass through 'monitoring points' and from the Train Operating Companies themselves. Trains can, however, both lose and gain time against the predictions given. Particular note should be made that expected departure times are the time that the train pulls away from the platform. Doors may close up to a minute or more before this time. Passengers are therefore advised to allow plenty of time to get to the platform and board the train.

Platform numbers, where shown, are provided by the customer information systems which drive on-station displays. Platform numbers can change, often at short notice. Passengers are therefore advised to re-check the customer information screens at the station before proceeding to the platform.

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All of the National Rail stations in mainland Great Britain are covered by Live Departure Boards. In addition, some connecting bus stops and ferry termini are also covered for some services.

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Visit the Live Departure Boards and type in the name of the station that you wish to see a live departure board for.

If you want to see the departures from your local station, then leave the button for this unchanged. Alternatively, change it to "Arrivals" if you want to see information on trains arriving at the station, or select "Both" if you want to see arrivals and departures combined on a single page. Press the "Find Trains" or “View Train Times” button and your station's page will appear. If Live Departure Boards isn't sure which station you wanted, you will be given a list of the stations that most closely match the name you typed. Select the correct station and press the "View Train Times" button again.

There are boxes headed "Live Departures & Arrivals" on most pages throughout the National Rail web site. These work in the same way as the Live Departure Boards index page - just type in your station's name, select departures or arrivals as required and press the "Find Trains" button.

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If your station has relatively few trains, finding the train of interest to you isn't too difficult. However, a few stations on the National Rail network have several dozen arrivals and departures each hour and finding the train that calls at your destination can be difficult.

If you type the name of the station you're travelling to in the "Limit by" box, Live Departure Boards will only show the trains from your station that will call at your destination. The Live Departure Boards only shows direct trains however, so if you're going to change trains, you will need to type the station where you will change trains instead of your destination.

If you're meeting someone at the station, you can ask Live Departure Boards to only show you the trains that called at the station where they're travelling from. Type the station they're travelling from (or where they changed trains if it's not a direct train) and change the "To" to "From" before pressing the button. The station page's heading will confirm that you've used "To" or "From" and the station names you entered. If no trains are shown, then there are no direct services at this time of day. You might want to use our Journey Planner to see where a change of train is necessary for the journey that you're interested in.

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Yes. Use the Live Departure Board to display the station page you want, using the "Limit by" facility if you want your favourite or bookmarked page to only show trains to or from a particular station.

Once the page is displayed, use your browser's "Favourites" or "Bookmark" facility. You will always get the latest train information when you use your "Favourite" or "Bookmark" to come back.

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Every station on the National Rail network has a three-character code allocated to it. You can use these instead of the full station names when you type a station name into the Live Departure Boards index page, a "Limit by" box or when using the Online Journey Planner. These codes also work for TrainTracker Text.

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Find the train on the station page and click on the "Details" link in the "Train Details" column.

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On some stretches of railway Live Departure Boards gets train movement reports for places between stations, or at stations where the train doesn't call. The "no report" in the "actual" column indicates that there was no report received for this station, but that a report has been received for somewhere later in the train's journey.

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Find the station that you're interested in by choosing a route through the Online Journey Planner or the Live Departure Boards. Then click on the station name once that route has been found by the system. The train page will be replaced by a page of information about the station that you clicked on. You can use the "back" button on your browser to return to the train page.

If you're looking at a Live Departure Boards station page then you'll find a link near the top of the page to information about the station. You can also click on the destination or origin of any train to see information about those stations.

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For trains operated by Train Operating Companies that are members of National Rail, the name of the Train Operating Company will be listed against the train details on the Live Departure Boards station page. Click on the Train Operating Company name to see a page of information about the Train Operating Company, including their contact details.

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There are several ways that you can find out about trains running today or in the future. Follow these links to find out more.

• TrainTracker™ is an automated telephone system that can provide information about how trains are running today as well as the timetable for future journeys. Dial 0871 200 4950 and answer the questions. Calls cost 10p per minute from a BT Landline.
• TrainTracker™Text sends a Live Departure Board to your mobile phone as a text message. Just text the name or three letter code for the station you are interested in to 484950.
• If you have a suitable mobile phone, you can see a Live Departure Board using our WAP service.
• For users of mobile phones with more sophisticated facilities, we offer a PDA version of Live Departure Boards.
• You can call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50.

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