Long-suffering commuters on a stretch of the Tube could be forgiven for barely believing their eyes when information boards flickered to life – ten years after they were first installed.

For residents of Eastcote the boards became something of a local mystery.

They were fitted when the station underwent renovation in 2005. But, since being installed, the dot matrix boards have only displayed a fixed and rather obvious message about whether trains leaving from particular platforms are eastbound or westbound with no real-time information.

However, nearly ten years on, passengers can finally see the destination of each train and the exact time until they will arrive at the platform, something that has been in operation on many stations on the Tube since the last century.

Other residents who live in towns on the Uxbridge branch also experienced a long delay between the boards being fitted and them going live.

A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said the delay was because the old signalling system was incapable of generating the necessary details.

Anthony Wood, chairman of the Federation of Met Line Users Committees, said: “The whole thing has dragged on and on, on the North West branch.

"There has just been one delay after another and passengers have had enough.

“I know the background because of my role [chairman] but for most people the boards were something of a mystery.”

The renovation at Eastcote in 2005 was part of TfL's then five-year £10bn investment programme.

The boards began to carry ‘live’ information at end of February at Eastcote, with other stations on the Uxbridge branch joining them soon after.

Chris Groom, President of Eastcote Residents' Association, said: ”At last, the suburban outer reaches of the underground have caught up with inner London.”

A spokesman for TfL said: “The dot matrix indicators at Eastcote and some other locations on the Metropolitan line were installed when the stations underwent modernisation or refurbishments several years ago.

“Thanks to some very recent technological advances and early preparatory works in advance of the start of the signalling work, we have found a way to start generating and displaying some real-time information.

"We are now trialling this new equipment at stations on the northwest end of the Metropolitan line.”