fgwrich
Established Member
A tortuous journey yesterday on the SWR network made we wonder again if those who design and implement passenger information regimes ever have to use them themselves?! SWR have taken to claiming that trains which may have a departure time over half an hour away are "Due", when they really mean that they are 'On Time'. This is an issue with any reversing train, and I frequently see it at Guildford with, among others, the Farnham shuttles. To claim a departure time half an hour away is "due" is simply wrong, and is another example of the railway inventing new, wrong, terms for ones which already exist! The Farnham train I saw also displayed "Winchester", whereas very many I saw on my travels were simply showing "SWR" - SWR are very poor at this.
Then there is the use of platform train indicators to show other messages, most notably forthcoming engineering works. At Woking, with the service in turmoil yesterday, passengers were dashing from one platform to another as trains were altered, only to see a message about engineering works, not which train was about to leave without them as they waited for the information to be shown! To have passengers dithering around train doors because they can't be sure that they are boarding the right train is counter-productive, as they are likely to obstruct the doors until they see the information they need.
Part of my career on the railway was in designing passenger information systems, and the current state of things is depressing to witness.
I forgot how irritating this system was until I was stood on Platform 3 at Basingstoke for a while last night. PIS Screens show that the all stops service to Waterloo is "DUE". Then as the set for the service rolls in, it changes to "Please do not board the train now approaching platform 3, this is not for customer use" (or something now unnecessarily longer) before switching back to announcing that this train is the all stops service to Waterloo. Cue a dozen passengers standing on the platform waiting for the next service as this one has already advised passengers not to board it before making a last minute dash for it!
Another thread mentions the Abellio / GTR style screens - can we please have more of those please and replace this outdated LED systems please?!