Dodgy Automated Announcements

[jon0844]

The old system was never this bad, so a lot of the new 'quirks' must be down to the software used by Atos Origin. I just wish they'd ditch it, or have the guts to admit it is rubbish and work hard to fix it - threatening Atos Orgin as required, either not to pay or claim for damages.

Instead, I think FCC will just bumble along and think it's okay to mislead people, allow them to get the wrong train, miss trains and possibly incur the wrath of RPIs who won't care that someone claimed they were told this was the nn:nn to yyy and it isn't.

 

[infobleep]

My favourite announcement was the one to announced on the trains as we arrived into Petersfield. It was about a rail connecting bus to Stretham (spelt as it sounded, although they may have meant Streatham. This went on for over a year, with rarely any correction by SWT guards. Then it suddenly changed to Waterloovile as it should have been from over a year previously.

Recent ones that amuse me are at Clapham Junction. For example the 16.42 is announced as "Brighton & Brighton". For a time they also referred to the front coach and rear coaches or may have been front coaches and rear coach. I forget which order and I think the screen said something else but still not the correct number of coaches. Now they do at least give out the correct number of coaches.

The on board announcement says 'Passengers continuing to Brighton should join the front 8 coaches. Passengers continuing to Preston Park should join the rear 4 coaches.'

I really wanted to combine the two so it read. "The next train is the 16.42 to Brighton & Brighton. Passengers continuing to Brighton should join the front 8 coaches. Passengers continuing to Brighton should join the rear 4 coaches"

The latest one I've heard is the 17.42 to Eastbourne and Ore. It is a 12 car train and the announcement started out by saying you need to be in the front 8 coaches if you wished to alight at Hamden Park. Then it went on to say that only the rear 4 coaches would be stopping at Hamden Park. Well how does one get off from the front 8 coaches when only the rear 4 are stopping..... It may be that the train stops twice at Hamden Park but it isn't obvious from the announcement that it does.

I put these issues down to the station being owned by SWT and those two services being run by Southern.

The thing that really gets me though is the automated announcements made as the train doors are closing; train is starting to leave or worse, as it's already pulled out of the station. If I hear a train announcement, I expect to be able to board the train.

Cutting off automated announcements mid sentence isn't good either. If they want people to take the announcements seriously, e.g. the bags left unattended then they should treat them as such and not cut them off.

 

[thefab444]

Recent ones that amuse me are at Clapham Junction. For example the 16.42 is announced as "Brighton & Brighton". For a time they also referred to the front coach and rear coaches or may have been front coaches and rear coach. I forget which order and I think the screen said something else but still not the correct number of coaches. Now they do at least give out the correct number of coaches.

The above train is announced as "Brighton & Preston Park" at Victoria and East Croydon, SWT don't seem to know how to put false destinations in for dividing services. The "coach" issue occurs when the CIS hasn't had the full formation of the train entered in.

The latest one I've heard is the 17.42 to Eastbourne and Ore. It is a 12 car train and the announcement started out by saying you need to be in the front 8 coaches if you wished to alight at Hamden Park. Then it went on to say that only the rear 4 coaches would be stopping at Hamden Park. Well how does one get off from the front 8 coaches when only the rear 4 are stopping..... It may be that the train stops twice at Hamden Park but it isn't obvious from the announcement that it does.

The train does stop at Hampden Park twice, the first time you need to be in the front 8 coaches, then after it has split at Eastbourne you need to be in the rear 4 coaches for the second stop at Hampden Park.

 

[umontu]

Automated announcement at Kirkham & Wesham seems to have a habit of announcing a Blackpool North arrival (in about 5 minutes) when a Blackpool South train has just pulled into the platform... Think that would be annoying if you relied on it.

It's easy to see how, as the train pulls in, the announcement "The next train at Platform 1 is the [time] Northern service to Blackpool North" could confuse passengers.

 

[WestCoast]

Automated announcement at Kirkham & Wesham seems to have a habit of announcing a Blackpool North arrival (in about 5 minutes) when a Blackpool South train has just pulled into the platform... Think that would be annoying if you relied on it.

That's if it is working!

I was on a Merseyrail 507/508 (I can't tell the difference!) today and the announcements went berserk, repeating the safety spiel over and over!

 

[umontu]

That's if it is working!

I was on a Merseyrail 507/508 (I can't tell the difference!) today and the announcements went berserk, repeating the safety spiel over and over!

I've nicknamed the kirkham one as Dorris (Direct oposite of reality relaying information system).

 

[Jordy]

Is Kirkham working now? It was reported as broken a few days ago

 

[umontu]

Is Kirkham working now? It was reported as broken a few days ago

It was on tuesday, that was the same day a pacer broke down three times between Blackpool South and Preston. I got on it at Kirkham... The announcement system got the delay time surprisingly spot on.
I'm there on tuesday again this week so I'll find out if it's back on then.

What I find odd is the same system is used on all the South Fylde stations and it always reads as "The next train at platform one" when there is no other platform. Doesn't exactly present a personal touch to the toc's customers.

 

[northwichcat]

I was on a Merseyrail 507/508 (I can't tell the difference!) today and the announcements went berserk, repeating the safety spiel over and over!

They were very similar trains they were refurbished to identical standards. The only apparent difference is whether it says 507 or 508 on the front and rear of the train. The 508s tend to appear on the Northern line more than the Wirral lines but I don't know if that's coincidence or whether they are diagrammed that way.

 

[WestCoast]

Is Kirkham working now? It was reported as broken a few days ago

It appears so, although still intermittently. South Fylde line ones have been working too, again it appears intermittently.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

They were very similar trains they were refurbished to identical standards. The only apparent difference is whether it says 507 or 508 on the front and rear of the train. The 508s tend to appear on the Northern line more than the Wirral lines but I don't know if that's coincidence or whether they are diagrammed that way.

Oh right I see, I don't normally look at numbers!

 

[infobleep]

The above train is announced as "Brighton & Preston Park" at Victoria and East Croydon, SWT don't seem to know how to put false destinations in for dividing services. The "coach" issue occurs when the CIS hasn't had the full formation of the train entered in.

The train does stop at Hampden Park twice, the first time you need to be in the front 8 coaches, then after it has split at Eastbourne you need to be in the rear 4 coaches for the second stop at Hampden Park.

The latter didn't occur to me straight away though. My first thought was this can't be possible. So imagine what someone who has never been towards Hamden Park before but is having to get out their might think.

However having no automated announcements is even worse. I was on a First Capital Connect train once time and should I have got out at East Croydon. However I was so engrossed in something that I missed the stop because there was no announcement for it. Next thing I realised I was heading towards London Bridge. Now that so many trains have announcements you end up being surprised when you don't hear them and it seems strange.

 

[317666]

The PIS system on NXEA 317s is notoriously unreliable - on the majority of units it just doesn't work, and yesterday on 317887, it was something like this:

*Train approaches Cheshunt* "We are now approaching, Cheshunt" (but very distorted with bits cut out due to dodgy speakers, presumably.

Then, before we arrive: "This is, Cheshunt. This train is for Cambridge. The next stop will be, Broxbourne".

Then when the train arrives at Cheshunt and the doors are unlocked, nothing is announced. This keeps happening over and over for the rest of the journey.

 

[jon0844]

NX fitted the same system to the (now) FCC 317/1s and it is indeed a mess. Loads of screens don't work, or are totally corrupted, and the sound can cut out all over the place. Like the 365s, if it doesn't work in one coach it doesn't mean it isn't working elsewhere - but the poor passenger has enough hassle finding a seat a times than worrying about whether the coach has working screens/speakers, and thermostats that don't keep the heating on in the summer (or off in the winter).

Now, given the number of lights that are out, I suspect there's a problem with the regulation of power on the 317s. I am not sure if anyone on here has any knowledge of the engineering, but I can only imagine this to be the case. I am pretty sure the PIS system takes the power from the light the screen 'replaced' and has no surge/spike protection.

Of course, it has to be turned on and that's another issue on the FCC side. Many drivers don't set it up at all! I am yet to go on a NXEA 317 where there has been no information, so maybe NX is stricter on its use?

 

[Jordy]

It appears so, although still intermittently. South Fylde line ones have been working too, again it appears intermittently.

This "new" system using Celia that has appeared at a wide number of Northern stations seems to be terribly unreliable, I was on the Tyne Valley last week and it was working file until around 1600 - when it stopped (at all the stations!), Cottingham appears to announce in one direction only and at Redcar the speakers only work on one platform, despite them all being fairly new, it's really quite poor.