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New Screens for Waterloo

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scb201

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From swtrains.co.uk

New screens for Waterloo
Network Rail is to begin work replacing the current plasma Customer Information Screens at London Waterloo, with LED displays.

Installation is due to begin in February and be completed in April; work will take place at night, so there is minimal disruption. The new LED screens will offer very bright, easily viewable information and will be placed over the platform entrances, which was the location of the old information boards until their replacement in 1999.

According to passenger feedback, the new position for the screens is the most suitable. The visibility of the current screens has caused problems because the reflection of the sun has, at times, made them difficult to read.
 
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scb201

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Well I guess these will be in addition to the current screens, in the short term at least. Think that the current screens are ok, but with a big LED screen above the platforms will stop the crowds arround the current screens, I hope they don't remove what they have already!!
 

Coxster

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Good IMHO. The old ones really are quite pathetic. Every one is a different colour ranging from pink to blue, with some being totally unreadable! Still like the old Solari boards though :p
 

Mojo

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The ones at Waterloo are actually Plasma and not LCD.

Most people say Plasma when they actually mean flat screen or "thin" - however, Plasma screens are now virtually obsolete - they are very expensive, they don't last very long, and are very susceptible to screen burn-in.
 

Jim

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Good IMHO. The old ones really are quite pathetic. Every one is a different colour ranging from pink to blue, with some being totally unreadable! Still like the old Solari boards though :p
Well that is what the LED 1 has replaced isn't it
 

asopu10

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Nottingham had the old fasnioned TV screens till recently and has had some of them replaced with LED screens which are much clearer, but the old screens are left up in some place. Also on a side note above each window in the ticket office is a TV screen saying todays tickets only or information/ all tickets. However I don't see why they spend all that money on TV screens that always say the same thing and could easily have been done with a sign that just slots in!
 

yorkie

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Indeed, a few of the LCD ones have burnt out already...
Huh? LCD does not burn out.

Plasma screen display is an awful, power-guzzling, abysmal technology that should never have been invented!

They are heavier than LCD, fragile, expensive, suffer burn-in, reduce in brightness not long after installed, and are not as sharp as LCD. They guzzle as much power as CRTs, while LCDs use far less.

The ones at Waterloo are actually Plasma and not LCD.
Correct.
Most people say Plasma when they actually mean flat screen or "thin" - however, Plasma screens are now virtually obsolete - they are very expensive, they don't last very long, and are very susceptible to screen burn-in.
While I agree with your reasoning, sadly they are not yet obsolete. They should be though! But many people buy them because, at large sizes (e.g. 42"), they are cheaper initially to purchase than LCDs. However, over time the extra power consumption and shorter life will mean they are paying more. But some people don't care bout the future - all they care about is now.

The sooner all companies stop producing this wasteful technology, and switch to LCD, the better!
 

metrocammel

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AFAIK, this is an "old" version of an LCD screen, at Liverpool St. It is actually still in situ, however doesn't seem to work very well anymore, with most of the letters being illegible.....


IMO though, you simply cannot beat a Solari board.... which Liverpool St also has (quite a modern one at that), but sadly I cant think of another British station with a Solari -other than the clock at Brum New St!! (in France though, many stations, especially in Paris, have Solari-style boards still).
I actually have several of the destinations from the old- Solari at Piccadilly, including some unusual ones like, "Football Special", and "Special Grill Menu(!)" and "Pullman Service". But the replacement piece of rubbish at Picc is atrocious...... and it simply cannot be read when there is a hint of sunlight on it :shock:!!!!


(picture, thanks to gensheet.co.uk)
 

metrocammel

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British stations with solari-London Charing cross, and london liverpool street. AFAIK.

Oh ofc, Charing X, I remember the old board there, but I aint been for a while, and forgot about it (and assumed it succumbed to the mindless renewal like other London termini). I always liked the CHX board, as you could see as it went thru' the destinations the long defunct "1066 Electric" (jaffa-cakesque) logo found flicker by... perhaps it still does? Despite the 1066 Electrics (CEPS) being consigned to the history books :sad:
 

Galvanize

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well...the nearest you'll get to it saying 1066 electrics is Network express, for the London Charing Cross-Margate/sandwich services dividing at Ashford. During the latter part of 2006, the old auto announcer (from the early 1990s) was replaced by phil sayer :(. Could be worse, at least it wasn't the manchester piccadilly lady ;)

Solari at Victoria showed strange destinations such as Carlisle, Newbury Racecourse, Ascot, Edinburgh, etc...
 

metrocammel

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There is one at Bristol airport if that helps :p

lol, I was thinking to myselft for a moment, "there is a station at Bristol Airport"!! :shock:..... mmmm, yes, though, one other airport that I know has a solari (another relatively modern one) is Charles de Gaulle (Paris) terminal 2.... though I imagine around the world in some random airports, say Tashkent Intl.... there will be several Solaris..... you cant beat the sound they make though.....
 

Nick W

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Yesterday the Solari board at LST was down for a bit with some hassle. People had to ask staff so thank goodness it wasn't at peak here it is depended on.

The solari boards are really good and you can come out of LU and quickly find the train. They are clearer than any other board. Cinemas use film to avoid the pixelation of "modern" projectures. We should be using Solari style boards for the same reason.

As a ginger basher's new girl said, "LST wouldn't be LST without them"
 

asopu10

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The LED displays at my local station are awful, but since before they were fitted there was simply no information on the platform its better than nothing, the signs can't be read whenever the sun comes out though! Most of summer in the morning you can only use annoucments, the displays look like there blank but its simply the sun, if a cloud goes by there visable again. Useless.
 

37427

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One of the boards at my local station Enfield Lock hardly ever works, and the one on the London bound platform never shows a train which isn't late.

My dad says Liverpool Street station has over 5 'individual flippers' that don't work, so people see a gap in the list of stations a train is calling at.

He also says he has been asked over 100 times, "why does every train leaves from platform 1?"... his reply has always been "No, That's the name of our ****ty company"

Overall National Express can shove that stupid name up their a*se and get a desent company to run trains on time. I want BR, Network SouthEast or WAGN back!
 

Gizmogle

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He also says he has been asked over 100 times, "why does every train leaves from platform 1?"... his reply has always been "No, That's the name of our ****ty company"

:lol: I love how stupid people can be!
I'd tell them all that the other platforms weren't in service.
The train on platform one would get awful full!
 

Daniel

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One of the boards at my local station Enfield Lock hardly ever works, and the one on the London bound platform never shows a train which isn't late.


Aye, Northbound is an old version anyway and has entire rows of LED's failed, making it impossible to read. Generally, if a train is delayed it will display it... and still give the wrong time. If its on time, "Please listen for announcements".
 

yorkie

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The LED displays at my local station are awful, but since before they were fitted there was simply no information on the platform its better than nothing, the signs can't be read whenever the sun comes out though! Most of summer in the morning you can only use annoucments, the displays look like there blank but its simply the sun, if a cloud goes by there visable again. Useless.
What station is that? The vast majorty of LED displays are good, and indeed LED is now used in all* new installations for the reason that they are the brightest and most visible.

(* as far as I know. There may be some exceptions)
 

Techniquest

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Only last year did they FINALLY shift the ancient TV screens from Worcester's stations! The new LED screens are sooooooo much nicer! Great Malvern now has real-time information available on its Hereford-bound platform too, which was seriously lacking and annoying before! Malvern Link now has some decent system, although like Ledbury it had a fairly modern TV screen for information.

Most CT stations have the new screens now, which is pretty cool. Hereford is still behind the times though, seemingly insisting on using TV screens still...
 

Mojo

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Lots of stations in the former West Midlands county have been fitted with LED 'scrolling' style displays with DfT funding. There's been a mixture of LED and TV screens used on the summary displays (the ones that just say destination, platform and delay info) though.

At Birmingham New Street they're replacing the Plasma screens on the concourse at the moment, don't know if they're going to do any of the platform ones though. That station is hardly affected by sunlight though!

When Chiltern put info screens on all their platforms the other year they used TVs (not flat screen) in a plastic casing.
 

Darandio

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I always remember sitting in the big waiting room at Edinburgh Waverley watching the board, cannot get the 'flick, flick, flick, flick' noise out of my head. I presume reading the posts above that this would be a solari board?
 

Darandio

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Happy days. Could of sat there for hours if I wasn't so far away from home and so young at the time.
 
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