Northern CIS: uncared for?

[pokemonsuper9]

And of course, "mind the gap between the train and the platform"

"edge".

Class 158 inside display just displaying the word "Fold".

Also seems the displays are not very good at card games.

 

[Purple Train]

Also seems the displays are not very good at card games.

Awesome!

What's the context? Would it be something like "Fold all pushchairs and bicycles"?

 

[northwichcat]

The things I don't like about the Mid Cheshire ones are:
1. It refers to trains going in one direction being services to "Manchester Picc". Picc and Vic sound similar. Piccadilly and Victoria don't. Why shorten the station name to something no passenger ever says?
2. After Ashley they've added (Chs) and that's pronounced in the annoucement. I presume that's an attempt to highlight the first station outside the Greater Manchester boundary. So why not instead include something in annoucements at Piccadilly, Stockport, Navigation Road, Altrincham and Hale about Hale being the last station certain tickets are valid to?
3. If the train is delayed by even 1 minute, the delayed train annoucements (stating the service and the length of the delay) replace the next service annoucement (stating all stops).
4. There's nothing about the number of carriages in use. Something like "The train has 4 carriages but the rear carriage is not in use" would be so useful to passengers waiting for Manchester services at Northwich and Knutsford, who will almost certainly to be waiting in the area where the locked out-of-use carriage will stop.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

What's the context? Would it be something like "Fold all pushchairs and bicycles"?

Something along the lines of

The next station is Hag
-- page break--
Fold

Those displays are full of weird cutoffs like that.

 

[northwichcat]

Northern’s new announcers are staff members and volunteered to re record the onboard announcements. Better than the computer sounding robot voice that it replaced (in my opinion).

You can’t please everyone I guess!

I've got family members from Lancashire and I used to live in Yorkshire. I'm well aware of some people not pronoucing every letter of the word 'the' in their local accent/dialect. But the guard who volunteered to do the announcements does it a lot more obviously than most people.

I don't think using one strong Yorkshire accent for the whole of the north (and areas of the midlands) works that well. When on board crew did all the announcements it was normal for the accent of the annoucements to change where the crew changed over. What would be wrong with automated announcements on a Manchester to Barrow service where a "Mr Bolton" voice does them south of Preston, where "Mrs Kendal" takes over? And I don't mean you need to pick the strongest Bolton or Kendal accents either.

 

[Purple Train]

Something along the lines of

Those displays are full of weird cutoffs like that.

Interesting. The "edge" thing on the 323s does change to "the edge" at Flowery Field and Guide Bridge, but splitting in the middle of the station name is decidedly strange. Does the same thing happen at, say, Salford Crescent? (I don't know, I'm spoiled with the excellent PISes on the 345s!)

 

[northwichcat]

What's the context? Would it be something like "Fold all pushchairs and bicycles"?

I think on Northern services an announcement like that might get a response including *s from cyclists and parents.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

but splitting in the middle of the station name is decidedly strange. Does the same thing happen at, say, Salford Crescent? (I don't know, I'm spoiled with the excellent PISes on the 345s!)

I'm not very sure, I don't pay attention much to the displays since I always know where I am on my own line.
I think most cases have the station name entirely on its own screen, with "Hag" being short enough to fit on the first.
I'll pay attention next time I'm on one.

 

[Parallel]

Those displays are full of weird cutoffs like that.

You get the same on GWR because the screens don’t scroll. Someone commented earlier this year that the tone here made it sound like the train was disappointed/frustrated about having to stop at Swindon which ended up making local news!

 

[CHAPS2034]

Can we talk about the appalling design of the Passenger Information Display screens on the 323s?

Text scrolling between lines and pages, overly wordy announcements.

Surely better to have a couple of lines

Destination: Manchester Picc
Next Stop: Cheadle (14:05)

Clear and all that's needed.

Pedant Alert

Cheadle has not yet got a station
If it had, a 323 might just about get there by taking a run at it downhill off the wires from Edgeley Junction but it's long way from Altrincham in the other direction...

Anyway I was on a 331/0 from Cheadle HULME into Manchester the other day. The male voice saying 'This is the train tuh Manchester Piccadilly' had been replaced by a female voice saying 'This is the train to Manchester Piccadilly'. This was then followed by the original male voice listing the stations.

AFAIK 'This is the train tuh' has been the subject of negative feedback, so presumably they are changing it. Shame as I had finally got round to looking forward to it although it did grate for the first couple of months.

Northern seem to have been refining their announcements after feedback, so they are taking notice of some comments at least.

 

[Techniquest]

That male announcer on the CAF stock always sounds angry to me. As if he was made to do the announcements despite saying no to it.

Whatever voice it is, I try to drown it out with music as much as possible, the female voice was much better. The sooner they disconnect that awful male voice the better, it actually puts me off using Northern.

 

[johntea]

Try catching a class 170 on the Harrogate line, they’ve butchered the announcements on those!

Female voice : “This is the Northern service to…” abruptly cut off by the new male voice “YORK!”

 

[yoyothehobo]

I got this on the screen on a 158 the other day...

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I got this on the screen on a 158 the other day...

Yes I've seen it twice bit recently, 5/10/2023 and 13/10/2023

 

[Bletchleyite]

I got this on the screen on a 158 the other day...

The Linux penguin - shows it's running on Linux.

 

[Adam Evans]

I was beginning to get used to the new onboard announcements until they started intermittently swapping voices mid-sentence. 'This is the Northern service to (insert station name here)', we will be calling at.....' All of that just a few weeks ago was Peter Corley, now the introduction part is an unnaturally sped up Laura Palmer and then the station announcements revert back to Peter. They seem to be unable to make up their mind on who's announcing what and it just comes off as deeply unprofessional and sometimes unclear.

The station announcements have been awful for years. I think putting Celia Drummond in the North was a mistake from the start as to me her accent just grates and sounds out of place when announcing most local Northern stations. The volume is also far too low as you have to be directly underneath a loudspeaker to be able to hear the announcements properly. I much preferred Atos Anne Jermy, especially for the larger stations like Manchester Victoria and Oxford Road. Whilst she wasn't perfect, she was reliable and her estuary voice was clear and distinctive and would echo through the station remaining easily understandable even if you weren't near the loudspeakers.

 

[Puffing Devil]

The Linux penguin - shows it's running on Linux.

That probably explains the poor UI - it's been handled end to end by techies with no consideration for the passenger experience. It displays the information, with no care for presentation or readability.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

That male announcer on the CAF stock always sounds angry to me. As if he was made to do the announcements despite saying no to it.

I've noticed that too. The sheer venom with which he spits out the word "Barnsley" suggests he must have had a very unpleasant experience there.

And of course Northern can't help added yet another irrelevant announcement every time they update their systems; the latest being "You need a valid ticket to travel on this train". Er....I think everyone already knows that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That probably explains the poor UI - it's been handled end to end by techies with no consideration for the passenger experience. It displays the information, with no care for presentation or readability.

I don't think it does at all, really. It's just the underlying OS. You can put a good UI on top of it, e.g. Android* or MacOS**, or you can put a bad UI on top of it, e.g. some of the freebie ones that you get with a Linux distribution.

It is just down to the fact that TrainFX is cheap junk.

* Actually is based on Linux
** Actually based on BSD (Berkeley) UNIX, but it's basically the same thing.

 

[Puffing Devil]

I don't think it does at all, really. It's just the underlying OS. You can put a good UI on top of it, e.g. Android* or MacOS**, or you can put a bad UI on top of it, e.g. some of the freebie ones that you get with a Linux distribution.

It is just down to the fact that TrainFX is cheap junk.

* Actually is based on Linux
** Actually based on BSD (Berkeley) UNIX, but it's basically the same thing.

Or just hand it all to the techies with no training, experience or expertise in UI design, which must have happened here. If anyone with an iota of UI experience was involved in the project, they need to hang their heads in shame.

 

[northwichcat]

That male announcer on the CAF stock always sounds angry to me. As if he was made to do the announcements despite saying no to it.

The media release indicated he was a former army man. The officier ordered him to make the annoucement.

the latest being "You need a valid ticket to travel on this train". Er....I think everyone already knows that.

That's like the one telling everyone where the train is going, just after it's left the origin station. If you didn't know, it's a bit late now!

The Linux penguin - shows it's running on Linux.

Will it ever default to saying the date is 1/1/1970?

 

[yoyothehobo]

My favourite is on the 158 just after stopping at Leeds and half the passengers have already got off:

"We are now on the approach to LEEDS"

 

[Techniquest]

I've noticed that too. The sheer venom with which he spits out the word "Barnsley" suggests he must have had a veru unpleasant experience there.

And of course Northern can't help added yet another irrelevant announcement every time they update their systems; the latest being "You need a valid ticket to travel on this train". Er....I think everyone already knows that.

He doesn't seem too impressed with Leeds or indeed Manchester either, not heard his Barnsley yet so I can't comment on that one.

My personal favourite voices out of all those on the system currently would be on the S7 sets on LU. Two different voices, but they complement each other well in my opinion. If we can't have that, I'd settle happily for the female voice on GWR IETs

 

[Horizon22]

Or just hand it all to the techies with no training, experience or expertise in UI design, which must have happened here. If anyone with an iota of UI experience was involved in the project, they need to hang their heads in shame.

They may been involved but have been subject to serious cost constraints.

 

[Purple Train]

I've noticed that too. The sheer venom with which he spits out the word "Barnsley" suggests he must have had a veru unpleasant experience there.

I seem to recall reading he's either a York or Hull guard, which might explain it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

They may been involved but have been subject to serious cost constraints.

Cost constraints are one thing, but it just being rubbish is another. Literally no thought whatsoever has gone into it.

 

[Horizon22]

Cost constraints are one thing, but it just being rubbish is another. Literally no thought whatsoever has gone into it.

Sure, but it might be that no thought went into it because nobody well paid was involved, or it was not seen as a priority. Not saying it's right, but these are all outcomes.

 

[northwichcat]

Sure, but it might be that no thought went into it because nobody well paid was involved, or it was not seen as a priority. Not saying it's right, but these are all outcomes.

It's also possible someone in the development team was against releasing it in it's current state and wanted to develop it further, but they were overruled by a manager in other team who wanted to start seeing a return on investment.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Digital display reading:
Please wait: booting..
TFX distribution 0.1 tfxdssdlcd /dev/tty1
tfxdssdlc login:

I'd also like to add this display I found on the 27th of September I just found while scrolling through my photos.
It seems to be asking for a login.

 

[CHESHIRECAT]

Wilmslow C.I.S. still says Restaurant car for First class passengers for Avanti services (to Manchester and Euston!)