Northern on train displays

I was on a refurbished Northern 150 last night and was blinded by the fluorescent lights with no covers. Why on earth are they so bright? And those automated announcements are annoying too!

 

You mean that you actually managed to get a guard to announce a station?! They don't bother in these parts - probably too busy bickering over who should open the doors.

 

I had a pacer on the Atherton line the other day, with automated announcements which could have woken the dead!

 

Probably too busy in the train dealing with passengers, more likely. I thought that was one of the objectives of this ill-considered proposal, to give them more opportunity to do that? They can’t be everywhere at once.

 

Or too 'busy' in the back cab being miserable!
That's what my experience has been with most Northern guards!

 

I'm surprised they think customers will be interested that they're in a "Class 150" - are they trying to turn the general public into trainspotters? Perhaps they should add a bit more information, "...built by BREL York in 1984, this unit has worn three different liveries but like almost all Northern stock, still retains its original upholstery. It holds the world record for 'most overcrowded train', set on 15th January 2008..."

But the very phrase "Welcome aboard a Class 150" has a sort of grim perverseness about it - whoever wrote it was persumably having a laugh. Perhaps they should add "remember, a third class ride is better than a first class walk".

 

If the 'FX' system is set correctly it should announce the stations pre journey, give a initial safety message, then announce the stations as they approach using GPS.

If only the destination code is used rather than the 'FX' code, it will just hold the destination in the blinds and then give the message the poster mentioned. It clearly was not set for the 'FX' code.

 

You'd think it'd be set up to show the destination only rather than a piece of useless information...

 

Some do. But you can't please everyone can you. I have had people moan about them announcing stations when I have set it up correctly.

 

I've only been on one refurbished Northern DMU with a fully functional PIS (full display with parallel audio announcement).
Most just have the destination displayed.
Even then it scrolls horizontally relentlessly, even if it only has to show "Preston".
The full information overloads the small one-line display, especially when it contains generic stuff as well as journey details.
At least the 319s have stopped warning of full fares to be paid if you board without a ticket.
Meanwhile the big new TPE screens on the refurbished 185s are pretty good.
Hopefully the new CAF stock (for both operators) will have better displays than the ex-BR stock.

 

Again, the problem for this lies with Northern. If you go into the cab you will find a sheet stuck to the bulkhead with destination codes, These codes are destination codes only and will not activate the PIS system.
The PIS system or FX codes were sent to guards mobiles and are stored there, also some booklets were issued out. So let me explain the problem
Scolling through your mobile to find the codes can literally take ten minutes. There is that many of them. Think of all the services and stopping patterns, there lies the problem. It needed radical thought, but radical thought is not Northern.s strongpoint.
I do agree though that something has to be done, because it is yet another failure.

 

True. Even the fairly pointless act of showing the Northern website would be more useful, though. Everyone who cares that it's a Class 150 already knows!

Or just show "..." as blank station PIS displays seem to generally show (so it's visible that they are not broken).

 

That seems poor design, as I said - if you use those, it should show the destination (only) on the inside PIS.

Mind you, the system in requiring different codes is clearly flawed - logically, you should just have to sign in with the headcode/reporting number/whatever it's called i.e. 1A11 and it should know what to show.

 

one would have thought the on train system could use 3g to get the stopping pattern from the timetable database. All the guard would need to key is the 4 character train ID. One would hope there was the facility for the guard to tell the system what stations have been called at so they are not displayed any more.

 

The problem is that like most Northern related things it was done on the cheap.

 

I had that once on XC, as it is so much cheaper to split a Leeds - Bristol journey (or it used to be anyway!) I once had a set of tickets that a 52 card playing deck would have been jealous of!

The main criteria with displays and announcements these days seems to be without fail they MUST mention the bloody 'See It, Say It, Sorted!' campaign!

 

The most recent episode of the Now Show did an amusing parody on that.

 

But this should only be used on services with all vehicles fitted with TrainFX. If there is an unrefurbished unit in the consist, the new codes can't be used as it can prevent the cab to cab being used.

 

Umm. Not sure you are right here. But neither am I sure you aren't. I have had a 158 and 153 mix where the 158 it worked and the 153 was not fitted, and it seemed to work fine. But I can't comment on the cab to cab. You have spiked my interest, something to try if get this in the future.

 

It took a bit of time to find, as the brief was issued in April, but here is an excerpt from the brief.

 

Excellent. I remember the brief but missed that.

 

I saw a photo online of a PIS on a 142 showing only the first four letters of "Clitheroe"! I won't give the link as it's not family friendly!

 

Crikey. I hope there isn't an unfortunate failure of LEDs when Scunthorpe goes on the front.

 

I've thought the same. It also annoys me when I've seen these scrolling only the final destination - "Manchester Picc", especially annoying as that would fit on the display without scrolling, and then wouldn't be so distracting!

 

There's at least one of Northern's Merseryrail 142s that upon programming the destination shows the ultimate destination on the interior displays but no sooner the doors are shut and the train sets off this automatically defaults to the wording "Last Stop" or similar for the duration of the journey.

I've had the set twice this year and both times on Hope Valley Line coming back from Sheffield and both times the same thing has happened unless I've had 2 different Merseyrail sets and the problem lies within the settings for Manchester Piccadilly on them.

 

The good news is that an update to train fx is being rolled out (slowly) across the fleet allowing input of the headcode and instant updates as to expected arrival times. There are a couple of units on the network that have the update fitted and having used it I can say it's a massive improvement.

 

It is literally a requirement, unfortunately.

 

At the moment to input a route code to display and announce the correct stations, we have to trawl through a 52 page booklet to find not only the route, but the ones with the correct stopping pattern

An upgrade is on the way where the headcode will suffice, but that'll take a few months