Prestbury station CIS

[artemic]

After Arriva took over the Northern franchise in 2016 lots of plans were made for improving stations and the like.
The date defeats me exactly, but some time around ~2019 new CIS screens were 'installed' at Prestbury station.

On the Manchester platform said screen is installed in front of a concrete bridge support, meaning that only one side of the screen is reasonably visible.
On the Stoke platform the screen is installed in front of a station building, meaning again only one side is visible.
This would be an issue even if the screens did work!
I can only assume the issue here was installing the screens far enough away from running lines, whilst also trying to make them visible along the platforms.

Since installation I don't think they have functioned for longer than a week at a time. Initially they displayed the wrong time or constantly rebooted but it seemed they were turned off after a few months or so.
At some point during the beginnings of COVID Northern gave in and they were covered up with "new systems coming soon" wrapping.
This has now disappeared (~October '22) but the screens are either turned off or display apologetic "sorry I'm not working" messages.

In any situation this all means that if one doesn't have a mobile device, it is impossible to know whether it's worth waiting for the hourly train. [This may not actually be necessarily true anymore - do the ticket machines have such facility? The help point was covered up last time I paid any attention, but admittedly that was a while ago]

It seems to be a problem exclusive to the CIS displays, as smartcard readers, a Northern ticket machine and recently an Amazon locker have all been fitted and seem to be working much more reliably. Is it therefore the case that revenue-extracting devices are considered more important to get working?
The CIS of similar design at Adlington (Cheshire) one stop down also seem particularly susceptible to failure, but it has at least functioned since installation.

TL;DR Does anyone know if there are plans to eventually, possibly get around to fixing the CIS at Prestbury, and why there's such difficulty in getting them to work? Or is it simply that there isn't enough money in the area...

 

[scrapy]

Have you contacted Northern about the matter? If so what was their response?

 

[artemic]

Have you contacted Northern about the matter? If so what was their response?

I believe I did tweet them at the time in 2020 and the response was sort of "we've noted this"

I presume the screens have been intentionally turned on since the coverings were removed (when they did come on by themselves they tended to glow through the cover) to display the new notice.

I can appreciate they don't always spot such things but it has definitely been noticed!

 

[plugwash]

It's a while since I've looked, do I dunno if they have been replaced again, but the manchester bound platforma at davenport had the CIS replaced at some point and the new CIS was mounted too high such that the view of it was obscured by the platform canopy until you walked some distance behind along the platform.

 

[scrapy]

I believe I did tweet them at the time in 2020 and the response was sort of "we've noted this"

I presume the screens have been intentionally turned on since the coverings were removed (when they did come on by themselves they tended to glow through the cover) to display the new notice.

I can appreciate they don't always spot such things but it has definitely been noticed!

Might be worth putting in a formal complaint, and asking what the problem is and for a timeframe when the issue will be resolved.

 

[artemic]

Might be worth putting in a formal complaint, and asking what the problem is and for a timeframe when the issue will be resolved.

I might do so, my post was more out of curiosity than anything else but it is rather a farce for those (~60,000 pre-COVID!) who still have to use the station every day (as I did!)

It's a while since I've looked, do I dunno if they have been replaced again, but the manchester bound platforma at davenport had the CIS replaced at some point and the new CIS was mounted too high such that the view of it was obscured by the platform canopy until you walked some distance behind the platform.

That is quite a shame and rather an achievement given the low platforms at Davenport (unless they have been raised since the 142s' withdrawal). It does make you wonder who's installing them

 

[plugwash]

The CIS in question at Davenport hangs from an inverted L shaped support beyond the end of the canopy, with the old CIS you could just about read it when you first entered the platform, but the new CIS was smaller leading to the top line of text being higher up.

 

[artemic]

The CIS in question at Davenport hangs from an inverted L shaped support beyond the end of the canopy, with the old CIS you could just about read it when you first entered the platform, but the new CIS was smaller leading to the top line of text being higher up.

I do remember that canopy... I suppose it's fair enough (although could easily have been avoided with a bit of extra thought and time on the part of whoever commissioned it). I suspect this is a common theme.
The surprise there is that said canopy is still standing!