T&W Metro 'got lost' this morning

[Kryten2340]

This was quite funny this morning. I was on the Regent Centre shuttle which left Gateshead at around 8:35 and as it approached West Jesmond I got -

PING The next station is Monument then it was flashing all stations in between up until PING the next station is Heworth. As it approached South Gosforth it did the same thing but with Pelaw and South Shields whilst flashing all the stations in between as well.

What would have caused that to happen?

 

[northernrail]

Im no expert what so ever on the T&W Metro, so if i get what your saying the Internal displays were displaying wrong stations.
Now i dont know if the T&W cars use GPS but it can get confused between locations, down hear in Manchester the new M5000's had the same problem and often got "Lost".

If ive misread the post i do apologise, Mondays arent a good day......

 

[Kryten2340]

Im no expert what so ever on the T&W Metro, so if i get what your saying the Internal displays were displaying wrong stations.
Now i dont know if the T&W cars use GPS but it can get confused between locations, down hear in Manchester the new M5000's had the same problem and often got "Lost".

If ive misread the post i do apologise, Mondays arent a good day......

Nah you've got it spot on. It was displaying the wrong stations as well as annoucing the occasional wrong one. The weird part about it it was as if the train was going the opposite direction at lightning fast speed as the stations were displayed in the right order, albeit for a few seconds each.

 

[142094]

Probably something wrong with the control chip in the cab, or there might be a connection problem. Normally the driver will shut the system down as sometimes the announcements can affect the use of the PA, which is needed above all for the "Doors Closing" announcement. No PA, no service.

 

[WatcherZero]

Does it not require the driver to input a code for the initial route selection? Did the driver input the wrong route code?
In this case the computer is having to deal with the fact its ben told its going A-X but its positioning system is telling it otherwise, X-A.

 

[dvboy]

Been on a London Midland service that did that - announced we were arriving at each station as we left it.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Been on a London Midland service that did that - announced we were arriving at each station as we left it.

But is is amusing when that sort of thing happens and its a real human on the PA!

Had a good mix-up last week on an EC service which was announced as departing from a station we'd already left 40 mins earlier!

 

[142094]

Does it not require the driver to input a code for the initial route selection? Did the driver input the wrong route code?
In this case the computer is having to deal with the fact its ben told its going A-X but its positioning system is telling it otherwise, X-A.

Code is input before the driver presses the ready-to-start button, although there are problems with this sometimes which causes the system to start working at the wrong station. Plus, it also has problems if the code is changed halfway on a journey, such as when a train terminates short due to engineering work or operational problems.

All in all, it hasn't really been a great project.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Good one today at Sunderland - was on one of the Xmas extra services from St James that terminate at Sunderland - however the screen said we were now going to St Peter's instead of Burdon Dock no.1 siding. Hmm.

 

[Greenback]

There was a short period where the auto announcement on the ATW 175's had a habit of announcing Neath instead of Llanelli, causing a great deal of confusion amongst non regulars.

As far as I could tell no one on the train actually wanted to alight at Neath...and of course the train wasn't lost, but as DaveNewcastle said, it can be amusing when these glitches occur!

 

[valenta]

This was quite funny this morning. I was on the Regent Centre shuttle which left Gateshead at around 8:35 and as it approached West Jesmond I got -

PING The next station is Monument then it was flashing all stations in between up until PING the next station is Heworth. As it approached South Gosforth it did the same thing but with Pelaw and South Shields whilst flashing all the stations in between as well.

What would have caused that to happen?

There are a lot of cases of this happening, I was travelling to North Shields last week and just and inbetween Shiremoor and West Monkseaton it started announcing all the station to Heworth. I should imagine that this video was similar to what you experienced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPlp9mZXtMI

 

[317666]

Been on a London Midland service that did that - announced we were arriving at each station as we left it.

That happened to me on a 317 heading down to Liverpool Street a few weeks ago. The PA was trying to announce a slow LST - CBG service, when we were a fast CBG - LST service. On approach to Liverpool Street, the driver came over the tannoy: "I'd like to apologise for the automated announcements saying incorrect information. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but ah well, never mind."

 

[185]

ATW have a 175 set which occasionally messes up like this. Makes it all the worse that they use "stupid tourrettes woman" as the auto-announcer.

Train went all the way from Manchester Oxford Road (ROAD!) to Llandudno Jn and announced every single stop as Earlestown - approach, at, and leaving.

 

[Eagle]

I was in the second half of a double 221 from Birmingham to Edinburgh recently. The PIS worked fine until we passed Lockerbie at speed, at which point it suddenly decided to start the service again and display "Welcome aboard the 10.20 to Edinburgh, calling at Wolverhampton, Crewe..." and announced Haymarket as Wolverhampton and Waverley as Crewe. It also must have forgotten it was in multiple as the coach designation changed from K to D (luckily as weren't picking any more passengers up as that would have confused anyone with a reservation).

 

[142094]

Ex-Merseyrail 142s used to do this as well. Was once at Knottingley when the destination screen told us we were going to Liverpool Lime Street.

 

[tsr]

On a Southern 377 from Horsham north to London Victoria recently, the displays and automated announcements decided that we were going to Littlehampton, and started announcing all the stations from East Croydon to Littlehampton.

The guard was not very polite towards the system, saying (and I quote word-for-word): "Ladies and gentlemen, please ignore the rubbish that is coming out of the PA system, we are in fact going to London Victoria and the next station is Clapham Junction".

The system was turned off after a while, after spewing out some random nonsense about the next station suddenly being Littlehampton.