Trivia: Examples of errors or faults or quirks with station automated announcements or departure screens or CIS systems.

[MadMac]

I was just telling someone a few weeks ago that the Solari flap indicators at Edinburgh Waverley had “Suburban Circle” as an available destination despite them having been installed some 15 years after passenger services on the ‘Sub’ were withdrawn.

As on-train destination screens have been mentioned, this picture shows a DMU with “Cluny Bridge“, which never had a station, on the blind. Apparently there was an error in the info given to the blind manufacturer.

 

[Bletchleyite]

On the screens at Bodorgan (and I presume other Anglesey request stops, which seem to have the same system), if there is a train formed of two units, the Welsh will read ‘Blaen 2 hyfforddwyr’ for front two coaches, but unfortunately ’hyfforddwyr’ means coaches in a sporting sense, and the word order is wrong; it should be ‘2 cerbyd blaen’.

And if there’s no unit allocated to the rear portion, instead of just displaying it as a single unit, it reads ‘Cefn 0 hyfforddwyr’. (Again word choice and order is wrong, aside from being simply unnecessary.)

I bet most of these translations end up being run through Google Translate hence the contextual errors. Even so, they can't even manage to work out if Valley should be "Y Fali" or "Y Dyffryn"...

As for portion working, TfW's PIS has never done it properly. It really is very poor and needs replacing.

 

[Sheridan]

I bet most of these translations end up being run through Google Translate hence the contextual errors. Even so, they can't even manage to work out if Valley should be "Y Fali" or "Y Dyffryn"...

As for portion working, TfW's PIS has never done it properly. It really is very poor and needs replacing.

In general TfW have got a lot better in recent years at getting Welsh right and not just relying on computer translation, but I suspect these were done on the cheap. And I’m in complete agreement about how they handle portion working in general!

 

[Devonian]

When Sampford Courtenay was added to the stops on the old Sunday-only Okehampton service, none of the CIS systems knew that the station existed: it was displayed, and auto-announced as "Calling at ... Crediton, Crediton and Okehampton".

The services from Reading to Waterloo used to have the wrong intonation programmed for the end of next station auto-announcements, making them seemed rather surprised by the revelation: "The next station is Earley?!"

And at least one of the GWR auto-announcers thinks that the station between Totnes and Plymouth is Ivy Bridge, not Ivybridge.

 

[318259]

At Paisley Gilmour Street, you can change for “the bus link to Glasgow Airplort”.

Fletcher Mathers recorded every station name twice for ScotRail’s automatic announcements - once for the middle of a sentence or list of stations that goes up in tone, and once for the end of a sentence or list that goes down in tone.

These were installed backwards on the SPT electric units. At first, she sounded really confused, like everything was a question. “This is Hyndland? This train is for Springburn? The next stop is Patrick?”

They eventually fixed it on the 318s and 320s, but it has been 15 years and the 334s are still doing it.

“We are now approaching Kilwinning? Change here for stations to Ardrossan. And. Largs?”

They also edited the files really badly, so there’s a lot of pops and bangs on the 334s. I haven’t been on a Lanark train in a while but I’m pretty sure she still says “Blanark”.

 

[gmaguire]

Jubilee Line train at the weekend just sounded extremely happy about it's destination...

This is a Jubilee Line train to... [pause] Willesden Green

My favourite one is at North Greenwich

Exit here for the Emirates Air Line …and the O2 !

The way she says it sounds like a telephone operator from the 1920s or something. Always make me chuckle.

 

[Train Maniac]

Ive said this before in another thread but, The lady on SWR has a very distinct lisp.
"Sthee Sthay Sthorted"
Alternatively, the lady on Thameslink who cant beleive what shes announcing
"We will be calling at FarringDON??!! West HampSTEAD??!!" and so on Haha

 

[Doctor Fegg]

The IETs still don't know about Worcestershire Parkway, so there's just a clicking noise over the tannoy in place of the station name.

Similarly, Oxford station's old PIS didn't have Manchester Oxford Road recorded in a terminus intonation, so every day there'd be an announcement: "The next train on Platform 2 is the 17.03 Virgin Trains service to. Calling at Banbury, Leamington Spa, [...], Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly, and. Light refreshments are available...".

The VDUs at Henley-on-Thames would sometimes display "Please stand back. High-speed trains pass through this station". I'd like to see them try.

But my favourite was a 165 on the North Downs Line pulling into Reading where an announcement played "Nous sommes arrivés au terminus", followed a few seconds later in the most RP accent possible: "We are now arriving at AYLESBURY."

 

[Spartacus]

The boards at York have a habit of showing trains in the wrong platform, usual TPEs were the incoming unit off the depot is due to shunt via Holgate and the boards show the service booked off 9, 10 or 11 which the ECS will pass through, not the one it's ultimately going to run off. It's particularly noticeable when it happens with a Scarborough service which, major disruption not withstanding, can only go off platforms 2, 3, 4 or 5.

 

[Devonian]

I have just recalled, in BR days, that I went to Newton Abbot to meet a passenger coming from Penzance. Their train was shown on the cathode-ray VDUs as arriving at Platform 4: which had been turned into a car park several years before.

 

[py_megapixel]

The on-train Northern announcements refer to "Handfuth" which is incorrect, the correct pronunciation of the second syllable rhymes with "north". However she seems to get Sandbach right now; originally we had "Sandback" on the automated station announcements at least.

I was on a 319 a while ago where the last half-second or so of each station name was cut off.

"This is the Northern service to Cr. The next stop is Goose."

 

[boiledbeans2]

• Some of the screens on the North Downs Line seem to often forget what station they are at when they are not working. I have seen the screens at Dorking Deepdene display "Welcome To Betchworth". I have seen the screens at Dorking West display "Welcome To Gomshall". I have seen the screens at Shalford display "Welcome To Chilworth". So it seems to be a common issue on this line when the screens are not working properly. Although i think it was 2019 when i last saw this issue.

1) In the last few months, there were quite a few weekends where the South Western Mainline was blocked for engineering works. At Clapham Junction, the screen would say something like (I don't remember the exact words), "Rail replacement bus service from Grant Road entrance".

The problem was the screen at Earlsfield showed the exact same message, where Grant Road is nowhere near.




2) "Livrpool St". Attached photo taken at Upminster, August 2021. Not sure if it has been fixed today.

 

[dingdinger]

I was at Clandon one weekend when the Guildford services were terminating there with a bus between there and Guildford. An automated announcement came on the speakers along the lines of the next train to Exeter will depart from platform 4. Baring in mind Clandon has 2 platforms and certainly no service to Exeter!

 

[vlad]

The automated announcer on Northern's 331s shouts FRIZINGHALL very loudly, which comes as a shock in a statement that's otherwise the same volume. The same thing doesn't happen with the 333s, although they do use a different robot.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The automated announcer on Northern's 331s shouts FRIZINGHALL very loudly, which comes as a shock in a statement that's otherwise the same volume. The same thing doesn't happen with the 333s, although they do use a different robot.

The best one like this was the original autoannouncer on the 458s, I think voiced by a member of staff. It sounded shocked at having arrived at certain stations. To be fair, I'd be shocked if I had arrived unwittingly at Feltham; it's a dump.

 

[Trackman]

I remember a clock at a station that I thought had a Solari flap kind of arrangement until one day I saw a computer error message. It was obviously trying to emulate the flap system. duh!

 

[Cricketer8for9]

There was an 08:27 arrival from Stewart’s Lane Depot on one of the Victoria boards (platforms 15-19 - the board near the exist to Buckingham Palace Road). Of course this may be very deliberate to highlight which platform a special train is coming in on. I’ll see if it’s there this morning.

 

[gmaguire]

I remember a clock at a station that I thought had a Solari flap kind of arrangement until one day I saw a computer error message. It was obviously trying to emulate the flap system. duh!

That’s interesting. Do you remember where?

 

[satisnek]

Whenever there are XC diversions via Lichfield, Anne at Burton thinks that all the Nottingham services (Class 170, which start/terminate at Coleshill Parkway) have "a buffet counter service". I've yet to see one.

 

[gingerheid]

At Ely the 0831 to Ipswich is announced while the 0828 to Cambridge is in the platform.

 

[Ianigsy]

This board showing departures from Liverpool Street would probably be more use if it hadn't been at Leeds.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Alsager is always pronounced incorrectly by automated systems.
Just once, when the announcements were newly installed at Alsager, a train was announced as calling at Rug by, as if it were two separate words!

 

[py_megapixel]

The automated announcer on Northern's 331s shouts FRIZINGHALL very loudly, which comes as a shock in a statement that's otherwise the same volume.

I think that'll be because it originally mispronounced it as "Frissing-hall" and had to be re-recorded to correct this.

 

[Tio Terry]

Automated PIS systems are as good as the data input to them. 99.9% of any errors are due to faulty input by users. They are inanimate, they do what the programmers tell them to do.

 

[Parallel]

In general TfW have got a lot better in recent years at getting Welsh right and not just relying on computer translation, but I suspect these were done on the cheap. And I’m in complete agreement about how they handle portion working in general!

Hm, the Welsh is a mess at Newport but that's down to programming - Eryl Jones who provides the Welsh translation hasn't been programmed to announce new recordings at Newport such as 'Worcestershire Parkway', any of the delay reasons or the GWR 'zones' (other than 'and', or 'a' rather). They need to sort it out but don't seem remotely bothered. I wonder if it's because Welsh is played 2nd there yet first at other stations so it's somehow been overlooked and subsequently not corrected.

2) "Livrpool St". Attached photo taken at Upminster, August 2021. Not sure if it has been fixed today.

I'd imagine this is because there's a character limit and they've tried to make it as clear as possible - I think GA use 'London Liv St' instead. Other examples I can think of are various TOCs using 'Bristol Temple Mds'/'Bristol Temple M'/'Bristol T Meads' - or 'Portsmouth & Ssea'/'Portsmouth & S'sea' or 'Portsmouth & S'.

 

[plugwash]

"The next train is not scheduled to stop here" is a reasonable message in general, but it's a bit disconcerting when one sees it in a terminus platform................

 

[Bill57p9]

I was just telling someone a few weeks ago that the Solari flap indicators at Edinburgh Waverley had “Suburban Circle” as an available destination despite them having been installed some 15 years after passenger services on the ‘Sub’ were withdrawn.

Somewhere I have a photo of the Waverley Solari board advertising a Sprinter Service to London St Pancras. Er, no thanks

 

[Bletchleyite]

Somewhere I have a photo of the Waverley Solari board advertising a Sprinter Service to London St Pancras. Er, no thanks

Birmingham New St had all manner of European destinations via Harwich. Merseyrail had Ormskirk via Ford*, never actually to be used, and probably Gateacre too.

* Or Giro, I forget.

 

[MadMac]

Somewhere I have a photo of the Waverley Solari board advertising a Sprinter Service to London St Pancras. Er, no thanks

I rode a Pacer from Leeds to Carlisle via the S&C in 1998 and still have loose fillings.

 

[hvordan]

The screens at Tring list Harrow and Wealdstone as "Harrow nd Wealdston". Not sure about the screens at other stations down this end, however its a relatively recent thing as they were always correct before. TBH a fair amount of the screens at Tring are riddled with glitches and a lot of the time don't even display anything.