XCTurbostar
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Yep, Nuneaton was done last week.
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Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Milton Keynes Central, Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard all have the text-to-speech announcements.
londonmidland
Established Member
Yes. It’s the same TTS announcer as what is on the Greater Anglia network.
Liam L
Member
Not really a fan of the new announcements.
They don't update when trains are delayed (only when they get on the move again) neither do they give a reason for delays (as far as I'm aware).
Plus I listen to the voice of Alexa enough at home, now I got to listen to it at the train station
They don't update when trains are delayed (only when they get on the move again) neither do they give a reason for delays (as far as I'm aware).
Plus I listen to the voice of Alexa enough at home, now I got to listen to it at the train station
JW4
Member
At Wolverhampton there’s been delay announcements for CrossCountry Bournemouth trains (service is delayed, will depart in approximately 4 minutes) when it was then expected to depart on time
Liam L
Member
Yes those are the only ones I hear. From a passenger view I would quite to know the reason behind the train being late too like the old announcements.
londonmidland
Established Member
The new announcements are awful and cheap sounding, as well as announcing incorrect information - at Watford Junction today, I heard a false cancellation being announced simply as:
No reason for the cancellation whatsoever. The train was in fact in the platform and departed on time. It did, however, terminate at Selhurst vice East Croydon.
Train calling points are no longer announced on the second announcement, as the train arrives into the station.
No reason for the cancellation whatsoever. The train was in fact in the platform and departed on time. It did, however, terminate at Selhurst vice East Croydon.
Train calling points are no longer announced on the second announcement, as the train arrives into the station.
GWVillager
Member
Why change them, exactly? The old ones were fine.
londonmidland
Established Member
Abellio and cost cutting, to put it quite simply. Luckily, EMR aren’t taking the same route.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
That sometimes happens where a train was cancelled then a substitute Very Short Term Plan one put in its place. There's no way any PIS can work out what's gone on there, so Anne or whoever would have announced it like that too.
If you feed that back to them they may be able to change it, but to be honest the LNR calling points are pretty consistent now between destinations so it might be unnecessary waffle to read them out twice.
It can do more, e.g. fully read out special notices.
43096
On Moderation
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- 23 Nov 2015
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- 15,300
Oh excellent - now we get even more verbal diarrhoea from the PA system.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Heard the new, text to voice, announcement at Northampton this morning. At 07.38 the stock for the 07.40 Euston had been in the platform for a few minutes (but with the doors not released) when the auto announcement said ' The 07.40 to London Euston is delayed. It will leave in 2 minutes'. If it had indeed left in 2 minutes it would of course not have been delayed. But it didn't leave until 07.46: during the delay there were no further announcements.
Can anyone work out the logic of that?
Can anyone work out the logic of that?
XCTurbostar
Established Member
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Blackbox - the display manufacturer is also written into the NRCs to be integrated into all stations.
Blackbox had a government grant in 2015 of £1.5M and written into that is Abellio's use case so clearly they both have a vested interest.
Results of competition: Enhancing customer experience in rail travel
Merle Haggard
Established Member
It's hard to keep up! Kettering (another ex Abellio station, obviously) very recently had new platform screens fitted with the train formation shown pictorially (pointed coach at the front, rectangles representing each coach). It's the same display as used on other lines, but elsewhere the display shows which coach is 1st class, has wheelchair space, cycles; some even show coach occupation - but none of this is shown at Kettering. Does this mean that this will be replaced again by ones similar to those appearing on ex-Abellio LNwR??? The ones recently replaced did display which end the 1st was (and by inference, the end for cycles) but this seems to have been abandoned. Perhaps it's too much trouble to work out which way round each set is, and station overtime while people move back and forth to find the right coach is considered acceptable
GWVillager
Member
The data on which end is first class should just be in Darwin (I think. Might be TRUST), so shouldn’t be much more difficult to display. You can see it on RTT.
londonmidland
Established Member
@Merle Haggard To answer your question - EMR aren’t going down the same route as WMT in regards to using the same type of platform displays and announcements.
We’re getting new white LED Infotec displays at all of our stations, as well as new information screens.
There are no plans to move away from Wordline (the current announcement provider) either at EMR stations.
Here are some brand new displays,
which have been recently installed at Nottingham within the last week or so.
We’re getting new white LED Infotec displays at all of our stations, as well as new information screens.
There are no plans to move away from Wordline (the current announcement provider) either at EMR stations.
Here are some brand new displays,
which have been recently installed at Nottingham within the last week or so.
Attachments
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Does RTT do train orientation? I didn't think it did?
It depends on the data fed by each TOC, most TOCs on KYT will show the orientation, but limitations are listed on this page: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/about/knowyourtrain/
GWVillager
Member
It does, wherever there’s an allocation it gives the orientation to the best of my knowledge.
It seems they’re replacing the headrest covers on the 350/4s (and presumably 350/1s) in first class with the same ones being fitted to the 350/3s in their ongoing refresh (the ones that omit the first class text, but are still made out of pleather). This is inside 350405 today.
Attachments
Good to see the attention to detail. That photo makes it look like the seat is quite badly worn but I think it’s just the fabric design.
It's the fabric, they look worn fresh from refurb.
It's a nice refurb, but I'm not sure how well it will age.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I think it's likely to stain badly because there's no colour or pattern on it.
The delay announcements clearly have issues. I noticed at Smethwick Galton Bridge, it announces delays much longer than they actually are. I think there is bug where it sometimes announces that a train is expected in X minutes, but the number it uses is actually the length of the delay. I.e. if a train is 20 minutes late, but it announces the delay when it is already 10 minutes overdue, it still says the train is expected to arrive in 20 minutes. Some amazing QA there.
In addition it mispronounces "Cradley Heath" ("crad" as in "had"), "Rowley Regis" ("Row" as in row a boat), and occasionally likes to announce "Stourbridge J N".
"The next train at platform 1 will be the 09:01 service to Stourbridge JN, calling at Row-ley Regis, Crad-ley Heath and Stourbridge JN. This train is expected to depart in 8 minutes". And it immediately rolls into the station. Quality.
The new announcements are also too slow, dreary, and are too many. Sometimes it just doesn't shut up, to the point that you actually stop listening completely.
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jonesy3001
Established Member
Have the 323s that are transferring to northern had the digital mods done?
RealTrains07
Established Member
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- 28 Feb 2019
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Just noticed 350/106 now has white ribbon day vinyls on the front coach. Not sure whether the rear coach is the same
Picture is found on LNR X’s (previously twitter) account
Picture is found on LNR X’s (previously twitter) account
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RealTrains07
Established Member
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- 28 Feb 2019
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Can’t find anywhere which answers this but has there been any updates to whether the 172/1s have had interior refurbishment?
They’ve not had anything done, they’re still in the (now) horrific ex-Chiltern interior. Most (if not all) of the 10 350/3s have finally been refurbished now though, only two years after the other subclasses, so I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question.