My whinge - scrolling passenger information screens

[miklcct]

Most of the world has now gone to using LCD TVs for information screens. Why is the UK still so old-fashioned in using dot matrix even in new stations?

 

[AM9]

Agreed. People keep complaining about too much superfluous information, and then complain about not having enough! I agree with most posters on here: differentiation of information depending on importance would go a long way.

Although, that just brings another problem, depending on whose opinion of 'importance'.

 

[Furrball]

The Argyle line has to be the worst for this

Page 1 of 5 is the only useful information

The new screens on the stations have a different layout to the older ones, which results in some.really odd pages with one or two words on them

And quite why they cannot be triggered to show the details of the actual train at the platform is beyond me! It can be done with the audio announcement so why not with the screens?!

 

[Parjon]

The mainline railways bombard passengers with enormous amounts of superfluous information, as well as frequently misusing the communications methods they have at their disposal.

That's why people complain they don't get information about the things they need at the same time as all this going on.

There just isn't much talent being employed in the design or execution of displays, signs, directions or announcements.

I'd like to see the entire network given the once over by London Underground's usability gurus.

 

[Nova1]

Why is the UK still so old-fashioned in using dot matrix even in new stations?

cheaper, long service life, low maintence, good viewing angles and readability

 

[LLivery]

I find East Croydon's to be really annoying, especially on Platform 3, as they constantly refresh. Any change in expected arrival time, it starts all the calling points again. And being the station with apparently the most delays in the country, means often you don't even get to see all the calling points until the 3+ attempt (if the train doesn't arrive first). Even more irritating if the train splits.

Or SWR Desiros from London Waterloo to Weymouth scrolling through the "calling at" stations to Moreton I think, then go blank for around a minute then randomly scroll "Dorchester South and Weymouth". This happens every single time as well

I was told that's because the Desiros don't have enough RAM, so go blank until it loads.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

There's lots of different designs of screens, I think the worst I've seen are the blue-and-white at St Pancras

Strongly agree about those screens at St Pancras, which show a list of departures, with the stations served by each departure scrolling along a single line, and the whole screen changing frequently. The particularly incompetent feature of the software was that where a train served a long list of stations, the whole screen would change before the later stations appeared - so some destinations near the end of the route would never actually be shown at all.

That was a few years ago, so the problem *might* have been fixed by now...

 

[Kingston Dan]

Waterloo East is particularly egregious as if you are travelling to either Charing Cross or London Bridge (which a lot of people do on the 'London terminals' fare) then you need to know which of the platform pairs the next train is on (A/C or B/D depending which direction you're going) - having three pages scrolling before the platform comes up is annoying and has meant I've missed the next departure on occasion.

 

[JordR]

Another example of unfortunate scrolling at Headingley. I can't quite remember what the intended message was.

 

[fandroid]

I agree about having to wait for page 3 (listing trains at least 30 minutes away) is deeply frustrating when you want to see details of a train that's due in the next few minutes.

On SWR the platform indicators are OK. They show the next three trains, but only full details for the 1st one. That does involve horizontal scrolling for the destination list, but that's not too annoying. It may have improved, but in the past I have been bewildered by platform indicators at busy stations like Derby or Crewe only showing the next train. I may be there for the 2nd or 3rd on that platform, but I'd like reassurance that I'm on the correct one, even if scrolling is needed to fit those in.

Worst I've seen are at the bus stops near my station. They give next 3 buses info (hooray!) then scroll to news headlines, then to the weather (usually obvious!) then to train departures. The latter is so pointless as the station is about 1 minute away with much better information screens. I've never looked for train info at the bus stop and am deeply frustrated having to constantly stare at the screens so as not to miss the bus info in between all the useless nonsense.

 

[HSTEd]

IN a world with giant ePaper displays available, I'm not sure we should have any scrolling at all.

Indeed, I'm not sure we should have printed posters either - an ePaper display doesn't require regular staff visits to keep it up to date.

 

[owidoe]

Seen at a Thameslink station a week after she died. This page was shown for exactly as long as the preceding one, which gave train information followed by "we are saddened by the death of HM The".

 

[c52]

At Redhill we have two screens next to each other both showing the same at all times. I wonder how expensive a project it would be to make one show 'next departures' and the other one to scroll through everything else.

 

[M1544]

The concourse screens at Bradford Interchange have been broken for months. The lower concourse screen which is LCD has been broken and totally blank for over 12 months, and the upper concourse screens are so dim and flickery despite being LCD they are almost unreadable especially for anyone with poor sight. Very poor for a medium sized station with multiple platforms that you can’t even see the required platform or train running info until your through the barriers.

 

[BingMan]

That's nothing compared to the infamous "We are now approaching Leeds (***next page***) where this train terminates Customers (***next page***)"

Shades of the MASH bomb disposal book.
Cut the red wire (*next page*) but not before disconnecting the blue wire

 

[norbitonflyer]

Some other gripes - the train is in the platform about to depart, but the scrolling of destinations is halfway through so you don't know where the first stop is (is it Earlsfield or non-stop to Basingstoke?) Or the train in the platform is late and rammed, there is another due shortly but you don't know when (or indeed if) it is expected as the "2nd train" indication is alternating with some general message about the platform being wet if it's been raining.

 

[TurbineEnginee]

Admittedly overseas but the route I currently commute has a very nice app on my phone.

I can find the next train for my route very easily, along with platform assignment, scheduled time and estimated time.

A click gives me a moving map of where the train actually is updated in real-time.

For intermediate stations a second click gives me the number of passengers in each carriage and if I am at the platform then an arrow pointing to which carriage will stop at my current location on that platform.

Not the answer for all concerns of course, but increasingly an answer to the best display to use can be the one in our hand.

 

[fife_circle]

I feel Aberdeen station handles their displays quite well (given it is a smaller station) they have 2 screens showing the next 2 departures, a screen showing subsequent departures , a screen for information and then another screen for arrivals. They do tend to have scrolling text very small across the bottom of the screen however which can be annoying and hard to read.

 

[Andyh82]

Seen at a Thameslink station a week after she died. This page was shown for exactly as long as the preceding one, which gave train information followed by "we are saddened by the death of HM The".

That’s a bit like Northern’s

“Please mind the gap between the train and the platform”




“Edge”

 

[61653 HTAFC]

That’s a bit like Northern’s

“Please mind the gap between the train and the platform”




“Edge”

That one particularly grates, not least because the word "edge" is entirely redundant: what part of a platform would there be a "gap" with between other than the edge?

 

[edwin_m]

Shades of the MASH bomb disposal book.
Cut the red wire (*next page*) but not before disconnecting the blue wire

That reminds me of the first time I drove one of the new a pool cars.

"Depress the brake pedal when pressing the start button [next page] or on manual models depress the clutch."

Too me about half an hour to work that one out.

 

[Purple Train]

Seen at a Thameslink station a week after she died. This page was shown for exactly as long as the preceding one, which gave train information followed by "we are saddened by the death of HM The".
View attachment 126941

I can imagine those responsible were put under pressure to change that

 

[eoff]

I think this has generally got worse and worse, we used to have large information screens and then someone decided that cheap monitors were the way to go.
Now that is what you get and often they are overcrowded with information, mounted too high and unreadable by people without perfect eyesight.

Similar situation applies in airports.

There is also an issue with newer trains, some of the on-board information displays use a ridiculously narrow font that is very hard to read. I don't kinow who thought this was acceptable.

 

[HSTEd]

Unfortunately we can't bring back gigantic Solari boards, although I think we could build ePaper displays that large now (you can even get multiple colour ones now!)

 

[JohnElliott]

Unfortunately we can't bring back gigantic Solari boards, although I think we could build ePaper displays that large now (you can even get multiple colour ones now!)

I'm sure some stations still have the holders for wooden finger boards on which the necessary information can be chalked. At least then you can be sure it won't scroll away.

(My bete noir for this thread was a Thameslink screen at Haywards Heath, where I wanted to see some piece of information and every single time it would stop a couple of words before the bit I wanted, display a generic "engineering works this weekend" message, and then jump back to the start of the cycle).

 

[jfollows]

I can't stand that monster display, but I'm glad you do!
What I like about Piccadilly is the old green/yellow TV screen which simply lists the next departures in time order, no scrolling, which I can look at to see my train's platform without even needing to break my step as I enter the station, as long as I know the final destination of my train (I always do) then I don't need any more information.
It's been there for years, and one day it will be "upgraded" with something far worse for me, I fear.

No, I was wrong.
It's been replaced by a more modern display which still does the same as the old one did - I was able to walk past it on Friday and look up my platform (16:55 to Euston via Wilmslow) and head directly for my train as usual. All good. No scrolling. No need to use the monster display sorted by destination.