SWR - short platforms announcements.

[Deepgreen]

Yesterday I travelled up from Portsmouth Harbour to Guildford. Shortly after leaving PH there was an announcement about various stations having short platforms and which coaches would be accommodated at each. The annoucement ended with a reassurance that there would be individual announcements in good time for each station to allow passengers to move as needed. However, in the event, there was nothing further for any of the stations en route! I am wondering why the trains' p.a. systems don't have auto annoucements for this - it seems an obvious thing to include (and far more relevant than so much of the other stuff that is recorded!).

 

[HughT]

Are you sure you were in a portion of the train where the subsequent announcements would have been needed? In my neck of the woods, the announcements on arriving at individual stations are only broadcast to the affected carriages.

 

[swt_passenger]

Are you sure you were in a portion of the train where the subsequent announcements would have been needed? In my neck of the woods, the announcements on arriving at individual stations are only broadcast to the affected carriages.

That‘s also how the 444/450 system works. “You need to move forward from this part of the train, etc etc”.

 

[Deepgreen]

That also how the 444/450 system works. “You need to move forward from this part of the train, etc etc”.

Ah - that may explain it - I was in coach 5. Many thanks.

 

[stadler]

On the topic of these SWR short platform announcements the 458/4s have an issue where they tell you about non existent short platforms. This has been going on even since they entered service last year. It seems that SWR forgot to reprogramme them when removing the fifth coach. For 8 or 9 coach platforms the announcements will still say "customers wishing to leave the train at the next station must be in the front 8 coaches" or "customers wishing to leave the train at the next station must be in the front 9 coaches" even though the train is only 8 coaches long now. The system seems to still think that it is a 10 coach train formed of two 5 coach units.

 

[Dstock7080]

I did post in the “SWR class 458 to be retained” thread in December and received a promising reply:

SWR Class 458 to be retained

Minor detail, the date on the news item says April 2021. The OP quoted wrong. It was April 2021. Noted, have amended my post.

www.railforums.co.uk

I definitely worked a pair which had the updated announcements the other week. I believe it’s a slow process of updating the PIS on these trains

 

[TEW]

On the topic of these SWR short platform announcements the 458/4s have an issue where they tell you about non existent short platforms. This has been going on even since they entered service last year. It seems that SWR forgot to reprogramme them when removing the fifth coach. For 8 or 9 coach platforms the announcements will still say "customers wishing to leave the train at the next station must be in the front 8 coaches" or "customers wishing to leave the train at the next station must be in the front 9 coaches" even though the train is only 8 coaches long now. The system seems to still think that it is a 10 coach train formed of two 5 coach units.

The 458 PIS is incredibly basic. It doesn't have any idea how many coaches there are. The codes were simply programmed for either 5 or 10 coaches, and to play relevant short platform announcements, and weren't immediately updated to account for the fact they are now 4 or 8 coaches. If the 10 car code were entered on a 5 car formation, it would play the short platform announcements as if it were a 10 car.

 

[DelW]

That‘s also how the 444/450 system works. “You need to move forward from this part of the train, etc etc”.

Very occasionally it gets confused. I remember being on one up service (10 or 12 car) which seemed to play that throughout the train at pretty much every station. It even told me to "move forward ..." as we came into Waterloo, and I was in the front coach.