Great Western Coffee Shop

Exeter St Davids. Weds:  The 1209 Arrival is the 1210 Departure. It is leaving 15 mins before it arrives   ??? ???

and at 1230 they were still announcing that the (missing) 1209 was running 11 minutes late !

(http://i32.tinypic.com/1zltyxj.jpg)

Hang on though....the 1210 Penzance on the right hand screen is not showing as 'on time'. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show all the departure monitor's columns so we can't see the 'expected' time.

It does clearly as 1221.

Oops my bad. I had no scroll bar when I looked earlier. Been on dial-up speeds cos my ISP are muppets. The OP now makes much more sense!! Sorry Moon :-[

I said it was confusing  !   :)

This was obviously a portend of things to come on Weds afternoon. The major signalling failure at West Drayton confused a whole lot more people - and not just passengers! Ascott-under-Wychwood was particularly singled out for confusing information:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5211.0

and,

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5212.0

Presumably there's a missing line of code in the departures display along the lines of

"If arrival time later than departure time use arrival time" With key = train number so it can pick up if arrival time is normally earlier than departure time.

It would be interesting to know what time the CIS screens West of Exeter use, the estimated Exeter depature or arrival time.

Oh, so you were the strange person taking photos of the CIS screens  ;)

Obviously a bug in the system for that particular train, as the 1146/1148 York/Plymouth service was reporting correctly.

Proof that us foamers don't just whip out our cameras when interesting traction trundles by!!! ;)

Did somebody say donkeys?

I do wish someone could invent "intelligent" info screens. It is rather insulting to be told a train is on time, when the arrivals show the incoming terminating train is late. (happens often with the NEW 2006ish boards at Worcester FS). Or perhaps ones which the staff can alter automatically.

Perhaps Ditra is better. Unfortunately, CT installed the dire system that we have now (with the Digital Doris called "Sarah" a la Paddington).

Noted and photographed yesterday ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/b2m.jpg)

... at about 16:53 on a train waiting to leave Bristol Temple Meads (at 17:00) for Manchester.  Looks like some remarkable diversions were in place  ;D

Seriously, there are times that no information would be better than the wrong information.

 ;D

And I think passengers on SWT will agree with Grahame: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8223596.stm

I think that we as a nation need to stick our fingers up at Brussels, and get rid of pointless announcements as this MP is campaigning.

The picture from Grahame was on the side of a Voyager - not on a platform CIS screen.
 I have no idea what happened on that Wednesday afternoon at Exeter. The CIS system should not have allowed that, and I will check our database for any bugs with this train - shame nobody rang us at Control  on the day. Please encourage station staff to let us know any time something stupid like that shows!
Acurate times of arrivals depends on tracking the train. Some areas of FGW land do have the systems to track trains (eg most of Cornwall and the Cotswold Line), and timings only happen at stations. This can often be the reason for the system appearing to be slow in updating.
The good news is that FGW is updating its CIS throughout the whole network over the next year or so. The new system will be well worth waiting for!

If that was directed at me, I know!

I was commenting on his phrase: "Seriously, there are times that no information would be better than the wrong information."

Is it just me, or do people think that Voyager side display would be more logical if it read either:

Destination
XXXX
viaYYYY
Next Stop
ZZZZ

or even:

Next Stop
ZZZZ
Destination
XXXX
via YYYY

rather than the way they have done since new:
 
Destination
Man Picc
Next Stop
Southampton Air
via Birmingham New St

IYSWIM

Paul

I don't think much logic was used at any stage of the Voyager design process!

Yes - I was very clear (I think) that it was the on-train display - sorry if my post lacked clarity for anyone

I'm very conscious that it's natural to critisize (which makes it all too easy!) and much more rare to give praise ... even when it's due.  I was at Clifton Down on Sunday and took a picture of their impressive information point:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/bighelp.jpg)

Just one question ... we were promised that the previous generation system (which has been out of order completely for periods of up to six weeks) at Melksham would be replaced within the first years of the FGW franchise.   Come the first of next month, we'll be halfway through the (initial) 7 year period of the franchise - when are we going to see the promised improvements on the Swindon and Chippenham to Trowbridge and Westbury line?