Driver Advisory System (DAS) now in use

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

There can also be a case of 'too much information' sometimes. There are well documented accounts of airline pilots getting into to serious trouble because they relied too heavily on the technology and not their common sense.

There are equally well documented accounts of disorientated aircrew relying on what they thought was their "common sense" instead of reading their instruments, and flying plane into the ground 

Or ocean in the case of the tragedy with the Air France A330.

Instruments help a bit. I learned to fly light aircraft. Part of the training, even if you are only ever going fly in clear sky, involves learning what to do if you end up in cloud. You use instruments to do a 180 degree gentle turn, without losing height, on the grounds that if you didn't hit anything on the way in, you probably won't on the way out. First time I tried it, with an experienced instructor on board, I concentrated on the instruments, making what I could tell from the seat of my pants and the instruments was a slow, level descent. Came out of the cloud at a crazy angle, some distance from where I thought I was, with much guffawing from the right-hand seat... so much for seat of the pants!

As any lorry driver who has jammed a 40-foot artic in a country lane will tell you, instruments are a servant, not a master, and need to be practised  to be understood. You also need to know what to do when they go wrong, and I guess DAS^▸ (Driver Advisory System) is another aid to the driver, not a substitute for learning the route. But, whilst knowing little about driving a train, I am willing to bet that there are old-timers who will snort at the very idea that this "black box" knows better than them, but will have a crafty glance anyway, and someone who won't speed up / slow down because "computer says no". Then there will be someone who throttles back to coast, or powers up again, less than a millisecond before DAS tells him to. He will be an annoyingly good driver, despite his tender years, and will win "Driver of the Month" or whatever, to the applause and chagrin of his longer-serving colleagues.

[The SprinterMeister]

Still one or two issues to be ironed out as DAS^▸ (Driver Advisory System) doesn't seem to recognise the concept of Set Down Only trains (like 1C32 beyond Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context)) which don't have to wait for a booked time as they are not picking up passengers. Seem to be one or two issues with the GPS reception between Tilehurst - Goring and Streathley due to the trees now being in leaf.

(Top tip for all you GPS-ists, do not get lost in a forest with masses of wet leaves overhead as you'll loose the signal )

[bobm]

Very interesting five page article on DAS^▸ (Driver Advisory System) in the August Railway Magazine which, like most magazines, is out in July!

[The SprinterMeister]

But, whilst knowing little about driving a train, I am willing to bet that there are old-timers who will snort at the very idea that this "black box" knows better than them, but will have a crafty glance anyway, and someone who won't speed up / slow down because "computer says no". Then there will be someone who throttles back to coast, or powers up again, less than a millisecond before DAS^▸ (Driver Advisory System) tells him to. He will be an annoyingly good driver, despite his tender years, and will win "Driver of the Month" or whatever, to the applause and chagrin of his longer-serving colleagues.

It's like any GPS based gadget, DAS is an aid but requires a degree of interpretation to get the best out of it. The issues with gradients West of Exeter haven't quite been ironed out yet and it's possible to coast more on certain stretches than DAS would have you think. It's possible in fact to roll all the way from Wrangaton to Lipson Jn with no loss of speed / time and you will in fact reach Plymouth albeit not very fast, you won't have to brake much for the 25mph in Mutley Tunnel...

On the easier gradients East of Exeter the system works fine, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) /  TTG had a very experienced driver on light duties at that time who input his considerable experience into the system, certainlyt as far as the Berks and Hants line was concerned.