Onboard automated late running announcements

[whole diary]

[ray951]

Unless I am mistaken FGW^▸ (First Great Western) appears to have added automated 'how late this train is running' to the onboard display and announcements to the 165 and 166.

It doesn't appear to work very well as every train I have got on has been incorrect, for example:
Yesterday and today the 0808 Didcot to Oxford left Didcot on time and as soon as it had travelled about 200 metres it claimed it was 16 minutes late and then 11 minutes late at Appleford and Culham, it arrived in Oxford on time.

Simlarly I caught the 17:07 from Oxford to Pad last night and within 2 minutes of leaving Oxford, on time, it claimed it was 4 minutes late!

I hope the driver can turn the system off because I can see it being very irritating if it makes an announcement every time the length of the delay increases.

[ChrisB]

I've passed this along to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) via Customer Panel

[IndustryInsider]

I hope the driver can turn the system off because I can see it being very irritating if it makes an announcement every time the length of the delay increases.

Only by isolating the whole APIS system!

Another example of something sounding good on paper, but either not working properly or being just plain annoying in practice.  Hopefully it will be a very short-lived 'innovation'. 

[Southern Stag]

I've noticed it as well. Both times I've seen it come on it has got stuck on it and then not done any of the other announcements or displayed any other messages on the screen. I agree it's not very accurate either. I was on a train which hit a tree last week and shortly after coming to a half it informed us we were running 11 minutes late, then about 5 minutes later, still sat in the same place, it informed us we were now 6 minutes late. By the time we got moving again it had decided we were 16 minutes late; not the 45 minutes we actually were.

[tom m]

Seemed to work ok today on the north downs line 7:04 from reading

[IndustryInsider]

I've noticed it as well. Both times I've seen it come on it has got stuck on it and then not done any of the other announcements or displayed any other messages on the screen. I agree it's not very accurate either. I was on a train which hit a tree last week and shortly after coming to a half it informed us we were running 11 minutes late, then about 5 minutes later, still sat in the same place, it informed us we were now 6 minutes late. By the time we got moving again it had decided we were 16 minutes late; not the 45 minutes we actually were.

All of which contributes to the 'let's make ourselves look like incompetent idiots' own goals which FGW^▸ (First Great Western) seem to be scoring all too often recently!

[ray951]

Another update
Exactly the same on the 0808 today, it said 16 late leaving DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) and 11 late at Culham and Appleford despite the fact it left Didcot on time and arrived in Oxford on time.

Even worse on the 1707 from Oxford, was 8 minutes late at Radley and Culham onboard system said 30 minutes late and ended up being only 6 late at Didcot.

You have to wonder if the system has even been properly tested and I agree that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are don't themselves any favours.

[a-driver]

It's not a very good system.  I've been on time and the automated annoucer has been informing everyone onboard that we were running 11 minutes late.  It seems to like 11 minutes for some reason

I have worked out that keeping the PA^▸ (Public Address) button activate in the driving cab prevents the system from making any announcements! 

[Southern Stag]

It's not just 11 it likes, it seems like from 6 upwards in multiples of 5. Surely somebody realised when they installed this feature that it just doesn't work.

[ChrisB]

Possibly needs the GPS tweaking

[a-driver]

Possibly needs the GPS tweaking

No, it just needs to be removed!!!!