New Customer Information Systems

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I'm sure they've got an easement....

[JayMac]

Last I heard it was an extension until Dec 2010. It's now nearly April 2011. Did they get another easement?

[ChrisB]

Quite likely as they're not likely to have breached this.

[JayMac]

So, sod the contractual obligations then and string the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) along eh? That's going to look good come franchise (any, not just FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) award/renewal time.

[ChrisB]

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) are unlikely to have approved it, unless there was good reason.

[ChrisB]

Some changes to what you'll see on the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).....brought about by comments received about terminating trains on single, end-of-line platforms - not needing to tell customers that 'The Next train terminates here', but then broadened when quick turnarounds were happening at some stations, and a need to have the CIS showing the destination / stopping pattern well before the train arrived.

the configuration of the display has been changed to just show the departing trains, and not those 'Terminating'. Terminating trains are / will not be displayed at the following stations because of the short turn around time and the need to board customers as soon as possible:

Barnstaple
Bristol Pw
Didcot Pw
Frome
Hayes & Harlington
Henley
Newbury
Exmouth
Greenford
Liskeard
Maidenhead
Romsey
Reading
Slough
St Erth
Truro
Twyford
Weston SM
Windsor
Paignton

All other stations will have terminating trains displayed on the display until either 5 minutes after the train has terminated, or the headcode of the train has been changed by the signaller.

[Electric train]

Not all of the slippage in the new CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) system is down to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), there was a mistake in the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) funding to NR^» (Network Rail - home page) for NR's part in the CIS system

[bobm]

Some changes to what you'll see on the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).....

I hope they can also look at the "Please stand Clear.  Train now approaching is not scheduled to stop" message.

I mentioned before that at Crowthorne this is displayed for about 15 minutes before the train passes and five minutes after it is gone and it was suggested this is down to the signalling. That was on weekdays.

However I noticed on Sunday that it displays for over an hour!  It seems once the previous stopping train has gone the system displays the above message as it is the next "event".  As there is a two hourly service on a Sunday it means the message is displayed for nearly 60 minutes before the train passes, at the expense of real arrival information which is only displayed once the fast train has been gone over five minutes.

[grahame]

the configuration of the display has been changed to just show the departing trains, and not those 'Terminating'. Terminating trains are / will not be displayed at the following stations because of the short turn around time and the need to board customers as soon as possible:

Barnstaple ...

Hmm ... I wonder what "meeters and greeters" will think of this.  I appreciate that those 'in the know' can usually see how the incoming train is doing based on predictions for the outgoing one, but glancing at the Barnstaple timetable as an example I see one service that's scheduled to sit there for over half an hour.    So ... if it's running 20 late (inbound) there will be no clue about this for anyone picking up at the station, right?

[ChrisB]

Better the vast majority wanting cofirmation of destination/stops get that before their train arrives, than the odd meeter & greeter waiting for a late train, surely?

The former applies to every train, whereas your situation applies only if the odd train is very late. Theres also the help-point for their use.

[Louis94]

Some changes to what you'll see on the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).....brought about by comments received about terminating trains on single, end-of-line platforms - not needing to tell customers that 'The Next train terminates here', but then broadened when quick turnarounds were happening at some stations, and a need to have the CIS showing the destination / stopping pattern well before the train arrived.

the configuration of the display has been changed to just show the departing trains, and not those 'Terminating'. Terminating trains are / will not be displayed at the following stations because of the short turn around time and the need to board customers as soon as possible:

Barnstaple
Bristol Pw
Didcot Pw
Frome
Hayes & Harlington
Henley
Newbury
Exmouth
Greenford
Liskeard
Maidenhead
Romsey
Reading
Slough
St Erth
Truro
Twyford
Weston SM
Windsor
Paignton

All other stations will have terminating trains displayed on the display until either 5 minutes after the train has terminated, or the headcode of the train has been changed by the signaller.

That makes complete sense, this was not a problem before on ex-wessex stations as the monitors only used to show departures anyway.
I wonder if the PA^▸ (Public Address) will still announce the terminating trains.

Surprised Westbury isn't on that list, but then I guess the signaller will change the Headcode quite quick. Hayes & Harlington is a bit of a strange one as nothing seems to terminate there.

[Super Guard]

What type of CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) screen is it, LED showing calling at patterns or a LCD Screen with just the times,destinations and expected? And did Exmouth have PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements before?

LED showing calling pattern... like Teignmouth.  Exmouth had the ex-Wessex PA announcements although I know the new PA system was put in/old one removed due to the location of the speakers compared to the phone to the signaller the driver uses to report.

Digby & Sowton has also had LED overheads put in, although not active yet.

[Louis94]

What type of CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) screen is it, LED showing calling at patterns or a LCD Screen with just the times,destinations and expected? And did Exmouth have PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements before?

LED showing calling pattern... like Teignmouth.  Exmouth had the ex-Wessex PA announcements although I know the new PA system was put in/old one removed due to the location of the speakers compared to the phone to the signaller the driver uses to report.

Digby & Sowton has also had LED overheads put in, although not active yet.

Ah yes thought so! Ah I see that makes sense of why to install the new PA!

Yes I saw Digbys screen getting lowered into position on Saturday, Telnet man said should be active by tomorrow hopefully, apparently some sort of problem with the electrical cabinet.

[Surrey 455]

Hayes & Harlington is a bit of a strange one as nothing seems to terminate there.

If there are problems at Heathrow, the Connect services tend to terminate on platform 5 at Hayes. I've noticed this a few times and this happened to me last year with only a few minutes notice. Can't remember what the problem was but I was planning to get off there anyway. Prior to the introduction of the Heathrow Connect, several peak time trains were timetabled to terminate at Hayes & Harlington.

[willc]

Without quoting that long list again, I presume what is being referred to here are the scrolling displays on  platforms. In many cases there will be a summary screen in the booking office area which will alternate between arrival and departure details, and meet and greeters will be able to refer to those - and in cases where there are barriers, they wouldn't be able to see the platform screens anyway.