New Customer Information Systems

[whole diary]

[inspector_blakey]

To my shame there have been many occasions on which I've been reading the arrivals board and it's taken me several seconds to work out what's happened to my departing train... 

The departures board at 30th Street station always confuses me as well because it's listed as TO...FROM. For some reason my brain always expects it to be FROM...TO. 

[Bob_Blakey]

As of late yesterday afternoon the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) equipment was in place at Digby & Sowton but had not been activated. Additional CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele-Vision) cameras were also being installed.

[Super Guard]

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.

Correct.  Exmouth does not show Terminating Trains, however there is an Arrival/Departure Screen separate.

[NotScheduled]

Sad times may indeed be upon us at Bath Spa. High Vis people climbing over the information screens with measuring devices at the station today. I hope they're not getting ready for the new CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).

I do a lot of travelling to/from Bath and the systems have never let me down. Plus, I can't imagine arriving at Bath without Phil announcing that "This is Bath Spa".

I'm presuming the software which runs the screens as well as the announcements are being replaced? No more silly little animation when information is updated?

I've read through the thread but I'm still not certain. Is the new system the ATOS system which is being sadly rolled out everywhere, along with Anne?

What does Bath currently run on? I think the voice announcements are Ditra, but what is it coupled with for the screens, or does Ditra do both? Seems a shame to replace a perfectly working system, but I've never liked change!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, NotScheduled! 

[ChrisB]

This week's update from FGW^▸ (First Great Western).....

Help Points planned this week: Exeter St Davids, Hanwell, Oxford,Polsloe Bridge, Swindon

Improvements last week: CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele-Vision) at Highbridge & Burnham, Worle, Yeovil, Pen Mill
CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Burnham and Paignton, and CCTV and PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context) at Thatcham

Installations planned this week: CCTV at Bridgewater, PA and CIS at Gomshall,
CIS, PA and CCTV at Digby & Sowton and Warminster,
CCTV at Keyham, CIS at Barnstaple, and PA and CIS at Cholsey

[Louis94]

Sad times may indeed be upon us at Bath Spa. High Vis people climbing over the information screens with measuring devices at the station today. I hope they're not getting ready for the new CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).

I do a lot of travelling to/from Bath and the systems have never let me down. Plus, I can't imagine arriving at Bath without Phil announcing that "This is Bath Spa".

I'm presuming the software which runs the screens as well as the announcements are being replaced? No more silly little animation when information is updated?

I've read through the thread but I'm still not certain. Is the new system the ATOS system which is being sadly rolled out everywhere, along with Anne?

What does Bath currently run on? I think the voice announcements are Ditra, but what is it coupled with for the screens, or does Ditra do both? Seems a shame to replace a perfectly working system, but I've never liked change!

At the moment there are 3 different parts of the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) CIS, The announcements (Ditra), the next train indicators/departure screens (Amey) and the controlling software (Amey), and there is rumour that Phil/Celia is to remain at these stations according to Network Rail staff. What I would imagine will happen will be the controlling software/information screens will be replaced with ATOS stuff, with the announcements getting a update to the software so it would sound similar to Slough/Oxford. Talking about Slough they have had the new screens installed however they are still using Phil/Celia.

Also in the HSS CIS booklet it said Network Rail are installing a like-for-like system at HSS stations 2011-2012, have to wait and see what FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) definition for "like-for-like" is!

[NotScheduled]

Thanks for the welcome, chris! Nice to step out from being a lurked :-)

Thanks for the info, Louis94! That's really interesting. Is Amey what SWT^▸ (South West Trains) use, as I'm sure it looks the same as what they seem to have? Is there anywhere I can learn more about CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) systems? You mentioned a HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) CIS handbook, but I guess that's private? Thanks again for the information! I get fascinated by a different part of trains and railways each month, this month it seems to be CIS systems!

It looks like the new systems are being installed at Westbury. The old screen is bagged up and a new but inactive one appeared behind it.

[Louis94]

Thanks for the welcome, chris! Nice to step out from being a lurked :-)

Thanks for the info, Louis94! That's really interesting. Is Amey what SWT^▸ (South West Trains) use, as I'm sure it looks the same as what they seem to have? Is there anywhere I can learn more about CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) systems? You mentioned a HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) CIS handbook, but I guess that's private? Thanks again for the information! I get fascinated by a different part of trains and railways each month, this month it seems to be CIS systems!

It looks like the new systems are being installed at Westbury. The old screen is bagged up and a new but inactive one appeared behind it.

SWT system is a bit strange they use a mixture of Amey and ATOS for the screen software, Ditra for the announcements and the ATOS controlling software. Unfortunately the handbooks are private.

Westbury has had its new screens installed already, you might be getting confused with the old clocks which are bagged up I think. Westbury at the moment still has Ruth announcing (Ex-wessex announcer) although this is rumoured to be changing soon.

[TerminalJunkie]

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?

The overwhelming majority will be waiting for a departure, not an arrival.

I can only speak for Barnstaple, but the existing audio announcements used to cause no end of complaints because they didn't announce the next train leaving until after the train had arrived in the platform. Passengers waiting for the (say) 10.43 to Exeter/Exmouth would get confused by announcements for the 08:53 from Exmouth; having a visual display that says '10:35 Terminates here' is unlikely to help.

In any case, there is still a working Help Point, and they can get the current running information from that.

[Bob_Blakey]

The CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) installation at DIG is now fully operational - and for the avoidance of confusion the audio announcements refer to '...the next train at Platform 1...'

[Louis94]

The CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) installation at DIG is now fully operational - and for the avoidance of confusion the audio announcements refer to '...the next train at Platform 1...'

Thats good news, be interesting to see how the system operates in times of disruption seeing as its on a single line! Is the PA^▸ (Public Address (broadcast loudspeaker announcements) or Passenger Assist (railway staff providing physical assistance to passengers with mobility issues), depending on context) voice male or female?

[ChrisB]

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.

An answer from FGW^▸ (First Great Western).....

The issue at Crowthorne is experienced at all stations where the displays are driven from the timetable only, rather than Train Describers (some of the N Downs, Cornwall, N Cotswolds), and your assumption about the way the system works is spot on. This is an issue already identified and our supplier is working on a solution. We accept it does not look good.

[bobm]

Least you got a reply!

[Louis94]

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.

An answer from FGW^▸ (First Great Western).....

The issue at Crowthorne is experienced at all stations where the displays are driven from the timetable only, rather than Train Describers (some of the N Downs, Cornwall, N Cotswolds), and your assumption about the way the system works is spot on. This is an issue already identified and our supplier is working on a solution. We accept it does not look good.

Do you know anymore on this, does it look at the booked timings, or expected timings? and would it do exactly the same for freight or special services?

Also is the reason it shows 15 minutes before partly because the station does not have a timing point on trains that run non-stop, so it does it from the previous timing point to the next?

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) don't seem to have this problem and they use ATOS as well, so would be interesting to see how SWT get around it, mainly in the North Downs area as the signalling is modern so should be able to generate reports, but for some reason all the stations, even the ones with starting signals don't provide a report.

Also the SWT system can generate reports for all stations even if they are on single lines, is there a way FGW could link the new system to LDB to enable it to do this like SWT system can do, this would mean that stations that previously would not get any log would get one, and enable the screens to update according to realtime information and not the timetable.