Re: Passenger Information Displays

["David Proctor" <daproc@bigfoot.com>]

Alex Borodin wrote in message <34F61EB7.7510BC12@qrail.com.au>...
>Hi,
>
>Just wondering what sort of thoughts ya'll have about
>Passenger Information Displays, especially the Outdoor LED type
>displays like they have in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.


They seem to work fine, as long as they are well shielded from the sun.

>Does anyone have any comments about the usefulness of the
>information being displayed on the signs? What sort of
>information would YOU display on an LED sign if you were
>given a free reign over the project? Imagine that you have
>signs which are about 160cm long, 18cm high and can
>display 42 characters across and two rows in height (each
>char is 8cm high), or 14 characters across in a single row of
>characters (each char is 18cm high. )


The information on the Sydney signs is probably what is required, although a
change that may or may not be desirable would be to say "all stations to . .
. " rather than listing all the stations. It is quite frustrating to have to
wait for every stopping station to be listed if it has just gone past the
station you want (e.g. travelling from Hornsby to Cowan, and the train
stopping all stations to Newcastle - can take a while to get through it
all).

>What sort of info would like to see on there? Imagine that
>it's a busy station where trains can be platform-swapped
>at any time. Passengers need to know if the train they
>are waiting for is now scheduled to go off another
>platform.


As long as the information is kept up to date, and combined with PA
announcements, it should not be a problem.

>Are count-down clocks more useful for estimated departure
>times than actual times?

I believe that the scheduled departure time should be the time displayed, as
well as the estimated time (in minutes) until the arrival of the service.
The practice of some CityRail stations (Granville is notorious for it) of
amending the departure time to the expected departure time sucks. I arrived
at Granville to catch a Blue Mountains train one day, and the indicator said
the departure time was 10.45 - it was 10.36 at the time. I left the station
and went to the shop - the train came and went while I was gone - It was
actually the 10.25 running 20mins late, although it had picked up 6 minutes
time, and left at 10.39. I was not happy, and the station staff soon found
out about it.

> Do you need the current time on
>the sign?

Its a handy thing to have, in case someone's watch has stopped, or is
broken, or  left at home, etc.

> Do you need the complete stopping pattern (as is
>done in Sydney) or just something like "Express to Caboolture"
>or "All Stations Caboolture"?


See above.

>We're looking at developing a new system for Brisbane
>and we want to make it as useful, reliable and simple to
>understand as possible. I shall endeavour to reply to all
>suggestions if you care to post your replies both to this
>newsgroup and to my email address.

I believe that the Sydney system is best, as far as concourse displays go,
as it makes it easy for passengers who are unfamiliar with the system to
easily locate a train to their desination, something which may be difficult
if you are not a regular traveller.

Regards

David Proctor
daproc@bigfoot.com