Re: Passenger Information Displays

[Alex Borodin <alex.borodin@qrail.com.au>]

David Proctor wrote:
> 
> 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.

Do you find that the character size is ok?

> 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).

Ok. What about express services? Do you think that all of
the stations in the stopping pattern should be shown, or do
you think that a list of express sections like "Express Sth Brisbane
to Beenleigh, Beenleigh to Gold Coast" would be fine?

> >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.

Yeah, I see what you mean. So if the train is running late, then
passengers
need some way of knowing that although PIDS estimates it to be arriving
in 10minutes, it's actually late and could arrive anytime.

Ok.. good point.

> > 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.

Ok.

> >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.

It's interesting also how it shows the next FASTEST train to each
destination.

We don't have quite that amount of space for our concourse
displays, nor that many destinations.


-- 
 o Alex Borodin B.Eng(Hons)        o Queensland Rail  
 o Software and Systems Engineer   o Ph: +61-7-3235-2482   
 o Signal and Operational Systems  o Fax:+61-7-3235-2747
"What you do is what you are. As a man thinketh, so he 
becomes"