Re: More 'PIDS'

[mcfergus@my-dejanews.com]

In article <7fdqbi$r4v$1@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>,
  matthew@mail.usyd.edu.au (Matthew Geier) wrote:
>  Martin Place railway station now sports a new VDU/MSWindows based PIDS
> system. Under testing at the moment.
>  While the system looks good so far and even has a nice set of summary
> screens upstairs, I fail to see why Martin Place needs a new 'SPI'.
>  The exiting indicators seem to work quite well, and you can see at
> a glance if the train stops at your station. The new system scrolls like
> the LED based SPI systems at a number of stations. The only additional
> information over the old system is estimated ETA and the next 2 following
> trains.

Leumeah station has just recently gained an SPI-style indicator system. The
old LED based platform indicators that only showed destination and scheduled
departure time have been removed (although currently still retained at Minto,
the only other installation of that type of indicator), and replaced by one
unit on each platform that is a slimline version of the standard SPI platform
indicator. There is no equivalent SPI style concourse indicator, the magnetic
flip-dot system still in position but currently out of service.

The units themselves are good, they are a vast improvement on the old ones in
that they show the stopping pattern, and the LEDs are a very bright yellow
and visible from a larger number of viewing angles. Unfortunately the system
is locally controlled, and hence the information is often unable to keep pace
with the trains depending on staff attentiveness, which makes it somewhat
unreliable! Now, if they could only automate the system...


Rob

Sydney (Australia)

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