Re: More 'PIDS'

["FRISCÉ Theatre Co. (Bryan Cullis)" <rabonzo@primus.com.au>]

This may have already been mentioned, but Melbourne's PIDS are shocking.
There are three different types at the moment.  The main type is like
everything else in Hillside Trains/Bayside Trains (formerly "The Met") and
that's a try-hard copy of Sydney.  I don't know how many of you know this,
but all of our stations have signs practically identical to those in Sydney
except they have different colours and a different font.  There were even a
few stations around Melbourne that were maid to look exactly like a Sydney
station (i.e. Ringwood, Caulfield, Heidelberg) complete with the exact same
seats, signage and bins.  Now our PIDS are a basic (or should I say cheap,
which is no surprise to Melbourne) version of those at stations such as
Parramatta (or at least what they had the last time I was in Parra, which
was August 1997).  They are two-line and display the next time, final
destination, amount in minutes and one scrolling line for extra info (i.e.
"Stops All Stations to Belgrave", "Limited Express - Stops all stations to
Box Hill then express Box Hill to Camberwell to Glenferrie to Richmond then
all stations to Flinders St. via City Loop").  Then there are the dinosaur
monitors that are basically rejects from the 80s.  They're only at the
underground stations and on Flinders St. and metro Spencer St. platforms.
This rubbishy things are always stuffed.  They are always in pairs, mainly
for the long lines like those to Belgrave or Hurstbridge and list every
station on the rail line.  If it's stopping at a station, the station's name
will be there.  Otherwise, it's three little dots ". . .".  Then there are
the enormous airport style flip signs at Flinders St. concourse.  I know a
lot of people hate them, but I think they're better than anything else.  To
the left of the two columns are the line names (i.e. "Lilydale", "Epping").
Next to them is the next train on that line's destination, followed by
another flip sign that says the important stuff ("Stops all stations except
East Richmond") then the time it departs plus a sign that either says
"DIRECT" or "LOOP".  These cover everything, even on Sundays when any
passenger for the Belgrave line has to take a Lilydale train and change at
Ringwood.  If you look at the time next to Belgrave, it says what time and
on the info board it says "Take Lilydale and change at Ringwood".  They all
tell you the next two trains on that line, plus town the bottom are two
extremely long lines for miscellaneous stuff like "Remember to validate your
Metcard before each time you travel", or "Epping/Hurstbridge trains depart
platform 14.  Take subway on platforms 2/3 and walk through to your
platform" plus a clock showing the current time.  If they had smaller
versions of these on the platforms and stations around Melbourne and
Geelong, people might be a little LESS confused than they already are taking
Melbourne's public transport.