East Croydon Information Boards and displays

[vrbarreto]

Has anyone noticed that the indicator boards at East Croydon show entirely spurious information.


https://s18.postimg.org/xqj723ns9/20160907_071744.jpg

And a Gatwick Express train!

This was on strike day as well so feel sorry for anyone jumping on this train and ending up in probably Caterham.

Also heard a automated announcement for a 15 carriage train followed by an actual person sarcastically clarifying with a lot of laughter in the background.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Has anyone noticed that the indicator boards at East Croydon show entirely spurious information.


https://s18.postimg.org/xqj723ns9/20160907_071744.jpg

And a Gatwick Express train!

This was on strike day as well so feel sorry for anyone jumping on this train and ending up in probably Caterham.

Also heard a automated announcement for a 15 carriage train followed by an actual person sarcastically clarifying with a lot of laughter in the background.

This isn't just an East Croydon issue. I took a photograph of the indicator board at St Pancras advertising a 16-coach train...

 

[Deepgreen]

Southern's information provision in general is abysmal. They simply do not 'get' the concept of accuracy and usefulness, despite their insistence that they recognise the importance of good information, claimed every time a complaint is made about information! Other TOCs are often as bad. A widespread problem is the provision of spurious information at the expense of what is actually needed. Far too often, information failure is blamed on computer programming, etc., avoiding the root cause of a proper knowledge of the railway's operations, along with the lack of literacy and understanding of communication essentials to enable it to be put into practice.

 

[Wookiee]

The various boards at East Croydon can't even manage to display the same time - it's hardly surprising that other info is also wrong!

 

[Muzer]

Anyone know if Southern uses Darwin?

 

[Ibex]

Anyone know if Southern uses Darwin?

Yes they do.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Has anyone noticed that the indicator boards at East Croydon show entirely spurious information.


https://s18.postimg.org/xqj723ns9/20160907_071744.jpg

To summarise for anyone who hasn't viewed the image, it shows a departure board with a Southern train to Caterham calling at the usual list of intermediate stations, with the next train on the board being a Gatwick Express train to Victoria calling at the same list of intermediate stations: (i.e. South Croydon, ... , Whyteleafe South & London Victoria)!

This looks like incredibly shoddy programming to me. Could it really be that the programmer hasn't recognised that a train might have zero intermediate calling points before its final destination, and when that occurs (as with the Gatwick Express service non-stop to Victoria) it is "inheriting" the list of calling points from the previous train? I find it hard to believe that such a bad bug could be live on the departure boards at a major station, but I suppose you never know...

 

[Muzer]

In which case, part of the issue might be Darwin's requirement for its users to display Darwin's information verbatim even if it's obviously wrong.

 

[Paul Kelly]

In which case, part of the issue might be Darwin's requirement for its users to display Darwin's information verbatim even if it's obviously wrong.

Just to be clear, I was implying that the bug is in the programming of the departure board, not Darwin.

 

[Validation]

This isn't just an East Croydon issue. I took a photograph of the indicator board at St Pancras advertising a 16-coach train...

Euro* train confusion, possibly

 

[Muzer]

Just to be clear, I was implying that the bug is in the programming of the departure board, not Darwin.

Apologies, I was replying to the "Yes, they do" comment, forgot to quote it. But yes, I agree now I've heard what's going on that it's more likely to be a bug in the departure board software (I was unable to view the image in question).

Though the advertising a train as being "16 coaches" sounds more like dodgy data fed into Darwin...

 

[talldave]

Nothing surprises me where Southern are concerned. They wired up the boards at Gatwick out of sequence but struggled to understand the problem even when described in words of one syllable. I tried to tell them about incorrect PA announcements at East Croydon but lost the will to live and gave up because Southern's Customer Service people don't appear to understand the basics of the train services they run.