Greater Anglia Information Systems

[Parallel]

I think when it was announced Greater Anglia were replacing their CIS system, it was mentioned on this forum that it gives staff ‘more control’ to intervene with the information output compared to Worldline, which probably explains why customers using their phones and other information sources find out about cancelled services before platform staff do. Perhaps well intentioned, it just seems like a really bad idea when customers are looking for information as soon as possible, and can get it from other sources.

I think the screens are generally poor on Greater Anglia, particularly the small rectangular ones at quieter stations that are angled badly and on high totems. The ‘Amy’ voice gets completely drowned out as soon as there is any noise in the background too. It’s a very poor set up in my opinion.

 

[jon0844]

While I might be somewhat hyperbolic, I find it really hard to get information from the screens because the key information pages so slowly, yet there are so many animations and colours for less important stuff, as if they hired someone who used to get carried away with PowerPoint transitions in a former job.

At Cambridge it seems extremely confusing for people (especially tourists) who are perhaps not aware of the platform layout, while at Norwich I saw the train to Stansted Airport being advertised in a way that implied it was the train nearest the buffers - when it was of course the train in front, and the rear unit was going to be ECS. For whatever reason, staff hadn't shut that train down so everyone was boarding the wrong train - perhaps assuming the front train was going to leave empty first.

A few minutes before departure, a manual announcement came through on the platform to tell everyone to change train and a lot of people were somewhat upset to have got themselves all nicely settled but now needed to board a train that a lot of other people had boarded because they've perhaps experienced the issue countless times before. Even I wasn't sure whether to trust OTT, but I figured if the front train was going to be shut down then I'd be kicked off and could move without issue - unlike the risk of missing the train the other way around.

 

[londonmidland]

think the screens are generally poor on Greater Anglia, particularly the small rectangular ones at quieter stations that are angled badly and on high totems.

They really are a poor choice of screens to use, for an outdoor setting. As you mentioned, the mounting is far too high, with the screen itself being tiny.

Formatting is all over the place, with a poor choice of text colour against a black background.

Far too much information is trying to be squashed onto one page, with the animations themselves acting like a choppy PowerPoint presentation.

The WMT horizontal screens are slightly better, but they too suffer from the text size being too small, with too much information being squashed onto one page.

The quiet, text to speech voice is also very unsuitable. No chance of hearing anything if you have a DMU idling in the platform.

The Infotec white LED offerings are so much easier to read, in my opinion.

The Wordline P.A system is also much preferred, from a number of railway workers’ comments, from which I’ve seen.

Photos below show a comparison between BlackBox and Infotec platform information screens.

 

[Horizon22]

They really are a poor choice of screens to use, for an outdoor setting. As you mentioned, the mounting is far too high, with the screen itself being tiny.

Formatting is all over the place, with a poor choice of text colour against a black background.

Far too much information is trying to be squashed onto one page, with the animations themselves acting like a choppy PowerPoint presentation.

The WMT horizontal screens are slightly better, but they too suffer from the text size being too small, with too much information being squashed onto one page.

The quiet, text to speech voice is also very unsuitable. No chance of hearing anything if you have a DMU idling in the platform.

The Infotec white LED offerings are so much easier to read, in my opinion.

The Wordline P.A system is also much preferred, from a number of railway workers’ comments, from which I’ve seen.

That 2nd image, NTI (Next Train Indicator) isn't actually too bad. But still has the issue with the current arrival time being much smaller than the timetabled one, so it is very hard to see. The vertical Blackbox screens only amplify this issue.

The front-facing design elements from Blackbox are acutally generally to be commended - the NTI at WMT is very smart and more so than Infotec/Worldline screens which still have the "dot matrix" feel - but unfortunately there's a bit of 'style over substance' going on. It's got good features, but probably still needs more work to get thr right balance. At least with GA, it's generally the most reliable operator so there isn't too much disruption!

 

[saismee]

At least with GA, it's generally the most reliable operator so there isn't too much disruption!

Not today

All of the screens across the eastern part of the GA network are going to be upgraded across the next three years apparently. This includes platform boards, so hopefully the platform 3 issue at Ipswich will be resolved. Chelmsford should be next to receive a new large display in this new style.

For those wondering, the problems with these new displays can be rectified quickly if brought up. The jumbled order of departures on the screen at Ipswich has been resolved already. Arrivals won't be coming back because it "wasn't in the scope" (???).

Today's disruption showed a problem with the service update/clock screen. There was a lot of text visible, but it scrolled every 2 seconds so it was entirely unreadable. Again, feedback was pushed through and it was adjusted, rebooted, and fixed within 30 minutes. It looks as though these new screens are very configurable, which is promising at least.

There's still a problem with the template as the departure summary board doesn't match the old displays. It displayed "Colchester & London Liverpool Street" when the trains were cancelled beyond Colchester, but I was told it will be flagged up to be fixed. It's all very promising.

 

[jamieh27]

They really are a poor choice of screens to use, for an outdoor setting. As you mentioned, the mounting is far too high, with the screen itself being tiny.

Formatting is all over the place, with a poor choice of text colour against a black background.

Far too much information is trying to be squashed onto one page, with the animations themselves acting like a choppy PowerPoint presentation.

The WMT horizontal screens are slightly better, but they too suffer from the text size being too small, with too much information being squashed onto one page.

The quiet, text to speech voice is also very unsuitable. No chance of hearing anything if you have a DMU idling in the platform.

The Infotec white LED offerings are so much easier to read, in my opinion.

The Wordline P.A system is also much preferred, from a number of railway workers’ comments, from which I’ve seen.

I think some London Overground stations have Blackbox screens such as Gospel Oak which showing departures and travel update.

The screens are not my favorite. I don't mind the rectangle screens but prefer the roll call ones. Alot of railway workers favored Worldline more, not sure about KeTech.