live train information is not fit for purpose

[jopsuk]

Surely in a wireless internet age it shouldn't be a huge project. It does not need the wiring or degree of hardware it would have needed 10 years ago.

It still needs LOTS of hardware.

 

[TUC]

Surely in a wireless internet age it shouldn't be a huge project. It does not need the wiring or degree of hardware it would have needed 10 years ago.

It still needs LOTS of hardware.

Well, at the risk of asking the stupid question, why would that be the case? In an age when our own phones can tell us in an instant where we are located and how long it will take to get from a to b, including taking account of traffic disruption, why should that not be possible on a train? I.e. To have simple wireless equipment in each train that sends continuous details about its location to a central database which calculates the effect on journey times, combined with the effect of other services using the track, and sends those details to wirelessly equipped station monitors, as well as serving myriad other internal train planning requirements.

Yes it would need investment in the wireless equipment, including for tunnels and poor signal areas, but the technology exists.

 

[jon0844]

There needs to be resilience that you can't always guarantee for a wireless data connection. But I do agree that many third party systems seem to show up the 'proper' systems.

 

[jopsuk]

I was thinking more at the display end- if you're introducing a new, better system to update the display boards, there's a fair chance the systems driving those boards, and indeed many of the boards themselves, will really need replaced. After all, you're after consistent display formats for this better information, yes?

 

[Tomnick]

Oh, if only running a railway was so simple! The current system knows where each train was last reported, through various automatic (via train describers) and manual reports, and they're.usually sufficiently frequent and reliable to maintain an accurate picture of current train running. It's far more difficult, GPS or otherwise, to extrapolate that information to accurately determine the expected times later in its schedule or how other trains will be affected - it's all dependent on factors such as the Signalman's regulating and how much time a freight train timed for a heavier load recovers on a steep gradient. That's where the current system falls down, I think, and I'm not sure there's much that can be done about that aspect, until the proposed traffic management systems are fairly widespread at least.