My whinge - scrolling passenger information screens

[Route115?]

We all have our whinges. One of mine is scrolling passenger information screens.

There are those which scroll between several screens and you are just finding the information you want when it goes on to give information on future engineering works and the like. There are others where the first stopping stations are shown after which it whizzes down to later stops & back again. This seems to be a particularly British issue, I have seen fewer examples in Europe.

Do others share my view? How much would additional screens costs (assuming that there is the space)? I would have thought that the incremental cost would be low and I would have thought that it would be a good inverstment to supply more screens so that they could continuosly show the same information.

 

[DelW]

IMO it's even worse when the screens that *are* there switch away from useful information that you're trying to absorb, to pointless "security" messages etc. But in principle, as screens of all types get generally larger and (relatively) cheaper, there ought to be enough provision to avoid the need for scrolling.

I'd also prefer, where there are several screens, if one could be kept always on the imminent departures, with only later ones scrolling if necessary. I appreciate that the feasibility of that will vary at different locations though.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Sometimes too much information is given so you may miss something important. Scrolling screens do not help this.

 

[zwk500]

This is always a bit of an issue - for every passenger who just wants to know where the train will stop that day, there is another who is grateful for the engineering works reminder.

There are others where the first stopping stations are shown after which it whizzes down to later stops & back again. This seems to be a particularly British issue, I have seen fewer examples in Europe.

I think these are specific to busy routes with varied stopping patterns such as Thameslink. I'd support a policy of having far more consistent stopping patterns on these S-Bahn/RER type services, so that only route numbers need to be shown but the odd gaps in service patterns exist for various reasons, some of which are costly to resolve. Thameslink and Crossrail could certainly go for this, although I'd advocate the entire former NSE area more or less moving to a Takt-style service.

There's lots of different designs of screens, I think the worst I've seen are the blue-and-white at St Pancras, while the best setup were the LED portrait screens at Leeds, York etc that had page numbers and scroll bars when showing long calling patterns on the platforms. It will be quite a personal preference though.

 

[Tester]

We all have our whinges. One of mine is scrolling passenger information screens.

I am very happy to support you on this. With reducing hardware costs it really shouldn't be necessary.

Even if it is deemed impossible to show everything at once, a minimum amount of current information should be shown on all screens.

 

[Jimini]

One that does get on my lils a bit is when a train has a long list of stopping points, and you want to see the # of carriages / first class info that scrolls after the station calls are advertised. If the train's running late, when the expected time / delay length gets amended by a minute or two, the whole screen goes back to the start of the station calls, making it tricky to see the info you're after.

First world problems and all that jazz...

 

[Brush 4]

Interesting that nobody thought of posters, in addition to screens. A basic timetable sheet and another for engineering work. It's the same in cafes like Costa or Greggs, just as you are browsing the types of coffee or whatever, it disappears. A simple menu poster nearby would avoid the tension of reading it fast before it suddenly disappears.

 

[jfollows]

The ones at Crewe showing departures and their platforms is annoying in this way, from memory there are three pages of information and you've usually just worked out what you're looking for when it pages on and you've got to wait for three more pages before it gets back to the page you want.
Not the biggest irritation in the world, I'm not usually in a hurry but if I were it could be more annoying.

 

[zwk500]

The ones at Crewe showing departures and their platforms is annoying in this way, from memory there are three pages of information and you've usually just worked out what you're looking for when it pages on and you've got to wait for three more pages before it gets back to the page you want.
Not the biggest irritation in the world, I'm not usually in a hurry but if I were it could be more annoying.

At a station like Crewe there should really be more than one screen for this. A single, fixed 'Next Departures' screen and next to it a scrolling 'later departures' screen.

 

[edwin_m]

A pet peeve of mine too. Having enough screens to avoid scrolling for departures or list station calls* should really be an accessibility issue, as I suspect there are some mental impairments that make it more difficult for people to take in information quickly. Worse still in Wales where some screens scrolled (and probably still do) between languages too.

I think I might have been diagnosed as mildly dyslexic if I'd been in the education system more recently than I was.

*Well maybe not for the Southampton to Great Malvern via everywhere in between, or other runs with dozens of pretty minor stops. Those should show the first few constantly and scroll through the later ones.

 

[Amos]

Reminds me of the old teletext holidays where you would be halfway through reading about an interesting one when the page would change.You would then have to wait for ages until it came around again.

 

[whoosh]

Reminds me of the old teletext holidays where you would be halfway through reading about an interesting one when the page would change.You would then have to wait for ages until it came around again.

Progress then. Or not!

 

[Railcar]

We all have our whinges. One of mine is scrolling passenger information screens.

Many of those scrolling screens (say 1 of 3) will have a long list of departing trains. On screen 2 of 3 there will be the end of the list, maybe only two items. Screen 2 is held for the same lengthe of time as screen 1. On screen 3 of 3 there will be one of those 'safety' notices stating the bloomin' obvious, "Take care on floors wet with rain", etc. Screen 3 is held as long as 1 or 2. It is impossible to find a train on screen 1 before it is whisked away, replaced by 2 and 3. A long wait before 1 appears.

​

 

[Horizon22]

Interesting that nobody thought of posters, in addition to screens. A basic timetable sheet and another for engineering work. It's the same in cafes like Costa or Greggs, just as you are browsing the types of coffee or whatever, it disappears. A simple menu poster nearby would avoid the tension of reading it fast before it suddenly disappears.

People simply do not read railway posters; plenty of user evidence to go with this too. Moving screens - and an approriate use of colour - can be beneficial, if used in the correct manner.

It really is a lose-lose scenario; people complain they can't read the current information, but then people complain they had no information about future engineering works or service disruption details. It's a very fine balance.

There should be "special notice" screens for service disruption / engineering works etc. which might also have a summary of departures and then with "next train indicator" boards elsewhere with the dedicated calling pattern; even on these however there might be a warning regarding short platforms and so on. However there's only so many screens and often a number of mandated information. "More screens" is one answer but comes with a cost and often a legibility / readability issue about where to best be positioned.

People must remember that the majority of the public are not like most enthusiasts and forum members and therefore the requirement for passenger information is rather different.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

What's far more annoying to me than scrolling screens, is poor typesetting on non-scrolling screens. As seen on Northern 158s which display "please mind the gap between the train and the platform... (***moves to next page***) edge". Utterly amateurish.

Then again, perhaps I should just be grateful that it isn't in comic sans... that's just about the only thing that would look more "toytown"!

 

[Spartacus]

What's far more annoying to me than scrolling screens, is poor typesetting on non-scrolling screens. As seen on Northern 158s which display "please mind the gap between the train and the platform... (***moves to next page***) edge". Utterly amateurish.

That's nothing compared to the infamous "We are now approaching Leeds (***next page***) where this train terminates Customers (***next page***)"

 

[Horizon22]

What's far more annoying to me than scrolling screens, is poor typesetting on non-scrolling screens. As seen on Northern 158s which display "please mind the gap between the train and the platform... (***moves to next page***) edge". Utterly amateurish.

Then again, perhaps I should just be grateful that it isn't in comic sans... that's just about the only thing that would look more "toytown"!

A lot of the customer information screens are actually rather dated now and have line character limits which causes rather annoying issues. Especially when the same message is to be put onto differing stock with differing capabilities.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

That's nothing compared to the infamous "We are now approaching Leeds (***next page***) where this train terminates Customers (***next page***)"

Anyone would think they didn't have a "trial run" before rolling the system out... I'm surprised there aren't a load of typos and spelling mistakes in there too.

While I'm on this rant, who on earth thought that yellow text on a blue background was a good idea?

 

[The exile]

I'd also prefer, where there are several screens, if one could be kept always on the imminent departures, with only later ones scrolling if necessary. I appreciate that the feasibility of that will vary at different locations though.

Please - exactly that. First screen’s worth should always be visible - the rest can scroll on a separate screen.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The Argyle line has to be the worst for this

Page 1 of 5 is the only useful information

 

[Peter0124]

They replaced perfectly good ones at my local station (white text and also on the Argyle line) with mediocre orange paged screens aswell. I don't understand why.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The ones at Crewe showing departures and their platforms is annoying in this way, from memory there are three pages of information and you've usually just worked out what you're looking for when it pages on and you've got to wait for three more pages before it gets back to the page you want.
Not the biggest irritation in the world, I'm not usually in a hurry but if I were it could be more annoying.

My main annoyance at places like Crewe is that the 3rd page of information usually only contains one train, so it delays the time needed to get back to the critical first screen.
It's as though the programmers didn't know the size of screen they were dealing with.

At Chester there are also three screens on the high-up concourse PIS, but one always shows "special information".
Of the other two, one is for arrivals and one for departures (sometimes the same train of course), but arranged in such a way as to minimise the number of trains it can show.
The platform PIS shows arrivals and departures as separate trains, when they are usually the same one, so are scrolling un-neccessarily.
The concourse PIS there is going to be replaced I understand, as part of the station "upgrade".

Then there are the stations with simple dot-matrix displays, but where the matrix is "broken" in some way for weeks/months, making them unreadable, before being fixed.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Another vote for Crewe being a very poor example of this.

 

[Purple Train]

That's nothing compared to the infamous "We are now approaching Leeds (***next page***) where this train terminates Customers (***next page***)"

Or, as seen on an EMT PIS, "Please do not" (next page) "put your feet on the seats."

There's lots of different designs of screens, I think the worst I've seen are the blue-and-white at St Pancras, while the best setup were the LED portrait screens at Leeds, York etc that had page numbers and scroll bars when showing long calling patterns on the platforms. It will be quite a personal preference though.

To me, the best setup is that at Reading, with a bank of screens by the entrance with the list of all possible direct destinations and the next train (and platform) to each, and a scrolling two-page list of "next trains" next to it, and I also very much like the setup at Piccadilly, showing the next train to all direct destinations and their platforms on the main screens.

People simply do not read railway posters; plenty of user evidence to go with this too. Moving screens - and an appropriate use of colour - can be beneficial, if used in the correct manner.

It really is a lose-lose scenario; people complain they can't read the current information, but then people complain they had no information about future engineering works or service disruption details. It's a very fine balance.

There should be "special notice" screens for service disruption / engineering works etc. which might also have a summary of departures and then with "next train indicator" boards elsewhere with the dedicated calling pattern; even on these however there might be a warning regarding short platforms and so on. However there's only so many screens and often a number of mandated information. "More screens" is one answer but comes with a cost and often a legibility / readability issue about where to best be positioned.

Agreed. People keep complaining about too much superfluous information, and then complain about not having enough! I agree with most posters on here: differentiation of information depending on importance would go a long way. (Although if you ask the DfT I suspect they'd take that brief as meaning "make every information screen display "See it, say it, sorted" permanently if current announcements are anything to go by... )

 

[mm333]

The new LNER screens at Doncaster wind me up. If you want if 2 pages of departures and a special announcement, then use 3 screens.

 

[jfollows]

I also very much like the setup at Piccadilly, showing the next train to all direct destinations and their platforms on the main screens.

I can't stand that monster display, but I'm glad you do!
What I like about Piccadilly is the old green/yellow TV screen which simply lists the next departures in time order, no scrolling, which I can look at to see my train's platform without even needing to break my step as I enter the station, as long as I know the final destination of my train (I always do) then I don't need any more information.
It's been there for years, and one day it will be "upgraded" with something far worse for me, I fear.

 

[satisnek]

While I'm on this rant, who on earth thought that yellow text on a blue background was a good idea?

This actually goes back to the early days of colour television. Think of the BBC spinning globe and clock, and a number of ITV company idents back in the day - all yellow on blue. The reason was because these colours gave a good contrast when viewed on a black and white set. In CIS applications I would guess that it maintains good readability in cases of colour blindness, although white on black is presumably just as effective.

My own beef is animated graphics - for a long time an annoying addendum to captions on TV, it has now spread to CIS screens at places like Birmingham Snow Hill. Really, people who appreciate this kind of thing shouldn't be travelling alone without their carers

 

[vinnym70]

There seems to a be lot of illogical displays at stations like Stratford. For instance, all departures are shown on the indicators on each platform. This means the information has to cycle through 'pages'
It seems each platform has the same, whereas each platform should show departures from that platform persistently, perhaps cycling departures from other platforms on a secondary screen.
I'm sure some of it is cost saving, some of it is designed for showing everything in case of disruptions and some of it is just poorly thought out.

But, I spend a lot of time there, looking at the screens, waiting for the 'page' I want to pop up only to find that page seems to be the quickest of all to cycle through.
(Specifically for Stratford, I'm concentrating on departures as I suspect the audience for arrivals information is fairly slim)

 

[BenS123]

What's far more annoying to me than scrolling screens, is poor typesetting on non-scrolling screens. As seen on Northern 158s which display "please mind the gap between the train and the platform... (***moves to next page***) edge". Utterly amateurish.

Then again, perhaps I should just be grateful that it isn't in comic sans... that's just about the only thing that would look more "toytown"!

Or SWR Desiros from London Waterloo to Weymouth scrolling through the "calling at" stations to Moreton I think, then go blank for around a minute then randomly scroll "Dorchester South and Weymouth". This happens every single time as well

 

[MikeWM]

Many of those scrolling screens (say 1 of 3) will have a long list of departing trains. On screen 2 of 3 there will be the end of the list, maybe only two items. Screen 2 is held for the same lengthe of time as screen 1. On screen 3 of 3 there will be one of those 'safety' notices stating the bloomin' obvious, "Take care on floors wet with rain", etc. Screen 3 is held as long as 1 or 2. It is impossible to find a train on screen 1 before it is whisked away, replaced by 2 and 3. A long wait before 1 appears.

Yes, this is one of the things I find most annoying on the entire railway. Screen 2, often only showing one or two trains that aren't going to leave for an hour or more, is accorded equal importance as screen 1 which has the train that you want to catch and is about to leave and you need to know where to go to get it. It is downright ridiculous and very irritating.