Station Auto-Announcements for Cancelled Services

[Bertie the bus]

My biggest issue with station auto-announcements is they are totally useless at times of disruption – the precise times when you need information. When services are cancelled the auto-announcement states ‘The xx:xx service to X is cancelled’. You may or may not get a reason but certainly no useful information. Any half decent station announcer, and in my experience most are/were good, will go on to give information regarding alternative services passengers can use.

Recently when I was at Meadowhall a service was cancelled and the auto-announcer did exactly that – the next service for X is at xx:xx, the next service to Y is at yy:yy, etc.

I’ve never heard that before. Is it new and just being piloted in certain areas? I recently saw a Northern poster claiming they are working on providing better information when there is disruption, so is it part of that initiative and Northern only?

 

[Bletchleyite]

While I haven't heard it in a bit, that was in use at LM stations. It's a standard feature of the ATOS system.

 

[Bertie the bus]

I don't know what systems are in use or where, or how you can tell the difference between them, but it's the first time I've heard it. I certainly doesn't seem to be used at large stations in the north.

 

[sheff1]

I have heard it once at Sheffield and was rather surprised. I assumed that the relevant recording had been selected in some way by a human ..... I may well be wrong, but if it was automatic then why doesn't it play every time there is a cancellation ?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have heard it once at Sheffield and was rather surprised. I assumed that the relevant recording had been selected in some way by a human ..... I may well be wrong, but if it was automatic then why doesn't it play every time there is a cancellation ?

When it was in use on LM it did exactly that.

"Passengers for X (,Y and Z) your next fastest direct service is the YY:ZZ from platform N" for all of the calling points.

It also seemed to trigger for a delay that would make another train quicker.

Perhaps LNR have switched it off.

 

[Parallel]

GWR do the ‘next fastest direct service’ announcements for cancelled or delayed trains too. However some of these trains can be an hour or two hours afterwards and it’s quicker to get another train before and change...

 

[a_c_skinner]

Last week I was involved (well sitting on the platform at Keighley) in a 90 minute delay from a balloon in the OHLE. Northern did OK (info, water, good humour), Network Rail did OK (it seems fairly quick to find the problem and fix it) but the numerous announcements were simply wrong. I was changing to a Morecambe train at Skipton, which was announced as cancelled (it ran 63L) and simultaneously announced as late, turning back at Lancaster then finally the next direct train to Lancaster announced as the train afterwards. Staff at Skipton knew what was happening but the auto announcements at Keighley and Skipton were just plain wrong.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Last week I was involved (well sitting on the platform at Keighley) in a 90 minute delay from a balloon in the OHLE. Northern did OK (info, water, good humour), Network Rail did OK (it seems fairly quick to find the problem and fix it) but the numerous announcements were simply wrong. I was changing to a Morecambe train at Skipton, which was announced as cancelled (it ran 63L) and simultaneously announced as late, turning back at Lancaster then finally the next direct train to Lancaster announced as the train afterwards. Staff at Skipton knew what was happening but the auto announcements at Keighley and Skipton were just plain wrong.

In the end that's a bit of GIGO (garbage in garbage out) - it's a bit of a culture shift that the announcers are fed from what were previously internal systems, so updating them in a timely manner has become much more important as there's no longer a manual announcer or display operator to interpret it.

 

[Aictos]

While I haven't heard it in a bit, that was in use at LM stations. It's a standard feature of the ATOS system.

It's also in use on the GTR networks as you can stand on a TL platform so when a Brighton bound service is cancelled at say Luton, it announces a few interchange stations then advises the next service to call there be it a Gatwick bound service or a Rainham bound service.

In the case of a cancelled Brighton bound service, if the next service to London Bridge is a Rainham then it will tell passengers to board that train and for passengers wanting East Croydon and stations south it will tell them to get the next BML bound service.

It's actually very useful in disruption as it's actively telling you what the next service is to the station you want.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Perhaps that is true, the systems plainly knew what was happening but were not working properly. Interestingly there were some live announcements too that seemed more accurate (as in they were vague and basically said things were a bit up in the air).