EGNM 2004

Original System 

Rev 1 – Remove text above, move information about and add count down, added a black out filter to hide electronics behind. (This is what will be used where the systems are already in place)

Rev 2 - Larger 4 line system (too big)

Rev 4 – More information on the 2nd train, which rotates to show the 3rd train after, as it currently does. 

Rev 6 – I decided on a slightly larger but smaller than above display, and a full screen of leds rather than rows, allowing different type sizes. and reorganisation of information depending on importance. 

Final version -  A little bit more tinkering and here is a sign where the train is approaching the platform.

The device runs a screen saver like program while not in use to provide additional information, and draw attention, it also offers 5 extra languages on screen to attract the widest possible audience, its messages and animation are designed to attract and draw people in while waiting. eventually people will become used to it and use it regularly. This also serves a secret 2nd purpose because the display is 100% black except where the animation occours, so no burn in should happen. 

This kiosk design was based on a 3d visualisation I saw from a large company which produces them, I then remodelled this in 3d studio max to make a fully working visual.

LED Train Running Information Screens 

As much of the existing railway network is already setup with systems which are adequate, it seems like a costly and time consuming process to replace these systems with other systems of a similar kind. Simply because the existing systems can easily be modified with the new information to be displayed. I suggest that this be done rather than replacing the existing information systems.

The plan is to use the existing systems but to change the information display, train departure time will be displayed to the left as it currently does, followed by the destination and rather than the expected arrival time at this station a live calculation of the trains arrival time will be displayed.

The live calculation will use historical data, live train location and speed data, which is already available and the current track conditions such as speed restrictions, red lights, and points.

The system will weight the information to calculate an estimated time of arrival which should become more accurate over time. The best way to achieve instant on accuracy is to use historical data on trains which if not currently available should be recorded in the run up to the information sign software update.

Help Point 

In addition to these signs a new system will be installed, this will replace the existing Help Point systems. Which are not as inviting nor personal as a kiosk based system which will replace them.

The replacement system will be a touch screen kiosk with a built in video chat system so you can see the person you speak to. However the idea of this system is to provide direct access to train information in multiple languages so that customers can avoid talking to a person at all costs.

There will be too clear buttons, Emergency and Information on the home screen. Emergency will immediately dial with video to the control centre. However information will take you into a interactive information system. 

Centralised transport information

Currently there are 10s of websites for accessing transport information, some are specific to a bus or tram company, others are specific to a single railway. The best of these systems is the National Rail Enquires web site which gives access to all if not almost all train services in the UK, it does not cover Trams, buses or Metro/Underground services. This is unforatunate as TFL.gov.uk does seem to cover the these well, but they are not integrated.

This new system would integrate these along with bus time tables and other transport information where possible it should have live updates but in the case of buses this is less than practical.

The CTI system will give not only customers but also staff access via web, telephone and the platform help point, to information which would not have been available before.

 Ticket machines

The final point of this plan is to add the train information into ticket machines, rather than perfoming blind sales of tickets, they will check the best route to inform the customer while dispensing tickets which platform they should use. It will also inform customers of disruptions to their route today and in the next few days. For example if they are buying a travel card it would inform them that there is a replacement bus service from Worcester Park to London Waterloo and that the Victoria line is closed from Brixton to Green Park so that they know the journey will be affected by these disruptions before entering the station. 

On Saturday I went and visited the London Transport Museum to see if there was any useful information on old and new signage systems, unfortunately they did not focus on this, the museum was all about the actual trains, buses, and trams rather than the systems around them. However it was useful to visit.

London Transport Museum 

There are a whole bunch of systems available for displaying train information but they can be broken down into three main formats…

• LED Displays – These displays have become the most common for overhead displays as they are easy to read however they are expensive, and are inflexible because like the example below they come with a preformatted layout which leaves little space for improvement.

Pro: High readability, Lower power consumption and comes in any size

Con: Inflexible and Expensive

• LCD Displays - These displays are very flexible, they can show train times and other information but because they are so generic they do not lead them selfs to be the best way to show quick one glance information like the LED displays do. They also have short lives, the displays used for the last few years at London Waterloo were frequently replaced and were eventually scrapped for LED displays as the screens became burned in. It is important to note that LCD displays suffer less from burn in than plasma displays, which is probably what was used at Waterloo. 

  Pro: Flexible, Cheap, Standardised format

Con: Higher power consumption, Short life, Limited size 

• CRT displays - These were the solution of the old days gone by, they used a Teletext like system in the past and in many places like Epsom station they were subsequently upgraded to use the newer system which appears to be a Windows NT based system. Those same displays are still in operation now in many places and ideally could do with replacement. South West Trains tends to install new CRT’s in larger stations where a full LCD display would not fit. However I have also seen smaller LCD’s being installed perhaps as they don’t suffer from the same burn in that CRT’s and Plasma’s do.

Pro: Very cheap, simple, easy to replace

Con: Can easily be vandalized by magnets and easily burn in over time. 

CRTs are out, they are old tech, they may be cheap but they are not reliable, and susceptible to many forms of attack not least magnets, they are too big and use a considerable amount more energy than LCDs. LEDs are better but lack the detail and price to make them a blanket solution. For now over head displays are best kept to the LED system and the LCDs to be used for single user appliances like ticket kiosks. 

Misuse of train information displays has led to a recent annoyance of many, Instead of showing the expected train information, train operators have taken to replacing one line or interleafing pages with annoying engineering work notices, they also like to alert you certain facts, which I translate below…

• Please keep all your belongings with you… (Your an idiot your stuff will get destroyed or cause another idiot to panic and cause a station evacuation)
• If you see any thing suspicious.. (If that guy next to you keeps staring at you, then tell him he’s a bad man and he should get off at the next stop)
• Do not put feet on the seats… (We don’t clean the trains very often so if you put feet on the seats it means we have to spend more on wages)
• Smoking is not allowed any where on the station… (Quit smoking, nobody likes you, its not cool and its not cleaver, it just makes you look stupid)
• Do not ride your bike on the platform… (If you hurt some one riding your bike on the platform they might sue us!)
• Thank you for traveling with SWT… (Thanks for paying extortionate prices, if you come back on our train again we will… laugh / be amazed / please come back on our trains!!!! P.s. PLEASE!!!!)

// END MAJOR RANT 

The above is just how I feel but I can imagine these things also annoy a lot of other commuters and similar thoughts go through their minds, these information displays are very condescending and nobody to which these apply actually listens, other wise they would have had the forethought to not do what they are being instructed not to do. Its better to do these announcements infrequently as you can some times tell where you are in your journey based on what order the safety announcements run in. 

At the end of the day people want to know where they are going and how long its going to take, they also like to know how long they have to wait, and why they are being delayed, I am going to address what is needed of these systems in my next post. There will also be identification of what is not wanted/needed/allowed such as these safety announcements. 

 This is one of the best train information displays I have seen, color coded and clear it leaves no question in your mind as to what it means, nor what the service is like. My only problem with it is that staff often announce over the intercom that there is a good service on all lines when the display above shows one or more outages.

 This is not so much train information but it is good design, the reversible ticket lanes here have green arrows and red crosses to mark lanes which are open to your direction of traffic… This is very helpful when a lot of people are moving about and you cannot see the green light on the actual device its self.

This display shows how long until the next Bakerloo and Northern line trains arrive, however the problem is that this display rarely ever shows any thing except within 3 minutes, so the display is ignored and sits there wasting energy. It would be put to better use if it more acurate, and also if it pointed to the platform.

In the end this sign is a waste because if some one is going to get a train and the next train is 5 minutes away there is not much chance of them going any where but the platform, the idea behind the sign was probably to allow people going to stations like Embankment to choose the best line based on how long they would be waiting for the next train. As Embankment is the next north bound service for both the Bakerloo and Northern lines.

Long story cut short should be more accurate.

 This display is one of the better examples on the London Underground, left to right you have the order of the trains, Destination and time until arrival, the destination in this case is nearly always a waste of time as it shows Elephant & Castle all day long because theres only about 10 stops and there are no branches on the Bakerloo line. In some cases there are Not in service trains, or trains terminate early due to station closure etc… So the information is justifiable.

Many commuters have complained about the inaccuracy of the time show, as the 2 minutes shown above means the train is actually 2 stops away not 2 minutes away, the travel time between stations is measured and then when the train enters the tunnel the information shows the accumulated travel times not including the actual time sitting at the platform, this is according to a TFL spokes person who spoke in the London Paper recently on the subject. 

I would like it to be a running count down updated on very frequent basis, once a second would be nice. It would not hurt to tell customers that the 30 seconds is now 90 because the train is stuck at a red light, but what would be even better is that if the signal is waiting on the train ahead to clear the track, to use the ahead trains running information to calculate how long until the light clears to green and then add the travel time, with acceleration and breaking. To give customers a really good picture of how long they are going to wait.

 I have often waited longer than a minute for a train scheduled on the screens as 1 minute away, its annoying, and more information in a clear format such as this really helps customers to feel more relaxed.

 Of note, there is no information inside Bakerloo line trains, and even here where the one display on the whole platform is visable, the perfect seat for reading the information, its still illegable.

The fact that there is only 1 display on the whole platform is stupid when you consider that there are about 15/20 large and billboard ads on the platforms.

The return of the help point, almost identical in design, this is a great feature, in this case it looks much less imposing, but still manages to get little use due to the fact that there is a Fire Alarm, and Emergency alarm on the panel with only a small information button, and there is no private handset, only the loud speaker phone.

All in all, the TFl service is good, its far different from the Southern and South West Trains stations because they operate a different kind of service. If you look at their site they will try to convince you that they run to a schedual, but in reality they don’t theres no need to display a the time of the next train because in this situation its a shuttle service which runs every few minutes, so there is no sence in overloading the customer with infomation which is inacurate.

There is a good information system in place here at Waterloo and Oxford Circus which are the too stations I visit frequently, however some stations have very poor information and some none on the platform. The two worst offenders are the Circle and District Lines which feel like the poor relative of the London Underground as they have poor reliability, rubbish trains in some cases, and the train information at some of the northern stations I have visited is akin to that of switches and leavers, with back lit signs which turn on and off to tell you where the next train is going, with no allowance for station closure or the like. 

The above image (click to enlarge) shows the information displays used at London Waterloo by South West Trains, There are 3 at last count massive displays like this. There consist of 23 displays, 19 large displays, 2 clocks and 2 smaller displays on each.

 Next to each display are these smaller scale versions of the large displays on the over head hoardings . These displays like the larger ones mentioned above are divided into (from top left) departure time platform number, destination, calling stations, and information details and train operator share the last line.

The information displayed becomes paginated rotating between pages periodically when there are too many stations to list on the page at one time.

There are 19 platforms at London Waterloo and one display at each, which obviously means there are 19 platforms.

Every platform has at least one display like this, most have 2 however they are quite small which is a bit of a problem if you want to read them from a distance.

 Its a case of spot the sign here, although only 2 carriages down the blue sign is hardly even visible, and defiantly beyond readable, luckily South West Trains have installed displays out side the platform, but it would be nice to have more information on the platform, as its possible to be confused once on the platform.

Some smaller stations like the above station in Winchfield. Have a similar display to those on Southern stations, except that they have a larger clock, are wider and they have a nicer finish.

This image I found on flickr shows the problems with these smaller displays like with the Southern stations they are placed too far apart, if you are between them they can often both be obscured and if you are directly under one or in the train the next nearest one if often eligible for various reasons such as obstruction or size. 

Just like on the Southern station, South west trains seems to litter the station with endless amounts of posters. Here there are 9 double sided units making a wall of information, none of it is very eye catching with the exception of the police warning.

In the mist of it all a small 47″ TV screen hidden below a barrage of ads shows a quaint power point presentation updated on a regular basis, telling customers of the latest works and also providing safety notices and occasionally tube running times.

South West Trains is far better than Southern when it comes to visual displays, but the audible announcement are much better on Souther stations. There is this mentality with South West Trains that as well as a visual assault of the bright colors of their trains, the bill boards and ads every where, the paint of the yellow line and various other components, that we need to be assaulted in another sense, the dreary constructed and repetitive voice of the automated train announcer is made worse by the need to announce that you should “Try to keep all items with you at all times, Do not leave items of Baggage…..” you get the point, we also do not need to here that “This is the South West Trains service to London Waterloo, calling at London Waterloo only. This train consists of 12 carriages , There is a buffet service available on this train” I mean seriously it would be better to say… “This train is calling at London Waterloo only, there is some over priced snacks available on this train.

As you can tell I have a grudge against the damn automated train announcer, ‘Provided by South West Trains at every single one of its platforms and trains. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay to your service, we hope….‘ 

Around the world train information varies in quality…

 This is one of the information displays in New York, its very similar to the systems on the London Underground, displaying the route, and time until arrival, (I am not sure what the L is for) 

This is train information in the Netherlands, where an LCD screen shows the time in the top left, the train operator. (Voor means For and Achter means Behind, so presumably Voor is the next train and Achter means the train behind that.