On train information and the lack thereof, post your experience

Mark Gleeson · 16-12-2005, 09:36

One the the longest running Platform 11 issues is that of information while you are on the train. In basic terms this translates to

All trains have a sign in front and rear with the correct destination, could be a simple piece of card but the passenger doesn't care once it is clear where the train is going
All suburban services either the driver, guard or ticket checker will announce the next station unless an automated system is in place and working

So if you see a suburban or DART train,

With the wrong destination front or rear
With no destination displayed
A train fitted with an electronic display (inside or outside) which isn't working
The computer driven announcement tells you the wrong or out of date information such as the wrong station or doesn't announce the station.
You can't hear the announcement or the electronic display is full of funny characters
Where you can't find a full route map

Post it here, we need the date, time and the service operated, one of the coach numbers would be handy (but is not essential) as then we could prove that its not just one specifc train but a fleet wide problem.

Iarnrod Eireann have a simply shocking record in this area. Complaints with respect to once specifc incident yield little as Iarnrod Eireann use the "once off" excuse when we all know the problem is endemic. We need to build up a body of evidence. Its not just IE the Luas is known to be temperamental as well but to a much lesser extent

Mark Gleeson · 16-12-2005, 09:41

Friday 16-Dec-2005

8:05 Greystones Howth
No electronic displays
No electronic announcements
No destination shown on rear coach *

Coaches 8604/03+8205/8405*

Mark Gleeson · 16-12-2005, 10:09

Friday 16-Dec-2005

8:08 Malahide Dun Laoghaire
External electronic displays not working on rear 4 coaches
Wrong destination shown on rear coach (Out of Service)

Mark Gleeson · 16-12-2005, 20:14

Friday 16-Dec-2005

17:25 Howth Bray
External electronic displays not working
Internal electronic displays not working
No electronic announcements

Coaches 8614/13/30/29

Mark Gleeson · 17-12-2005, 20:28

Saturday 17-12-2005

15:44 Greystones Howth
No destination shown on rear coach *

Coaches 8604/03+8205/8405*

Thomas J Stamp · 19-12-2005, 12:40

There's a classic post in IRN regarding new 2900's doing a visit to the Kildare line. In one of the posts it is mentioned that the destination on the front is.............Connolly. It went to Heuston as usual.

Thomas J Stamp · 19-12-2005, 12:47

Yesterday's 1300 from Heuston to Cork was delayed due to a door failaing to close. The announcements kept us upto date and well informed that the mainteance crew were called and how they would only take ten mins to do the work. So, sometimes there are exceptions to the rule

19-12-2005, 13:28

Quote:

the destination on the front is.............Connolly. It went to Heuston as usual.

That's pretty shocking. Aren't you glad these people do not work in air traffic control.

Mark Gleeson · 19-12-2005, 19:03

Monday 19-12-2005

17:25 Howth Bray
Everything going fine until Sydney Parade
The next station is <blank> says the voice

Its a bug in version 7 (10-12-2005) of the software it has the same problem with Salthill and Monkstown

Coaches 8626/25/24/23

Mark Gleeson · 19-12-2005, 23:29

Its amazing how crap IE are I mean a roller blind is easy to turn, if they can't mange that how on earth can we expect computer driven systems to work, Imagine what I'd see if I put my mintd to it, so

Monday 19-12-2005

17:50 Pearse Dundalk (29x20+21) Platform display was stating Maynooth as the next train at the time which reinforces the need for this to work
22:20 Pearse Dundalk (29x19)

External displays lit up for approx 3 seconds then died as usual

19:10 Bray Malahide
21:50 Bray Malahide

No destination in rear

22:05 Malahide Bray

Showing Malahide on rear coach

Mark Gleeson · 20-12-2005, 15:17

Tuesday 20-12-2005

9:11 Howth Dún Laoghaire
This train is for <blank>

Oh dear oh dear seems like the latest attempt to fix the problem has made it worse, the previous software version was actually bullet proof apart from a issue with the irish translation

Coaches 8316/8116/8622/21 (its a persistent offender)

Thomas J Stamp · 21-12-2005, 15:21

a few from their site..............

such a humble train service

A recent automated announcement at Blackrock Dart station:

"We regret to announce..... that... due to an accident... the... 12.09 service.... from Howth.... is... on time. Iarnród Éireann apologises for any inconvenience caused"

Overheard on Friday, 09th December 2005 - Blackrock Dart Station by James

and............

Iarnrod Eireann - Getting There!

I was on the train from Waterford to Dublin one Monday morning. The usual announcement came over the intercom ‘Iarnrod Eireann would like to advise passengers that this train will NOT be serving Kilkenny, this train will be stopping at Thomastown, KILKENNY, Carlow, Athy, Kildare and Dublin Heuston’. I looked at my brother somewhat confused at the contradiction! This was promptly followed by another announcement ‘Iarnrod Eireann would like to advise passengers that this train will NOT be serving Kildare, this train will be stopping at Thomastown, Kilkenny, Carlow, Athy, KILDARE and Dublin Heuston’, at this point some random passenger shouts out ‘ya muppet ya, will ya make up you’re f*cking mind’, cue laughter from all around the carriage!

There was then another announcement stating that ‘Tea, coffee, sandwiches and a selection of snacks are available from the snack car, which is situated towards the centre of the train’. Nice one, I thought, as we were situation towards the centre of the train. However, after walking through about what seemed like 10 carriages, I finally found the snack car at the REAR of the train! The passenger in front of me was trying to order some food and asked what sandwiches were available and was told ‘eh, we’ve no sandwiches available’, so he asked for a couple of packets of crisp and was told ‘eh, we’ve no crisps’. Getting slightly irate, the passenger said ‘ok so, I’ll have two cans of coke please’ only to be told ‘there’s no coke’. ‘So what the f*ck do you have, you said you had a selection of sandwiches and light snacks’, to which the reply was ‘ eh, we have tea and coffee that’s all, sure you know yourself, it’s a Monday morning and no one stocked up the train’! Classic, ‘Iarnord Eireann, Getting There’ but you might miss your stop or starve along the way!

Overheard on Friday, 30th September 2005 - On the train! by Nuls

and.............

No Control

On an Iarnrod Eireann train the following announcement was made on an almost painfully loud PA: "Will passengers please note, the crew have no control over the volume of the PA"

Overheard on Tuesday, 06th September 2005 - On the train from Limerick to Dublin by Tony

finally....

Irish Rail psychology

On the train from dublin to sligo. Shortly after departure when the conductor came to check the tickets I asked him how long the journey would take, having heard that it was one of the slowest lines in the country...

"Just over nine hours" was the reply. A bit taken aback I managed to splutter...

"NINE HOURS?!?" in a raised voice.

He came right back at me with...

"Well it's really 4 hours but it doesn't sound too bad now does it."

Overheard on Wednesday, 24th August 2005 - afternoon train Dublin to Sligo. by noel

Thomas J Stamp · 21-12-2005, 16:14

Mystery Train

On the train from Galway to Dublin, the train stopped for no apparent reason just passed Athlone. After five minutes the driver came on the speaker and said we're just waiting for the 18.15 from Heuston to Galway to pass us. (There's only one track). Five minutes later he repeated this explanation. Five minutes later again he came back on the speaker and said "If the driver of the 18.15 train from Heuston to Galway is on this train can he please go to the guard's van". Cue very perplexed faces on all the passengers.

Overheard on Saturday, 26th March 2005 - On Galway to Dublin train by Eoghan

Thomas J Stamp · 21-12-2005, 16:16

Bewildered guy on tannoy: "Iarnrod Eireann would like to apoligise for the late arrival of the 1930 service to Drogheda, this was due to..............(silence)"

Overheard on Monday, 07th March 2005 - Pearse Station by Paul

Mark Gleeson · 21-12-2005, 20:34

Wednesday 21-12-2005

17:15 Bray Malahide
22:20 Pearse Dundalk
No external displays working

17:25 Bray Howth
19:09 Bray Malahide
21:50 Bray Malahide
No destination shown on rear

17:33 Bray Longford
Displayed Maynooth as destination front and rear

17:45 Bray Howth
Displayed Malahide as destination on rear

Its a farce beyond belief its roughyl every second train has something amiss

markpb · 22-12-2005, 09:05

Surely there's some legal obligation for IE to at least have the internal displays and announcements working for disabled people? It would be a useful stick to beat them with.

Mark Gleeson · 22-12-2005, 09:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by markpb

Surely there's some legal obligation for IE to at least have the internal displays and announcements working for disabled people? It would be a useful stick to beat them with.

No law yet, in fact no requirement on IE to even have the equipment fitted unless the train is EU funded which acccounts for very very few coaches

Its a media angle we are looking at

MrX · 23-12-2005, 22:30

In Boston there's a law requiring ALL public transport vechicles to make announcements, including busses.

If there's no automatic system in place, the driver has to do it on a mic, or in some of the MBTA's oldest busses, by shouting down the bus at each stop.

The new busses all had GPS-based systems that announced each major junction and stop the bus passed. They also had external speakers which announced info about the bus at the stop!

The on-train systems were audio-only but comparable to the Luas and the DART when it's system works.

Mark Gleeson · 28-12-2005, 15:45

Wednesday 28-12-2005

10:38 Malahide Greystones

No announcements, no electronic displays and no destination shown in front

14:57 Greystones Howth (E936)

Same train but different result, no destination in rear but the announcements and some of the displays where working but it kept telling me about a train with CCTV fitted which none of the six coaches in the train had fitted

And the heating wasn't on

8204/8404+8601/8602

ThomasJ · 31-12-2005, 23:06

This evening 18.07 pearse-mullingar which departs from bray departed from pearse this evening as a result of the DART failure at Killiney. On the P.I.S. screen at pearse it was displaying mullingar but the platform announcement said Longford and the audio and visual on the train stated longford. The same thing happened at tara street. At connolly the automated announcement was made that it was going to longford then there was a manual announcement at the station to say it was going to mullingar and then driver announced that it was going to mullingar and that it would not serve longford. The display on the train was then changed to mullingar

16-12-2005, 09:36	#1
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	On train information and the lack thereof, post your experience One the the longest running Platform 11 issues is that of information while you are on the train. In basic terms this translates to All trains have a sign in front and rear with the correct destination, could be a simple piece of card but the passenger doesn't care once it is clear where the train is going All suburban services either the driver, guard or ticket checker will announce the next station unless an automated system is in place and working So if you see a suburban or DART train, With the wrong destination front or rear With no destination displayed A train fitted with an electronic display (inside or outside) which isn't working The computer driven announcement tells you the wrong or out of date information such as the wrong station or doesn't announce the station. You can't hear the announcement or the electronic display is full of funny characters Where you can't find a full route map Post it here, we need the date, time and the service operated, one of the coach numbers would be handy (but is not essential) as then we could prove that its not just one specifc train but a fleet wide problem. Iarnrod Eireann have a simply shocking record in this area. Complaints with respect to once specifc incident yield little as Iarnrod Eireann use the "once off" excuse when we all know the problem is endemic. We need to build up a body of evidence. Its not just IE the Luas is known to be temperamental as well but to a much lesser extent Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 17-12-2005 at 20:29.

16-12-2005, 09:41	#2
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Friday 16-Dec-2005 8:05 Greystones Howth No electronic displays No electronic announcements No destination shown on rear coach * Coaches 8604/03+8205/8405* Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 17-12-2005 at 20:28.

19-12-2005, 12:40	#6
Thomas J Stamp Chairman/Publicity Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The Home of Hurling Posts: 2,708	Kildare communter train going to Connolly There's a classic post in IRN regarding new 2900's doing a visit to the Kildare line. In one of the posts it is mentioned that the destination on the front is.............Connolly. It went to Heuston as usual.

19-12-2005, 12:47	#7
Thomas J Stamp Chairman/Publicity Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The Home of Hurling Posts: 2,708	An exception Yesterday's 1300 from Heuston to Cork was delayed due to a door failaing to close. The announcements kept us upto date and well informed that the mainteance crew were called and how they would only take ten mins to do the work. So, sometimes there are exceptions to the rule

19-12-2005, 19:03	#9
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Monday 19-12-2005 17:25 Howth Bray Everything going fine until Sydney Parade The next station is <blank> says the voice Its a bug in version 7 (10-12-2005) of the software it has the same problem with Salthill and Monkstown Coaches 8626/25/24/23 Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 19-12-2005 at 19:05.

16-12-2005, 10:09	#3
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Friday 16-Dec-2005 8:08 Malahide Dun Laoghaire External electronic displays not working on rear 4 coaches Wrong destination shown on rear coach (Out of Service)

16-12-2005, 20:14	#4
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Friday 16-Dec-2005 17:25 Howth Bray External electronic displays not working Internal electronic displays not working No electronic announcements Coaches 8614/13/30/29

17-12-2005, 20:28	#5
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Saturday 17-12-2005 15:44 Greystones Howth No destination shown on rear coach * Coaches 8604/03+8205/8405*

19-12-2005, 23:29	#10
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Oh dear Its amazing how crap IE are I mean a roller blind is easy to turn, if they can't mange that how on earth can we expect computer driven systems to work, Imagine what I'd see if I put my mintd to it, so Monday 19-12-2005 17:50 Pearse Dundalk (29x20+21) Platform display was stating Maynooth as the next train at the time which reinforces the need for this to work 22:20 Pearse Dundalk (29x19) External displays lit up for approx 3 seconds then died as usual 19:10 Bray Malahide 21:50 Bray Malahide No destination in rear 22:05 Malahide Bray Showing Malahide on rear coach

20-12-2005, 15:17	#11
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	The farce continues Tuesday 20-12-2005 9:11 Howth Dún Laoghaire This train is for <blank> Oh dear oh dear seems like the latest attempt to fix the problem has made it worse, the previous software version was actually bullet proof apart from a issue with the irish translation Coaches 8316/8116/8622/21 (its a persistent offender)

21-12-2005, 15:21	#12
Thomas J Stamp Chairman/Publicity Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The Home of Hurling Posts: 2,708	overheard in dublin a few from their site.............. such a humble train service A recent automated announcement at Blackrock Dart station: "We regret to announce..... that... due to an accident... the... 12.09 service.... from Howth.... is... on time. Iarnród Éireann apologises for any inconvenience caused" Overheard on Friday, 09th December 2005 - Blackrock Dart Station by James and............ Iarnrod Eireann - Getting There! I was on the train from Waterford to Dublin one Monday morning. The usual announcement came over the intercom ‘Iarnrod Eireann would like to advise passengers that this train will NOT be serving Kilkenny, this train will be stopping at Thomastown, KILKENNY, Carlow, Athy, Kildare and Dublin Heuston’. I looked at my brother somewhat confused at the contradiction! This was promptly followed by another announcement ‘Iarnrod Eireann would like to advise passengers that this train will NOT be serving Kildare, this train will be stopping at Thomastown, Kilkenny, Carlow, Athy, KILDARE and Dublin Heuston’, at this point some random passenger shouts out ‘ya muppet ya, will ya make up you’re fcking mind’, cue laughter from all around the carriage! There was then another announcement stating that ‘Tea, coffee, sandwiches and a selection of snacks are available from the snack car, which is situated towards the centre of the train’. Nice one, I thought, as we were situation towards the centre of the train. However, after walking through about what seemed like 10 carriages, I finally found the snack car at the REAR of the train! The passenger in front of me was trying to order some food and asked what sandwiches were available and was told ‘eh, we’ve no sandwiches available’, so he asked for a couple of packets of crisp and was told ‘eh, we’ve no crisps’. Getting slightly irate, the passenger said ‘ok so, I’ll have two cans of coke please’ only to be told ‘there’s no coke’. ‘So what the fck do you have, you said you had a selection of sandwiches and light snacks’, to which the reply was ‘ eh, we have tea and coffee that’s all, sure you know yourself, it’s a Monday morning and no one stocked up the train’! Classic, ‘Iarnord Eireann, Getting There’ but you might miss your stop or starve along the way! Overheard on Friday, 30th September 2005 - On the train! by Nuls and............. No Control On an Iarnrod Eireann train the following announcement was made on an almost painfully loud PA: "Will passengers please note, the crew have no control over the volume of the PA" Overheard on Tuesday, 06th September 2005 - On the train from Limerick to Dublin by Tony finally.... Irish Rail psychology On the train from dublin to sligo. Shortly after departure when the conductor came to check the tickets I asked him how long the journey would take, having heard that it was one of the slowest lines in the country... "Just over nine hours" was the reply. A bit taken aback I managed to splutter... "NINE HOURS?!?" in a raised voice. He came right back at me with... "Well it's really 4 hours but it doesn't sound too bad now does it." Overheard on Wednesday, 24th August 2005 - afternoon train Dublin to Sligo. by noel

21-12-2005, 16:14	#13
Thomas J Stamp Chairman/Publicity Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The Home of Hurling Posts: 2,708	More Mystery Train On the train from Galway to Dublin, the train stopped for no apparent reason just passed Athlone. After five minutes the driver came on the speaker and said we're just waiting for the 18.15 from Heuston to Galway to pass us. (There's only one track). Five minutes later he repeated this explanation. Five minutes later again he came back on the speaker and said "If the driver of the 18.15 train from Heuston to Galway is on this train can he please go to the guard's van". Cue very perplexed faces on all the passengers. Overheard on Saturday, 26th March 2005 - On Galway to Dublin train by Eoghan

21-12-2005, 16:16	#14
Thomas J Stamp Chairman/Publicity Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The Home of Hurling Posts: 2,708	last one.... promise Bewildered guy on tannoy: "Iarnrod Eireann would like to apoligise for the late arrival of the 1930 service to Drogheda, this was due to..............(silence)" Overheard on Monday, 07th March 2005 - Pearse Station by Paul

21-12-2005, 20:34	#15
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Wednesday 21-12-2005 17:15 Bray Malahide 22:20 Pearse Dundalk No external displays working 17:25 Bray Howth 19:09 Bray Malahide 21:50 Bray Malahide No destination shown on rear 17:33 Bray Longford Displayed Maynooth as destination front and rear 17:45 Bray Howth Displayed Malahide as destination on rear Its a farce beyond belief its roughyl every second train has something amiss Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 21-12-2005 at 23:07.

22-12-2005, 09:05	#16
markpb Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 541	Surely there's some legal obligation for IE to at least have the internal displays and announcements working for disabled people? It would be a useful stick to beat them with.

23-12-2005, 22:30	#18
MrX Really Regular Poster Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 585	In Boston there's a law requiring ALL public transport vechicles to make announcements, including busses. If there's no automatic system in place, the driver has to do it on a mic, or in some of the MBTA's oldest busses, by shouting down the bus at each stop. The new busses all had GPS-based systems that announced each major junction and stop the bus passed. They also had external speakers which announced info about the bus at the stop! The on-train systems were audio-only but comparable to the Luas and the DART when it's system works.

28-12-2005, 15:45	#19
Mark Gleeson Technical Officer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Coach C, Seat 33 Posts: 12,669	Wednesday 28-12-2005 10:38 Malahide Greystones No announcements, no electronic displays and no destination shown in front 14:57 Greystones Howth (E936) Same train but different result, no destination in rear but the announcements and some of the displays where working but it kept telling me about a train with CCTV fitted which none of the six coaches in the train had fitted And the heating wasn't on 8204/8404+8601/8602 Last edited by Mark Gleeson : 28-12-2005 at 15:47.

31-12-2005, 23:06	#20
ThomasJ Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Clonsilla Posts: 2,812	This evening 18.07 pearse-mullingar which departs from bray departed from pearse this evening as a result of the DART failure at Killiney. On the P.I.S. screen at pearse it was displaying mullingar but the platform announcement said Longford and the audio and visual on the train stated longford. The same thing happened at tara street. At connolly the automated announcement was made that it was going to longford then there was a manual announcement at the station to say it was going to mullingar and then driver announced that it was going to mullingar and that it would not serve longford. The display on the train was then changed to mullingar

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