On 11 Apr, 18:52, Tom Anderson wrote:

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Mizter T wrote:

On 11 Apr, 17:20, MarkVarley - MVP
wrote:

I have no idea what they're called, the LED signs in some bus stops
that tell you how long the busses are supposed to be, my question is,
how do they work? how do they update?

The system is called Countdown, and as part of the iBus project it is
set to become much more reliable and accurate.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that the present system is not very
reliable or accurate :P.

As another poster pointed out, the present system is rather Heath-Robinson
and failure-prone. It was, though, the best that could be done with the
technology of the time it was implemented. Frustrating as it is, it's
better than nothing.


Heath Robinson-esque is quite the right sounding description! I
couldn't quite remember when Countdown began, but after a bit of
googling I found this post by the great Mr Arquati, formerly (and I
still think occasionally) of this parish...

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....6435d488fdeb6a

....in which it is stated that the Countdown system went live in 1996
(the above thread incidentally is from 2005 and concerns the Countdown/
iBus overhaul), when GPS technologies were pricey and the government
hardly splashed LT with cash.

I don't know the plotted history of the system but I wouldn't be at
all surprised to learn that it was only installed on a few routes at
first.

Anyway, 'tis a grand thing that it will be made better. It's most
frustrating to have to guess whether the display is telling the truth
or not.