wrote:
They seemed to have overlooked the 'human being' factor. SWT dont need
any fancy GPS door opening on their DESIROs and so I dont see why it
should needed on Electrostars.

As I said before the 377s are decent enough trains but they do not need
half the fancy computer stuff on them and a little faith in the
traincrews to do their job would have solved a lot of problems.

This is a feature of selective door opening. The system is programmed to
only open the right doors at the right location. If GPS is wrong then
the software needs to be overridden but it take time. There was a
problem getting the satellite signals to the trains at Victoria and
Cannon Street and this used to be more of a problem. I don't know for
sure but perhaps some signal repeater has been installed now.

Chris

Serious issues seem to repeatedly arise on the Arun Valley's notably:

Last carriage(s) refusing to open at Victoria (especially in on platform 19)
Ununusually long delays between stopping at Vic and then actually opening
the doors.
The GPS system quite often seems to refuse the existence of Redhill (down
side) mind you if I had my way, I would want to block Redhill from
exsistence as well!!

And then there is the farce of the on board CIS (Customer Information
System) system:

Swanick seems never to be recognised as having been passed through and
continues to say 'The next station is Swanick' all the way to Soton or
Fareham!
The station stops on the Arun Valley's are frequently either in the wrong
direction ('We are now arrving at London Victoria...' when you are heading
south through Arundel!!) or alternatively the wrong stops displayed (Redhill
and Horley usually).

I note that there are a few Conductors who just get fed up with the system
and after a few stations just turn it off!! (To those I say thank you!!!!)

Another irritation is the seemingly total lack of abililty by Southern to
show destination detail on splitters. South Eastern manage to achieve it
with coach numbers stated for individual coaches, on Southern however chaos
seems to reign. It is most odd going to Bognor Regis on a train that until
Haywards Heath claims it is going to Hastings and any of the innumerable of
dopey (read dumb) tourists on the line must end up in the most obscure of
places!!

Rant over - except can they please shut that irritating announcer lady up or
turn her volume down, some of us in the front coach are trying to get some
shut eye you know!!

Regards
John M Upton

My Fotopic Collections:
South Central/Southern, Model Railway & Other Rail Pictures:
http://gallery39764.fotopic.net/

Bus Pics:
http://gallery42239.fotopic.net/

"Chris!" wrote in message
oups.com...

Vernon wrote:
The report I had from someone who was on it was that it took staff
about ten
minutes just to get the doors open hence my concern about fire
safety.

There is a way to open a specific door instantly (by using the door
emergency open button / lever) as explained in the safety notices which
are now on all trains. It's worrying to hear that you haven't noticed
and familiarised yourself with the poster because it could well save
your life.

As I say, it was a close relation who was on the train, not me. I will
mention that for future reference.

The staff on the train taking 10 minutes were quite probably trying to
open all doors at the same time (to prevent a crush) and to not have to
use the emergency releases (because the train would then be stuck in
the platform until fixed)

The train did eventually end up stuck - and taken out of service.

JMUpton2000 wrote:
Serious issues seem to repeatedly arise on the Arun Valley's notably:

Last carriage(s) refusing to open at Victoria (especially in on
platform 19)
Ununusually long delays between stopping at Vic and then actually
opening
the doors.
The GPS system quite often seems to refuse the existence of Redhill
(down
side) mind you if I had my way, I would want to block Redhill from
exsistence as well!!

The delay at Vic of approx 20 secs is because the train cannot get a
GPS signal and the driver has to do it all manually!

And then there is the farce of the on board CIS (Customer Information
System) system:

To give it the correct title P.I.S - which it takes quite a lot!!

Swanick seems never to be recognised as having been passed through
and
continues to say 'The next station is Swanick' all the way to Soton
or
Fareham!
The station stops on the Arun Valley's are frequently either in the
wrong
direction ('We are now arrving at London Victoria...' when you are
heading
south through Arundel!!) or alternatively the wrong stops displayed
(Redhill
and Horley usually).

Wrong stops can be due to driver mistyping the PIS code into MITRAC or
being given the wrong code.

I note that there are a few Conductors who just get fed up with the
system
and after a few stations just turn it off!! (To those I say thank
you!!!!)

Don;t thank us, we can't do it! The driver is the only one who can turn
it off. All we can do is put up the information messages and make PAs.

Another irritation is the seemingly total lack of abililty by
Southern to
show destination detail on splitters. South Eastern manage to
achieve it
with coach numbers stated for individual coaches, on Southern however
chaos
seems to reign. It is most odd going to Bognor Regis on a train that
until
Haywards Heath claims it is going to Hastings and any of the
innumerable of
dopey (read dumb) tourists on the line must end up in the most
obscure of
places!!

Lack of detail, and lack of ability to properly split!! On SWT the
guard can make announcements to the whole train, Front 4, Middle 4, or
Rear 4. We can only announce to the whole train!

Rant over - except can they please shut that irritating announcer
lady up or
turn her volume down, some of us in the front coach are trying to get
some
shut eye you know!!

The ping pongs have been moaned about so many times now! All we need is
'We are now approaching xxxx' This train is the 'xxxx' service your
next station is 'xxxx', the scrolls are fine as you can choose whether
or not to pay attention to them, but listing all calling points at
every stop is madness!

Conductor in Charge of.......... wrote:
JMUpton2000 wrote:

Serious issues seem to repeatedly arise on the Arun Valley's notably:

Last carriage(s) refusing to open at Victoria (especially in on

platform 19)

Ununusually long delays between stopping at Vic and then actually

opening

the doors.
The GPS system quite often seems to refuse the existence of Redhill

(down

side) mind you if I had my way, I would want to block Redhill from
exsistence as well!!


The delay at Vic of approx 20 secs is because the train cannot get a
GPS signal and the driver has to do it all manually!



I've noticed the delay at Victoria has been shorter this week - has
anything changed or is it just my luck/imagination?


The ping pongs have been moaned about so many times now! All we need is
'We are now approaching xxxx' This train is the 'xxxx' service your
next station is 'xxxx', the scrolls are fine as you can choose whether
or not to pay attention to them, but listing all calling points at
every stop is madness!


I was on tenterhooks last week - I was late for a flight and was
travelling on a 377 from Clapham Junction to Gatwick which kept
announcing "bing bong the next station is London Victoria". Something
was clearly wrong with the unit as an entire (rather animated)
conversation between the driver and guard was broadcast inadvertantly
across the PA system in my coach (at least), culminating in a decision
to fail the service at East Croydon due to the PA not working at all in
the coach the guard was in. Thankfully, it was soon discovered the PA
worked (too well!) in the rest of the train and the service carried on,
with the "quiet" coach locked out.

Fair play to the train crew though - the announcements the public _were_
supposed to hear were otherwise excellent.

conversation between the driver and guard was broadcast inadvertantly
across the PA system in my coach (at least), culminating in a decision

to fail the service at East Croydon due to the PA not working at all
in

How can anyone seriously consider failing a train and turfing out a few
hundred passengers just because the PA isn't working??! Most people
don't listen to it anyway!

B2003

"Boltar" wrote in message
ups.com...

How can anyone seriously consider failing a train and turfing out a few
hundred passengers just because the PA isn't working??! Most people
don't listen to it anyway!

Blame our good friends at Health & Safety and the Disability Discrimination
Act. Farcical, isn't it?

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 09:43:16 GMT, Jack Taylor wrote:

Disability Discrimination Act. Farcical, isn't it?

No.

--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p13277469.html
(Demolition in progress at London Broad Street station, Aug 1985)

"Chris Tolley" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 09:43:16 GMT, Jack Taylor wrote:

Disability Discrimination Act. Farcical, isn't it?

No.

Yes it is when a much larger majority of people are inconvenienced on their
journey on the spurious excuse that a disabled person *may* want to travel
and *may* be disadvantaged if PIS or PA systems are out of action. The
responsible and sensible thing to do is to allow the train to continue until
such point as a replacement set can be found to take over the diagram, not
to take the set out of service at the first opportunity. Anyone who thinks
otherwise must be a cretin.

Jack Taylor wrote:
"Chris Tolley" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 09:43:16 GMT, Jack Taylor wrote:

Disability Discrimination Act. Farcical, isn't it?

No.

Yes it is when a much larger majority of people are inconvenienced on
their
journey on the spurious excuse that a disabled person *may* want to
travel
and *may* be disadvantaged if PIS or PA systems are out of action.
The

If the train needed to be evacuated it would be helpful to be able to
announce that to all the passengers... Not just to disabled passengers

responsible and sensible thing to do is to allow the train to
continue until
such point as a replacement set can be found to take over the
diagram, not
to take the set out of service at the first opportunity. Anyone who
thinks
otherwise must be a cretin.

Why have all the hassle of finding a replacement set... getting it out
without delaying other services but whilst the current set is
operating. What's wrong with getting off at East Croydon and getting
on the next service which stops at Gatiwck Airport? They are pretty
frequent, aren't they?