The PIS on DLR platforms has been giving random, and constantly
changing, information for the last few weeks (except at Bank, where it
says "Check front of train").

I wonder if they'll rip out the displays soon, like at the bus stops?

Unlike on the buses though, there are systems that need to know where
the trains are to stop them crashing. I hope those still work.

The situation has certainly got a whole lot worse since the snow fell
on Sunday night. Very often they just display the number 1 in the top
left corner. Seems to have improved today though.

On Tue, 3 Feb 2009, MIG wrote:

Unlike on the buses though, there are systems that need to know where
the trains are to stop them crashing.

There's one of those on buses too. It's connected to a passenger
information system - an interactive one, in fact - but only on board the
bus. It's located at the front, inside the blue sweater.

tom

--
YUO CANNOT ESCAPE OR EVAR WIN!!!!!!!!

On Feb 3, 10:54*pm, wrote:
The situation has certainly got a whole lot worse since the snow fell
on Sunday night. Very often they just display the number 1 in the top
left corner. Seems to have improved today though.

I can't honestly see how it can get any worse than randomly cycling
through diffferent destinations and numbers of minutes, which it's
been doing for weeks.

It's a bit of a shock the first time you see that the full train in
the platform is departing for Bank in 26 minutes, till you see that
it's suddenly going to Stratford in 3 minutes, then Bank in 12
minutes, then departs with that still showing ...

It's more of a problem at the two-platform termini, where no one knows
which train is going first, and they don't usually bother to warn you.

On 3 Feb, 22:34, MIG wrote:

The PIS on DLR platforms has been giving random, and constantly
changing, information for the last few weeks (except at Bank, where it
says "Check front of train").

Also noticed this.


I wonder if they'll rip out the displays soon, like at the bus stops?

The Countdown displays have not been ripped out anywhere, at least not
to my knowledge. They just need to be hooked up to a better stream of
information, in other words iBus - it seems likely that this is in the
pipeline. Until they are, it seems possible that fixing the ones that
have got hardware faults might be taking a lower priority.


Unlike on the buses though, there are systems that need to know where
the trains are to stop them crashing. *I hope those still work.

The trains wouldn't be running if they didn't, full stop.

My understanding is that there have been some fairly calamitous
software upgrades to the central PIS masterbrain at DLR HQ. It needs
sorting, no doubt. However I've some notion that it might be related
to a more overall software upgrade of the DLR's systems, which would
make things more complicated. I might have made that up - or more to
the point conflated a number of separate happenings into one meta-
event.

On Feb 4, 1:24*am, Mizter T wrote:
On 3 Feb, 22:34, MIG wrote:



The PIS on DLR platforms has been giving random, and constantly
changing, information for the last few weeks (except at Bank, where it
says "Check front of train").

Also noticed this.



I wonder if they'll rip out the displays soon, like at the bus stops?

The Countdown displays have not been ripped out anywhere, at least not
to my knowledge. They just need to be hooked up to a better stream of
information, in other words iBus - it seems likely that this is in the
pipeline. Until they are, it seems possible that fixing the ones that
have got hardware faults might be taking a lower priority.

I am sure that there are some stops where they have physically gone.
Sometimes it's hard to remember what was there though. Heading south
in Camden Town is an example.


Unlike on the buses though, there are systems that need to know where
the trains are to stop them crashing. *I hope those still work.

The trains wouldn't be running if they didn't, full stop.

My understanding is that there have been some fairly calamitous
software upgrades to the central PIS masterbrain at DLR HQ. It needs
sorting, no doubt. However I've some notion that it might be related
to a more overall software upgrade of the DLR's systems, which would
make things more complicated. I might have made that up - or more to
the point conflated a number of separate happenings into one meta-
event.

To clarify a bit, they seem to be cycling between destinations that
are possible at the particular platform, so at Canary Wharf southbound
yesterday for example, it was showing the first train to Lewisham
(rather than Beckton or something), but the first train was in 1
minute, then no minutes (fine, but nothing coming) then 7 minutes,
then no minutes, then 3 minutes (after less than 4 minutes). The
second train was also varying wildly.

At platforms where different destinations are possible, the
destinations and order of trains vary as well, but only between ones
that are plausible. Some times the numbers of minutes are huge.