This thread was prompted by contributions to the recent thread "Heathrow
on Boxing Day?"
I have recently been brave enough to venture outside zone 1 on London
Underground. Some parts of the network such as Hammersmith & City -
Paddington (I DO know PAD is in zone 1) to Hammersmith have no train
describer boards but PA is regularly used to give customers some idea of
waiting times. Other platforms such as the westbound district platforms
at Earl's Court have next train semaphore indicators. Piles of stations
have dot matrix indicators which seem to be awaiting commission.
Piccadilly between South Ealing and Heathrow has several. ISTR a similar
situation at North Ealing. I was confused on the Metropolitan at North
Harrow, when heading towards town, by the lack of information.

Can an informed reader point to documents giving train describer plans?
I appreciate such plans are likely to be fictional. The refurbishment of
the Eastern Ticket Office at Aldgate East was planned as a 3 month job
finishing in August, 2007. I expect it is still work in progress. I
assume penalties apply to late work. The other morning, there was almost
no Victoria line service. I hate to think of the cost of that.

A few ticket halls have Dot Matrix indicators - Elephant & Castle
(Bakerloo) is one. What plans are there for these? I would appreciate
such a display in the Metropolitan Ticket Hall at Moorgate to allow me
to select an optimal route to King's Cross. I suppose I could look at
the live train information on the TfL web site as I leave home.
--
Walter Briscoe

On Dec 27, 12:49 pm, Walter Briscoe
wrote:
This thread was prompted by contributions to the recent thread "Heathrow
on Boxing Day?"
I have recently been brave enough to venture outside zone 1 on London
Underground. Some parts of the network such as Hammersmith & City -
Paddington (I DO know PAD is in zone 1) to Hammersmith have no train
describer boards but PA is regularly used to give customers some idea of
waiting times. Other platforms such as the westbound district platforms
at Earl's Court have next train semaphore indicators. Piles of stations
have dot matrix indicators which seem to be awaiting commission.
Piccadilly between South Ealing and Heathrow has several. ISTR a similar
situation at North Ealing. I was confused on the Metropolitan at North
Harrow, when heading towards town, by the lack of information.

Can an informed reader point to documents giving train describer plans?
I appreciate such plans are likely to be fictional. The refurbishment of
the Eastern Ticket Office at Aldgate East was planned as a 3 month job
finishing in August, 2007. I expect it is still work in progress. I
assume penalties apply to late work. The other morning, there was almost
no Victoria line service. I hate to think of the cost of that.

A few ticket halls have Dot Matrix indicators - Elephant & Castle
(Bakerloo) is one. What plans are there for these? I would appreciate
such a display in the Metropolitan Ticket Hall at Moorgate to allow me
to select an optimal route to King's Cross. I suppose I could look at
the live train information on the TfL web site as I leave home.
--
Walter Briscoe

First off under the PPP Station and Line Upgrades everywhere will have
Dot Matrix indicators. They will also announce the expected time and
arrival of the next train, automatically. This system is already in
use at some stations. They are currently being installed as part of
the stations work and will be connected up to new signalling (or
information) systems when available.

There are a number of areas where the are not dot matrix on the
Piccadilly, Metropolitan and Hammersmith lines. The staff at these
stations use CCTV or "Train Trackernet" or phoning the signalman to
enquire as to the train's location. At some of these areas there are
no line diagrams even for staff! All this will change under the
Upgrades.

Back to the Heathrow question, a new Train Following Computer based
system will be used by the Signal Operator for this area. The computer
will have the ability to put this informtion up on the Dot Matrix.

Going back to the station upgrade part of your question, a number of
the Metronet station refurbishments have been scaled back or suspended
during administration. Some are also being re-worked following
excessive costs given to Metronet by their shareholder firms. The
abatements for this must be less than carrying out the work!

I hope this does help a bit!

In message
of
Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:42:27 in uk.transport.london, chunky munky
writes

[snip]

I hope this does help a bit!


It certainly did!
BTW, I saw you say there are no dot matrix indicators north of
Harrow-on-the-Hill in another thread. North Harrow has them - they await
information.
I was at HOTH the other morning on a slow train to Baker Street. I had
no fast train information but the slow line was faster.
--
Walter Briscoe

On Dec 28, 11:45 am, Walter Briscoe
wrote:
In message
of
Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:42:27 in uk.transport.london, chunky munky
writes

[snip]

I hope this does help a bit!

It certainly did!
BTW, I saw you say there are no dot matrix indicators north of
Harrow-on-the-Hill in another thread. North Harrow has them - they await
information.
I was at HOTH the other morning on a slow train to Baker Street. I had
no fast train information but the slow line was faster.
--
Walter Briscoe

Yes, North Harrow has been refurbished so has new Dot Matrix displays.
They won't provide the required information until the new signalling
system (they may benefit but I don't know for definate from the
Interim Computer Controlled system in about 2009/10, before the new
control centre is used.)

I forgot to add that Ticket Halls will also have next train displays
but (generally, depending on the distance from the platforms) will not
show trains less than two minutes away.

Harrow only has light boxes at present so only shows the train in or
approaching the platform. The station staff either using the Train
trackernet or by asking the signal operator can gove more detailed
information.
There is often very little difference in journey times vs getting off
a stopping train to getting on a slow (HOH-WPK)!