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Tue 1 Jan 2008, 10:21
Information Systems at Charlbury station.
As I understand it, the small computer screen which displays information through a window onto the platform is likely to be much more reliable than the old screen and voice one created by Thames Trains some years ago. The new system collects information direct from signalling equipment between London and Wolvercot Junction and from details input by signallers beyond. This is a similar system used by the National Rail web site, so it should produce similar results. A word of warning, however. The new system is insufficiently sophisticated to know which train is to be given precedence through the various sections of single track, so it could show incorrect information, for example, if an "up" train arrives "on time" at Evesham, but is delayed there by 15 to 20 minutes until a down train arrives there off the single track. It will then correct itself when the up train actually leaves Evesham. Similarly, trains being held at Ascott-under-Wychwood will confuse the system, which will last have recorded them at Moreton-in-Marsh. We could then be led to believe that two trains going in opposite direcions will be at Charlbury at about the same. Not until the "up" train leaves Ascott will the system be able to determine a correct arrival time at Charlbury and, if the expected time passes in the meantime, a train will disappear from the screen for a while, as it does on the internet. Sometimes, manual intervention by someone at Swindon (I do not know whether this is FGW or Network Rail) can overcome the problem, but this seldom happens. Also beware if a train is shown as "On Time", but "No Report" is showing as well. This could mean that the train has not left its starting station, or that it has been cancelled but someone has failed to inform the system. The new screen is merely part of a trial introduced by FGW before it goes ahead with a franchise commitment to install a completely new information system. It is "internet based" and requires a computer to operate it. For security reasons, this has to be in the ticket office part of the station, so the siting of the monitor was a problem. It has to be in the "secure" area of the station. The siting of the one at Moreton-in-Marsh station is much worse as there are no clear glass windows in the secure area there, so it is positioned facing into the booking hall and cannot easily be seen from outside, particularly when the station is unstaffed and the blind is down! Once FGW is convinced that the new internet based system is sufficiently reliable, it will place a contract for new display screens at Cotswold Line stations. In the meantime, we still have the old Thames Trains system, which sometimes collects information from traffic light style sensors at platform ends, and sometimes does not - hence the completely wrong information which emanates from it on a fairly regular basis. Ridiculous as this may seem, I believe that FGW could be in contravention of its current franchise agreement if it discontinued the old system before full implementation of the new one.
A Happy New Year to all users of Charlbury station.
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