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Post by snoggle on Apr 14, 2014 18:38:14 GMT
And about time too. TfL Tweet about Vauxhall Bus Station having a Countdown digital display boardHammersmith and Harrow Bus Stations to follow. I wonder if both bus stations at Hammersmith will get them? EDIT Just spotted a press release too. linkThis says the screens could be installed at all bus stations. Also mentions a board at Ealing Broadway station and proposals to fine tune announcements on two night bus services to say what "district or area" the night bus is entering. |
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Post by Nathan on Apr 14, 2014 19:23:03 GMT
And about time too. TfL Tweet about Vauxhall Bus Station having a Countdown digital display boardHammersmith and Harrow Bus Stations to follow. I wonder if both bus stations at Hammersmith will get them? EDIT Just spotted a press release too. linkThis says the screens could be installed at all bus stations. Also mentions a board at Ealing Broadway station and proposals to fine tune announcements on two night bus services to say what "district or area" the night bus is entering. That's good. They've needed one at Canada Water for a while. They seem to have put them in bus stops around the area, but didn't think of putting it at the Canada Water itself... |
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Post by COBO on May 14, 2014 23:56:57 GMT
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Post by snoggle on May 15, 2014 0:39:00 GMT
Thanks for the photo - that's better than the one I saw of the display at Vauxhall. The thing that I find slightly odd about that display, and it may just be me, is that the list is done by time of departure rather than bus route number. On the photo there is no info for the H9 or 258 - presumably because they are more than 7 minutes away. However the usual approach with Countdown is that you select the stop you want and then you get the times listed by time of arrival. At a bus station it would make more sense to list by stop letter and show the departures or else show all routes and the minutes for the next departure per route. At least then people know if their bus is 15, 20 or 29 minutes away. Given some routes are only half hourly at quieter times of the day / week then knowing if you've got a longish wait would be beneficial - you go and get a coffee or opt to go another way rather than wait 20+ minutes. Courtesy of a post on the yahoo group here is a photo (not mine) of a new style countdown board in Kingston. That uses the standard logic of departures in time sequence which is fine because it's just for one stop and people will (usually) know what stop or service they want. photo |
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Post by snowman on May 15, 2014 5:54:24 GMT
Thanks for the photo - that's better than the one I saw of the display at Vauxhall. The thing that I find slightly odd about that display, and it may just be me, is that the list is done by time of departure rather than bus route number. On the photo there is no info for the H9 or 258 - presumably because they are more than 7 minutes away. However the usual approach with Countdown is that you select the stop you want and then you get the times listed by time of arrival. At a bus station it would make more sense to list by stop letter and show the departures or else show all routes and the minutes for the next departure per route. At least then people know if their bus is 15, 20 or 29 minutes away. Given some routes are only half hourly at quieter times of the day / week then knowing if you've got a longish wait would be beneficial - you go and get a coffee or opt to go another way rather than wait 20+ minutes. Courtesy of a post on the yahoo group here is a photo (not mine) of a new style countdown board in Kingston. That uses the standard logic of departures in time sequence which is fine because it's just for one stop and people will (usually) know what stop or service they want. photowhat the photo pf the Kingston one doesn't show is its positioning, it is located mid length at the rear of shelter and the bottom of the screen is not much above knee height. The result is as soon as more than a handful of people are waiting (almost all the time when the shops are open as it is main stop by shops) the screen is obscured. Probably looked good in some designers office but in reality one of worst bits of design for years. I wish they would bring back the countdown screen as at least it was visible not located behind a queue. |
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Post by M1104 on May 15, 2014 8:41:35 GMT
And about time too. TfL Tweet about Vauxhall Bus Station having a Countdown digital display boardHammersmith and Harrow Bus Stations to follow. I wonder if both bus stations at Hammersmith will get them? EDIT Just spotted a press release too. linkThis says the screens could be installed at all bus stations. Also mentions a board at Ealing Broadway station and proposals to fine tune announcements on two night bus services to say what "district or area" the night bus is entering. That's good. They've needed one at Canada Water for a while. They seem to have put them in bus stops around the area, but didn't think of putting it at the Canada Water itself... I wonder if it's because Canada water bus station actually closes at night, night buses simply passing it by. |
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Post by COBO on May 18, 2014 10:10:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2014 10:50:56 GMT
Looks like that one might've been funded/put in by the council rather than TfL, hence the different colour and design. The roundels are quite prominent on the bus station ones whereas that doesn't have any roundels (that I can see) |
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Post by COBO on May 18, 2014 10:52:27 GMT
Looks like that one might've been funded/put in by the council rather than TfL, hence the different colour and design. The roundels are quite prominent on the bus station ones whereas that doesn't have any roundels (that I can see) You might be right |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on May 18, 2014 14:52:22 GMT
I've always thought That Stratford needed one like this, but they'd probably require a separate screen for each stop, as Otherwise you'd just have loads of 25s, 69s and 86s being displayed and not much of the other Routes.
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Post by Ice Prxnce on May 18, 2014 15:04:48 GMT
Canada Water needs one of these. Maybe TFL can install one then switch it off at 01:30 and turn it on 04:35 as no buses enter the bus station between 02:01 and 04:31.
North Greenwich and Canning Town Bus Stations could also do with countdown displays like these.
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Post by snoggle on May 18, 2014 15:27:44 GMT
I've always thought That Stratford needed one like this, but they'd probably require a separate screen for each stop, as Otherwise you'd just have loads of 25s, 69s and 86s being displayed and not much of the other Routes. Let's be honest - *every* bus station needs displays showing departures. The hardest would be Waltham Cross because half the buses are not TfL routes so TfL would need to do something clever with timetabled data for the Essex / Herts routes. It would also need to fine tune how buses that start from bus stations are shown as we all know that Countdown doesn't always handle these departures properly. However these displays are borderline useless in my opinion because you only see about 6 minutes worth of departures and any route that is relatively infrequent will not show until it's 5-7 minutes away / before departure time. Given that some routes are relatively infrequent in the early mornings, evenings, Sundays and overnight you can't know if you have 8, 15, 22 or 29 or more minutes to wait on those displays. TfL really need to accept that larger displays allowing each stop or each route (by direction) to be shown would make much more sense as people can see when each route is due to have a departure. The Ealing one is doubly ineffective because it shows rail status but gives no details of disruptions or closures. To see that info you'd need to go in the station so why bother showing it outside? If you're going to do this sort of thing then it *really* needs to be done properly. |
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Post by vjaska on May 18, 2014 17:04:08 GMT
Brixton also requires some for the six main stops - none at all have Countdown screens yet a large number of stops either side of Brixton do have screens.
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