Mile End Dot Matrix

[Deleted]

Mile End Station is looking a lot better. The one thing that spoils it is that the Dot Matrix on the Eastbound platform cannot be seen unless you are very close to it as it is on a raised section of "ceiling", and the more normal ceiling level almost completely obstructs it unless you are very close. I tend to travel in the second carriage and from there or even the 3rd carriage it is near enough invisible. What a waste of a dot matrix device.

[Dstock7080]

Aug 1, 2010 16:17:31 GMT @johnw said:

Mile End Station is looking a lot better. The one thing that spoils it is that the Dot Matrix on the Eastbound platform cannot be seen unless you are very close to it as it is on a raised section of "ceiling", and the more normal ceiling level almost completely obstructs it unless you are very close. I tend to travel in the second carriage and from there or even the 3rd carriage it is near enough invisible. What a waste of a dot matrix device.

The new ones at the far west of all platforms are in fact double-sided and the west facing sides can't be seen from the platforms!

[Deleted]

The point I was trying to make is that there is a dot matrix facing east on the eastern section of the platform and it can only be seen over a very short distance. I worked as a design engineer in a completely different field, but I would never have got anything so stupid past a supervisor!

[superteacher]

Are they actually in their final locations - maybe they will be moved?

[Colin]

There are additional smaller versions on pillars halfway along the platforms too - it doesn't improve the situation at all there really, but I thought it was worth mentioning that there is more than one DMI per platform.

[bowchurch]

Aug 1, 2010 20:09:48 GMT superteacher said:

Are they actually in their final locations - maybe they will be moved?

A new screen appeared recently on the Central Westbound so maybe they are all due to be replaced with screens in more sensible places.

Problem is that the new ceiling is much lower than the previous one for much of the platform, I'm 5'9" and can touch the lower sections of the ceiling. So a DMI slung under that is probably going to be a hazard to anyone over 6' tall.

[norbitonflyer]

Noticed a similar problem at Kings Cross this week - if you arrive on the Victoria Line platforms from the new northern entrance (as I did, having followed the signs from KX Suburban), the DMIs are all down the other end, and hidden behind the exit sign for the entrance halfway down the platform. The only way I knew a when a train was eventually coming was because the letter "s" (which was all I could see at the right hand extremity of the board) vanished when the train was one minute away.

[Deleted]

Diamond Geezer did a mini series about DMIs (Installed by Cretins) with an in depth look at Mile End:

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html#2741295186415237057
diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_diamondgeezer_archive.html

[bowchurch]

I've logged moving them as a suggestion on the TfL site under the category 'accessibility'. Although the webform came back with a null reference number, so it may never make it to somebody who can respond to it.

I would log that as a problem, but if it's going nowhere....

[ajamieson]

Are they ever going to fix the new DMIs?

For several days they tried to claim the lack of indicator boards was "due to a trackside fire at Barking" but that was a big, fat lie as their incomplete installation predated the Barking fire by more than a week. It is because they haven't been fully installed properly. The announcement has since changed to "due to engineering works..." which is less inaccurate but still daft.

On several days recently the Dawdle line has been up to its usual tricks (10 minute gap between westbound trains, followed inexplicably by a three minute hold at Whitechapel 'to even out the gaps in the service') and it would have been quicker to get the Central line had we known what was happening.

I would ask the staff at Mile End but now they spend their day hiding in their new glass box in the ticket hall.

[21146]

I heard the "Great Cable Fire of Barking" used as the excuse about a week ago.

Just as irritating are the E/B DMI's at Tower HIll which continually default to "held" and auto-announce "the next train is being delayed, please listen for further anouncements [which there aren't any]"

Associated with this is the heavilly-accented, stilted, local supervisor's recorded message to the effect that "train describers are showing incorrect destinations, please check the front of the train". This has been going on for at least 2 years.

I once asked staff why they didn't turn them off if they knew they were defective? "We can't" came the reply.

It sometimes seems every new bit of TFL technology is designed to annoy the regular traveller in one way or another!

[Tomcakes]

Surely providing erroneous information is worse than providing none?

I was impressed when travelling from Stepney today - no DMI information. There was the usual barrage of propoganda - what would have been more useful would be for someone to anounce the next trains...

[ajamieson]

Still not working. "Due to cable repairs" is the latest dodgy excuse.

[21146]

Sept 4, 2010 13:35:11 GMT @ajamieson said:

Still not working. "Due to cable repairs" is the latest dodgy excuse.

The new E/B District Line DMI at the tailwall is now working. Unbelievably the west face is also in use, visible to no one.

[Ben]

Could it be temporary in the sense that a single sided version isnt available (or wasn't at the time of installation)? Or is that too optimistic...

[ajamieson]

The District/Hammersmith & City DMIs still aren't working. It has been more than three months now.

As for the station "looking good" (per the OP), staff are now making announcements to take care because some areas are dangerous "due to water ingress". Sure enough, the newly-retiled walls in some areas are stained black and have water seeping from them. So not only did this refurb take four years and involve a cast of thousands at vast expense, but it appears to have been in vain.

[Colin]

Like many of the things that have gone on over the last few years, it is a shining example of Gordon Brown's PPP scheme. He was told it wouldn't work but he forced it through anyway. Thankfully we are now starting to move on from that era.......let's hope the damage it did wasn't too great...

Not only was Mile End a victim of PPP, it was also a victim of the end of it as the work was only partly done when Metromess collapsed. That's why it took so long to finish. The same is also true of Aldgate East.

[Deleted]

The District/Hammersmith & City DMIs were working last night, as were the smaller panels on the pillars. Interestingly though the panels on the pillars are not in the area where you can't see the main DMI owing to the ceiling. It is as if someone realised that the DMIs would be invisible over most of the platform but then messed up their positioning. A few pillars further east would have made them really useful.

[ajamieson]

Not on the westbound they weren't. (And westbound is where they are the most use, as passengers can choose an alternative routing via the Central line instead). They are plugged in and show the "train approaching" warning, but not any information about times!

[edwin]

There's a similar case of this at Bond Street Jubilee Northbound. You can't see the dot matrix from the section south of the escalators (where most people alight) because it's covered by several signs. Very annoying.

[ajamieson]

It gets better and better.

The DMIs have been showing westbound information for the last few weeks. However, the platform DMI on the westbound D&HC platform rarely shows the correct information. I don't just mean that the number of minutes is incorrect (although it often is) but the destination information too. If I see "Hammersmith" to indicate the next train is a H&C service it is just as likely a District to Richmond will turn up. Oh, and the DMI in the ticket hall consistently shows different information to the one on the platform.

Has someone made a wiring error, I wonder?

[21146]

I changed there on Sat from a W/B Central (last car). Frankly, just how far the platform do you have to walk west until you can find a T/D that's visible, let alone working or even accurate? This is just rubbish and when is something going to be done about it? Basically I had to go as far as the stairs before I saw one of the "repeater" small DMI screens (which itself faced west) .