Next Stop Announcements

[marperd01]

Hi all,

On the newest streetdecks with the blue stripe for the Dewsbury Road services the screens are active, but not currently set up for next stop announcements.

Any ideas when these will be working, and the on board WiFi doesn’t currently work.

I’m guessing when all the buses for the PVR of the route are here then these things will be working.

[Deleted]

Don’t hold your breath a large number of the current red stripe ones either don’t work at all, work on one deck and not the other or as in the case of my local route only work over part of the route.

[andyk4050]

Jan 9, 2019 13:53:49 GMT 1 marperd01 said:

Hi all,

On the newest streetdecks with the blue stripe for the Dewsbury Road services the screens are active, but not currently set up for next stop announcements.

Any ideas when these will be working, and the on board WiFi doesn’t currently work.

I’m guessing when all the buses for the PVR of the route are here then these things will be working.

The person who programs them is waiting for Hanover to send them something to be able to update the TV screens, so once they get that they should start to be up and running.

Plus the other type of next stop screen, the Depots keep updating the blinds with the wrong USB so doesn't have the stop info on

[Deleted]

The 28’s haven’t worked fully since they were introduced only work towards Adel along Weetwood Lane but not the other, and if it was the wrong info then surely both decks wouldn’t work not one or the other.

[stephen01]

Jan 9, 2019 21:35:42 GMT 1 andyk4050 said:

Jan 9, 2019 13:53:49 GMT 1 marperd01 said:

Hi all,

On the newest streetdecks with the blue stripe for the Dewsbury Road services the screens are active, but not currently set up for next stop announcements.

Any ideas when these will be working, and the on board WiFi doesn’t currently work.

I’m guessing when all the buses for the PVR of the route are here then these things will be working.

The person who programs them is waiting for Hanover to send them something to be able to update the TV screens, so once they get that they should start to be up and running.

Plus the other type of next stop screen, the Depots keep updating the blinds with the wrong USB so doesn't have the stop info on

that's true as Arriva Sapphire 1546 only has the screens working and no sound and a couple of the 110 e400s have gone same way.

[guyarab]

Now that new buses have to be low floor I thought also the DDA regulations meant that ALL have to have next stop audio/visual announcements.

[dwarfer1979]

Jan 19, 2019 14:57:01 GMT 1 guyarab said:

Now that new buses have to be low floor I thought also the DDA regulations meant that ALL have to have next stop audio/visual announcements.

No, the DDA regulations were only about physical accessibility (wheelchair accessibility, internal layout and minimal signage) and when the regulations were developed Audio/Visual systems were not a realistic proposition in the real world. The recent Buses Bill and associated legislative program intend (I'm not sure if the piece of legislation covering this has actually been passed) to make the fitment of A/V systems a requirement on, at least, all new buses from something like 2020 (useful for big groups who update whole routes at a time but for smaller operators who buy smaller numbers at a time means that passengers will not know for some years whether or not their journey will have a fitted bus or not). The problem is that, despite what politicians and the general public think, these are not yet easy to use or foolproof systems that can be deployed with absolute reliability by all businesses. The base systems are normally reasonably reliable, though everyones comments on the First systems indicate this is still a problem, but the 'back-office' stuff needed to run the systems are neither widespread or as reliable as is really needed. A/V systems rely on vehicle tracking and Real Time systems to be running reliably which is not yet as certain as people think, my current employers currently struggle to get tracking rates on their Real Time system to better than 75% (so 1 in 4 buses wouldn't have working A/V at any particular time) due to a combination of poor driver discipline, failure of the tracking system & 'dead-zones' losing tracking (less common but the tracking uses mobile phone systems so if your phone drops out so does the bus tracker) which means that as an operator we couldn't offer any sort of guarantee these systems will work (which for the people who need it most, those with sight problems, completely undermines the worth of it at this time).

The other issue is that setting up a useful system is very labour intensive, every bus stop needs to be set up in the system with a name, & to be useful that name should be consistent with other locations such as the bus stop itself (I have been on a bus where the audio used one name, the visual a second and the bus stop flag a third which means you are never sure what name to look/listen out for) and this set-up requires special scheduling software that smaller operators probably don't have or need (in my experience most small operators simply use Excel or Word to print their duty boards as they can simply schedule by hand due to the amount of work). There is also the matter of the audio announcements itself, from my experience with a system trial a few years ago using computer generated announcements don't really work with place names as so many places are not pronounced phonetically as they are spelt meaning that many real people recording the announcements is really the better solution but that is another cost both in initial set-up but also in on-going maintenance when things change.

None of these things are insurmountable, and many are perfectly manageable for the larger operators (which is part of the problem since as they are already rolling the systems out, with big fanfare, politicians at all levels assume these systems are ready to go and are pushing for all vehicles to be fitted now), but we are still in effectively a trial/development phase of the technology. We are at the tail of that development phase, that of real-world testing to find those last few bugs, but we are not yet at a position where we can be confident these systems will work everytime reliably.

[Deleted]

Well I’ve no travelled on 9 different buses today along the Headingley corridor with appointments taking me out to Holt Park, only on 2 were any voice announcements and displays working. Several were older type 352 vehicles which whilst fitted didn’t work and several were the later 355 type where whilst screens fitted don’t work. 1 had all the brackets but no screens of either type fitted.

It is all well and good singing that they are making all this investment in buses and infrastructure but if it doesn’t work then surely serves no purpose.

1 of the drivers I spoke to said he tells the garage about them but nobody cares and nobody does anything about them so he’s stopped telling them!

A sad indictment that what could potentially be a useful tool for customers is dying by stealth in its infancy!

[kendall17]

The next stop/AV screens are under development.

It's not that no one cares, they've probably been told many times over & nothing can be done until development is complete

[Deleted]

Under development we’ll thats a new phrase, so around the country other operators manage to have a working system whilst undertaking development, not apparently so with First 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m not holding my breath!

[granger]

Any news about the next stop Announcements on the routes around Leeds. A good bunch of Streetdecks still have "Hanover", some now for 7/8 months.

[dlspotter]

Jan 7, 2020 21:24:25 GMT 1 granger said:

Any news about the next stop Announcements on the routes around Leeds. A good bunch of Streetdecks still have "Hanover", some now for 7/8 months.

Seems the red, yellow and blue stripes have announcements on some routes but greys and greens are yet to get announcements.
Would expect they're still being rolled out.

[rst1987]

Jan 7, 2020 21:34:26 GMT 1 dlspotter said:

Jan 7, 2020 21:24:25 GMT 1 granger said:

Any news about the next stop Announcements on the routes around Leeds. A good bunch of Streetdecks still have "Hanover", some now for 7/8 months.

Seems the red, yellow and blue stripes have announcements on some routes but greys and greens are yet to get announcements.
Would expect they're still being rolled out.

Probably won't programme them until the Headrow works are finished later this year.

[sharksmith]

I thought we had a thread for the First Bus App but I can't find it so I'll try and shoehorn this into this thread.

First have announced that they will be adding live bus tracking information to their app this week, including live seat availability. In fact I've just checked and it seems to be partially working now, buses are moving on the map but the live seating information doesn't appear currently.

Once live, I assume this information should eventually now also filter through BusTimes etc sooner rather than later.

[Dom]

Jun 2, 2020 13:40:33 GMT 1 sharksmith said:

I thought we had a thread for the First Bus App but I can't find it so I'll try and shoehorn this into this thread.

First have announced that they will be adding live bus tracking information to their app this week, including live seat availability. In fact I've just checked and it seems to be partially working now, buses are moving on the map but the live seating information doesn't appear currently.

Once live, I assume this information should eventually now also filter through BusTimes etc sooner rather than later.

If you have an Apple iPhone, update the app in the App Store and it should work. Unfortunately, it isn’t available on Android as of yet. Very handy feature.

[granger]

Rumour has it that there has been an update to the AV next stop announcements on the Streetdecks as well as more routes having it.
Does anybody know which routes have it now, that previously didn't??

[sharksmith]

I've noticed a couple of First Leeds with 'Bus departing in xxx minutes' displays over the last couple of days as well.

One was 35625 which was working the 42 yesterday. The other was I think an eclipse on the 5.

[granger]

Spotted that next Stop Information is In operation on the 33, 34 & 42.

List of Current bus routes with Next Stop Info

1,2,3/3a,4/4G,5/5a,6,8,12,13/13a,16/16a,27,28,29,33,34,42,49,50/50a.
(x26/x27 - old , outdated next Stop info)

Up for corrections/updates