Arrow Screens

I know this has been discussed before, but I just can't help but think how stupid NJT is when I see the screens on the Arrows all turned off these days. I'm still trying to understand why the standard destinations (like "NEW YORK", "HOBOKEN", "TRENTON", etc) don't do any good anymore.

I know the official reason was that they were too hard to update (translated to English: We are too lazy to update them) for schedule changes. However, even if the Express to Princeton Jct or Express to South Orange or whatever is wrong, then why can't they just leave the destination on the screens...especially the screens in the front and back of the train.

I guess this is another example of a waste, similar to the Comet IAs sitting in poor condition unsused now. When will they learn?

Yes, I too would like to have them use the signs. Even if they only have the train's final destination.

So, all they would have to do is have the signs programmed to say:

"Gladstone, Bernardsville, Murray Hill, Summit, Dover, Hoboken, New York, Newark, Trenton, Jersey Ave, South Amboy and Montclair Heights" (Did I miss any?)

Just keep it plain and simple.

I thought they don't really use them and/or they are wrong lost of times now a days because there was some sort of trainlining issue with them? Or at least thats what I think i heard. Also, they just used a sign with print on it awhile back. Have a video with footage of 1992. There is an arrow headed into NYPenn with a sign in the front window saying "NEW YORK".

They were a pain in the @#%$

They were never updated, so a new trian number wouldn't even be in the system most times, and often times, the train numbers that were in there were not what the train did. You would search for minutes trying to find somehting that was close to what you did - Express to Rahway, Express to Metropark, etc, etc, etc Then you would have to remember the train number you put in to get what you wanted, and go to the next pair, becuase most times, it didn't train line. The doors that the keypads are behind also sometimes would be stuck, and the door couldn't open, so you couldn't change it.

There was never, as far as I know, a simple "New York" or "Trenton" or "long branch" command - it was always Long Branch Local, or Trenton, epxress to metropark, or whatever. But its not like the visual annunciation system in the Comets is much better anyway.

^Yeah, all these systems are complicated. Just need to keep things plain and simple.

And incidentally, if they were to have the signs to be just programmed with final destinations, they would also want to program Aberdeen into it as well as Aberdeen trains have the capacity of being MU trains (although MUs being used on Aberdeen or S. Amboy trains are few and far between.)

So something is a little difficult to use, should they just stop using it then? That's ridiculous. What a waste of money.

Heaven forbid they use something simple and low-tech like the subways and the old GM buses did - just a preprinted text scroll lit from behind.

Going in another direction, BART in the SF bay area is testing a system that sends a brief destination and route message to cellphones and wireless PDAs as a train enters a station.

Arrow, the system itself wasn't difficult to use, you just punched in a train number, and hit a button and it would sample what it was going to say.

But the problem was that the train numbers were never right - you had to search for what you wanted it to say - I actually took the time one day and wrote up a list of frequently used types of trains (3201 - Long Branch Local, Bay head connection) 3205 (Long Branch Local) 3801 (Trenton Local) 3893 (Trenton Local Septa conn) 3877 (trenton express to Rahway, Septa Conn) - or whatever the numbers were - but they were causing more trouble then they were worth because often times, the trains would turn so fast, that the crew wouldn't have time to fiddle with whatever the signs said, and people were getting very confused or the signs wouldn't change what they said or whatever.

So finally, they decided to shut them off (as far as I know, only the circuit is shut off, they can very easily be turned back on) and it actually solved some of the confusion problems, because passengers now COULDN'T rely on the signs, which were often times wrong.

Well on the Gladstone Branch they always worked fine.

The signs meaning the LCD displays? Hm. When did they start shutting them off?

Unfortunately they've been off for over a year now I think.