PTIS (GPS Tracking) On The Commuter Rail Discussion

CRail wrote:Well the latter wouldn't need GPS, the schedule could be programmed into the system. This would be a neat feature! People who didn't know what time it was, or what the schedule was, would know if they had time to go grab something, run to the bathroom, smoke, or whatever.

Huh?

The schedule is useless if trains dont follow it. A countdown is much better when it actually works.

I'm not sure what you missed, or how you interpreted anything about trains not following schedules...

Diburning asked if the ticker would count down to when the train would arrive or when it would leave a terminus. My guess would be arrival time, but if it also counted down to when the train would leave a terminus, this would not require a GPS connection as the train isn't moving, it would only require the communication system to know when the train was scheduled to leave. And like I said, a countdown to departure time would be useful as well.

CRail wrote:I'm not sure what you missed, or how you interpreted anything about trains not following schedules...

Diburning asked if the ticker would count down to when the train would arrive or when it would leave a terminus. My guess would be arrival time, but if it also counted down to when the train would leave a terminus, this would not require a GPS connection as the train isn't moving, it would only require the communication system to know when the train was scheduled to leave. And like I said, a countdown to departure time would be useful as well.

I just returned from Atlanta. The MARTA countdown system counts down to when the train would arrive if it traveled the distance from its current location to the station you're at at a normal rate. The other day I was at a station mid-line, and the nearest train was still in the terminal. The countdown timer said "16 minutes" for four minutes while the train waited to depart the terminal, then it started to count down. So until it starts to count down, you really don't know how long it will be until the train arrives. I presume the MBTA's system will behave the same way unless they integrate schedule information as well.

CRail wrote:I'm not sure what you missed, or how you interpreted anything about trains not following schedules...

Diburning asked if the ticker would count down to when the train would arrive or when it would leave a terminus. My guess would be arrival time, but if it also counted down to when the train would leave a terminus, this would not require a GPS connection as the train isn't moving, it would only require the communication system to know when the train was scheduled to leave. And like I said, a countdown to departure time would be useful as well.

Yes, but what would it show if the train has 1129 for an engine and arrives an hour late?

Since our mod is on vacation I will report that the PTIS is in service on the lowell line by bulletin order so you should be hearing those auto stop announcements on the trains.

CRail wrote:I'm not sure what you missed, or how you interpreted anything about trains not following schedules...

Diburning asked if the ticker would count down to when the train would arrive or when it would leave a terminus. My guess would be arrival time, but if it also counted down to when the train would leave a terminus, this would not require a GPS connection as the train isn't moving, it would only require the communication system to know when the train was scheduled to leave. And like I said, a countdown to departure time would be useful as well.

I misunderstood that you were talking about the terminal, and only the terminal.

I caught a PTIS trainset coming in from Haverhill last week. Generally, it worked OK but wasn't consistent in when it would say "approaching XYZ". A conductor I was talking to didn't like the robot at all. If that person is working I know I can count on the required announcements being made, but that isn't true for all conductors. There's someone I sometimes see outbound in the evening who's never announced anything that I've heard.

Conductors are all different. I've known 2 exact opposites on the Red Line. 1 motorman who, when in the guards position, wouldn't make announcements no matter what, and another who would turn off the ASA even when it worked properly, and make the announcements himself. The second guy was once commended by a company official who was on board for the information and annunciation of his announcements.

The unfortunate thing is, because of this inconsistency, we get the need to have a computer mispronounce everything.

jbvb wrote:I caught a PTIS trainset coming in from Haverhill last week. Generally, it worked OK but wasn't consistent in when it would say "approaching XYZ". A conductor I was talking to didn't like the robot at all. If that person is working I know I can count on the required announcements being made, but that isn't true for all conductors. There's someone I sometimes see outbound in the evening who's never announced anything that I've heard.

Eh its going to take a while for us all to get use to since we are use to the Commuter rail announcements being made the old fashion way which is PA (when they work) and yelling into the cars. The system has bugs still like all new things that come out at first but I'm sure with some minor tweaks it will work well. I'm glad they are finding a better way as far as announcements because that way people can't complain there were no announcements made when the computer is doing it at every station! As you stated not all conductors work the same and I will say that I usually don't yell into the car if I know for a fact that the PA's are working in the 2 cars I’m working. You also run into the problems of having a 6 or 7 car train with not enough crew members to cover every other double and if the PA's aren't working then the people in the 1 or 2 cars with no crew member working at one end don't hear any announcements at all.
I don't know if anyone else noticed but the LED signs on the Lowell line all read Next Lowell train delayed which was a glitch that was being worked on

About those Auto-announcements, i heard it for the first time last evening 1/20 on the 6:10 Rockburyport.
Sounded good. However, it consistently announced "arriving at X Station" just as we were DEPARTING X Station! We're going to find it difficult to trust those Countdown signs at the stations...

Today I rode Train 809 to Providence this afternoon and they had those automated announcements working (saying the train # and its destination), according to a crew member i spoke to, they are also working in the k cars as well

The last two times I've had a train on the Haverhill line with the automatic announcements, it's seemed that it has a hard time with getting the final announcement right. A week or two ago, an inbound local did fine until Melrose Highlands, from there in the "now arriving" announcements happened as we were departing the station in question. Last night, 233 had a PTIS set, and right from the get go at Malden we were off - I think the crew must have turned it off before we even made it as far as Greenwood, as the announcements were all happening late.

One time on 231 (a Haverhill train for those not familiar with it) this past week, the PIS announced that we were on a Lowell Line train. That elicited a few laughs in my coach. I guess they shut the system off after that because there were no further announcements. I have experienced the system on a couple inbound trains and it seemed to be working properly.

So what is the holdup on getting this information out there?

It would seem to me that even if it ain't perfect or even on all trains that the T could start to make this information available to private developers (like iphone app developers) to publish whatever info does happen to be available. Everyone using/looking at such data would know, hey, it is an "alpha" test (not even a "beta") and the data is what it is.

PTIS is now in service on the Fitchburg Line as of today.

For the North Side it is also functioning on Lowell Line. South Side has it working on the Needham Line, Franklin Line, and the Old Colony Lines.