Solari at New Haven Union Station to be replaced by LCDs

NH2060 wrote:

shadyjay wrote:With all the new panels around the northern end of the waiting room, is there going to be one where the Solari is itself? Seems a little overkill that they'd need that many when just the one board has served "well" since the 80s?

Well with NHHS and any expanded Amtrak and SLE service possible within the next 10-20 years on the horizon perhaps they feel the extra space is necessary to accommodate the additional arrivals/departures.

The panels at each track staircase entrance in Newark, NJ Penn Station display advertisements alternating with the train info. Perhaps similar is store?

Until there's a gaping hole on the wall over that staircase where the Solari is, I won't believe its coming down.

You'd think they'd want to monetize the screens as much as possible, Lord only knows Connecticut (and by virtue of that, the DOT) isn't exactly rolling in dough. I could see that happening.

runningwithscalpels wrote:Until there's a gaping hole on the wall over that staircase where the Solari is, I won't believe its coming down.

Well, it looks like the end has come. A post on "another forum" has stated that the board came down last night. We all knew it was coming - surprised it took this long since the project started in, what, 2010?

Solari is gone, two new LCD or LED screens up now and booting up.

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Well, the one advantage of the Solari was that you couldn't use it to post ads (at least I never saw that). With the new screens I'm afraid we'll be lucky to find any train information between all the advertising (ahem, "monetization" as referred to a few posts ago). JCS

Won't be long before someone realizes having two giant screens showing the EXACT SAME THING is a waste when there is money to be made.

don't think both screens will show same information.

I think the plan is to use them as airlines do.... one for departures, one for arrivals.

For the time being they are though and it looks pretty insane.

Anybody else notice how loud and frequent the automated announcements are in Union Station? It's even loud in the elevators. Feels like I am at a sporting event.

I believe second board will be arrivals/delays/ customer information

DutchRailnut wrote:I believe second board will be arrivals/delays/ customer information

From the photos I have seen with the second board showing generic New Haven title cards I suspect the second screen will be used for security announcements and advertisements. Video transit ads are getting more and more popular. PATCO just installed about 6-8 LCD screens in its Philly stations that show ads.

Hopefully someone will create an information board animation that mimics and sound and appearance of the old Solari boards.

Didn't I read that they did that at Boston South Station? They discovered that passengers who were reading while waiting for their train would look up when they heard the Solari shutters flapping to see what had changed; so they added the sound effect to the new displays to give the passengers a heads-up when the display changes. Haven't been there to check whether this is the case.

ExCon90 wrote:Didn't I read that they did that at Boston South Station? They discovered that passengers who were reading while waiting for their train would look up when they heard the Solari shutters flapping to see what had changed; so they added the sound effect to the new displays to give the passengers a heads-up when the display changes. Haven't been there to check whether this is the case.

In North and South Stations that sound plays every few minutes randomly. It does always make me look up, but it doesn't ever really seem to coincide with any train information changing on the board.

If people like the "flip board" style it wouldn't be hard for a display vendor to offer an animation of one. The Boston boards are dot matrix LED instead of full display screens so they can't really show full color graphics.

BTW, does anyone know who ended up with the old New Haven display?