If you are regular bus user (yes I am - its one area I disagree with Margaret Thatcher on!) you will be aware that the useful real time bus information (RTI as it is known in the bus trade) has not been functioning that well of late. I am grateful to the excellent Brighton Bus Watch brightonbuswatch.org/index.htm (and Andrew Boag in particular) for an update on what is going on. There have always been problems related to poor radio signals at some locations. RTI screens have been going blank much more often or are showing an actual time instead of counting down in minutes. If an actual time such as 5B Hollingbury 15:42 is shown, the time is taken from the published timetable which means the system is not picking up the bus location. So when that time is reached the display line will disappear irrespective of whether the bus has arrived. There have also been problems with some incorrect destinations being shown and some odd scrolling messages. As Buswatch put it succinctly All very frustrating! The latest information is that all RTI signs are in the process of being upgraded by a contractor with new GPRS based software to detect the position of approaching buses more accurately. As this involves computers there have been teething problems. The contractor is now in the process of handing back individual signs to the City Council which owns them. The Council has told Buswatch it wont accept any sign until it is satisfied it works properly. Hopefully things will improve soon and the new GPRS based equipment will prove more reliable than the previous radio based system, which is over 12 years old. To some extent we are currently the victims of being one of the first places to introduce the signs in the first place (since copied across the country). Brighton Area Buswatch assure me they will be on the case until it is sorted.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:33:03 +0000
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